Had you given up on me, reader?

I know, it's been so long. November already. The clock tower outside my window lights up before I leave work. Monday is my two month anniversary there--one third of the way to vacation days.

In the meantime, I've been yoga-ing and reading (just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which was good, but the whole time I couldn't stop thinking, Middlesex does this too, only better, and with a little optimism.) and tutoring (Julia is such a good little reader; she points out the intricacies of the English language as we go: "A [read: uh] or a [read: aaay], you can say it either way!" I remember having that same hang-up in first grade.) and visiting Philadelphia and driving to Chester to admire the foliage. I've been eating pumpkin in utterly every variety--last night I had pumpkin tempura. It looked like a deep-fried slice of cantaloupe and tasted like a deep-fried slice of sweet potato.

And, in true fall spirit, I got my flu shot yesterday, and now it feels like somebody gave me a dead arm. There goes my pitching career.