Tuesday, October 9th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:55am

Good morning!  Well folks, my bed was impossibly cozy this morning.  I was sleeping a deep, coma-like sleep, nestled into the sheet & fleece blanket.  I had both sweatshirt, shorts, and wooly socks on.  It was pitch black - as it has been lately - not a bad thing - just makes it tougher to get out of bed when that alarm goes off.  I had told Brian to open one of the windows a crack last night because our room gets stuffy during the night, so the air had a nip in it.  We were bad and let the dogs sleep in the bed with us.  We try not to, but they're just so persuasive.  I was snuggled up with Bear & Sofie. 

When my alarm went off, they didn't even stir.  Sofie lazed her head up off my leg and kind of blinked at me in the darkness.  Bear didn't move.  I lie there for a minute - feeling so comfy and cozy.  I thought of what type of magical spell I could cast in order to go back to sleep yet still make it in to lab early enough to read what I needed to read before the day started officially.  I fought the semi-painful urge to shut my eyes and checked the weather on my iPhone. 

52 degrees and raining.  I got up and looked out the window.  Nope, not hard enough to warrant not going.  I pulled on my jeans as Sofie and Bear just re-cozied with Brian.  Got a harsher wake up when I took my sweatshirt off to put another layer underneath - well - I'm awake now.  Pulled my shoes on.  *Sidenote, can someone tell me why it hurts both feet & hands to pull your shoes on first thing in the morning?  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?  So weird.  Anyway, I went into the kitchen and cut up shopping bags to use for the doggies.  Got some treats for my pocket.  Grabbed the leashes and walked back into the bedroom. 

I reached for Sofie, who was snuggled between Brian's legs with her chin on his calf.  She turned on her back and waited for me to scratch her belly.  I had to pick her up to get her harness on.  Even my dogs were snoozy! 

When I walked out the door there was no one out.  It was more than drizzling and less than hard raining.  There were a few runners, a few people walking dogs, and some construction workers and maintenance guys hosing down sidewalks and having their morning coffee & donut.

Tell me something now:  Does waking up ever get any easier?  

Monday, October 8th, 2012
photo is from yesterday evening circa 7pm. 

Good morning!  Now this is the weather I'm TALKING about. 

46 degrees.  This is sweatshirt weather...soup weather...coffee weather....boot weather.  We had a great weekend here in the big apple.  Brian's mom, Edna came on Friday evening and we enjoyed several great walks in the Park with the pups and went out for a great brunch.  Dinner the night before was....questionable due to a lady that sat next to us and coughed and sneezed the whole time.  Brunch was lovely, though.  It always is at Fulton pub.

Sunday was rainy and I went into work to finish an experiment and subsequently be disappointed by said experiment's results.  To counteract the disappointment I made another round of muffins.  Much better this time.  I used a different recipe and added chocolate chips - per Brian's request.  I'm having them toasted this morning with coffee.

Have a great one!

FRIDAY, October 5th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:15am

Good morning!  This is what usually happens when I try and take a picture of something that is accessible to my dogs.  They immediately go over to it and sniff around like - "What the Hell is so great about this leaf?  Is there food on it?  Is it actually food?"  You also must be thinking...."Uh oh - we're back to the Fall leaf color pictures."  Yes, we are back to the Fall leaf pictures.  You must have been tiring of the late summer/early fall sunrise pictures.  One of the many reasons that I love Fall more than any of the other seasons is the changing colors of the leaves.  They make incredibly beautiful  vibrant colors in sort of psychedelic combinations that I never get tired of looking at. 

It was finally a lovely morning - none of the disgusting, sticky, moist weather we've been having lately.  I decided to do something that I haven't done since moving to NYC.  I had breakfast in the Park.  I went to Knish Knosh on Conservatory Pond and had a coffee and bagel while my doggies scrounged around on the ground for bits of this and that that people had dropped.  It was a wonderful atmosphere.  People all with their dogs, enjoying breakfast in the nice cool weather & overlooking the Conservatory Pond.  It was only $3.50, too.  It probably won't become a frequent event - because I don't have the time for it - but I figured hey, it's Friday, you have to sac mice when you get in to lab, have some breakfast in the Park. 

Have a wonderful day! 

*See you this evening, Edna! 

Thursday, October 4th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:10am

Good morning!  Sun peeking through all the clouds over the Met this morning.  Had the pleasure of seeing the day start very overcast and drizzly, and in a matter of 40 minutes clear up to beautiful.  Just one of the perks of being up early. 

Have a great day! 

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012
Central Park East - (below) - 7:00am

Good morning!  Twas a dark and foggy morning.  I always love these particular trees (bottom photo) at this time of year.  They're huge ovals of green leaves that, when the season starts to turn, begin to turn bring yellow in specific little patches.  The middle photo is a maple, which is already entirely orange. 

I'm loving the vegetables I'm getting in my CSA shares lately.  While I can't get enough zucchini,  eggplant, basil, and tomatoes in mid-summer, I LOVE the types of greens and root vegetables that come in to season around this time of year.  We've been getting beautiful kale (Blue and Siberian - blue is my favorite so far).  We've also been getting tons of winter squash, which I'm learning how to make.  Butternut is my favorite variety so far but I have some Delicata to try something with this week.  There have also been potatoes and lots of beets.  Here's the thing....I like beets.  I like them peeled and sliced very, very thin and then made into a salad with goat cheese, walnuts, and balsamic.  When you roast them, something odd happens.  They just taste weird to me - kind of too sweet for a roasted vegetable - which I expect to taste savory.  I have about 2 lbs left sitting in my fridge waiting for me to figure out what to do with them - which I will do something with them - they're so damn healthy.  I welcome your suggestions.  Finally, we just got back Bright Lights Swiss Chard.  MY FAVORITE vegetable.  SO beautiful and such a great green - like Kale it stands up to some abuse.  You can let it sit in the fridge and it doesn't wilt or turn brown, it's hearty, it's tough, and it fares well just marinating it in some garlic & olive oil and sauteeing it down, it can be thrown into soup, too.  

This is what it looks like.

Pretty, huh? 

Ok, well I've nerded out about vegetables enough for one morning.  I can't help myself I love them.  When I went to pick up my share yesterday, Sofie and Bear were with me and they were straining and pulling to crunch up any spare leaves or pieces of cauliflower that had fallen to the ground - they like veggies, too ;) 

Have a great day!!
 

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  I am literally sitting here - eating my shitty muffins, drinking coffee, and trying to think of what to write.  (That's not good, it means I have nothing interesting to tell you because I've done nothing interesting).  Rather than bore you by talking about the weather or vegetables or something of the like, I'll just leave it short for today. 

Have a great one!

 Bear: back, Delroy: front

 L to R:  Delroy, Sofie, Bear

Top 3: Saturday, September 29th, 2012
Bottom: Monday, October 1st, 2012
Central Park East - 7:05am

Good morning!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  It seemed to be the first weekend that it started to really feel like Fall.  As you can see from the above pictures, Bear met his brother Delroy in the Park.  The lady who bought Bear's brother lives on the lower east side, and got my email from Liz (the breeder).  We decided to meet up and see if the brother's recognized each other & to play. 

I don't think they recognized each other - at least not in a way that was perceptible to me.  It was funny the ways that they were different.  Delroy (formerly Lynx), was much skinnier and lanky.  He was very fast - bounded around like a rabbit.  I think he was a little taller, too.  Their personalities towards humans were similar.  Lots of kisses - very sweet.  Delroy was much more dominant towards dogs.  He was mounting both Sofie and Bear like crazy!  Bear has never mounted anything - ever! 

It was fun, but Bear doesn't really want to play much with other dogs.  He wants to play with Sofie only.  Sofie, by contrast, will play with any dogs.  So it went a little something like - Sofie chased Delroy - Bear  chased Sofie.  They all 3 ran in circles for the time we visited. 

In other news, I was beginning to search for the first hints of Fall.  I was looking for fallen leaves & changing colors.  Once it all gets started, it goes fast.  This morning there were lots of fallen leaves and the early color-changing trees are all turning orange, red, and yellow.  In celebration of all of this, I made terrible pumpkin muffins.  It was the first recipe I made from the smitten kitchen that was not fantastic.  I did substitute baking powder for soda (I don't know if that would have done this).  I'm still eating them with coffee in the morning because I don't want to waste them and I also enjoy anything that's pumpkin and cinnamon - flavored.  They're so DENSE!  They're not like bread or cake at all.  They're really chewy.  I have no idea.  I suppose I'll try again next week because I like to have things like this with my coffee in the morning.  All summer long I indulged in zucchini muffins and they were always good!  

Happy first day of October (I think it's safe to say it's my favorite month of the year).