By now our glowing skin has faded...

and now we're back to white:
but here are some pretty leaves that aren't white:
and although those colorful leaves are almost blown away by now, here's some beautiful vegetation that i believe is still this green:


we were the only humans on this path when the sun was setting. the long and twisty drive home (to karen and brady's home in the top pic) in pitch black darkness was worth every gorgeous sight seen.

55-cent canned tuna never tasted so good

Here's a recipe from the website Simply Recipes to dress up a cheap can of tuna. This was better than any restaurant/homemade tuna salad I've ever had. Eric and I were in tuna heaven. We enjoyed this salad with crusty french bread (that had chunks of garlic in it-mmmmm)from the grocery deli. It was worth every carb.

1 (6 ounce) can of tuna fish (if packed in water, drain it, and add a teaspoon of good quality olive oil)
1/3 cup of cottage cheese
2 Tablespoons of mayonaise
1/4 purple onion, chopped finely
1 celery stalk, chopped finely
1 Tablespoon of capers
Juice of half of a lemon
Pinch or two of dill (I used Sage)
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

Slices of French bread, lightly toasted

Mix all of the ingredients. Serve on toast, either open faced (we had it open faced), or in a regular sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes. For a low carb option, serve on sliced lettuce (nah).

YOU MUST MAKE THIS SALAD!!!!!

Fix-It and DON'T Forget-It!

Cooking lesson: I've learned that in order to chop chilies, you MUST wear rubber gloves. After multiple hand washings last night and a dollop of lotion, I went to bed with my hands on FIRE! This morning, I tried to put my contacts in and in no time, my eyes were on FIRE! After a lot of screaming and crying and more handwashing with dish soap and then more agonizing, Eric graciously put my contacts in for me. (luckily I have extras handy - thanks mom and dad and Dapore Vision Care!)

Neighbors and Halloween...

Last night, Eric and I finally had a good opportunity to put names with the faces of our culdesac neighbors. Since the weather for trick-or-treating couldn't have been better, we all sat as one big candy-giving force at the end of our street. This doesn't mean that I can forgive our next door neighbors for stashing their old mattress up against our tree for a whole week last spring, but at least I can feel a little more at peace since they let us sit in their lawn seats.

And if you're wondering about our Halloween costumes in the prior post - I know Eric's still wondering about mine - Eric was a French bike mechanic with an inner tube wrapped around his body and a bike fork handy and of course an apron, and I was a "worldly flasher". If you're still wondering what that means, when I unveiled what lied beneath my trench coat, it was the world. "I can show you the world!" I would say. And people would sort of laugh or be like "Okaaaay."

These are some great pics from Melissa and Joe's Flickr page that show what fun their party was on Saturday night. They went all out with 21 carved pumpkins throughout their house and cut-out bats in every corner:

A really good pic of Melissa (Amy Winehouse) and Joe as Edward...don't his eyes look eerily similar?
I took this pic right when a dance party broke out in the kitchen. Melissa rocked as Amy Winehouse and her friend Sarah, to the right, was the American Gladiator Ice. Her husband was Turbo. They even made gladiator fighting sticks.