Saturday was sunny and warm so Brandon & I donned masks and hit up the local hardware store for birdseed. We also picked up some corn for the damnable squirrels but they have almost entirely ignored it. We have three black squirrels and my favorite is named Chocosquirrel and although Brandon & Miss L despise him, I quite like to look out my dining room window and see the birds clustered on the tree branches, hungry, looking on as Chocosquirrel hangs from the sunflower seed feeder by his toes and eats it all. I also put together a new bike I ordered from Amazon so now we have two bikes that are actually useful and we can ride around the neighborhood and one thoroughbred Cannondale road bike that I bought in a fit of exuberance over doing a couple of duathlons a few years ago. It hangs from hooks on the ceiling in the garage unused and probably just needs to be traded in for another useful Schwinn.

I drank some nice Malbec on Saturday night and baked a blueberry buckle with crumb topping and finished watching “The Outsider” on Amazon Prime and tore through multiple episodes of the new season of “Bosch”. Today Brandon & I ran three miles (it was going to be four but the rain moved in) and I baked some bread with my sourdough discard and then we did Fakesgiving. I took a page out of my sister-in-law’s book for this – a few times a year she just decides to make Thanksgiving dinner and have a nice holiday celebration just because. I am doing an 8-lb turkey breast, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and a homemade cherry pie. (I had all the accoutrements for a pumpkin pie, but Brandon and Miss L voted me down on that so I had to concede.)

Looking at the forecast it seems like the rain has set in for a few days but at least it’s warmer. Everything is very green and there are two ducks that walk purposefully through our backyard every so often (Miss L has named them “Damien” and “Delilah”) and we have many baby blossoms on our lilac tree.

In other news, I finally got my e-book loan of “Mystic River” by Kristin Hannah from the library and although I’m devouring it, I’m a little disappointed – it’s my first of hers that I’ve read and I’d heard so many raves over her. Is it just a romance novel?? Don’t answer that, I’ll be done with it soon and will save my final impression for SUYB in June.