ten things

1. my brother. to make the long story short: he signed up for the national guard under a "college first" program, experienced the terrible event at virginia tech last spring, went to boot camp all summer, decided his beliefs did not agree with the military's and applied for a discharge on the grounds of conscientious objection. then on halloween he received a phone call that he was to be deployed to iraq in two weeks. after phone calls and meetings and stress and worry, the army finally agreed to honor the terms of his contract and postpone deployment until after he graduates. in the meantime hopefully his c.o. application will go through. it's been a tough few weeks.

2. ink. during this time of concern and fear and overwhelming love for my brother, i got a tattoo for him, and he got one for me, though not the same. we're close. and i had forgotten that tattoos don't hurt as bad as i think they do, and they are really gross while they heal. i'm almost there, but i'm afraid i'll have to get the stem touched up because i probably didn't take the best care of it in the initial stages of healing.

3. collecting. i purchased a vintage eva zeisel pitcher off ebay in september, and after forgetting to update my shipping address (our office moved), decided it was lost forever within the USPS. it finally came today, 6 weeks after the first delivery attempt to the wrong address. i'm smiling.

4. thanksgiving. 8 days to go before i serve dinner to 10 in my tiny condo. hubb's parents, grandparents, brother, our friends with their new baby, and the new mom's father. a 25 pound (give or take) turkey will be joining our house for a few days, and i'm feverishly putting together the agenda and menu for 6 days worth of visitors. new recipes will be tried, old stand bys will sneak in, a mother-in-law will share my kitchen, and a gigantic turkey will be brined. wish me luck.

5. cooking. i love my new large le creuset dutch oven. it is my hero.

6. babies. i had to sneak them in here. i've had a lot of baby time in the past few weeks, and it makes me melt. three little girls are all within 5 minutes to an hour of my open arms. i'm already dreaming of craft camp at auntie em's.

7. sleep. since august or so there has been a squeaky chirpy noise in the wall behind my bed. it kept me awake for weeks, made me scream in agony and cry in frustration at my inability to silence it as it went back and forth between an occasional disruption to a constant annoyance. now it's finally fixed and the noise is gone, blissfully and happily quiet. and i can sleep. which is wonderful damn you, hot water recirculator pump. damn you straight to hell.

8. autumn. it's getting colder, then it's getting warmer, and i can't figure it out. i think it was 65 or something yesterday, while i'm ready to bundle and wrap, waiting for -10. at least give me a few solid weeks of 45-50 to get the fall out of my system before it is sleeting and icy. please?

9. photos. i've been back on a bit of a photo kick, going through old flickr pages, remembering when i was taking a self portrait a day for 365 days. i might start it again. maybe.

10. crafts. the diy trunkshow is this saturday and you should come see me in booth 24. i have shiny new business cards, pretty little buttons, and some pretty little bird collage paintings. hillary of sans couture will be sharing the booth with me, and will have some beautiful handmade jewelry for sale. come see us!