Fall Has Arrived
4:50 p.m. - 2012-09-23


I have not been looking forward to this fall because we were finally going to have something done about our rapidly degenerating bathrooms. I have been battling the tile in the back bath for years, but as of now, it is all gone. I do hate the turmoil of construction since I always feel like they are going to goof it up somehow or find some disaster or other when they uncover whatever is there under the wallboard. However, everything went fine, and I didn't have to sweat it since the spouse likes to send me far far away so I won't worry or stress out while the house is torn up. I stayed a week with my daughter on the peninsula but kept in touch by phone as my husband handled everything. Now I feel the same way as I did about the window replacement - suddenly a whole category of toil is gone from my life. They redid the shower, lights, installed a fan and brought everything up to code, and in the other bathroom, the old rusted bathtub was replaced. Everything is now clean and modern.

While I was on the Peninsula, I kept busy crocheting a Doris Chan sweater which I think I'm really going to like. I've never crocheted a garment before, but this one is very pretty. It's from the Everyday Crochet book which I got from the library. I love the pretty coral color, which magically matches a sleeveless shell I have. If it turns out as well as I think it will, I'm going to make a few more but with a V-neck front instead.

The calendar says that Fall is here, but you couldn't tell it from the temperature. I'm going to plant out some fall crops. Before I left for the week, I put some seedlings into two planters. I went inside after I finished up, and in less than half an hour those sneaky squirrels had dug up half of one planter, killing the plants. The spouse made a cover for one out of some leftover fencing and so far it is working. He put two milk crates over the other one. I'm going to try growing cabbage, always a failure for me, but this time I bought some tulle to make covers for each plant to keep off the bugs. We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday we went to a company picnic in Morgan Hill. It was hot, unfortunately, but they had snagged a good spot with a cover and shade. The people who work for my husband's company brought their families, and my, what cute kids they have. One little girl with curly gold hair took a liking to me, so I spent my time telling her stories and keeping her cool by pouring water on her feet, which she loved. She was about 2. There was a guy to handle the BBQ, and the food was great. There was chicken, tritip, and hot dogs, assorted salads, garlic bread, and cupcakes. We stayed about 2 1/2 hours, then went over to the outlets in Gilroy and snagged a few Christmas presents.

Now I am feeling like sewing and knitting again, though soon I will be putting up the squash. My winter squash crop is tremendous this year. I'm only growing butternut with a few volunteer pumpkins here and there. I still have some basil to make into pesto and freeze, and the odd leftover cucumber.

The next big household project will be to get new shelving units for the livingroom. We haven't looked around yet, but I know the kind I would like to have. We just have to find some we can actually afford. In the meantime, we continue with the decluttering.