Do-over

Yesterday I went and got my hair cut, and as I was leaving the salon, saw Leslie just up ahead on the sidewalk, trundling down South Congress in a chic black dress. I'll miss him and all the other kooky folks in this town.

The living room is slowly but surely emptying out these days. Stuff getting crammed into boxes. Plus a last minute cooking bonanza/clearing out of the freezer is in order. Don't you hate it when that happens? You gotta cook all that stuff. One lb of frozen shrimp, check. One bag of frozen peaches, check. One frozen pizza, check. One sheet of puff pastry, check. Who's going to eat all this food? It's out of control.



Meanwhile, what thinks you of my new hat? I'm totally and completely smitten with it. It's just like the ones Angelina Jolie wears in all those ads for her new movie. Set in the 20s. In Los Angeles. I'm cool with channeling that look. Just FYI, I bought it at The Limited and it is wool and was only $25. I love that store.

Adding to the "change is in the air" theme, it is finally starting to look and feel like fall down here. Which of course makes me want to bake. I made this banana bread after a spate of banana bread sightings on the blogs. Speaking of clearing out the freezer, that's where I stash all my over-ripe bananas.



Yeah, I threw some chocolate chunks and nuts in there. Too much probably. Next time, I need to go for more simplicity. I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, but what I really need to do is hunt down my grandmother's recipe. That's what I grew up on. So of course that's what I end up comparing everything to.

My aunt arrived today to help me pack. My dad joins the party on Friday. On Sunday my uncle gets involved via unloading efforts. This here is a family affair. It's nice to have folks nearby to help with that stuff. And due to some recent developments, I have one less day to pack than originally planned, which sucks. But soon it'll be over and I'll be exploring my new town. With my new hair. In my new hat. Living in my new apartment. Yeah, and going to my new job. It's my own personal do-over. I'm going to miss Austin something awful, but sometimes fresh is good.