“The leaves were in riot / Our time of the year”

I figured an update was in order.

• It’s my favorite time of the year.  The sky is ice cold blue, the air is clean, and the best beers of the year are in season.  Any recommendations of good fall brews?
• Our Sukkah is built (thanks for the help,
  shadowandlight

  !).  As always, all natural.  None of this PVC-and-chicken-wire crap.  Come see it before we take it down!

• I’m officially back in school. I had been procrastinating filling out my application for financial reimbursement from work, but UMUC offered me a free class.  So I’m taking (actually, nearly finished with) a required, 1-credit research methods course.  It’s been more fun than I expected.  Particularly getting familiar with UMUC’s extensive library resources.
• I’m seeing a new therapist.  He uses EMDR, which is a little weird.  But he’s a nice guy, and I’m finding him less off-putting than my last shrink.  And he seems to have a plan, which is a nice change.
• I’m finally reading Godel, Escher, Bach, which is every bit as good as everyone says it is.  I can’t remember having this much fun playing with pure ideas in my head since I was a kid.
• I signed up with SimplyAudioBooks awhile back. They are the audiobook equivalent of NetFlix.  Apart from some issues at the beginning I’ve been pretty happy with them; and their customer service is superb.  Right now I’m on the last CD of Durant’s Story of Philosophy, volume 2, which is like brain candy.  This morning I reached my old friend William James, who’s chief insight was if it works… don’t knock it!.  Still my favorite philosopher.
• For our anniversary, Stacey and I had dinner in Ellicott City and stayed overnight at The Wayside Inn bed & breakfast. I recommend the latter without reservation.  The room was lovely and spacious and the breakfast delectable.
• I’ve been using Google Reader for awhile to keep up with my RSS feeds.  You can go here for a feed of all the articles I’ve found interesting recently.