October has been and will continue to be one of the busiest months of 2010 for me.

My brother, sister and Braga came to visit me during Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. I gave them the quintessential New England fall tour, which included a trip to Russell Orchards and an evening at the Topsfield Fair. We also tried to ingest at least one pumpkin related item a day.

Up next was the Belle and Sebastian show at the Wang Theater. It was great to finally get to see them live as a 12 piece band. Their newest album has some pretty posi soulful tracks. Since it was a sit down theater it was a little difficult to get folks to dance (only 3 or 4 individuals got up to dance). This changed 3/4 into their set, when they played The Boy With the Arab Strap. The only downside was that we got a 40$ parking ticket — damn tree was hiding the “Resident’s Only After 6PM” parking sign.

Just yesterday I invited a few coworkers over to my place for a veg pot luck. This was the first time I had invited such a large group of people over that were not my family. I made a huge pot of chili and a big bowl of guacamole. Everyone brought over such great food that I am considering hosting such a gastronomical event monthly.  Another bonus: all this extra food will help sustain me for the next week.

Today I attended the Classical Cartoon Festival at the Boston Symphony Orchestra hall. I was hoping that the orchestra would play while the Warner Brother’s cartoons aired but unfortunately this was not the case. It was still great to see people of all ages enjoying some cartoons on a Saturday morning. Afterwards, Tim and I met up with our pal Shaun and we noshed on some Hot & Sour Soup at Grasshopper along with book shopping at Raven. I also found some new comics by Liz Prince at Million Year Picnic (one of my fave comic book shops in the world), which I was pretty stoked about.

This week Tim and I’s pal Dave aka Nice Snacks will be visiting us from California and we’ll be going on a road trip up to Montreal Canada. We’ll get to reminisce about our salad days and eat lotsa junk food on the road.

As for projects:

1) I started to compile ideas for music mixes that are tied together by a theme. These will be posted on my Music page soon starting with a mix of songs that revolve around NYC/5 Burroughs (inspired by Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour).

2) Started working on some cat themed illustrations which I will be posting on here as well.

This was the first morning in a long time that I was very tempted to turn on the heat. Instead I just put on my big fluffy robe and made a nice cuppa strawberry rhubarb crumble  white tea (courtesy of my family). The tea honestly tasted like a less sweet drink version of the dessert; there were even hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. On the same note, I just checked out this new book at the Ipswich Public Library entitled “The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook.” Anyone obsessed with tea should definitely take a look at this book, which provides rich details about all 6 varieties (and its many sub-variations/mutations), maps and beautiful photographs.

On another note, Fall would be the epitomy of comfort if I wasn’t recovering from an annoying head cold. But I’m trying to stay positive and look forward to crisp afternoon walks in the woods, baking tons of apple related treats, checking out the Topsfield Fair (America’s oldest running agricultural fair) with my siblings next weekend, etc.

I’m also starting to put together some ideas for a monthly music podcast that is theme related. I should have more details in the near future.