the first signs of fall ...

today i woke up and it was cold, and cloudy and grey, and perfect.

it almost felt like fall was here.

{i say almost because the forecast for tomorrow is 93. not cool.}

of course i've been spending my day studying.

remember, i'm not cool anymore.

i did take a quick break to wander the 'hood with henry.

{don't feel bad for dunkin. he's gotten lots of ball-playing time.}

he's slowly learning to be an awesome on-leash dog.

and off leash, too, actually.

two weeks ago we walked around the entire neighborhood without a leash and he never left my side.

that's an entire hour of "being a good dog". i'm pretty proud of the guy.

i see leaves starting to change.

actual colors.

hopefully they'll change completely before they just fall off the tree.

i also saw my first pumpkin.

i know there are people who feel like pumpkins are only for october, but i love them. especially baked into things.

our fall wreath.

i'm not telling you when i put this up.

it may or may not have been before labor day.

now back to studying ...

it's the little things ...

... an organized closet.

... a clean puppy.

... getting boots in the mail.

... cool mornings with the promise of fall.

... playing with my dogs when i get home from work.

... getting out of class 15 minutes early.

... sushi on a wednesday night.

... evening walks.

... watching the broncos on a sunday.

... thinking about christmas decorations.

... turning the radio on at the exact second a good song is starting.

... late night talks + tea in bed.

... flowers that last over two weeks.

... pumpkin cupcakes next month.

... and pumkin cake ... and bread ... and carving.

... parenthood is back.

"i'm not the silly romantic you think.
i don't want the heavens or the shooting stars.
i don't want gemstones or gold.
i have those things already.
i want... a steady hand.
a kind soul.
i want to fall asleep, and wake,
knowing my heart is safe.
i want to love and be loved."
~shana ab

*sigh*

this weekend was supremely lazy.

i mean aside from reading multiple massive policy papers, pulling out my fall clothes (ok, more like 4 sweaters), washing the mutt, and doing 14 hours of laundry, i didn't do much.

and neither did this guy.

this whole work/school combo has my head spinning all day and night long.

all the reading i've been doing for school feels like it's just one, long paper and when we discuss these things in class i find myself referencing different papers than the ones we're discussing.

although, the good news is that they're all so alike it's not always obvious that i have no clue what we're actually talking about.

i've been having the craziest dreams, too.

although i don't usually remember the details when i wake up.

if i did, and freud was alive, he'd have a field day with my subconscious.

i've just pretty much accepted that for the next 8 months i'll be no fun.

and i'm really ok, with that.

i could {obviously} take less classes, but that would mean more semesters in school and i'm pretty much over being in school.

the more classes i take, the more i realize that i'm sort of a misfit in the world of environmental science scholars. i'll be happy when i have my diploma.

ps. no judgement, but i sort of (ok, really want to) see that movie easy a.

fourmile fire

if you live in colorado then you probably know that a wildfire started just outside of boulder in fourmile canyon on monday morning.

about an hour after the fire started, we decided to leave to hike mt. sanitas.

i've hiked sanitas probably about 5 times and it's definitely one of my favorite places to take people or to meet a friend for a quick hike when you don't have all day.

as we got on 36 we noticed a huge cloud of smoke.

after googling "boulder", twitter informed us that there was, in fact, a fire.

we decided not to hike sanitas (a good thing because sunshine canyon was later evacuated).

and stopped at the overlook along with news crews and everyone else.

this was probably about 2 hours after the fire started.

instead of sanitas we went south to the doudy draw trailhead.

definitely a boring walk, but not in the path of a huge fire.

this was on the community ditch trail, just east of eldorado.

i've seriously been obsessed with this fire since.

and i cannot believe how many people have been and are being evacuated.

julia child's beef bourguignon

sunday, we were super lazy and did nothing other than laze around all day, cook, and watch movies.

i finally crossed this dish off of my "2010 things to do list" and i was glad to have some cooking company. it would have been a long, lonely day otherwise.

the meal started with some chopping:

moved on to boiling water for some bacon (which i thought was slightly odd)

raw bacon (we couldn't find lardon)

[we got hungry during the cooking and ate approximately a million cookies]

here's the boiled bacon:

we (excluding me) made a BLT for charlie with the extra bacon

we used A LOT of this. if julia was really all about the butter, she would have been proud.

we chopped some more:

and then cooked some more:

all the copping and cooking made a bit of a mess:

and made for some very bored animals:

BUT, 24 hours later, we had a meal:

saturday.

three day weekends are amazing.

saturday included:

fresh flowers,

walks around boulder complete with,

cupcakes and iced coffee,

ice cream,

playing around with the new lens,

bikes,

trying on hats with long distance visitors, and drinks on a rooftop bar.

Then we came home, grilled out, and invited a few people over to say goodbye to summer.