Week-in-Review: 1st Snow of the Season...

This is the view I woke up to this morning...

First snow of the season! It's been cloudy all day today but we did get out our heated coffee table, aka the kotatsu. So we are staying warm and snuggly today. It should warm up a bit in a day or so back up to the 50s and 60s. I'm hoping...

Things I'm not happy about, though, is our Covid numbers. We hit almost 2,000 positive cases on Saturday in one day. Our biggest hospitals are hitting 99% ICU capacity. It's bad. I wish more people would take this seriously and wear masks and care about each other!

But, on a good note, right before it turned cool I went on a hike with some friends up into the mountains. It was a great day for it and we saw some pretty colors still!

Since it's been getting colder my kitty Nala has been extra cuddly while I'm working at the computer.

Things I'm Grateful For this week:

1. Our cars are fixed! DH's car just needed a new key battery and I had to get a new car battery but it wasn't anything worse than that. My friend's son was able to come and jump my car so I could actually get back home. 

2. I made some delicious coffee cake muffins.

3. We found a new to us Indian restaurant this weekend and it was delicious! We haven't had some in ages so it was a nice treat.

4. While driving around doing errands we saw a man on a corner holding a sign that said: "Veterans for Biden." Warmed my heart considering what a conservative town, county, and state I live in. We gave him honks and waves and thumbs up!

Reading:

I finished up 5 books this week! I'm very excited about this. A couple of these I had been working on for months! The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, Where the Woods End by Charlotte Salter, Emma by Jane Austen, Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell, and What Language Is: And What It Isn't and What It Could Be by John McWhorter

I started Nightbooks by J.A. White and A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. It was on the Lucky Day shelf at the library so I need to read it by Thursday!

I'm still reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen, but I only have one chapter left so I'll definitely finish it up this next week. And I'm reading the third section in Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi. Book club is Sunday!

 I'm taking my time with The Self-Driven Child by William Stixrud. There's a lot to digest and I don't want to miss anything. I was hoping end of October to be finished but I'm now shooting for mid-November.

Classics that I'm reading: I just started Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

Philosophy: At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir,  Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Others by Sarah Bakewell. 

Listening to:

Podcasts: I started listening to What a Day to catch up a bit on the news and listened to a few episodes of DemocracyNow.

New Books Acquired: 

Watching:

Movies:

Every Halloween at least...we watch Clue as a family. We got that one in this weekend. Such a classic.

For my horror fest:

Evil Eye on Amazon Prime was a really good surprise. Looks like some good ones on here from Prime for horror. 

The Lie on Amazon was not great. It sat on the shelf for a couple of years and then was quietly released through Prime...there's a reason; it's a terrible film.

Bad Hair on Hulu was just released and it was fantastic. It's funny, has great social commentary, and has a few spooky parts as well.

TV:                           

HBO released the last episodes of Lovecraft Country and The Third Day. I finished both of those off. Lovecraft Country was fantastic, the only thing I really have to complain about is their treatment of Ruby. They didn't treat her well and it really makes me mad. She was treated a lot better in the book and it's just a shame. The Third Day is a fantastic folk horror limited TV series and an interesting and devastating look at grief.

And of course I'm keeping up on The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. My faves are still hanging in! And the Food Channel's Halloween Bake-off is also keeping me entertained.

Making: 

I made yummy chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes this morning! This next week will be a lot of soup and chilis and other baked goodies...

Looking forward to Halloween! No trick-or-treating this year but we get to plan out our costumes this week, think of some goodies to bake, and enjoy a cozy night at home while watching cheesy classic horror movies together as a family.

Joining in with Readerbuzz's Sunday Salon