Final snapshots

Last weekend we went to a corn maze. It was just down the road from last year's farm, but this one even better because... there was no map! You just walked and walked and walked until you eventually found the exit.

Help was available, though. Ten signposts were hidden throughout the maze. If you answered the sign's trivia question correctly (for example, How many people have walked on the moon? 8: turn left. 12: turn right), you might find your way out faster. The questions helped us some, but we didn't even find all of the signposts. The majority of the maze credit goes to D. He didn't even need the questions- he was following some internal logic that got us through the maze much quicker than I had imagined.

After the maze, the farm store lured us in. Giant eggplant and zucchini: $2 each. Corn: 4/$1. Twenty pounds of green beans: $20. D performed an industrial green-bean-washing operation in the bathtub, and we're eating green beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! (Next up, the zucchini. Any cooking ideas?)

As I was writing this, I heard Kit doing something in the kitchen. He found the box the green beans came in, haha. He's still sitting in it, pawing the sides and giving an annoyed meow if I make eye contact with him.

It's starting to feel more like fall in Oregon. The weather is cooler and the first snowflakes have already fallen at Mt. Hood, although Portland is getting back up to 85F this week(?!). The fires have calmed, too. My brother lives near one of the big fires and sent this picture a few weeks ago. He says the skies are clear now.

Other trips, lately:

We finally broke down and bought a couch (well, a loveseat.)

A neighbor was selling an almost new one for cheap. Everything was great for the first two days and then... well, Kit's new nickname is скунс, skunk, and there's a reason why he looks so guilty. 

I thought "Great! It's gray! Kit can sit on it and at least it won't look like it's covered in cat fur." But the previous owner had a dog, and Kit must have smelled the dog on the fabric, so he did what male cats do to claim ownership of something. Now that we've cleaned that up, I'm hoping to coexist peacefully: husband, wife, cat, and loveseat, ha. (Just checked: he's still sitting in that cardboard box in the kitchen and ignoring the couch.)

This is going to be the last post here for a while. My friend- a really cool Ukrainian author- agreed to a short interview about his work so I'll share that here when it's ready. I hope you'll enjoy it. :) In the meantime, have a great fall!