I was so busy blathering on about fiddle tunes that I didn�t have a chance to check in about my oh-so-exciting weekend here in the middle of nowhere.

First, an update on Thursday�s garden club meeting. It was even more Stepford wivesian than I expected. Quite shockingly so, actually. Sometimes I feel like becoming a mother made me a member of a club that I�m not really qualified to be in. Or that I�m not at all sure I want to be part of. Or a little of both.

It was a fascinating event from an anthropological perspective. I kept finding myself recalling lectures on female rituals, for of course there were no men. There were two distinct groups in attendance. The group that sat right up at the front were all around my mother�s age, retired and with kids out of the house (or, in a couple of cases, living at home and paying rent). They all sat attentively through the lecture-demonstration (in wreath making � oy vey!) and asked pertinent questions. The other half was all around my age with little kids at home with hapless husbands (for that is, indeed, how the husbands were described). That group was very gleeful about having a night off. They sat in the back and giggled and whispered like teenagers. Conversation amongst the second group before and after the lecture focused on complaining about the husbands in such sitcom-like ways (too demanding, clueless about how much we do, clueless about housework and the kids, etc., etc., etc.) that it was almost funny. The rest of the gossip was about the neighborhood � who�s bought and sold what houses and for how much, who�s getting divorced, etc. It was kind of icky. I stayed to help clean up, since only a couple of people seemed to be doing all the work and about four or five of us ended up hanging out and finishing a bottle of wine and talking about books. This part was extremely enjoyable until they started discussing Michael Moore�s new book and it became increasingly clear that I was the only non-Republican in the room. I guess I shouldn�t have been surprised.

Friday night I crashed and went to bed at 9. It was a beautiful thing to get a good night�s sleep � it�s been a very long time. Saturday was the neighborhood Halloween party. AJ got his first outing in his cowboy regalia. He was actually not too excited about it, but we did manage to convince him to put on his plaid shirt and jeans and fringed vest. He was not at all keen on the cowboy boots, which made me sad, because they are about the cutest things I�ve ever seen. I didn�t know you could get cowboy boots this small. But I can�t say that I blame him. And he decided his sheriff�s badge was too heavy, so we left it at home too. The kids had a little costume parade where they marched around the circular drive in front of the barn. We passed on the hayride, as it looked too crowded, but played a rousing game of musical chairs. AJ did really well, but got a little upset when he found himself chairless and we had to cheer him up with candy corn (which worked like a charm).

This morning we drove out to Glacial Park in Ringwood to hike along the Nippersink Creek. Last fall when we were there around this time, we saw wild turkeys. We did see some sandhill cranes, which are almost as good as turkeys. We saw none today, but the fall prairie colors were spectacular and made me want to paint. We stopped to listen to the sounds of the grasses blowing in the wind. It smelled like fall. I spent the afternoon baking bread, the perfect antidote to a chilly morning hike. The house smells like bread and leaves.

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