cat named pig

Because I am in a great mood, here’s a little Sunday night round-up of things that fall solidly in the plus column:

• It’s officially Chili Season — a bigger deal to me than Football Season, although they definitely overlap and both go well with beer. We kicked the season off this year with the classic vegetarian chili recipe we’ve made so often we can do it without thinking. Or while watching football, as Matt did this weekend. (I would argue that’s the same as not thinking; he might disagree.) Sunday nights and one other meal a week are now accounted for, from now until spring — wahoo!
• It’s also (duh) Pumpkin Season — I made these on Friday night and they’re almost gone. And if I’m honest? I’m totally having one for breakfast in the morning. (For lunch I’m eating the leftover cream cheese frosting with a spoon.)
• Sara and Avery were in town from South Dakota, and the girls didn’t even destroy anything while Sara and I sat around and talked about foods that taste good. We also enjoyed a pumpkin ale, because, you know, ’tis the season.
• This weekend we went to: the farmers’ market, Trader Joe’s, and Rainbow Foods. We are ALL SET, grocery-wise. We won’t need to leave our house for a month. Which is fine, since it’s supposed to snow again soon. And that cuts my will to leave the house in half every time.
• In a burst of Martha-esque inspiration, I threw my customary laziness to the wind and worked on our holiday cards for this year. IN OCTOBER. We might just send them out BEFORE the holidays this year, instead of just pretending they were supposed to be “New Year’s Cards.”

Wow, this is a fairly boring list that in no way justifies how happy I feel right now. I think this sudden joie de vivre is mostly due to the fact that I was sick earlier in the week and then a miracle took place and now I AM NO LONGER SICK. I CAN DO ANYTHING. (If you read this blog last winter at all, during the Great and Tedious Chronicling of Minor Unwellness, you might understand why the simple fact of recovering from a cold feels miraculous. I AM HEALED!)

(Whoa. Calm down there, Self.)

Here are some pictures of kids with pumpkins. Happy mid-October!

Sioux Falls happens to be within excellent road trip distance from Minneapolis: the drive is long enough to feel like you’ve really gotten away wish you were dead because the kids won’t stop asking if we are there yet OMG I thought that was a just a comic strip cliché I didn’t think kids really said this WHY DID I HAVE CHLDREN? But it’s not too far to drive for a weekend visit with friends. (If said friends have to insist on living there, and not here in Minneapolis where we think they belong.)

Anyway, the friends in question — Sara, Ryan, and Siena’s BFF Avery, of blue-painted-butt fame — moved to Sioux Falls in June and got a dog named Bindy shortly thereafter. Which means that pretty much every day since June, Siena has asked me, “Mama, what do you think Avery and Bindy are doing right now?”

In other words, we had to get out there to visit them.

The trip was perfect, aside from the drive*. The kids played, Bindy tolerated all of their “affection,” Matt and Ryan watched sports and Sara and I drank wine and said things we thought were funny. Pretty much the usual for all of us. Oh, and there was food. Lots of it. We ate ourselves silly and then had more snickerdoodles, just because they were there.

BFFs and hat models.

At the actual falls of Sioux Falls. Matt and Ryan were back at the house watching sports while Elliot napped. I guess the World Series was on or something.

…..

* I’m not even kidding about the “Are we there yet?” business. We pulled into the parking lot to get cash from the ATM five blocks from our house, and Elliot clapped his hands in excitement and asked, “Are we in SOUF DATOTA NOW?” OK, so that one was funny, but when he and Siena had repeated that question a billion times each, it became less amusing.