Back porch view

This is the view from my back porch and bedroom - the picture doesn't quite do the colors justice but waking up has been a rather pretty site the last few weeks... correction waking up is a pretty sight on the 2 days a week when a) I am not up while it is still dark out and b) its not pouring rain! I was quite certain the other night, as the water was streaming over the gutters (which are now filled with said lovely leaves) and onto the deck (kind of like sleeping near a waterfall) that good ol' Noah and the Mrs. might be coming on by with their flood/disaster prep materials!

I am definitely not a fan of daylight savings time as it seems to me the only thing it changes is that I now go to work in the dark and come home in the dark...Hello, the dark is for sleeping and that just makes me want to hibernate. Never fear, I've already started on masses doses of vitamin D (while I dream about a vacation to a sunny, warm, tropical beach complete with a gorgeous cabana boy who is good at two things: total silence and making sure my margarita glass is never empty!) Since one cannot sleep all the time (ok, one could but people might think there is something wrong with you if you tell them that) I've spent a bit of time here and there doing....

Hats for troops - it is now growing a bit cooler in those sandy hell holes we insist on defending, so the need for "cool ties" has declined. Now we are knitting hats - all wool for ground troops because much of the "warfare" they encounter is Incindiary (Dictionary.com=An artillery shell that burns upon impact, usually stuffed with white phosphorous and anything made from acrylic fibers would melt to the solider (shudder, stomach did a major tumble when I read that in our Ships Project newsletter). While Iraq is not too cold yet, apparently it is quite chilly in the mountains of Afghanistan (yes, we are still fighting there - defending stretches of road while the terrorists simply run in and out of Pakistan saying ne'er-ne'er). Normally we put care labels on all our items so that the troops know how to take care of things and that its from the Ships Project group. However, the things that are being helo-dropped to the special forces groups in Afghanistan (and other places) are not to contain those labels due to concern that if the drop were to fall into hands other than ours that there may be some "not so nice" care packages sent in return. So I got a little creative/festive with my labels. I wrote hand wash, cold H2O - air dry on these fall leave decorations I have around the house and tied them to the hats~

Fall continues to bring out random food cravings. Last weekend it was French onion soup, twice baked potatoes and these chocolate sandwich cookies (recipe courtesy of the girls at Bread and Honey blog). Into my pot went about 5 sliced Walla Walla sweet onions. Along with some celery and other things I can't remember now (check Cook's.com for lots of easy recipes)

While that was cooking I mixed up the twice baked potatoes (Boy #1's fav) that I'd started earlier And finished up the cookies. Now the Bread & Honey girl's cookies look better than mine. My dough was very "sandy" in appearance. This is the first cookie recipe I've made where you didn't cream the butter and sugar first... might change that around next time. Anyways as always they were gone in a few days! I topped the soup with a thick slice a "No Knead Bread" from a few days before - and melted slices of provolone cheese over the top - all the boys tried it (that's a stretch for Boy #3 who only tried it after I told him it had sweet onions in it because he loves sweet onions but he picked out the bread - no soggy bread for him! On that one I tend to agree, no soggy bread for this girl either but in french onion soup one has to make an exception!)