Fall!

So if I haven't been posting for a while I apologize. I place the blame solely on this book:


I loved this book. I was rapt, I could barely stand to put it down. It was so exciting I felt as if it gave me a heart attack! Why hasn't Scify made a mini series of this already!!!?
I am now reading Paladin of Souls also by Louis McMaster Bujold and set in the same world as the Curse of Chalion. I was so excited to read it I started reading whatever I could on Amazon before the book was delivered to our library.
Converesly, may I tell you what I do not like? 24. I know that people are in love with it but I don't care for it. I saw the first half of season One and it was good. It was exciting and the twists were not too annoying. But Season 2 started out interesting but I was sick of how things never worked out for Jack and Kim kept getting into worse and worse trouble (spoilers ahead). After the bomb blew up it was downhill from there. He couldn't prove that the recording was fake, then the chip was damaged but maybe they can get the data off of it, oh no they can't get the data, then he tries to get the guy who made the fake, Jack finds the guy who agrees to work for him, then the guy stabs the president's wife and escapes... and that is when I stopped watching.
Season 3 was worse than that. In every episode they had some twist, something to make things more annoying and frustrating. First it's about drugs and terror connections, then it's about a kid with weaponized disease, then it's about stopping Jack from breaking Salazar free, then it's not, then his watch breaks.
I like twists but I can get overloaded with constant changes in the direction of the plot. It nauseats me slightly and just when I feel like I am in a groove and can get into the action I have to change gears. No thanks. I find these constant plot changes show a lack of mature writing talent and are just cheap and easy gimmicks to keep people watching.
aaaahhh... well I am glad I got that off of my chest.
We also had a few of Hubii's students over for Soup night. The college tries to build community ties between the profs and the students by having the professors host a dinner for the students at their homes. Three of his students made it and were treated to palak paneer and butter chicken. Thankfully none were too picky and seemed to enjoy my 'exotic' dishes. Let me tell you paneer is expensive: It cost $6 for 12oz of cheese. It seems even more expensive as making paneer at home is reasonably easy and I have almost mastered it myself. But the palak paneer came out pretty well. This despite the fact that I was going easy on the spices to keep it palatable.The picture isn't great as I took it with my mobile phone.



Last night Hubii and I carved a pumpkin. I think that it came out pretty well. You can't really see the pumpkin, just the carving. But i think that the moon came out pretty well. I can't wait for halloween. I hope that kids will come to the house. I fear that we have lost our neighborhood kids to convenient for parents Trunk or Treats. But we will see.

Fall in Missouri

So it has been very cold here for the last week. Day before yesterday we had freezing conditions overnight and yesterday it hovered around low 40's before giving up the ghost and dipping to mid 30's overnight. I don't want it to be winter yet, but then I never want it to be winter. I would like to be in Australia where people eat ice cream at Christmas time.

Saturday one of our neighbors raked all his leaves into the street and set fire to them. I was shocked and half expected the fire crew to show up but they didn't. He just had a huge smokey fire going for half the day.
One good thing about fall is all the fall festivals. Two weekends ago Weston held Applefest. It was kicked off with a parade and had all kinds of apple treats, plus mini hay bales!
I think they were lost, because the parade went the other way.

Hubii's sister and brother-in-law were able to visit us during Applefest. We ate many apple confections including apple funnel cake, apple dumplings and an apple pie that we took home with us.
Hubii and I bought a hay bale and some gourds and pumpkins to decorate our front doorstep.

While I was in Platte City, to get my new driver's license, I was trapped by the home coming parade for Platte County High School. It was a highlight to a mostly frustrating day. I went to the DMV three time only to give up my lovely GA license for a sheet of paper.


A piece of paper with a squished photo.
And now for a photo of my recent baking adventures. Orange sticky buns, click to see them in the sticky glistening goodness. Enjoy.

First Use

Hubii is not feeling too well so he stayed at home today. So to comfort him and soothe his aching body I made Dhal Makhani. It gave me to opportunity to use my new cookware.

We had it with leftover naan, although rice would have been better combo. I also took a picture of the pie pumpkin that I bought at the store. It's really cute, it looks like it's hiding. I couldn't find canned pumpkin. They probably hid it because they had pumpkins in the produce department.

More picnics and baking

Last Saturday we went to another picnic held for a new Iraqi student who studies at Benedictine. It was held at a nearby park that had a super jungle gym. I had to climb it.


The Iraqi student is a student of Hubii's. It would be nice to talk to him more but he needs to make friends among the students. Still Hubii will see him all semester hopefully he will feel like part of the college family.

Seeing as I have a whole lot of time on my hands I have been doing a lot of baking also. I made some donkey's ears for Hubii's student to eat at the early morning optional class. They have a cherry jam filling.


I also tried my hand at naan. I found the recipe at vahrehvah.com I highly recommend it. The guy who does the videos is totally adorable. Plus the recipes are pretty good. The naan turned out ok, but it could use some work.

See: now coming to Missouri to visit us will be worth the trip!

Uplifting Day

I had an uplifting, if slightly superficial day. First I joined a gym.


I was getting a little depressed because many of the nearby gyms were expensive with swipe cards that you had to pay for and enrolment fees and monthly dues of $40-$60 a month and being too far away. I went to this gym in Leavenworth (20 minute drive). I like it, it's just like the gym I used to go to in Atlanta. It made me super happy.
I also discovered that you can get NCIS episodes streamed from CBS. That made me so happy I said a prayer of thanks to God. It really lifted my spirits (I know I shouldn't watch so much TV. It's like thanking God for letting me a couch potato).
Then while I was looking up different engineering companies in Leavenworth the doorbell rang. I thought that it would be either the landlord or James. Instead it was a package from UPS.


It's my new Dutch oven from Kitchenaid. Hubii said that he would buy me one if we had to move half way across the country for his new work. Now we are even. But don't worry we were always even, we moved for us not just for him.
Now Hubii just got home and told me that we were invited to the picnic with the Chemistry department! I love a good picnic. I feel like I am having a blessing filled day. Hopefully I will remember it and not forget this feeling as soon as the next lull arrived.

Labor Day Weekend

Hubii does not get Labor Day off as he works for a private university that does mostly whatever it sees fit.
We did have a good weekend though. We went for a run at Weston Bend (not too fast though we were restrained by the speed limit).
After we got home we drove to Independence, Missouri for the Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival. We did not find out at the fete what Santa-Cali-Gon was. We did get to eat smoked pork chop on a stick (the stick sold us).
Later after I looked at the website again I found out that it was named Santa-Cali-Gon Days to commemorate the City of Independence as the starting point of the Santa Fe, California, and Oregon Trails. Who knew! It was like a county fair, except it was held by the city of Independence. I would have liked to spend more time there but it was hotter than I had expected. Hubii and I did get to eat some home made ice cream sandwiches but I was not dressed appropriately for the heat. It was a good thing we left when we did because as soon as we got into the car the scattered thunderstorms appeared.

So we left in good moods and full of fair foods.

Now I don't need to go to the Grand Canyon

Last night Hubbii and I finished this puzzle that we got for Christmas. It took us 3 days. You see I have a lot of time on my hands. It had images from Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and Grand Canyon.