Most Excellent Weather!

The day started out bright and sunny. The leaves have really started to turn colors this past week. The maple tree in the back corner of the yard has become bright yellow. The sweet gums are starting to turn scarlet. None of my oak trees are changing colors yet.

The temp got up to the upper 60s, so it was a great day to do some work outside. I planted the maple seedling and Rose of Sharon seedlings I brought from Urbana. I also finally put the mums in the ground. Weed whacked the dog pen, the flower bed out front, around the pool and the side of the yard barn. I will need to rake up the clippings tomorrow. I marked where I'll divert the drainage ditch away from my yard barn. I don't know that I'll fix that this weekend though.

The indoor projects included fixing the weatherstripping on the front door. All I had to do was remove the foam that the previous owners had put on the door frame and the existing weatherstripping started to do its job. No more light shining around the edges of the door. There is still a gap at the bottom of the door, but a new door sweep or threshold should fix that. Conveniently the previous owners had purchased a new door sweep and left it (still in its package) in the garage. All I need to do is install it. I would like to get my bedroom painted some time in the next month and re-paint the bathroom/vanity area. That'll be a good rainy day project.

The current major indoor project: the garage shelves.






I remembered to get a stud finder today. It would seem that the previous owners did put the uprights on the studs. It would be nice if the shelves could be put in right side up and fit properly. On closer look, the problem is that the spacing of the uprights is off by about 1/4 inch. I did get one shelf (only held up by two brackets) wedged in there, but I don't think that will work with the other shelves since they have three or four brackets, all of which are probably spaced incorrectly. I may be able to get away with bending the wire at the back of the shelves in order to make them fit around the brackets.

Other fun stuff:
New pajamas, featuring Earl and Mooch from Mutts. And I'm going to have an Amy's Spinach Pizza for dinner while wearing my new PJs.

Oooh! I found Bob's Red Mill steel cut oats at Kroger!! This was *awesome*! I was just about ready to run out of oats and was worried about finding steel-cut oats here. Problem solved! It also appears that Quaker is getting in on the steel-cut oats business, but the price for their oats is *TWICE* what is being charged for Bob's oats. I also discovered that Kroger has a sizeable cheese section where I can get goat cheese, Gouda, imported Parmesan, and fresh Mozzarella. w00t!

Eating plans:
It's pizza today for dinner and probably tomorrow too. I'm focusing on cooking whole grains and veggies this week. I will make spinach lasagne or spinach ravioli, but other than that the menu will be heavy on the millet, rice and quinoa. Soon it will be soup season. I look forward to working my way through my 365 soups cookbook. I've got salad greens for lunch this week. I really really like the Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette. It's not terribly oily like many vinaigrettes and it has tons of flavor. I'm certainly more likely to eat salad when I like the dressing.