I absolutely love this time of year--from the middle of October to Halloween and my birthday and Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's.  There is something about the energy in the air, even here in Florida where the air is still warm.  I love fall and Christmas colors and decorations and food and presents and being around your family.  My birthday always falls around Thanksgiving (November 25) and our wedding anniversary is a few weeks before Christmas, which I wanted on purpose.  We had a red and white wedding with Christmas decorations everywhere and Christmas cookies as wedding favors. 

We are in the final stretch of the semester, just 6 weeks left to go.  I think some of my students are surviving better than others, although some are really getting the point of the class.  I talked to one the other night, and she said this class gives her the ability to try and fail and learn from her mistakes before it really counts in another class.  I want to ask her to write that down, because I want to share it with everyone (students, faculty, administrators) who thinks this class is stupid and pointless and something you have to do because the university requires it. 

I have finished a whole bunch of knitting, and hopefully will make it to the post office to mail various knitted goodness to friends.  I do not know exactly why, but I have given away almost everything I have ever knit.  I think I really enjoy the process of thinking about what another person might like, finding the right yarn, and making it for them.   I do have some yarn I bought to make myself a sweater and also a ton that I bought to make an afghan for our living room, but I have not started on either.  The sweater because I am worried about the gauge, and the afghan because I can't decide what pattern to use.  I have a counterpane pattern that is lovely, but I don't know how it will looks in different colors, and I envision there being three or four colors.

I have purchased a few Christmas gifts, for my sister and her husband, and for my nephew, but I am somewhat clueless about everyone else this year.  I do almost always buy my dad books, and my mom is fairly easy to find something for, but my inlaws and sister and brother in law are harder.  Sister in law did just move into a new house, and I thought about knitting something for them, like a afghan or some gorgeous cabled pillows.  I am really partial to this yarn from Joann's:
But I don't know if it is because I like it or because I think they would like it that I want to buy it and make something out out it.  I think it would make a beautiful afghan because the turquoise streaks will just contrast so nicely with the red and orangey colors.  I have done some creative things with the last couple of pieces i knit, because I had bought yarn that was being discontinued and while I bought all that was available of whatever I bought, it turned out for 2 pieces, it was not enough yarn to finish the piece.  So I have played with combining yarns and colors and textures in the same piece.  I kind of like how they turned out.  I will try harder to take more pictures of everything to post online.


We are having about 20 people from Greg's work over for a party next week.  The theme is A Taste of Tuscany, and I am experimenting with some different lasagnas.  I found a recpipe for a roasted vegetable lasagna, and I am thinking to take several recipes and create my own version of Chicken Florentine lasagna.  I did some reading, and anything "florentine" is by default Tuscan.  I had wanted to make biscotti, also Tuscan, but other people volunteered to bring dessert, so probably not.  Part of the reason that I wanted to have the party was because we haven't had any large number of people over the whole time we have been in FL, but also because one of the people Greg works with lives a street over in the exact same floor plan as we have, and she swears it is too small for herself and her three children.  They moved from Nebraska and a large house over the summer.  She can't believe that we'll get everyone in and that they will even be able to sit at a real table and chairs for dinner.

Ballet is going pretty well.  I am enjoying having larger classes because almost everyone who is in the performance comes to class before rehearsal.  There is something almost competititve about seeing other people dance, it is like you want to be as good or better, and if one of them decided to do things on demi pointe or try for triple or double turns, then you do it as well.  The dance is coming along.  The steps are not hard, but we have several patterns of movement and changing patterns that have become tricky to master.  If you know your part, but the person you are passing goes the wrong way or on the wrong side, all of a sudden, the whole thing is off, and you end up in the wrong place.  Turns out they would like us to perform also before Thanksgiving, so we only have 2 more weeks to learn everything.  We are wearing long purple skirts and black scoop neck leotards.  Much better for all our ages and body types then the pseudo-polka/folk costume I was imagining in my head. 

Haven't posted to Readspace (http://www.readspace.net) in several weeks.  I have been too busy, and I haven't finished a book in a while.  I totally need to though, cause I can tell the traffic has slowed down because of the lack of new content.  Maybe I can write something about books  read less recently?  We'll see.

Speaking of busy, Chicago was great, cool but not cold, and reminded me of how much I love urban hustle and bustle, public transit (who doesn't love the subway and the El?  And now they have this free trolley on weekends.)  I saw my friend from Texas, elf_chick .  She picked me up and we drove to Andersonville where we went to a bunch of cool shops and had dinner at Reza's, a meditarranean restaurant. (I was pleased that she was wearing the scarf I made her!)  My parents come in also, and we had dinner with my uncle in Greek Town at the Parthenon, and then on Saturday with my uncle, his wife, my cousin, her husband and their beautiful little girl.  I was reminded of how I wish we saw each other more often then every 3 or 4 years.  We went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which I had not done since I was maybe 5 years old.  It was still cool and fun, and bonus because we went on Halloween and lots of the kids and almost all the staff were in costume.  We went to the Museum of the Art Institute, and although we were there for hours, we didn't see nearly half of what was there, and that wasn't even the full collection because they have things in storage while they work on a new Modern wing.  I am always floored when I see iconic works in person, a few we saw were A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat, American Gothic by Grant Wood, and Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.  There were also many impressionists, including Degas, Cassatt, and Van Gogh, and several O'Keefes.  I really enjoyed a small display of modern furniture and other decor items, some from Frank Lloyd Wright and his peers, some from others.  It struck me how these designers created some of the furniture designs and lines that are still used widely today.  Anyway, I am totally ready to go back to Chicago, except maybe not in the middle of winter!