The other night I went to local bar to play bingo. This was legitimate bingo, where they hand out those square cards printed in blue ink along with what appeared to be a really thick marker for decorating your card – er, I mean, playing bingo. Afterwards I played a few rounds of pool with a cowboy/out-of-work-singer. The latter is how he identified himself; the former is how I identified him because he was wearing a black cowboy hat and kept referring to me as “Miss.”

He told me I was “a very nice dresser,” and that my boots (I was wearing these OTK Free People boots that I scored on EBay, with which I am OBSESSED) reminded him of a pair he uses to climb trees, except that mine aren’t covered in spikes for sticking in bark. I later told Matt this story, and he immediately gestured to a piece of furniture in our bedroom and said, “That’s also a very nice dresser.”

We’ve had nicer, more fall-like weather up here the past week. I find myself talking about the weather to every client who enters the office just because I’m so enamored by it. Wind! Ice! Will there be snow? Did it rain last night? Frost on your windshield? So sunny!

I received the November catalog for Anthropologie in the mail last week and, what do you know, it features Wyoming!

Although that hat in the first picture is pretty amazing, I’m fairly certain the model and her horse would freeze to death at night unless she pulled a Luke Skywalker and sliced up the horse to sleep inside. But then all her white cashmere would get dirty, ugh!

The weekend before last Matt and I went down to Poudre Canyon in northern Colorado (just outside of Fort Collins) to do some climbing. It was the first time we’d returned since all the flooding that part of Colorado had endured; there were still parts of the road that follows the river in the canyon that were washed out. You could see debris piled up where the water had gushed down the mountains and into cabins along the riverside. Largely everything seemed back to normal. One family hung up a homemade sign outside their cabin that read, “Thank you, first responders!”

Matt and I had to cross the Poudre River to get to the climbing area to which we were headed, and the water was quite chilly. The experience brought back memories of fording rivers via the infamous Oregon Trail computer game.

Our shoes got really wet, and will probably never recover from their river-muck stench. The weather was great – low 60’s and clear skies, which is t-shirt weather in the sun.

We crossed the river again to head back to the car just as the sun was going down. Abe unfortunately spent the day at home due to his paralyzing fear of water. We have to return soon as there’s a crimpy, technical 5.12b sport face climb calling our names!

Matt and I are still trying to adjust to the much colder temperatures. It’s much easier to be comfortable when the sun is out, but at night…

… the cold sometimes calls for a hot mug of Swiss Miss, a weird bear-themed flannel poncho, a beanie, and a puffy down coat.

Sweet dreams to all!