Today in ten good things.

1. Waking up to a beautiful morning. Opening our bedroom door so Bruiser could hop up on the bed.
2. Thinking, when I woke up, maybe I'll take a rest day, because I felt sore, but as the day wore on, thinking, nope, I'm gonna do another two-a-day. And doing it.
3. Knowing from the moment I sat down to eat my Frosted Mini-Wheats that we were going to see a movie later in the evening.
4. Getting to talk to my smart colleagues about exciting things.
5. Thinking with Charlotte about making the Publication Center* a micro-press. (OH YES it is happeninnnnnngggg)

< I will pause, so that you may reflect**. >

6. Eating a surprisingly delicious lunch in the Student Center.
7. Visiting with friends before whisking off to the movie.
8. A very good movie, a comedy, that had the grand advantage of being a perfect length.
9. A big big moon.
10. Thinking about going to the farmer's market tomorrow!

BONUS ten things: Ten Things I Hope to See, Eat, and Buy at the Farmer's Market Tomorrow:

1. a huge croissant
2. peaches galore
3. tomatoes galore
4. basil galore
5. maybe some berries?
6. Mozdykuchen!
7. it's too soon for Asian pears, but maybe some asian pears.
8. ALLLLllll the garlic
9. all the things to make fattoush
10. eggs!

*don't judge this website...it is about to get freaking amazing.

** I hope LK knows that every time I use the expression 'I will pause, so that you may reflect,' it is in homage to her.

Today in AWP news.

 We went to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, which was AMAZING, you guys:

[exhibit: The Contained Narrative: Defining the Contemporary Artist's Book]

I bought a zillion tiny books, both there and at the book fair.

Then we saw the Mississippi,

which was, frankly, a little bit thrilling.

After that, we went to a fantastic farm to table restaurant that was, as is the nature of such enterprises, also hilarious. Featuring: an improbably wonderful toast course. As in: toast, the bread.

from right to left: toast & toast accoutrements.
from top to bottom (toast accoutrements):
fresh whole milk farm (of course) cheese. honey.
bacon-onion jam. toasted pepitas, fennel, and coriander
seeds. mushrooms. slaw of carrot and celery root.
#fancy.

I also wrote a poem about it.

Weekend stats.

Peaches: 16, from two vendors.

Nectarines: 3 exorbitantly priced ones, from our fruit guy, who has a very high opinion of his fruit in general, and his nectarines in specific.

Movies: 1, unless you count watching A Few Good Men on AMC for the zillionth time, in which case: 2. Wait! also significant portions of The Misfits on TCM, because it was Montgomery Clift day, which we watched while laying around this afternoon and also reading portions of a Swedish mystery novel.

Pants purchased on sale at the Gap: 4 pair, cute if I do say so myself.

Successful technology challenge sorted: new charger for my Macbook Pro, which was (I bet you can guess this:) failing to charge.

Dollars spent to sort technology challenge: 0. That is "zero." That's because of the brilliant Apple Store Genius, Tomasi, who figured out, I guess, that my charger was still warrantied, or something? Anyway, Tomasi was awesome. Tomasi is a solutions provider.

Syllabi finished, worked on, or started: 0. That is also "zero." I have no further comment to make on this point.

Fantastic culinary adventures: 1. I made harissa, to go with roasted potatoes omg it was aMAzing. It was for my poetry group.

Birthday girls who ate pancakes with us: 2. At Dee's! --a brief panegyric on Dee's: unpretentious; full of cheerful folk but still with a table to be had, without any waiting whatsoever; with the best hash browns I've had in quite some time, and, judging from the several bits I stole from one birthday girl's chocolate chip pancakes, with an excellent chocolate chip pancake.

Rating, on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being "hideous" and 10 being "stellar," of the weekend overall, thus far: pretty much perfect.

Productivity.

So far so good, today, as we got up at the crack of nine and hustled on over to the farmer's market. We got melons from our farmers, which somehow feels like an extra special bonus. To reward them for this excellent behavior, we bought extra garlic. We searched high and low for Asian Pear Guy, and were denied. This would have been tragic, but there was a compensatory huge stalk of brussels sprouts, right on the stalk! We also found beautiful ultra-sweet and spicy little green grapes--the kind we have growing in our backyard, but apparently all of God's creatures with wings have heard about this so that the ripening of them synchronizes perfectly with the moment they are entirely eaten, and not by us. But we found them! At the farmer's market! and also we bought raspberries and blackberries, as well as another batch of tomatoes from the savages. So as we speak, I am roasting a pan of tomatoes (another one tomorrow) and have just made a batch of raspberry jam, already spooned into its little half-pint jars. Blackberry tomorrow.

Also, we found Asian pears from another vendor, and they are excellent. Also, we had breakfast with kids/grandkids. Also, I have changed the title of my manuscript. Also, that manuscript is freshly revised and is almost ready to send out. Also, it is almost 11 p.m., there are 21-year-olds hollering songs in my basement, and it is almost time for Bruiser's w-a-l-k. So: good day.

Cold storage.

This year at the October farmer's market, it is genius! Somehow things have held until now, so there are still peaches, plums, tomatoes, basil, melons, beans, along with winter squashes, potatoes, greens, pumpkins. Today, we got apples from a guy who literally picked them last night--Macintoshes, and so unbelievably good. He also had late crop peaches, O Henrys, that he let ripen on the tree, picked within hours of our buying them. Unbelievable! Given yesterday's and today's weather, it seems a little unseemly to be eating fresh tomatoes and green beans, let alone peaches, but there you are: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow there may only be gruel, but today there are peaches and tomatoes.

Here are some things we saw at the market today:





















Squashes & pumpkins




















At Sun River




















At Chad's


















At David's


















At Tremonton Girl's


















Tremonton Girl and husband