Fall Romance

ahhhhh fall.

Thats a sigh of relief and contentment — not a scream.

Although I’ve played up the typical, “where did my summer go?” and “september already?!” quotes that are practically required of people this year after such a rainy blah summer — secretly I’m excited. I L-O-V-E fall. I always have — the trees are starting to drop their leaves here, you can see your breath at night, and I woke up in the dark for the first time the other day. Pumpkin spice latte’s are back and comfort food is now comforting (as opposed to just an annoying way to heat up the house baking/cooking for hours on a hot day).

There have been so many good things in life these days! Let me fill you in –

Sunday night kickball has been replaced with “fall football”. While this is a little sad as I’m no longer playing (and therefore need to find a time to fit in a workout again on Sundays!) its dreamy because I now can just snuggle under a blanket with a glass of wine and laugh with the girls while the boys run around sweating and hitting each other. Football has always been one of my favorite sports — and while my friends are hardly professional athletes, you don’t get a chance to see much of it live up here. I’ll take what I can get. Last week we followed football by building a fire and relaxing for awhile — hopefully this will become a tradition as well. Best thing I’ve done in awhile — and I get to do it every week! Any ideas for winter sports? I’d love to play hockey on the lagoon — but somehow I think that’ll be a bit more challenging to put together. The perks of kickball and football have been that they are free and really require nothing beyond showing up….just something to keep in mind!

Katrina is hosting a little wine dinner for my birthday next week — my goal is to get my friends here into wine so that I can drink it more often and enjoy it with everyone instead of having a bottle to myself — orrrr really, so we can each have a bottle  We’ve got crudites and champagne to have out while people are arriving and milling around, and then we’ll seat everyone. Then we’ll be serving the following: bruschetta, toasted goat cheese and mango salad, a cold aspargus in vinegar dish, portobello mushroom stuffed zuchinni, smoked salmon pasta and a vegan chocolate ganache cake with fresh raspberries to top it all off. I’m *hoping* this is enough food for all the boys — as its vegan…the whole thing. Except for the fish of course, we all know I can’t resist salmon!!! It should be a wonderful night — filled with friends, laughs, great food and good wine.

In other news — I started my class last week, and I’m LOVING it. I’m loving the graduate school as a whole actually — all of the professors and students have been great. So open, accommodating and helpful! My class will have A LOT of reading — I’m talking like 300 pages a week, so thats a big change from nothing (especially because I’m actually just bummed it’ll take some time away from Harry Potter!) but I’m excited none the less. Really I can’t whine about it tooooo much — our professor splits it all up among the class, and then asks that we at least skim over each article, but know the one we are assigned well. It seems like a nice way to combine all of the things we need to know but also accommodate for our lives outside of school. I have day two of class tonight — and hopefully over the course of this semester I’ll be finagling my way into working with a few prof’s on research projects.

Fitness wise — I signed up for another 10k. Run for Beans — to benefit the local soup kitchen. I was going to do the 5k — but I like the idea of pushing myself to train a little I’ve been better at keeping up with the work outs again the past few weeks — yoga last night (the BEST class I’ve had in awhile — we had a small group, so we were able to have some fun with inversions, and movement flows. Needless to say I am stoked that Heidi is back, the hour and a half flew by, and my body is SORE), running today, and then spinning tomorrow. Mostly, I’m focused on picking back up my cross training AND my strength training — as both kind of fell off this summer. I haven’t been able to get up…one single morning…for swimming. But honestly — its still a goal. Something to ease into I suppose. Tuesday night races start next week — and Heidi is staying one extra month before she leaves for the winter! Hooray!

As for Alaska — the political arena has heated things up a bit. You may have seen Joe Miller, our GOP senate candidate, tea party member and endorsed by Sarah Palin on the news? We had our primary last week — I was frustrated to find out the following: we are a party state — so you can ONLY vote within your declared party. Also, proposition 2 passed — I wont start raving here because I could go on forever, BUT I suppose this is something I need to get used to. The majority of the people here are VERY conservative. Sigh. The good side? I’ve gotten thrown back into the political game. And more importantly — I kind of missed it, and I’m really enjoying it. Take the negative — and turn it into the positive. Work for/with the candidates I love, educate the people around me, and help organizations to deal with the consequences of laws that are passed despite being poorly written and deceivingly marketed. Double sigh.

In lighter news — the Alaska State Fair is going on. It’s something I LOVED as a child — and I was able to spend a whole day out there last weekend as an EMT. While it was POURING rain. Like Seattle on steroids. I still had fun though — treated myself to a “brick” of fries (finished half and threw them away) and a candy apple (ate the whole thing — you gotta live once in awhile right?). It was funny though — a bit like going back to your childhood elementary school or even your middle school — at the time everything seemed so big, and chaotic and intense — and yet, as an adult — it seems smaller, more relaxed and even easier

The number one thing I’m excited for this fall/winter is some TRAVELING! Trips I have planned:

• Seattle in late September, early October
• New York City in November
• Denver in January
• Napa in May

Cannot WAIT to see all of you guys!

In other news this week — I’ve been OBSESSED with my CSA box… and its only week two. I’ve made it a goal of mine to try to order or switch out for at least two veggies each week that I don’t use or haven’t ever had. This week it was parsnips, patty pan squash (so cute!), turnips and baby bok choy. I’ve HAD baby bok choy before, but I’ve never cooked it or bought it myself. Highlights from my kitchen this week:

• Steamed baby bok choi, broccoli, carrots, cremini mushrooms, with an onion/garlic/ginger glaze over brown rice
• Nut-butter crusted parsnip fries
• Saffron rice with steamed winter vegetables (turnips! patty pan squash!)
• A HUGE organic salad: arugala, fresh greens, diced mango and goat cheese!
• My OWN baked apple chips
• Shredded carrot and beet salad with toasted pine nuts

Observations? Sometimes its better just to buy things! About a few months ago, I found baked organic apple chips at Natural Pantry. I’m obsessed. I could seriously eat a bag a day — and the best thing is, I really could. It’s 4 organic apples, sliced and baked. Thats it. SO of course, I thought I’d save some money and just make them at home. Which…granted, my apples were about $5 for 5, a bag of apple chips is $3.29. So its only marginally cheaper. The issue here is the TIME involved. I have a mandolin — so I’m lucky, no hand slicing for me! BUT about two apples fit on each baking sheet, I only have two oven racks (WTH???), and you bake them for about 75 minutes. They do make the house smell WONDERFUL, and they do taste exactly the same, but it takes about…3 hours total to make half a bag. I might just try it with pears as soon as they are back in season though. Yum. Also, turnips taste like nothing to me (raw AND cooked in) and parsnips when peeled smell EXACTLY like raw carrots.

OTHERWISE — not too many crazy things going on around here. World Affair Council meetings start back up next week — with a former CIA agent speaking on “Recovering the World’s Treasures”. Should be an interesting one! I bought my symphony tickets — two of them. I actually talked my way into floor seats, on an aisle and for the cheapest price! The house is quiet (FINALLY!) My newest nightly routine: I light the new candles for my room (cinnamon? pumpkin? leaves? yes, yes and yes!), I read book 5 of Harry Potter,  and drink a glass of wine.

Relax. Relax. Relax. while I can!

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