Finally - autumn! My favorite season! Saturday was absolutely gorgeous out down here - 70s, sunny, breezy with a slight autumn chill in the air. Perfect! We packed up some sandwiches, chips, a bottle of "petit shiraz" and headed out to Roosevelt Island for a picnic with some friends. What a weird little place, as you'll see from the profile. Roosevelt Island is home to a massive parking garage called The Motorgate, which added to the island's decidedly Eastern Bloc feel.

Anyway, we took the tram over and walked to the southern tip, which has a cute little lighthouse, and set up camp. The other impetus for this field trip (1 hour on the train to the tram at 59th and 2nd! Christ!) was to see Robert Smithson's Floating Island exhibit. Sure enough, about 30 minutes into the picnic, along comes the floating island chugging along behind the tug boat. It zigzagged around us for a while and then took off for more northern waters. Overall, a fun, surreal little day!

Today will be spent trying to decipher my Information Technology textbook, as well as diving into my new book Founding Brothers. I just finished Courtroom 302 which I highly recommend. Bogira is an awesome storyteller - the book flowed beautifully and was a real page turner. That sounds like a shallow criteria for a book "a page turner," but really, isn't that all you want from a story, to be riveted? I love when I can't put a book down, so if I find myself putting it down more often than not, it ends up in the abandoned pile, like The Mercury 13. I was bummed too, because I really wanted to read about this. But it was a snooze fest. I hate not finishing books, but when I think of all the books I want to read, there is no time to waste on duds! I mean, everyday after work I couldn't wait to pick up Courtroom 302 again and see what was going to happen - I love that!

The Atlantic Antic is today, although not sure if I'm in a street fair mood. The cheescake eating contest piques my interest however...