October so far

Here's all the happenings in my life lately both large and small:
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I finally found a grocery store that carries figs. At my old job, I had a co-worker who had a fig tree and would give me some every summer. Since I no longer work at that hospital, my summers have been fig-less. Until now. Apparently figs are a terribly finicky and seasonal item, so I was pretty excited when I visited the same store three times in the course of two months and they had figs every time. 

But, no figs were to be found last week. However, before I could even be sad about it, I saw that they had the season's first McIntosh apples out and I was instantly excited again.
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Perry continues to solider through his first year of teaching. He puts in fairly long hours and it's unusual for him to get home before 7 p.m. He's not afraid to get involved in a lot of after school and weekend activities, and he even started a club a few weeks ago. I can tell he really enjoys certain parts of his job.

So, he got to dress up as Slender Man for school one day.

But then there's other parts of his job I can tell are really stressing him out. Physics isn't really his subject and I know he'd much rather be teaching biology or chemistry. He's putting a lot of pressure on himself to be this super inspirational, all-knowing, loved by everyone kind of teacher but I kind of feel that with it being his first year, he should focus more on just surviving as being an indicator of success.

Part of me is glad that he's found something that he cares about so much and is so passionate about, but an equally large part of me wishes he would just cut himself some slack and maybe phone it in for a few days. The world would not end. I'm pretty sure, anyway.
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My middle sister graduated from her diagnostic sonography program!

niece, sister, nephew, dear brother

Well, almost. She officially graduates in about two months, but the school she goes to has a bunch of other programs (medical assistant, dental hygienist, etc) and instead of having several small graduations, they pick a date and just have one large one.  It was still nice to see her so close to completion, and I'm sure she's really excited about being done too. She moved back in with my parents so she could go back to school and I think she's more than ready to be back out on her own again. Not that my parents are awful or anything, it's just hard to live on your own and then...not.
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Stage one of fall has hit in Texas. Highs are about 85 instead of 95. It's pretty wonderful. The best part is all the rain we've been getting. It's like having a second spring. The grass is alive again and a lot of the flowers and shrubs have started blooming. The Texas sage bushes I have by the house have erupted with hundreds of purple flowers. There are so many bees attracted by them that when you walk by, it sounds like the bushes are humming.

The majority of the insects in the sage are bees, but there were a few butterflies also. And like a crocodile in a watering hole, I saw this guy waiting patiently for easy pickings.

I imagine it was a great opportunity for him. Being so nicely camouflaged and with this prey being preoccupied, all he would have to do is wait for a butterfly or bee to visit a nearby flower for a meal.

There's something about praying mantises I really like. They look so interesting and alien.  It seems odd to have a favorite insect, but if I had to pick one, they would be it. Sorry, butterflies and lady bugs.
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A few weeks ago I received my very first jury summons. I was actually excited to go and hoping so much that I would get picked that I rescheduled it so I could go on my week off of work. Crazy? Maybe. I didn't get picked though. I just sat in a large room watching The Today Show for a few hours and then was dismissed.
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I haven't drawn anything in so long, last week I decided to make a point to sit down with some paper and markers and see if anything would even happen.

 And look. I got some weird birds out of it. So, that should do it for drawing for a while.

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My youngest sister and her boyfriend came up from College Station to see a concert with me and Perry. Her boyfriend just happens to have similar taste in music to me and seeing a concert makes such a nice excuse form them to come and visit.  

It was raining that evening, but thankfully the show was indoors. This was actually my third time to see Queens of the Stone Age live. There's nothing else to really say, other than they were fantastic, as usual.