Thursday Brain Dump

1.  In a weird coincidence of life imitating art (if you can call one of my blog posts art - see below), we lost power last night for several hours in our first fall storm.  Just wind and rain, nothing drastic, but as we live at the head of a lake, the wind seems to funnel up the valley right toward us and occasionally the lines go down.  Or in this case a transformer or two blew up.  Oh boy, we could see it just down the street.  Big turquoise green flashes.  And then darkness.  We're used to it.  The boys got out their flashlights and headlamps, and I lit a few more candles.  Not enough to read by, (we'll get back to Patrick McManus tomorrow), but enough to make the living room cozy and comfortable. 

In other news...

2.  Hunting season came to a sad end - no deer for Tate this year.  After days of seeing nothing, he shot at (and missed) a spike on the last day.  He's taking it stoically, in spite of coming home disappointed only to see a three-point buck stroll through the yard. 

3.  Wyatt has been fighting a cold, and it's hard to tell if he still has it or if he's just trying really hard to deepen his voice.  Some of each?

4.  Gunnar is whizzing through his fourth grade math, in spite of saying he doesn't like it.  His math lessons are beginning to include variables, as well as exponents and square roots, and he's rising to the challenge.  Just recently he was presented with the problem:  F x 32 = 108  (I don't know how to make that say "three squared" - sorry).  He looked at me, all giddy, and said,

I feel like Einstein!

Yah, you go, Gunnar!

5.  Life is full of little blessings.  Our local Stuff-mart is being remodeled.  Still.  (That's not the blessing.)  I may have complained about mentioned this back before school started.  I've been avoiding it, because - hello! - I used to know where everything was, and now a simple shopping trip turns into an expedition that Homer would have difficulty chronicling.  (And, no, I never exaggerate.)  So as we floundered around the store, flagging down employees to help us find every blessed thing on my list, one took pity on us and handed the boys each a gift card to McDonald's to console us.  Score!  Free lunch :D

6.  Then my neighbor cleaned out her freezer.  She has an amazing garden, the envy of the neighborhood.  And she cans.  And apparently she had so much fresh stuff from this year, that she needed to clear out last year's (perfectly good) leftovers.  Her husband showed up with - I kid you not - a wheel-barrow full of goodies.  And it included salmon.  (How can anyone have too much salmon?  I don't know, but I'll just be thankful!)

7.  I rarely cruise the foodie blogs because, frankly, they're a bit overwhelming.  And when I do?  I start with noble intentions to find something new and wonderful to do with vegetables and wind up drooling over Peanut Butter Pie.

8.  I like reading to the boys, in spite of having to explain all manner of things to them.  Like, for instance, why you'd want to remove the entrails before throwing a whole duck into the cooking pot.  (We have The Broken Blade to thank for that wonderful image.)  Because, while many organs are perfectly edible, I don't want whatever is inside the intestinal tract, in my soup.  Have you seen what ducks eat???  You'll thank me for leaving the picture fairly small.

9.  Since I'm out every Monday evening at rehearsals, I try to persuade Kerry to transport the boys to and from CAP on Tuesdays.  But occasionally I go.  And you know what I love?  Those young men (and women - but it's mostly boys) are SO POLITE!  If they see me (or any female) coming, they will jump to open and hold the door.  They look me in the eye and greet me, Good evening, Ma'am.  And they look sharp.  Sure, the uniform helps, but you can see their faces and it makes a world of difference.  More on that later.

10.  If I don't go downstairs and feed the natives immediately, there may be a rebellion.  These boys.  Hungry all day long!