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We finished up October with sunny, mild days and fond memories of fall…plus a very nice pumpkin cheesecake, courtesy of my hubby. Yesterday, I spent the day at home on the sofa in front of the fireplace nursing a cold and watching the clouds build. By nightfall, a light drizzle settled in, and today, we’ve got good old fashioned rain on our hands. The garden is cheering the return of the rainy season 🙂

Thanks to everyone that sent along birthday greetings today…or phone calls or blog mentions or scary photos from birthdays past…or foamy grande lattes 🙂 And Jeff and Chris are taking me out for RIBS tonight…my comfort food of choice!!

But my favorite gift of the day HAD to be the sight of dear Michele try to light a wooden match in my office for the candle on the yummy cupcakes she brought. Like MacGyver gone senile, Michele tried EVERY surface in the office including the bottom of her shoe, until she spotted an etched glass globe bookend.

We lit the match on Asia, I believe. And, of course, I blew out the candle two second later so as not to set off the sprinklers. Classic. We haven’t laughed that hard in ages.

[Update: My biggest smile of the day came with the phone call I received from Jeff’s family for a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday. A special thanks to Dominick and Natalie, who sang their special new song for me: “Matthew is big, Joshua is little. Dominick, Natalie and Keegan are smack in the middle. Big and little.” THANK YOU!!]

I realize that I do not travel to Virginia NEARLY as much as Curt does, nor would I want to compete for that distinction. But I have been in the air and in hotels much more than normal lately, and my blog has suffered for it…not to mention my sanity 🙂

But that said, I am working with the BEST proposal team I have ever worked with, and having fun in between late nights and coffee infusions.

Anyhow, one casualty of my travel are photos from Jeff and my weekend in NYC. So, in an effort to catch up a bit, here are a few of the more curious photos from NYC, including a fascinating tribute to Christopher Columbus in cheese.

For the record, I believe that Jeff took the second of the rooftop photos, from high above the city at Rockefeller Center. This one showed our lofty perch quite nicely.

I was perusing a junk removal website this afternoon to find a convenient way to get rid of a few odd items left over from the previous owners of the house. These oddities are tucked away, but the time has really come. Take a look at the photos below, and you’ll see what I mean.

Anyhow, this junk website (1-800-GOT-JUNK) had a list of items that are prohibited for them to dispose of in our area. Please read along with me (this is the full list in their order):

• Any items containing gas or oil
• Any items that have oil in them
• Any medical, biological waste, or feces
• Any type of battery – including AAA-D
• Flourescent lights
• Paint cans or containers full of paint
• Pianos
• Propane tanks that contain any fuel.

Uh, pianos? I would like an explanation.

Jeff and I spent today–another warm, sunny fall day–working around the house. One of my jobs was to plant a row of new succulents [Sanseveria laurentii, aka “Variegated Snake Plant”] in one of the protected beds at the front of the house. Yesterday, Jeff extracted a sad camillia plant that I aparrently killed with overzealous fertilizing. (I plead the fifth…those gardening gloves just DON’T FIT 🙂 Anyhow, the new plants look much cooler anyway.

I also thinned out some old growth from two grassy plants we have on our front balcony. This inspired me to find some grotesque, half-price pumpkins to give the house a touch of the season. Jeff added the bale of straw, which does make it all work, in my opinion.