Junk Mail Be Gone!

The mailbox at our house and, subsquently, the recycling bin is choc full of junk mail, circulars and catalogs these days. Jesus bless the cosumer holidays. God wants you to buy, buy, buy!!! I obviously don't love you if I don't buy for you a flat screen tv this Xmas season, don't cha know. But, I digress.

Here's a cool website that allows you to opt out of hundreds of catalogs. Tell those marketing bastards NO!

https://www.catalogchoice.org/

Oh, and Merry Whatever.
Love,
Cari

3rd Annual 29th Birthday

Thirty-two is not a very exciting birthday. It's not one of the big ones, it holds little significance and its not even prime. Even numbers, in general, are pretty boring. Mathematically, I'm in for a lame year. On the bright side, I spent some quality time around a fire with friends which is always a good thing. I learned to make lefse from my in-laws and found that I am genetically predisposed to the craft. Of course, we already knew about my inclination towards the kitchen arts. That brings me to my two favorite birthday presents, both from my loving husband. First he gave me a 3-quart stainless-steel All Clad saucier or "chef's pan." Lovely. Then, for inspiration, he took me out to dinner at La Belle Vie. Our friends Dave and Julie joined us and we indulged greedily in the 7 course chef's tasting. Devine.

Fall in the garden

I love Fall. The garden turns lovely colors and smells wonderful as we rake and work to put the plants to bed for the winter. Here are some photos of my peaceful Fall garden:
White and purple Alyssum

The walnut tree turns bright yellow

Grape Vine

Hops

Coleus

Happy Halloween!

Nature and I carved pumpkins last night. You can vote for your favorite! Poll on the top of the page, to the left!

Late entry by my niece, Nadine:

Kitty!

The First Draft

I saw a quote on a classroom blackboard last week that said, "Perfectionism, the only thing standing between you and a shitty first draft." Well, I can say with all honesty, that perfectionism is NOT my problem. The first draft of my term paper stinks to high heaven. It is so bad, in fact, that I don't even want to read it in order to work on the second draft knowing that the godforsaken fumes that it is giving off may, indeed, kill me. I have spent a great deal of the last week procrastinating and that certainly has something to do with the malodorous content of my paper. I realize that this assignment is designed to ascertain whether or not I absorbed the reading material thus far. I have. Really. Sort of. You see, the texts are awful. Really truly awful. One of them was last updated in 2001 and is written by some guy from Utah. (insert reason to mistrust or joke about the mormons here) It features chapters on tax code and the 1980s and other suffocatingly boring material. Although I did stumble upon the interesting little tidbit that the NFL is actually a nonprofit organization. You can look it up.

Really, I am enjoying this class and being back in school. This missive is just another example of how easy it is in the age of the internets to procrastinate. You're doing it right now.

Oh, god help me...

I'm sitting in front of my laptop. I have books, papers, notes, references of various kinds spread all over the couch. I'm working on my midterm paper half-heartedly. I was a supremely skilled procrastinator durning my days of undergrad at SCSU. I realize in the rational part of my brain that I cannot do that with a grad level class and honestly expect to pass. That said, I have the Sox v. Indians game on (on mute, naturally) across the room and the sound of Tiva snoring, lulling me into a semi-dream state, on the blanket next to me. Proof that tonight is just not the night for me to be writing an academic paper came a few minutes ago when I found that I had written the following:

"The future of the nonprofit sector is glowing and bright, cheery and lime in the coconut, drink it all up. Nonprofits need to prepare for the future by buying lots of rum. "

I think I'll go to bed now. After the baseball game, of course. The midterm will have to wait.