Two months later!

Wow, where did October and November go?!  We spent about 2 weeks of October or more on the East Coast - Judy at 3 conferences - and Octoberfest at the Cooley's on Piseco Lake!  Imagine America was Oct. 4-6 in Syracuse, NY - Arts & Humanities in Public Life - and The Unspoken - Refugee Resettlement and Torture Survivors - Oct. 14-16 and then a flight back the same day.  I had a poster session at the first and was the last presenter at the second, and a Wisdom Course Leaders weekend in-between!  Brian hiked Algonquin with Roy and biked with Scott Manley, Peter Molesky, and Paul Poling on different days - he had a lighter schedule!  And we had a little time to get together with friends - here at Packy's in Washington Mills, NY with John Cappelli & Jim Hayes.

Back in Alaska, we were waiting for snow, which was a LITTLE late this year -- I skied tonight for the first time, but it was the 5th time for Brian!  I had a birthday yesterday, and Brian made me a beautiful little cherry desk and workspace -- and I had lots of wonderful birthday wishes.

No pictures from skiing tonight, but take our word for it . . . it is beautiful and snowy and mild - about 30 degrees and predicted to get much colder again.  We were out for a short walk last night for my birthday as it began snowing and a light dinner at Crush.  Then back with Mary and Lance for the Mexican Chocolate Tort she made for my birthday cake!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving along with everyone else . . . we're not going to Sheep Mountain this year, as we have the last two years, because they decided to close for the winter.  So we're having dinner downstairs with Lance & Mary, our landlords, so we have the relatively easy task of bringing some great vegetables - maybe there will be pictures tomorrow, depending on how they turn out!  And there is a package of our wonderful shrimp thawing for the pre-dinner gnoshing too!  The snow is good enough to be out for a ski earlier in the day.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!