a beautiful october beginning.

yes, this was breakfast.
and then i made cinnamon chip scones.
what a morning this was, i tell you!

well.

well. [again.] 
it's 3:50pm.
crazy unmatched socks.
insane hair with no mousse. [yes, again, martha. hahaha.]
loud music . . . this song: calling you.
dishes to be done.
i'm going to clean, clean, clean . . .
even though right now i feel like dropping . . .
curling up in a cozy blanket [even on the floor] and taking a nap.

5-6 mile hikes to that to a person and their legs.
but it was gorgeous, so . . .
it all evens out in the end. :)

and, what's better than girlfriends and exercise??
nothing.
that's what.
exercise by itself is stupid.
but double-duty . . . plus wonderful photo ops . . . a very good time, indeed.

this music: something in the water. ice on her lashes.

at 11, anna and i carpooled with martha to a nearby area of hills and forest and sand [hah!] and leaves . . .
it's just starting to turn colors around here, so i got some really delicate color palettes on camera.

we took a few detours and had adventures, due to the place not having many signs at all.

hey, they didn't even have a map where there should be one.

the point of the hike, kinda, was this elephant rock that martha wanted to see . . .

a slightly snobby lady on one of these horses told us a couple vague directions. 
we ended up going the wrong way, thanks to her vagueness, and ended up getting the right directions probably almost a mile later from two hunter dudes coming peacefully up the path out of the wooded trail, one with piercings all over his face and the other with a voice to tell us reason.
el oh el.
we went through the maze of downed branches here and the guys were coming out of the woods. hah. funny that i took a picture right before it happened.

when we finally got there, we found it did not, in fact, look anything like an elephant.

 trees like lothlorien! all winding together...

. . . steepness to climb before finding the end point. lol.

wait for it . . . 

and believe me, i checked out the trail further up....there was nothing past this. this was it.
it looks like a whale.
a freaking whale.
but hey, it was fun.
they should rename it so people don't get their hopes up and dashed with the reality of the non-elephantness of it all.

it's totally a whale. see the jaw? i know my whales and dolphins, from being obsessed when i was 10-12.

5:21pm
let's face it: i'm not getting a nap today.
oh well.
the only thing left to do is grind some beans and brew coffee up to the 6 for the 3rd time today.
. . . it's days like this that i'm not sure i want to have kids of my own.
rach and lyd: playing monopoly . . . [oh yeah, sweet siblings bonding time? hah.]
15% yelling [random stuff with and at each other], 20% fake violence, 30% laughing, 35% annoying each other.
"don't tear apart the living room!"
yeah, that's me.
when they're older it doesn't matter if they're cute anymore to balance out "those days".
because when they're older they know what's acceptable and what's not. :P
but anyways, in the end, i'm just kidding about the no kids thing.
if it's possible, i'd like a few. 4 sounds grand. maybe a couple more. but no less than 4. even if we have to adopt. there's just something about having siblings.
there are phases when they drive you nuts and there's almost nothing except annoyance between certain pairs, but still . . . when everyone's actually growing up [no longer middle-little children] it's. awesome.

6:30pm
i like boiling potatoes for dinner.
and not just because they're flippin' easy.
i mean, they are good with butter and sour cream and pork seasoned salt. :D
but, even moreso prefer doing quick brown rice. the kind we get in a 5lb bag. hah.
even even moreso, i could go for some vegan fettucine/spaghetti tonight . . .
i might be making it soon anyways, because i told some certain people that i'd make it when jen has her bebe . . . which might be sooner than we think! who knows. as i've said before, babies are an unpredictable business when done natural. hahah.
unpredictable is good.