My favorite month, next to December. I'm not even sure why, but I expect that it has to do with being the start of the lead up to Christmas...my absolute favorite time of year. The other great thing about November? November 1st means that October 31st has passed. I really do not love Halloween at all. This year, we spent all of Saturday scouring our old apartment and came home feeling so tired and annoyed by it all that we ended up being those assholes who FOR SURE will get egged at some point. We closed our blinds and turned off all of the lights and pretended that we weren't home. Oh yes, we did. And then we snuck out for Indian food. I will take baigan bhartha over teenagers dressed like vampires (because every. single. teenager. was dressed as a vampire) anyday.

The little ones though...I'll make exceptions for them. When did kids get so damn cute?

We kicked November off quietly, just how I like it. We did a bit of unpacking around here and I'm happy to say that our house is starting to look a little bit like we actually live here! Not that we've spent any time here at all, other than to sleep, until this weekend. Now, finally, we've had some quality time in our new digs, just hanging around, and we are loving it. It's quiet, always has a nice little breeze, and our landlords are probably the nicest people on the planet. I think we'll be happy here for awhile. How long awhile? I have no idea.

This weekend marked our anniversary on the Rock. Two years. Amazing...especially since when we first moved here, two years was the plan. Get in, get out. And now, two years in, it still feels like we just got here. So, I went back to the beginning of this blog and found this post, written just a few days after we moved into our first apartment. I like to look back on what my initial thoughts were, back when everything seemed so new and we felt like we were on a permanent vacation. Back when I apparently hated those little frogs I love so much now. Before life set in, before the noise of the street below our apartment started to get to us, before we'd figured out that life is just life, no matter where you live it. That being said, it's been a pretty interesting two years.

If you had asked me back in November 2007 what I would be doing in November of 2009, I would have absolutely predicted that we would be back in Canada, preparing to buy a house in the city we plan to "settle down" in. Without question, that was the plan.

Seriously though...how long has this been my plan, now?

I moved to Ottawa in 2002, planning to return to Victoria in 2004. Didn't happen.

We bought our house in 2005, planning to sell and move to Victoria in 2008.

Before that could happen, we moved to the Rock in 2007 with a two-year plan.

Those two years are up and we're still here, and have no plans to leave anytime very soon.

Maybe I should take a hint. MAYBE...if I really wanted to be in Victoria, I would have found a way to be there by now. This is me, getting introspective. I'm getting deep here, people. Seriously though...wouldn't we be there if that's where we were supposed to be? As much as I complain about rude people and how much a leek costs, some very big part of me must have fallen in love with the Rock. I know I like it. I like my job, I love the weather, I like the freedom we have and I like that we now have the means to do a lot of things that were out of our reach before we moved here. Of course I hate being away from family and friends, but I have been away from my family and a good chunk of my friend base for a very long time now. I'm used to missing people. And the thing is, is that being in Victoria doesn't mean that I'll have everyone I love around me. One crappy thing about having three homes is that there are people to miss in each of them.

OK, enough depth. Back to shallow blogging.

I made vegetable soup tonight. No recipe. I just noticed that we had an inordinate number of red peppers in the fridge and a bag of shredded carrots that looked as though it was considering a turn to the dark side. So, I tossed them into a pot with a diced onion and some broth and spices, boiled up a storm and then blended the works and served to my (obviously very impressed) man. It was delicious. Made me feel clever.

This time change has left me sleepy at 8:57 p.m. How sad. Probably great news for my body though, which has been craving sleep like no one's business.

Bed time!