Fall is here!

Although we're creeping back into the 90s by weekend, the crisp 42 degree mornings have been fabulous. We snap out of the lethargy of Tucson's endless summer and festival season begins anew. The last Symphonic Winds concert was the best ever at Udall Park. Tucson Meet Yourself was positively frigid by 7 pm, but nothing would keep us from our annual sampling of foods from around the world always beginning or ending with Danish ableskiver. Our friend Bert kept us company.

Bob and Ellen are following the trials and travails of the Boston Red Sox who pulled it out late this evening. UA football is sliding into its predicatable pattern. Our fall garden is springing to life, and we're sampling gardening classes at the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see what we can learn. We're immersed in some geneaology classes as well, and we have a favorite new game...the fabulous Banangrams.

We've done several runs with Southern Arizona Roadrunners - Labor Day at Sahuaro East, the Jim Click Rock and Roll and a downtown 10 miler this Sat. for Bob. I'll been walking the AIDS/Walk on Sunday with the PC Fellows.

Hannah comes to visit for Thanksgiving with friend Matt. She's working at the Firehouse Vet Clinic in Denver, and is adjusting to actual cool weather...even the threat of snow. She is liking the new clinic. She won tickets to the Denver Nuggets recently at her clinic. She's reapplied to vet school and the CSU master's program and will have Colorado residency by next fall, making grad school far more accessible. Matt is doing well in his final 6 months at Johnson & Wales Culinary School and we can't wait to sample some of his new dishes. I've dropped by Denver twice since the move. We miss our girl and her dog Dalie.

Laura is back at UA in the PhD program in Natural Resources continuing to work with Don Falk and researching sites in New Mexico. She had a busy summer field season and is mounting cores and working on her papers. She's off to Los Alamos for a day of intense writing. She's cleaned up the garden at her rental and put in a winter garden.

Work is busy, challenging, and never dull. Severe budget cuts are revisiting the campus and anxiety runs high. The economy and the world contribute to that. We look forward to the end of the world's longest presidential election. Enough already. Let's vote. We are voting early in fact. We have become Comedy Central regular viewers, however, and SNL has also ramped up with the new fodder.

The Volvo gave up the ghost, but the last remaining chicken has not. Andy is troubled with arthritis on cold mornings. Adee is with Laura now near campus.

We're dreaming of Thanksgiving and practicing pumpkin pie from scratch. Mmmm good!