Nuts for Winter

Gennyland's status update: it's October 27, work is v. busy, I'm pretty excited about the U.S. election, I'm finishing the sweater I've been working on since last xmas, I've started thinking about gifts for this xmas, the house is nearly all tucked in for winter, the firewood needs to be put away, the winter tires need to be put on the car, I'm getting over my cold and Rosie's just lovely in general.

Fall is in full swing and the leaves have mostly fallen off the trees. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, when the clocks change, because for once I will be able to use the daylight in the morning more than the daylight at the end of the day. Seriously, I can't find my dog in the mornings. That extra hour of daylight will come in handy.


This weekend, we finished off the remaining "must-dos" of the house renovations. We also put away a lot of our big outside stuff, making this coming weekend's to-do list a bit shorter. It's looking nice inside, as I've moved some things around. I have some projects on the go and have a few more lined up for the pre-christmas season, which promises to be jam-packed again this year. Did I ever show you the paintings I did for my brother last year? Here they are:

I get ambitious around this time of year.

The pressing question right now is: what to do for Halloween? What level of participation will I be able to achieve this year? Will I be able to carve a pumpkin? Hand out candy? Make the house look scary? Dress up the dog? I really want to dress up the dog but I don't know if she'll stand for it. A few ideas that I have include: a bat; a skeleton; a ghost; a spider; a witch. Somehow, if I can guage it by the number of stuffed toys she's annihilated in the past months, I don't think it's worth putting a lot of effort into. Especially considering we have nowhere to go and get about 8 trick-or-treaters per year. But fun! I tried to dress up the cat last year with very little success. She glowered at me until I took off her little witch-hat-with-orange-hair. I need to have children and fast.

I also suspect Rosie might try to eat the pumpkin. She promptly chewed the handle off as soon as we brought it home. I wonder if I could dress her up as a steak?

After the Halloween buzz has worn off I'll be knitting, printing, glueing, wrapping and generally crafting myself into an ulcer again this year. I've decided, however, I will not be giving home-made food gifts in 2008, as last year's efforts proved to be either A) extremely unsuccessful, or B) still in my fridge a year later. I'll see what Martha has to say next month. I have some ambitious hand-crafted ideas though, which I won't report on in this blog until after the gifts have been unwrapped. No offense to any readers of course.

All this creative fertility (Alannis Morrisette's words, not mine) runs in the background of my day-to-day keeping it together. A good friend recently had a family tragedy, so I want to try to spend some time with her - I think we're off to the movies tomorrow night. Our family - including Rosie - has been invited to another dinner on Sunday night, which I'm really looking forward to. Also, I'm really considering getting a cleaning lady. I have found someone who's been recommended highly, and am tempted to hire her based on her name alone (Mavis Zeitz! What a great handle!), but haven't worked up the courage to call her. I've decided I have, as my girlfriend in BC once said, "more money than time" these days (which isn't saying much really, except that I have very very little time) and have had to make some decisions as to what's most important in my life - scrubbing my own toilet or making christmas gifts? It's an easy decision for me, but one that hubby's struggling with - not that he scrubs many toilets....

New things in my life: Rosie's "Sporn" halter, which makes walking her much easier; a possibly exciting career movement; new sweaters on deck to be knitted up, with lovely new yarn; dad's recovering from his shoulder surgery; a new diet for the new year, aimed at lowering my insulin resistance or something (don't ask, it's another post); my favourite TV show premieres in three days; hubby's starting a new job; one of my oldest friends has moved back to my neighborhood; my "Green Committee" work is going very well at the office (I am a co-chair), and I have no more airplane trips to make in 2008. All in all it's looking pretty good.