I can’t think of a better way to kick off the month than with a family wedding. My brother got married in a lovely ceremony on the first Sunday of the month. What they may have lacked with brevity they more than made up for in sentiment as everyone could see how much in love they are by the way they looked into each other’s eyes and heart.
The ceremony was held in a romantically lit wine cellar in the winery next door to where I grew up. I once had dinner down there with my parents and didn’t think anything could top that until I saw how they could decorate it for such a lovely purpose. I definitely would have considered that venue had that been an option back when my husband and I got married. Well, wishing you a world of happiness Jim and Wendy, and welcome to the family (and your daughters too).
One of my favorite things about October is all things pumpkin. Being pre-diabetic I have had to give many of them a miss as most are absolute sugar-bombs. However, I do allow myself the occasional treat like the scoop of Jeni’s Pumpkin Roll ice cream
I just finished reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It’s perhaps not as appropriate a choice as anything by Stephen King, but I don’t read or watch much horror (though am curious about the latest installment of “Candy Man” movies). This peaked my curiosity as it explores the question, what if your life took a different turn? Like what if you made a different decision somewhere down the road and didn’t end up becoming a lawyer or a mother, or got on a different flight or train, or whatever?
It kind of reminded me of an episode of “Star Trek NG (Next Generation)” which was about the concept of various alternate realities. In one scene we saw lots of versions of the (starship) Enterprise pop up to illustrate that point. Of course oftentimes the alternate realities aren’t better versions, because what would be the fun in that?
My husband and I are currently streaming and loving “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu (thanks for letting us share your subscription Karen : ) It stars Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez. The three of them decide to create their own podcast about the research they’re doing into the murder of one of their neighbors in the building. It’s Short’s character (I think) who decides they should limit their investigations to ‘only murders in the building.’
The dynamic between the pair of baby boomers who are a
little new to the whole world of podcasts, twitter, Instagram, etc. and millennial
(?) Mabel (Gomez) is always amusing. Plus, for those of us who are New Yorker
wannabes getting to spend 35 minutes of each episode in the best city in the
world (at least one of them anyway) is certainly an enjoyable way to spend time.
There’s 10 episodes in the series and I only hope there’s a season 2 (you never know, maybe someone else in the building will get murdered; it is NYC after all : )
Other seasonally appropriate programs we’ve streamed lately are an episode of “Poirot” in which he’s tasked with investigating the mysterious deaths of a team of researchers who died after opening the tomb of an Egyptian God. Although the program, based on the book by Agatha Christie is a complete work of fiction, it is inspired by the real life legend about the death of those who were on the team who opened and explored King Tut’s tomb.
According to the History channel’s website, “In early 1923, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his financier friend George Herbert, Lord Carnarvon,* ceremoniously opened the long-obscured burial chamber of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Two months later, Carnarvon was dead, killed by blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite on his cheek. Newspapers speculated that he was the victim of the “mummy’s curse” or “curse of the Pharaohs,” which supposedly promised death to anyone who disturbed the rest of the kings and queens buried in the valley.” https://www.history.com/news/is-the-curse-of-king-tut-real Of course medical science can disprove this. I also came across this explanation, “A study showed that of the 58 people who were present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, only eight died within a dozen years. All the others were still alive, including Howard Carter, who died of lymphoma in 1939 at the age of 64.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs
* real life owner of the Downton Abbey mansion
We also watched an episode of “Shakespeare and Hathaway” about a magician who invites an audience member up on stage to help demonstrate his “Iron Maiden” trick.
Something goes horribly wrong with the chamber and the volunteer ends up dying, thus prompting an investigation by detectives Shakespeare and Hathaway. This show is a little cheesy and hokey at times, but sometimes we are genuinely surprised by whodunit at the end, and this was one of those episodes (though of course Andrew figured it out a few minutes before I did). I like it because it’s a bit more light-hearted and comedic than most BBC crime shows.
What would autumn be without football? When we saw that our alma mater (Kent State University) was playing my niece’s university (Ohio University), we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go cheer on the Golden Flashes against their archrivals, the OU Bobcats. Actually, they’re less archrivals and more like two peas in a pod when it comes to finishing near the bottom.
Neither school usually goes on to play in bowl games post-season (though my research shows that OU has been in 12 bowl games to KSU’s paltry 4), so we’re both used to lackluster performances on the field. By the way, we did see a few other Kent State fans wearing college or team sweatshirts. We opted not to sit in the visitor section since that’s at one extreme end of the field and would have rather limited how much of the game we would have seen (we bought tickets for seats around the 50 yard line or so).
My husband informed me Kent was favored to win, so I had high hopes for a good game, and we certainly weren’t disappointed. It’s always fun when your team scores first, and we definitely didn’t have to wait long as that happened within about the first 5 minutes of the game. Things continued pretty much in our favor as the halftime score was 17-7. It seemed like it might be a runaway game, but the Bobcats got their act together and came back with a vengeance after halftime closing the lead down to 3 with a final score of 34-31. Even though a bit higher score would have been a nice boast, it certainly wasn’t a dull game in the second half.
After the game we walked around campus a bit since we didn’t have time to do that after we arrived. I was definitely impressed as the school oozed with every bit the same amount of charm as its red brick ivy league idol, Harvard. It’s the first time I’ve seen [stateside] dorms lined up with a sort of quad in the middle. I bet it’s absolutely hopping with activity when the freshmen move in.
However, late in the afternoon on the cool autumn day it was, it was fairly deserted. It’s also a much more compact campus than Ohio State, though I suppose it’s somewhat similar to Kent or perhaps Bowling Green in its sprawl. Of course their football stadium was a part of campus, unlike Kent which has placed theirs on the outskirts of town a fair distance from the campus (you have to take a shuttle to get there). Yes, I suppose it’s because the Golden Flashes aren’t really a bragging point for the university.
Although OU’s library isn’t the skyscraper that KSU’s is (but then Kent offers a Library Science major), it was more than adequate and I really liked the retro chairs on offer for the students. They used to have that sort of thing in the first dorm I lived in, but I think they were actually leftovers from the mod 60s and 70s, rather than a retro statement. That’s really the only campus building we went inside, so not sure what the student union is like (though I assume they have one).
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the
fabulous dinner we had at Tavolino’s in downtown Athens. Andrew found the
restaurant online and thought it would be interesting since they had a prix
fixe menu like we often saw when we were in Italy (Simply
put, a prix fixe menu (pronounced “pre feks”) is a multi-course meal
available for a “fixed price.” There can be as few as two or as many as ten or
more courses.)
The choices for that night were: Starter was slices of baguette with ricotta cheese and an accompanying bowl of bruschetta to add on top; then the appetizer was a choice of either soup (homemade vegetable) or salad. Entrée choice was either chicken and mash potatoes or lasagna. There were about 4 different choices of dessert.
Andrew and I both opted for the soup, but chose different entrees; then purposely picked different desserts so we could share. However, we both agreed on the lemon theme, so we chose a slice of lemon tiramisu cake and a slice of lemon cheesecake. Andrew said the cake seemed like the kind of thing you might have with afternoon tea. I couldn’t really detect the tiramisu flavor much as the lemon kind of took over, but it was nice and light. The cheesecake was a lot denser, and definitely typical for what you might expect in a homemade version.
All I know is we both felt stuffed and kind of rolled out of there. Part of me wanted to go straight to a gym and walk it off, but the other part of me just wanted to get comfortable and sit around in PJs for awhile before bedtime. I think you can guess what I ended up doing (after the hour and a half drive home).
Besides the generous portions of delectable meals, the restaurant itself was so charming and classical. It felt like Athens best kept secret, and wouldn’t have been out of place in its overseas cousin. Although we were alone for about the first half hour or so, it didn’t take long for the tiny restaurant to fill up, hence the need for reservations (though you can also order to pick-up and go). I totally loved the ambience and felt it was almost as romantic as the wine cellar at Grand River Cellars winery. I doubt students eat there very often due to the somewhat steep prices, but would certainly be a nice place to take your parents to (if they’re paying : )
Well, that’s October in a pumpkin shell.
Looking forward to turkey day and all that follows.
