Cold wind's a blowin'

It's been so, so cold. The weather's turned - from the mediocre, nothing to write home about, to icy winds, frost and snow. Not what we usually get in October - it's meant to be raining. I think it rained itself out during the summer, now it's decided winter should come early. It's not so bad, it's better than the rain, except occasionally the cold sun is punctuated with heavy, icy, showers - and by heavy showers we're talking inches and inches of rain, which flood unsuspecting towns.

We're very excited about the upcoming American election. I'm planning a marathon night, watching it all, until Obama is crowned by the will of the people. I stayed up on the night of the Bush vs Gore election, and cried when it seemed Bush has gotten in (of course it eventually took days for the final confirmation, but I fell asleep when it seemed he'd won). I wish, 8 years later, I could say I was wrong to cry - a silly 17 year old, but as we all know there's more the cry about now, more than anything I was imagining then. Of course we're impotent here, and it's terrifying to think it might all be snatched away, but I think history's going to be made, in the right way.

I'm still below my massive pile of books, but my MA is good, I'm still loving it - even more than I thought I would. Raine's job's going ok, and we're able to plan trips, and generally have a life! We're off to London in December, and I have an idea in the back of my head, about making it to Texas for a week over the first 5 days of the Kerrville Festival, but we'll see. Belfast in February, for the Belfast Nashville Festival, is something I've promised my dad - he's taken us for the last two years, so this is going to be our treat for him.

I've found a wonderful local produce supermarket, it's just opened in a re-designed local garden centre. Tonight I'm making a casserole, with their stuff - it's ages since I've made a casserole, because I just couldn't find decent meat. I've make red wine sauce from scratch for the first time, I'm hoping it'll be a hell of a lot nice than the ready made stuff, and it uses some of the mountain of wine we were given at the wedding! After tea I'm taking Raine up to University, there's a 'Cider Festival' at Grad Bar, and she has long suffered through my Real Ale Festivals (she doesn't like Real Ale, but loves cider, especially strange cider - she recently found Toffee Apple Cider).