Marvelous Monday: Week 39

Hey! Recognize anyone in this picture?

HA! It's me!

That's my shadow overlooking the Mississippi River on yesterday's run.

Five marvelous things about the weekend and upcoming week: go!

1) I dusted off my sewing machine last night and completed a project that has me bouncing off the walls in excitement. I was talking to Nat earlier in the week and waxing poetic about finding a pair of straight- or skinny-leg cords for fall, because all of my pants seem to be boot-cut. She told me she had stumbled on a blog post about how to convert boot-cut pants into straight/skinny cut pretty easily on the sewing machine. WHAT?! I was intrigued.

I have a general policy of not doing a step-by-step blog post when I am doing projects that I culled from other blog posts already in existence, so again, go over to that post for the full scoop. But here's the abbreviated version:

You place a pair of pants with a narrower-cut leg over the boot-cut pants and pin the line you'd like for your new width. I sewed from the inside seam up to the knee.

And then sew it! (I used a red-orange thread because I didn't want to change the spool just for fun.)

There you have it!

This is really, really marvelous because I did that to another pair of cords and now do not have any desire to buy new pants at all this season.

2) I have been referencing my love of fall weather relating mostly to leaves lately, but it deserves another mention because running is so much more fun now that the temperatures are cooler. The temp was in the upper 30s (with lots of sun) when I started yesterday's run, and it was exceptionally pleasant. And finally some goal paces are feeling attainable instead of lurking loftily in outer space!

3) Reading report: I am working on In the Garden of Beasts, which is a book by Erik Larson about the time leading up to World War II in Germany. He also wrote Devil in the White City (which I was fascinated by) and when I was talking to my dad's cousin a couple of weeks ago, he said that In the Garden of Beasts was better. Both books are in the genre called narrative non-fiction, so they're composed from an enormous amount of historical research but read like fiction. I find this style amazing and admire it to no end. (Don't worry - I did fetch Gone Girl from the library, and that's next. In the Garden of Beasts just arrived first!)

4) The Twin Cities Marathon banners are up in downtown St. Paul! That means the race is almost here.

I'm working with my committee that day in the media tent, not running it, but it's one of my favorite weekends (and events) of the whole year. I believe there are some Miles and Laurel readers participating in the race weekend events, and I'm excited to cheer them on, too!

5) I would call this weekend the one when Wish decided to like watching football on TV, based on this photo. Either that, or the dog is thinking about dinner. Or he has figured out that football equals getting to sit on Josh's head during the game. Either way.

What's marvelous about your Monday, Reader? What are you reading? What is your favorite part of fall? Do share!