Rebecca made her first planogram today!

[rebecca_in_blue]

I used to have a file of poems about October, and there were some pretty lovely verses in it, one of my favorites being: "Suns and skies and clouds of June / And flowers of June together / Ye cannot rival for one hour / October's bright blue weather." But lately I had begun to wonder whether all those poems lied to me, because last week was almost nonstop rain and washed-out gray skies -- bleh. But this week the sun finally came out! I think of it as Mother Nature's birthday gift to me. Today Sable and I went for a nice afternoon walk around the block, admired the neighborhood Halloween decorations, met a very sweet poodle who lives in the corner house, and tried to make friends with the black cat who lives down the street (she is gradually letting us get closer to her, but she hasn't let me pet her; she seems more scared of me than of Sable).

I got a lot of great gifts for my birthday, among them three movies with child actresses (Pan's Labyrinth, Paper Moon, Phoebe in Wonderland); a set of salt and pepper shakers shaped like a pumpkin and a squash; a can of mace (from Ben -- wtf?); and... my old eighth-grade reading textbook! I also bought some things for myself, using up the last of my work gift card: another poly-expanding file (I love those -- they're so great for organizing shit); photo frame magnets; and some dirt-cheap pens and pen case that are actually pretty nice. Sara was making fun of how geeky I am: "Oh boy, you guys, a file folder! Pens in a pen case! And an old reading textbook! This is the best birthday ever, you guys!" Me: "Shut up!"

Last night we watched Paper Moon, which was the first time I'd seen it since I watched it on YouTube in France. The special features on it were pretty cool and interesting. I've always wondered about the hat that Tatum O'Neal wears throughout, and it was created around one specific scene (where Addie hides $600 in her hat band while she and Moses are in jail).