A little of this and that

In keeping with the 'diary' aspect of blogging, I wanted to make note of a few things here:

On the local front:

We had 4 raccoons visit again over the weekend. They knocked on the door (literally) so I think it was probably 'our' little family group again - I wonder where they've been? Since there was a news report last week of some poor woman being killed (shredded, actually) by a group of raccoons that she was trying to shoo off her back porch, I'm a little less thrilled to see them, all grown up now but still together...

We had a hard frost on Saturday night that burned the leaves on the pumpkins, the dahlias, and the coleus, so we had to do some clean-up on Sunday. We have 3 big ripe orange pumpkins and 4 small white ones, as well as one small-ish green one that we are hoping will ripen, but even if it doesn't, it looks nice. Not a bad crop, I guess.

On the national front:

The hilarity that resulted from the announcement of President Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ten months into his presidency and with no actual accomplishments behind him as yet, is worth recording for posterity as well. Public comments included speculation that the standards for an honorary degree at ASU appear to be more exacting than for a Nobel Peace prize. Some kind soul pointed out that, while there may be very few items checked off his 'to do' list, the president DID actually host a peace conference between a professor and a cop. (On the down side, he hasn't really helped with the whole Jon and Kate mess...) Several folks lamented that the award came on the day the US declared war on the moon - bad timing I suppose. But then the whole thing seems to have been a phenomenal case of bad timing. Anyway, someone else allowed as how the president should get the Nobel prize for chemistry too - he HAS 'great' chemistry, if one listens to his fans on NBC at least - and another broadened the discussion to the notion that MLB should just go ahead and give the world series championship to the Yankees because of their aspirations. My favorite? "Bonk, Bonk, Bonk, Bonk" (That's the sound of Hillary Clinton's head banging against the wall.)

Anyway, winter, it appears, is here. (Not sure what happened to fall, but we seem to have missed it here in the northwest.) There is much going on in the world to enjoy.