Like Corduroy

That is today's date -- the date most like corduroy. I saw this description on Facebook, and it made me giggle. But it turns out there is actually a Corduroy Appreciation Club, members of which are absolutely giddy today. According to CBS news, corduroy is even trendy now. I just know that when I was in high school, or maybe it was middle school, I REALLY wanted a corduroy jacket. With elbow patches. Who knew I was so ahead of the times? Hail the W(h)ale!

Nosegays

I think I've been forgetting to photograph and post recent nosegays. Rats. Well, here are a few from October. It's always a little sad when all the flowers are gone and I don't have the random nosegay to brighten up my kitchen and/or bathroom anymore.

What The...What Happened to October?

First a quick update:
I recovered from the lung Cheetos. Eventually.

The boiler got re fixed, no charge. Gold star to Wuich Mechanical and Gary the experienced service guy.

I bought a new electric lawnmower on Amazon. Free two-day shipping! I used it twice so far, and it seems to work well. It's green. Tons of leaves have fallen since the last go 'round, so it will get another workout this weekend for sure.

Now for October...this is a long post, so a sandwich and a beverage would not be a bad idea.

My birthday (10-11-11) and the days leading up to it were AWESOME. You may recall we had fantastic weather, and I took full advantage with a few days off and the holiday thrown in for good measure. I went apple picking, biking, kayaking, took a hike around Lake Geneva (partial), went to watch Saturday night MMA fights w/some of my Karate peeps (awesome!), and had great hikes at Raceway Woods and Rock Cut State Park, plus there was eating out for lunch at Duke's after a 30-mile ride, breakfast out on my b.day, and dinner and partying with the parentals.

I started the fun a few days early with bike riding, apple picking, and a canoe trip on the upper fox that a woman I work with organized. It was mostly women from her church, but a few of us from MCC went, and Beth went too. (Click that link to view photos)



Right now I'm immersed in season 3...or maybe 4, I can't keep track, of True Blood, so there's little time to sort photos and what not. Here are some other random picks of what is now a fond memory of October.

I found a great little orchard outside of Woodstock to pick apples. It's JUST apples -- no maze, pastries, picnic grounds, hay rides, or other kiddie crap. I practically had the place to myself, so it was very relaxing and pleasant. This may seem like a lot of pictures, but it's not. It's but a very small sample! Most of these are Empire apples. I was taken with how loaded down the trees were...and I think I picked about $20 worth of apples! But hey, they keep.






The Sunday of that weekend, Beth and I drove up to Lake Geneva for a little hike. It's the same hike I took with Odie, so I didn't take as many house envy pictures, but the colors were great, and we had a quick little picnic along the way too. I like this picture of Beth, plus it reminds me that we were "trespassing" at the Christian camp, which has signs all over the place about how you can't sit on their chairs, walk on their grass, swing on their swings or drink from their fountain unless you are an actual God-fearing GUEST at said camp. Really? So, just for amusement, we sat on their chairs for a rest, and I was just waiting, hoping, yes, even praying, for someone to come out and say something so I could retort, "FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US, YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE!"

But they never came.

I spent my actual birthday somewhat solitarily, which was OK. Beth and I went for a little hike at Raceway and then out for breakfast, then she went to work and I putzed around the house and went kayaking. This is the only picture I took to commemorate the voyage. It was a fun day followed by a b.day Starbucks after dinner (Beth's treat).



Post 10-11-11, Beth and I went to Marengo Ridge to see the colors and hike with Gracie, and the Farmer's Market came to a close. Here are a few pictures from the hike.






We (at the market) also had our annual pumpkin contest, and once again I was tickled by all of the creative entries.




This was our 13th year doing it, and every year we get new and wacky pumpkins, plus the biggest pumpkin this year was HUGE -- 175 pounds! That's a LOT OF PIE. The guy said he was going to carve it and roast the seeds.

This was the extent of my Halloween decorations. Two plastic things that I plugged in.


Except then Hoops wanted to get in on the action with her little glowing eyeballs.



I'm posting this picture from the summer's Eltoy/Sparta trip to commemorate what appears to be the end of bike riding for the season. Snow was predicted for this week, and I am so not ready for it. I did move my bike trailer and kayak out of the garage and moved the snowblower in. And the snowblower started ... I think I'm going to have my neighbor give it a tune-up though, just to be safe. So in that regard, I guess I'm ready. But mentally...not so much.

Sick, Sick, Sick

...Also known as lung Cheetos.

I don't even have the energy to illustrate this post with clever images stolen from around the Internets. My seasonal tuberculosis (which I finally spelled right on the first try) is raging inside me, and the battle is getting messy. Earlier, I think I coughed up a lung (which prompted me to look up how much a lung weighs...about 2.5 pounds, in case you care) and surmise that if you're going to lose an organ for weight loss, a lung's not a very good bet. Three pounds of goo from inside said lung, however? That is actually a win/win. Though it tends to scare the cat.

After three days of feeling like I'm coming down with something but blaming allergies and "high mold counts," my lungs exploded and then, just for shits and giggles, invited my sinuses to join the party. So now I'm a big hacking, drippy, bleary-eyed mess, and, instead of mold, I totally blame my place of employment, which is where I catch all my viruses. And, because it's late and I'm a little high on catnip tea, I could go on about people coming to work sick and infecting the rest of the fucking office, but I won't, because the catnip is (I'm told) more of a relaxer than a stimulant, and I need to save my energy to rant about my boiler.

It broke.

I think the boiler guy who came to "clean and check" broke it, but I can't be sure. He was a nice kid, but maybe less experienced and forgot to put a shield back in place or something. The company, who I won't name unless they piss me off, is ordering the part that got fried when the flame rolled out and melted some wires, shorting out the limiter/controller/flux capacitor thingee that could have blown me to kingdom come but, fortunately, didn't. Snaps to the Experienced Guy who came back and went to bat for me, going so far as to call the young guy and grill him on what he did and didn't do, step by step. I think my boiler doesn't like it when new people touch it, because whenever Experienced Guy comes, all is well. Last time a new guy came, the expansion tank blew THE NEXT DAY. Coincidence? But I still don't know if they're going to try and charge me for this repair. AND I have to take more time off work...but I'm home sick anyway (because unlike some people, I stay home when I'm sick, yes I'm bitter), so I guess it all works out.

Except for my lawnmower, which also died. Dad helped me sharpen the blade, and I think we may have put the blade back on slightly not quite right. Turns out electric mowers and their motors are VERY sensitive to things like hitting rocks or, say, putting the blade-washer-holdy-thing back on in not quite the right order, cuz I think it's fried. And nobody works on electric mowers. The 800 number in the little lawnmower book cannot, according to the recording, "be called from your area." WTF? Oh...yes, it's in CANADA.

All this is to say, I'd like a time out and a re do to start October over again. Or just pause. Or better yet, pause and fast forward PAST my follow-up appointment with ...wait for it...the pee hole doctor.

Mostly, whatever pokes, prods or (gulp) spelunking that take place behind the curtain, I don't want it to result in my being on antibiotics (which, turns out, they like to give you as a post-spelunking precaution), because my birthday is in a WEEK, and I have plans with my good friends Jim Beam and Jack Daniels. BIG PLANS.

Fireworks and What Not

I made a small movie of highlights from the fireworks show at Heritage Fest. We watched the show from Beth's kayak in the middle of the river, which afforded a great view with the added bonus of solitude. I.e., no screaming kids.



We were going to take both boats, but somehow I managed to lose one of the Boston valves from my kayak, so I couldn't pump it up. So we tested (exceeded) the weight limit in Beth's. Come to find out, we could have probably just walked out to the middle of the river and plunked down a couple of lawn chairs, cuz the water level was pretty low. New valve has since been ordered and received, so, barring any holes or other mishaps, I'm good to go.



It's been raining for 3 days straight now, so collecting nosegays has been difficult. Here are a couple from last weekend, plucked between the rain drops. The asters are getting the crap beat out of them by the rain, so I fear this may be it for the season.




I like this teeny tiny nosegay, which is in my little vase purchased at this year's hysterical society garage sale.



I totally missed the mid-summer display at Snuffy's Prairie this year, but the early autumn colors are nice too.

Garden Harvest

This may be my last eggplant of the season from the garden, but it's a beauty! Shown here just prior to being turned into eggplant casserole. Yum. All the other stuff is from the garden as well (well, except the onion, I got that from Tim at the Farmer's Market).



Here we have documented success with rosemary bread. First bread baked of the season, since we had some cooler weather.



There was this cute cat that was hanging around the yard, so I made a movie of him. He followed me everywhere and had a lot to say. A neighbor took him in, so hopefully it works out. I called him Knucklehead. (The cat, not the neighbor.)

She Ran Callin' Wiiiiiiildfire...

So the Boundary Waters Canoe Area is on fire. How do I know this? Not because the news or weather bothered to report on it in a timely fashion. No, it's because our entire area was blanketed by smoke as of yesterday afternoon. I was eating lunch outside with some co workers, and we couldn't figure out where the strong smell of smoke and eye-burning haze was coming from. Did the ceramics department get carried away with the outdoor kilns again? Is a farmer's field on fire? No...just a giant fire over 400 miles away. !!

I had ridden my bike to work, so was a little worried about the commute home. Our nurse gave me a mask to wear though. By the evening, it wasn't so bad, so I could have probably gone without the mask, but I didn't want to aggravate the old asthma any more than I needed to. My glasses only fogged up when I stopped, which I did at a couple of intersections, and to help a little Hispanic woman who was exclaiming, "DO YOU HAVE KEY TO MOVE MY CHAIR???" I surmised the translation to be, "Do you have a wrench so I can raise my bicycle seat?" Alas, I did not, but she thanked me for trying. :)



THEN...totally unrelated, really, but still noteworthy, I had an unfortunate treadmill accident in the fitness center. What happened was ... I fell! This was not a little stumble and catch yourself fall either. I tripped over my shoe or something (?!), somehow landed on my side (instead of my face), curled up to protect my head (my mad Ninja Karate reflexes kicked in!) and shot off the back of the treadmill and almost into the wall behind me! Funny, I thought of Lenore's cat, Xena (who had a similar experience)! I noticed a white skid mark of sorts on the treadmill belt and thought maybe it was from my shoe...but then realized it was probably skin! Yikes. So now I have three little "burns" on my leg and my ankle kind of hurts. Sometimes pride goeth after a fall, not before. It was really kind of funny – makes me laugh when I think of what that must have looked like! Scott, the attendant/trainer guy, ran over to see if I was OK, then after I got back on and resumed my workout (like, you know, I MEANT to do that!), he came back and asked, "Are you SURE you're OK?!" Then when I was lifting weights, he asked me again, "Did you hurt yourself anywhere?!" Very sweet. I didn't hear any laughing, so all the people hid it well, haha. Yes, first I thought of Xena, then George Jetson, then my coworker, Craig, whose answer for everything is, "Walk it off!" so I did.

Prior to all this excitement, Roland, Amy, and I (or, Roland and his sister wives, as I like to say), went to Wilton, WI to ride the Elroy-Sparta bike trail and do a little paddling in Ontario. (We did get separate hotel rooms, though I had this vision of me between the two of them in bed, maybe watching a movie and eating popcorn.)




I'm trying to figure out a way to link my photos of a Wilton Biking-Bobbing weekend from Facebook to here. Any ideas? I think there may be too many to post, and I'm fed up with Flickr. Stay tuned...

Later that same evening...
Maybe this will work?

Anyway, it was a gorgeous weekend -- could not have asked for more perfect weather, and I really enjoyed both the biking and paddling. I wanted to see how it felt to ride that trail when I had good biking legs from the summer, and it really made a difference. Even though I've been on that trail several times, the tunnels are still very cool (literally!). The longest one is 3/4 of a mile long, so you need a jacket and a light.

The Kickapoo River is one of my favorite places to kayak. It's really scenic and winding, and the people we rent Kayaks from (Titanic Canoe Rental, in case you're in the area), are super nice. Beth was on her way home from a whole week of hard-core camping and canoeing up in the Boundary Waters, but she was willing to stop off in Wilton Saturday evening and then join us for kayaking on Sunday. What a trooper!

On the way home from Wilton, we took a very scenic route (no thanks to my retarded GPS lady) and stopped in Janesville for some New Glaris beer that apparently you can ONLY get in WI. I did sample some, and it's very tasty.

I do need to post this picture here, a shot of the interior of Hardware Hank's, the coolest hardware store ever. They have at least one of EVERYTHING in that tiny store. I could spend hours in there.