Strange Offerings

While taking out the trash this past weekend, I found this little collection by our back gate:

Kind of weird, right? It's a little skillet and a basket of three ornamental gourds. Our back gate is recessed from the alley, and you really have to look to notice the walkway by the garage. My possible explanations are:

• Someone knows I dabble in in situ composting and that I cook, so they left these as presents.
• Someone found these by a dumpster and stashed them in our walkway, and they plan to pick them up later.
• We have a super strong squirrel residing in the area that has a penchant for fall decorations and cookery items.
  

This afternoon, I saw this post on 101 Cookbooks about chocolate puddle cookies. Not wanting to do classwork tonight, but wanting to do something productive, I made them:

In real life, they look much more like the photo on the 101 Cookbooks blog. I substituted pecans for walnuts, and wow, are these cookies delicious. Rather brownie-like and super tasty. This recipe is a keeper.

On Monday of this week, I had an acupuncture appointment in an attempt to relieve my eye twitch. After the appointment, I had a mini-breakdown and called in sick for the day (the great thing about working in a School of Social Work is that most people are super empathetic and understanding). I was able to schedule a massage for the afternoon, and generally tried to de-stress and stop thinking about my eye. The massage was incredible. I was so lucky to hear about Garden Walk Massage off of Lafayette Square; my therapist saved my day. I feel so much better, but unfortunately, my eye twitch is still with me.

This morning I had an eye exam and found that I can rule out eye strain. My vision is still just fine. However, I do have some sort of eyelid margin disease in which my eyelids are coated with oily particles and bacteria. This explains why my eyelids always feel irritated and itchy, so it's good to get that taken care of with antibiotic drops and eyelid scrubbing. But, it doesn't explain the twitching.

Alas...