Fierce Pistachio

In Seattle, its one of those sublimely bright fall mornings where the shadows actually are violet. The trees have dark shadowed hearts and the houses and trees up the ridge are blurred like a scenic postcard. In Canberra, on Saturdays like this I would head out to Manuka to eat pastries and read the weekend papers with the other bureaucrats. I can still remember the taste of lime tarts.

Today, we are going to be within range of many lime tarts (aka key lime tarts in the US) but I doubt I will be eating one because its less pleasant to eat a tart rapidly while fighting Wren to sit down and keeping Frost from shooting bits of paper napkin and saliva from his straw.

Still, we have a number of fun and feasible things on the radar. First, we have been up for 4 hours and I have built a block castle, hidden Playmobil horses, eaten veggie sausage and a good decaf coffee and generally enjoyed the cool sunlight streaming off the back deck.

At 3pm, Frost has his first soccer game with the Hawks (Wren will have to be kept off the field for that one) and then we need to pick up our new deep freezer from the store. We have a plan to store more food and spend less time shopping. Grocery prices have gone up astronomically in the past year or two and it seems a good time to have a 5 gallon tub of something. At times I think fondly of a cabin and a rainwater tank and those old cast iron tools that peel apples and grind meat (from the goat we slaughter?) and poke the eyes out of people who come too close, but I think the freezer is a realistic compromise between dream and reality.

We are also thinking of getting some test pots of the various greens we are considering for the kitchen. If all goes to plan we should be able to paint next weekend which will be a big deal after a few years of DIY rennovation. Selecting paint is so much fun because of the possibility and the delicious names they give the colors. We are considering Adobe Sun and Southwestern-Sun for the kitchen walls but what I would really call my favorite color is Fierce Pistachio.

Finally, this evening we are going out with friends to dinner and Josh is heading out to a late show of Damien Jurado at the Triple Door. I would go, but then I'd only qualify for the budget sleep plan (U4 hours with one interruption) and because Wren is growing the upper molars that could be reduced unexpectedly. He is very short tempered and intolerant and we have given him Tylenol to restore his good humor.