Autumn is approaching, and my body knows it. I've a visceral desire for the cool mornings and the warm, dull afternoons. I long for the changing colors and the falling leaves.

On Monday I watched as a small flock of fallen leaves (very few, it's true) skittered across the pavement. Last night the treetops swayed before a tentative wind. The past two mornings have been cool (Kris turned on the heat in the bathroom this morning), and last night we were able to sleep without the fan, with the bedroom window closed, and with a blanket pulled over our shoulders.

Meteorological fall begins in just ten days.

Several years ago (five? six?) Kris lost a ring in the cushions of the TV-room couch. She loved that ring. Over the years she has, from time-to-time, sighed and said as much: "I loved that ring." She'd written it off as lost forever.

I've always been convinced that the ring was somewhere in the couch waiting to be found (much like the One Ring!). Whenever I've had to dig around the non-removable cushions — clawing for a remote or a spoon or a paperback — I've checked for the ring. I've never found it.

Then, last night, while hunting for the VCR remote (must record EPL review show!) I stumbled upon a new couch-searching technique. By approaching the cushions from their ends and then b-e-n-d-i-n-g my arms just so, I was able to reach hitherto unexplored regions filled with lost stuff: the VCR remote! my iPod remote and earbuds! and, as I knew I'd find, Kris' precious ring!

If that doesn't earn me Husbanding Points then nothing will.

(Even as I write this, my darling wife phones me from the Crime Lab. Is she phoning me to tell me that she's going on a "call out" to a meth lab? Is she phoning to say she loves me and to thank me for finding her precious ring? Hell no! She's phoning, laughing, to make fun of me for an egregious typo in the last weblog entry: "seat pants" for "sweat pants". Hm. I think she spent Wife Points on that one…)

Chicago was released on DVD yesterday. This is a film that Kris and I have both come to love.

I'm a fan of musicals in general, and it's exciting for me to see movie musicals on screen. For much of my life, musicals have been marginalized, a cast-off genre. But with Evita (1996) and then Moulin Rouge (2001) and now Chicago, there are signs that the Hollywood movie musical may be staging a comeback. I hope so!

Chicago is so good at times that I actually get misty-eyed. The staging of some numbers — "All That Jazz", "Cell Block Tango" — is absolutely perfect down to the smallest detail. The film is never as jaw-dropping and intoxicating as the first twenty minutes of Moulin Rouge, but it's able to maintain a more consistent quality throughout.

If you have comments on the new layout (and I welcome them all, good or bad), please leave them on the last entry or in the forum thread. I welcome your suggestions.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2004 — Guest Blog: Playing at the Court of Appeals   This morning was a fairly stressful event. I had an appearance before the Oregon Court of Appeals.

2002 — Social Butterfly   For the past two weeks I've been as busy as a busy little bee. flitted from one social engagement to another with barely a chance to breathe. I've had fun.