use your imagination?

Still no photos. Sorry for being such a loser on the graphics front. In the meanwhile? You can just imagine. It's good for the gray cells in this media saturated age, right?

Last night, we had one trick or treater, a toddler dressed as a frog. Very cute. We ate soba noodles with roasted eggplant and green peppers, smothered in a peanut sauce. (peanut sauce can be found in the original Moosewood cookbook, it's very good.) We also had winter squash, shitake mushroom, wakame (seaweed) and miso soup. Then applesauce and apple crisp for dessert. I also froze 6 cups of roasted eggplant and olive oil for winter time use. This makes instant baba ghanoush when defrosted and blended with the other fresh ingredients in the cusinart or blender, or as a good chunky tomato sauce add-in. I also composted 1 lb of okra, a bunch of greens and some beans that did not make it until I got home. Oh well. Fresh seasonal food doesn't last forever, but it sure does taste yummy. I will face more apples in a day or two. Alison recommends apple butter in a crock pot if I have freezer space. I don't have either a crock pot or freezer space...but I'll think of something. I still love apples, even while I'm overrun with them!

All this was very good but did not make up for the loud revelry of college student drinkers last night, who left us lots of trash this morning AND vandalized our picket fence. Whose ambition is it to pry off slats on a fence for fun, I ask you?! This kind of destruction always gets me peeved. Yes, I did smash one pumpkin in college, but it was an ex-boyfriend who literally moved across town without telling anyone he'd dumped me, and frankly, he deserved it. If faced with the same situation again? I'd probably enjoy smashing the pumpkin another time. Thank goodness for my professor husband. He's downstairs making dinner right now. Stir-fry ground beef with broccoli rabe, shitake mushrooms, broccoli , probably over brown rice.

Today I picked up all that locally raised meat and wow, it was heavy. Cows are big. After playing meat delivery person to my friend who's sharing this with me, I filled the whole downstairs freezer. Please feel free to let me know when you're coming to dinner. This is a lot of beef.

On the knitting front: I've started knitting a cardigan-like thing out of the lovely brown wool I spun back in July (see the secret sheep pajamas entry). I love this stuff and hope it's squishy softness will become something that actually looks good on me. I considered knitting Cherie Amour from Knitty but then had a wake-up call. When it's cold enough to wear wool? I don't want holey lace. I want full-on sleeves. So much for my sexiness quotient...even the professor agreed that was a lost cause, I'd never wear it.

I'm spinning more of the Finn fleece (remember those rolags? Yup. All gone.) It's going to be two ply fingering weight, and I'm using one of my high speed whorls for my Schacht that I bought at SAFF. The wheel is just zooming along, and still I am treadling like heck. I just spin too fast, or maybe I need to up the ratio even higher. I am all for the joys of physics in spinning.

Lastly, I'm still slowly knitting Thermal but last night, I didn't knit at all. I sat on the couch, and cuddled Sally the dog, who celebrates two years in our house as of today. I am so happy she is part of my family.