i finally got a good night of sleep, all the way back since friday night. it was 63° inside the house this morning, a bit chilly for my taste, especially during my morning bathroom routine, so i turned on the heat to 65° before turning it back down again. a few degrees of warm forced air can actually make a difference, especially in the small confined space of the bathroom, where the temperature probably reached 68° or higher. my nest still had the schedule from when mary was living here during the winter. i don't know how well it worked since she had weird hours, waking up at different times, then returning home randomly throughout the day. i prefer roommates with set schedules, especially during the winter, so i can create a heating schedule that matches when they wake up.

yesterday was the start of early voting in massachusetts, the very first time in our state. it goes on for the next 2 weeks, at various locations. the closest one to me is the main library. i'm tempted to vote early just to get it out of the way, and to avoid the lines on election day. anyway, didn't get a chance to do it today, maybe within the next 2 weeks. it's really just a formality here in democratic-stronghold massachusetts, where hillary clinton is guaranteed to win the state. some would argue why even bother voting then. but i remember the words of my 7th grade history teacher, "you can't complain about the government if you don't vote." also, voting is a right of being an american citizen, especially voting for the US president, which is something only americans can do. it's like having a ticket to one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, and to not use it would be a waste.

i had some errands to run. after a late oatmeal lunch, i went outside and swept the leaves off the sidewalk. i noticed a lot of my neighbors just brush everything out onto the street, but i collected everything in the garden refuse bin for trash pickup. later i rode the motorcycle to market basket to get some groceries. it's very rare that i take the motorcycle, usually i ride the bicycle there. but i knew mid-afternoon is the least busiest time, so i would be able to find a parking spot easily. i decided i was going to make a spinach ricotta cheese pie for dinner and collected some ingredients.

back at home, i walked to the community garden with a box of small plastic pots, to collect some larkspur seedlings. there's a forecast of a potential freeze advisory for later tonight, so i wanted to collect some larkspurs just in case, even though i think they'll survive the cold weather. i bumped into joel, who was there to collect some of his tomato cages. i gathered about a dozen pots of larkspurs. i had so many i could only take back what i could fit in the box, leaving the rest to pickup tomorrow.

despite it being close to the end of the growing season, there was actually a fair amount of color to be found in the community garden. these are the more advanced gardeners who purposely plant flowers that bloom in the late season.

it was cold enough lounging on the couch that i found one of my fleece blankets to give me some warmth. the nest thermostat kicked in at 6pm, heating the house up to 68°F. i took a short nap, waking up at 6:45pm to thaw the pie crust. at 7pm i started making the spinach ricotta pie.

i basically followed this epicurious recipe, with the addition of some small garden zucchini i collected today (i didn't know what else to do with them). i made a mistake and bought a bag of 16 oz. frozen chopped spinach instead of just getting the 10 oz. frozen spinach brick. so i had to eyeball about 10 oz. worth of chopped spinach, then thawed it in the microwave for about 7 minutes on defrost. afterwards i tried to squeeze out in the sink as much water from the spinach. i also had less than 8 oz. of mozzarella cheese, leftover from when i made crescent calzones 2 weeks ago. fortunately cristina left some blue cheese, which i added to recipe to make up for it. recipe said to bake for 40 minutes, but i ended up baking a whole hour. while checking up on the pie, i accidentally burned my knuckle on the rack. maybe it was just my imagination, but i thought i heard it sizzling. as for the pie itself, it was good, the zucchini was very tender, and the blue cheese adds another dimension to it. i found the consistency to a be a little soggy though, i should've cooked the spinach even more to get rid of all the water. a soggy pie crumbles easily, and i ended up having to really dig out the slices.

i ended up eating two slices of zucchini spinach ricotta cheese pie for dinner (washed down with a bottle of fall flavor woodchuck hard cider) around 9pm while watching game 1 of the world series between the chicago cubs and cleveland indians. both teams feature former red sox players and management, so hard to pick one to root for.