another important detail

He got a game ball.

Photo info:
Camera: Canon Rebel XSi
Lens: Canon EF 28-135 mm (Big Daddy)
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100
Focal length: 100
ISO: 100

box score

He's been worried about his hitting.

Everything changed with Saturday's game. He went four for four, with a 2 RBI double at his first at bat. Stole some bases too. In the bottom of the last inning, with the score tied and runners on second and third, Callum comes to the plate.

Neel hears the coach for the other team tell his players, "Play's at home; this guy will hit." And he did. Walk-off RBI single.

This look on his face says it all.

As does this one. I don't think he's stopped smiling yet.

five things, october 7 edition

1. I think I am so grateful for the talk I had with a friend this week. She's one of Callum's former teachers and a parent of girl who's in 6th grade with him. They too are finding the homework load pretty intense this year. Not just on the weeknights but on the weekends too. It's not just us! We're not alone! Callum does have a lot of work. So far, 6th grade is a ton of fun, but it's hard.
2. I think this is the dogs' favorite time of year.
3. I think the hardest thing about trying to change how I eat (I'm trying make some changes in how I eat, by the way) is breakfast. I am not a breakfaster. Unless it's brunch, and bloody marys are involved. But I'm trying. I recognize that 10 a.m. is not optimal, but my body is not really feeling the 7 a.m. timeframe so much.
4. I think harder than that is to try to get Neel to drink water.
5. I think these are five things I need right now:
    a) more glamour
    b) less shy
    c) more structure & routine
    d) more mindfulness
    e) black boots

not martha

I pick up my Martha Stewart Living every month at the grocery store. I've had a subscription before, and somehow subscriptions rarely seem to work for me. Except when we lived on the West Coast and I had a subscrption to Sunset (oh, how I miss Sunset!), and now with my Everyday Food, it always seems to me that the content of a magazine dips precipitously when I pay for a subscription. Maybe because those other two were gifts...I don't know. It's a phenomena I've experienced again and again, so Martha and I meet up in the grocery aisle.

Oh happy day when the new Martha Stewart Living comes out. I'm not trying to say that she's reading my mind or anything, but did anyone notice that this month's issue featured an article on pot pies...after I wrote this post? Just sayin'.

I find a lot of the recipes in the main text overly fussy (I really am more of an Everyday Food gal, I guess.), but I always turn to the "What's Cooking For Dinner?" article with great anticipation. Many of those streamlined meals have found their way to our table, and this month was no exception

Pasta with roasted veggies and bacon was a big hit here...for me and Neel at least. Poor Callum. I feel bad for him (he didn't love the cauliflower) because we'll surely be having it again. Along with the mushrooms too.

Sadly now, I've been through this mag a dozen or so times now. So we wait for next month. Although, my friend Rebecca just gave me a stack of her old House Beautifuls and Architectural Digests...I might not get anything done all week!

Updated to add: Maybe the title of this post should have also been "Not Steve." When I set up to post in advance sometimes life gets in the way, as it did last night with the news of Steve Jobs' passing. We're Apple folk around here. I "work" on my PC laptop, but all my blogging and photography is done on our Mac. Not to mention my iPhone addiction. I said to Neel this morning that while I do a lot of work on my laptop, I don't *love* it the way I do our Mac. I'm grateful to Steve Jobs every day, really. Not just for the technology he created that makes us fall in love with it, but also for how he looked at life. How he *lived* life. May he and his family be filled with lovingkindness.

double thumbs up

On Tuesdays and Thursdays Callum stays late at school for play practice. I pick him up at 5:30, and by the time we get home he's ravenous. On these nights Neel comes home before us, and (if I leave detailed instructions) he finishes up dinner to have it ready and waiting. Last night (leftover taco soup and salad), we came home to this lovely surprise on the new, almost-done patio. Dinner al fresco! I couldn't ask for anything more.

For the evening's entertainment, we have...

three hounds. Looking out instead of in for a change. And so put-out and forlorn! They kept us laughing the whole meal. Get a load of all those spider webs, would you? Fall's a-coming, I tell you. Neel's patio rocks.