random thursday on....Thursday! Wow!

I have dishes to do, a sickle to make, a costume to finish, and a sister to pick up at the dentist office, as soon as she calls.
But all of that pales in comparison to actually making this uber-flexible deadline.
I began a new batch of sourdough starter on Sunday. It starts with rye flour and water, and goes from there. I just did the third refresh about half an hour ago, and my little dough balls (one for home, one for work) are already beginning to rise. Yeast and I play well together.
The chocolate and I.....well. It seems to be back in the 'on' phase of our on-again/off-again relationship. Mostly. At least I'm not the only one having the same problem.
I am seriously considering further my education and broadening my options by attending culinary school. I'm leaning toward Cook Street (short commute, short intense program, month in France & Italy, lots of wine....). I'm searching for grants, because I really don't want to take on a massive amount of debt. If you know of grants for middle-aged, childless women (doesn't Obama want us to better ourselves too? Why just "Obama wants moms to go back to school" ads?) please let me know.
The roofing saga continues. 2 sections of the new shingles need to be replaced. At the company's expense. The gutter guys mistakenly put gutters on the garage. We get to keep them. At the company's expense. So...yay.
I have about a dozen or so iris bulbs to plant. I keep waiting for that magical combination of good weather, a day off and feeling well. Saturday or possibly tomorrow afternoon may be that day.
The Witches Ball is Saturday night. I have finally decided to go. (Yes I made a costume. Just for fun. It was my Artist's Way project this week). I was invited to participate in the opening ritual, but declined. Najah told me the planning meeting got a bit contentious, what with people trying to blend various pagan traditions, taking exception to certain words and making assumptions about other people's practice. Glad I missed that.
Project Runway tonight - I think the only reason Logan is still on the show is because he's pretty. If he was plain or homely, he'd be long gone.

Leaves, Lavender & the Best Samhain Ever

I waited until most of the leaves had fallen before raking the yard. The lavender plants were buried in the brown, crackling leaves, and every pull of the rake released a waft of sun-baked lavender. Raking at twilight is the way to go - no harsh sun, just the fading evening light, the rustle of the leaves, the scent of earth, leaves and herbs.
Our compost heap is now enormous, ready to make dark, rich soil to amend our stony clay garden next spring.





This is my roommate Laura, in her Maude Lebowski dream sequence Valkyrie costume. Bevin the Mistress of Costumery made it.

Laura is finally on her way to Indonesia for her missionary work. They sent her a plane ticket this morning. She leaves on the 15th.










Samhain/Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's the pagan new year, and includes dressing up and candy. Yay! I was lucky enough to have the day off from work, and even luckier to be invited to spend the day with my friend Najah.

My dark faery of Autumn costume, courtesy of ARC and the Dollar Store. Underneath is the fabulous red bustier.






The Witches Who Lunch.
Najah (in her HooDoo Priestess ensemble) and me at the Denver Botanic Gardens. We took a picnic. I enchanted a little girl in the tropical conservatory; she was thrilled to meet a fairy.

In all our Halloween finery, we visited Chef in the kitchen, Arts Myths, Spirit Ways, and Herbs & Arts. We celebrated the New Year by buying our 2009 calendars.

Wearing face paint and a costume, I could feel myself shifting. A playful, flirty self began to emerge. The longer I spent in my faery wings, the more flitty and floaty I became. I'll be donning them again tomorrow night for the Witches' Ball. Then transforming them into Winter Faery Wings for the Lunar Fire Masquerade Ball at the end of November.




We went back to Najah's to carve our pumpkins. I had an elaborate plan, a best laid plan, which ganged aglee most egregiously. The pumpkin was as hard as could be, and it cracked right through the design. So, it became a grotto for the skull candle holder, which was Laura's 'signing bonus' from the costume shop. It works, in a lame sort of way.
In a bold move of risk-taking, and calling in what I want for the next year, I took advantage of a free weekend offer from Eharmony tonight. After a lengthy, intensive questionnaire, I was matched with eight people. I started communication with three of them. We'll see what can happen in a weekend.

Happy Samhain! May the Powers you walk with bless you all.