Dan in Real Life = really good

Brian and I are taking a vacation day tomorrow, so we went to see "Dan in Real Life" tonight. To be honest, I really wanted to see it because I'm a huge Dane Cook fan (and I have been for years, even when he was a no-name). But the movie was very sweet, albeit a bit cheesy. I'd recommend it. You'll laugh. You'll cry. (OK, probably not.) But it is funny stuff:

Fall is golden

Our silver maple in the front yard must be trying to be fashionably late for fall. While our neighbors' trees are turning gorgeous shades of red, our tree has been stubbornly green. Until this week. If you look closely, you can see that the leaves are outlined in gold. The tree is at its prettiest at about 7:30 a.m., when the sun lights it up brilliantly.


It coordinates well with our mums that way.

Daily reader

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person whose paperweight purrs ...


While this adorable little picture makes great blog fodder, my kitty's daily habit of crawling on top of the newspaper when I'm trying to read it in the morning can get kinda frustrating. If I brush her off, she'll crawl right back on. It's the main reason why I usually read at the kitchen table. But some mornings, including today, I like to spread the paper out on my bed to read while I'm catching up with morning TV, the Weather Channel, CNN Headline News and then whatever else I have time for. I never thought Meow Meow a country music fan until this morning. She was kind of pawing at Garth. Shameless.

At least she makes a good bookmark:

Dakota, the mentor

I love this excerpt from the book "Marley & Me" by John Grogan. It reminded me of my own golden fuzz ball when I first read the book two years ago:


"Was it possible for a dog -- any dog, but especially a nutty, wildly uncontrollable one like ours -- to point humans to the things that really mattered in life? I believed it was. Loyalty. Courage. Devotion. Simplicity. Joy. And the things that did not matter, too. A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbols mean nothing to him. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their color or creed or class but who they are inside. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his. It was really quite simple, and yet we humans, so much wiser and more sophisticated, have always had trouble figuring out what really counts and what does not."

Livin' it up in Lawrence

Brian and I spent the afternoon in Memorial Stadium, witnessing KU put the smack down on Nebraska, 76-39. It's about time. I've seen the Huskers spank the Hawks in Lawrence more times than I care to remember.

KU was never a football school when we were students there, so we've been loving the season and really cannot believe the team is undefeated in November with a 9-0 record.












It was Homecoming Weekend, so the game also featured a flyover with two F/A-18 fighter jets and a skydiving team parachuting onto the field.









Winning streak or not, Lawrence is such a beautiful place in the fall. I admired the changing leaves while we were tailgating and spending time on campus. We set up our tailgating spot at 7 a.m. and had breakfast and watched the hundreds of fans roll in. After the game, we returned to our spot for a dinner tailgate. Eric impressed us with his cooking, and his friends entertained us, as they always do. (They're good peeps!)


We also took a stroll down Memorial Drive and walked through the Campanile bell tower, which honors WWII vets. It's a very special place to me because it's where Brian proposed to me when we were students at KU.


The view inside the tower looking up:

We didn't plan this, part 12

Brian was being helpful today by ridding our computer of programs and software that we don't regularly use. He didn't realize that I have come to rely on a certain photo editing program on our computer and bid it adieu, so I couldn't do the normal photo enhancements that I usually do. Boo.

But, nevertheless, it's clear to see that Lori and I both decided to wear classic gray and black to work today. (Did you know that gray is the hot neutral color this year?)

And Suzanne, Annie, Beccy and Marcia all picked a purple palette today. (Christina, pretty in pink, was coerced into this photo. Isn't she a good sport?)











Although I am so NOT a K-State fan, purple seems to be my lucky color this fall. Remember my unfortunate error last month of wearing a purple shirt to a dinner in which former KU football coach Bill Snyder spoke? Well, KU defeated K-State that Saturday. I wore purple earlier this week as a good luck charm for tomorrow's KU game against Nebraska. May the 'Hawks remain undefeated. I would have my co-workers to thank!

Pixie power

Thanks to the fabulous photog Denise, I'm able to share some Halloween photos from HallOeno, a costume party at Oeno Wine Bar in Old Town. Brian and I were a pair of Pink & Purple Punk Pixies:


Why should kids have all the fun on Halloween?!