I’m having a hard time harnessing thoughts about a single subject, so I am going to post a few unrelated items.

1. Our friends Emily & Pete took us to dinner (on them) Friday night, and we went here. Awesome food (mmm, porchetta!), wine, and live music. I recommend it if you’ve not been there, or are visiting and want good Italian fare.

   We had given our pals our concert tickets because I double-booked us for 10/17 to see Dar Williams and Duffy. We had seen Dar but not Duffy, so we gave them the Dar tickets. It was a wonderful and totally unnecessary thing for them to take us out, but I am grateful and very happy to have such awesome friends. One of these days I need to write about how we randomly met. It’s a cool story.

2. Pixel is growing, and I think she’s going to be a skinny cat. She’s lanky and in that stage where all four limbs don’t always move in concert. It’s very cute. She is also banned from our bedroom at night. She has what I think is a baby-kitten behavior that is so maddening. She burrows next to your next and kneads with her little needle-sharp claws- and purrs as loud as possible in your ear. If she would eventually settle down and sleep I could handle it. But she is just waking up for the Nighttime Kitty Games every night at 10:30, so eventually I have to toss her out.
3. I may be hallucinating, but I swear Sumi is getting more affectionate with age. She has taken to coming over to wherever I’m sitting, and wanting ear scratchies and rubs. She’s never been one to do this, but it’s happening a lot more now. Perhaps it’s The Pixel Effect; I don’t care, I love it. Speaking of the feline one, Sumi has been extremely good with her. Rarely do I have to even think about intervening in their play- Pixel can handle herself and has no compunction about using the aforementioned needle claws to put Sumi in her place.
4. While everyone is doing NaNoWriMo, I am trying to find goals and other BS to fill up the page for my review at work. UGH. I loathe this process… and I keep getting told “Make time for it.” To which I dearly wish I could reply “I’ll make time for it when you give me my office back so I CAN HAVE SOME PEACE AND QUIET.” Cubes are for the birds, window view or not.
5. A dear, dear friend of mine is moving to Australia for three years soon. He moved to Texas from Washington awhile ago, so I haven’t seen him in ages. He came over Sunday to watch some football and chum around before continuing the America Tour (i.e., visiting friends and family). We had a blast watching the Pats kill the Bills, the Steelers blow it, and the Eagles look absolutely ineffective. Oh, and Andy Reid- WTFF were you THINKING on that 1st challenge?
6. We made chili Sunday and I cut up two large cloves of garlic and put them in with the tomatoes, lean beef, onions, and kidney beans to simmer. YUMM. And yes, there are lots of savory spices in there too, never fear. The garlic smelled so good.
7. I miss our garden. I miss the ritual of picking ripe tomatoes every day after work, tending to the plants on the weekend. But we’re about to plant some garlic, so YAY! We also have our two buckets of herbs and greens from Urban Land Army which are growing well. So I will have at least a small fix for the time being.

There’s more, but that’s all the time I have for now.