I welcome you, fall, with open arms
After many months of summer (why does it always last months?) fall seems to be here. We've got highs in the low 80s, sun, clear skies, and low humidity. Awesome.
We had almost twice as many days of rain in August than our average (something like 24 days of rain), and I'm happy to be in a "dry spell" now for what it's worth. I ended up getting water in my car a little bit with the couple of storms last week that just tore up Chicago. My friends Jenni & Steve had some serious damage to their building, and will have to live elsewhere for a while, which is very sad. But, they themselves are OK, so that's the important thing in times like these, eh?
Dan and I went last-minute camping last weekend up to Kettle Morraine in Wisconsin. Lovely night, clear skies, and it got way colder than either of us anticipated. One of the best parts was making a giant fire in the pit in order to use up all of our wood like we were supposed to. Fire good. Meats cooked over fire = very good. I have no pictures, but for once, I didn't get a mosquito bite. woo!
We stopped in Kenosha on the way home and bought a case of New Glarus Spotted Cow beer. Mmmm, so good. Really, this stuff is some of the best beer I've ever had, period. It's good that it's made so close, but since it's only sold in Wisconsin, we have to head over the border in order to pick some up. We also got a bottle of the Raspberry Tart which is surprisingly tasty with spicy food. (I recommend thai) I have to really hand it to Wisconsin for producing some of my most favorite things to consume: beer, cheese, and sausages. We bought locally-produced Kewaskum hot dogs and polish sausages on our way to the campsite, and of course, no trip over the border is complete without a stop at the Mars Cheese Castle where we got cheese food and curds.
But, after just a smattering of meats this weekend (it's only Sunday afterall), I'm a little meated out. So I'm making vegetarian black bean soup today, and the closest thing to meat I'm going to eat is some cheese we got at the farmer's market yesterday. (six-year old cheddar, yum!)