Weekly Topic #2 for All Hallows Eve Dishcloth Exchange

So here's this week's topic:

Here in Atlanta, it's finally cooling down, and beginning to truly seem like fall. I sit now with windows open, and the air is cooler than usual, and trees are beginning to change. For me, cool mornings, crisp evenings, and trees in red, gold and orange glory are the very best parts of Fall - What are your favorite parts of fall? How do you know it's truly arrived where you are?


Well, it's still kinda hot up here in Delaware, believe it or not! This week will be in the high 70s, temperature-wise. ACK. But I love that first really crisp fall morning. I love being able to put on a sweater and jeans everyday. This weekend was a mini preview of that, as Saturday morning it was a chilly 50 degrees up in my neck of the woods (we left at 6:30 am to go to KDO; will post about that soon). It was great---short-lived, but great!

The other thing I love about fall is school supplies. No seriously. I love the smell of school supplies and stationery. There is just something about the scent of new pencils and crayons and copybooks, etc. When I was a kid in school and we'd go to like the K-Mart, I'd make a run for the stationery section of the store and ooh and aah all over the packs of pens and markers and erasers...sigh...I miss my Trapper Keeper :-(.

Topic Of The Week #5

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

Now that it is getting cooler here, it makes me think of apple picking and hay rides. Are you the type that likes to go to participate in all the fall festivities like apple picking, pumpkins, decorating for the fall, hay rides, baking fall goodies, etc. or do you just sit and count the days till Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah?

Well, I really enjoy apple/pumpkin/fruit picking, in general. But I never seem to have the opportunity to do it. And I am almost positive that Todd would not enjoy that activity. He's more like the "Can't we just 'pick' these at the supermarket?" kind of guy. In fact, I know there are a few orchards near his family's house in Virginia (the place we call "The River" because it's situated right on the Potomac River). And nearly every time we are down there I say, "Hey! Let's go to that pear orchard!" And he's like "Uh...what pear orchard?" Yeah.

I like decorating, for the most part. I'm not a great pumpkin carver. But I can draw or paint on them pretty well. Although, I don't really decorate any more for any holiday other than Christmas. I just do not have the time to do it. And, well, I get no help, if you know what I mean....

I'll PASS on the hayride, thanks!

I love to bake. But I don't do it very often. I try not to have too many temptations in the house! But I think a nice pumpkin or zucchini bread is in order very soon!

Topic Of The Week #3

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

Autumn has now officially begun here in the States!! What is your favorite thing about Autumn/Fall? Why?

Well, I've always liked autumn. It's my favorite time of year, I think. There are many reasons why. For one thing, I like sweaters. But not coats. If I could live out the remainder of my days in 55-degree weather, wearing a sweater, I'd die happy. Coats are way too bulky and I overheat in them. Also, I like to be able to enjoy the air that I breathe outside. Summer air is suffocating. Winter air rips the skin off your face. And Spring air... is a mattress....LOL, joke. Spring air is too moist. I find that I get a lot of respiratory infections in the Spring because of all that moist air. And who wants that?

Aside from Halloween, of which I have never really been fond, I actually like the month of October best of all the autumn months. I grew up in the city of Philadelphia, so we didn't have that many trees around. But I do have fond memories of rides in the car, windows down, looking at all the trees along I-95 or the Schuylkill (I-76) and their amazing colors. I also love me a good apple. And October seems to be the month of awesome apples! Seriously! J'ever eat a McIntosh apple in, say, June? Meh. Eat one in October and WOW! What a difference. And I was once a huge baseball fan (Atlanta Braves), and you know how important October is to baseball....

Also, I find autumn to be a time of renewal for me. I mentioned this on my questionnaire, too. It is probably closely linked to the fact that the start of the academic year is in the fall. And I seem to have spent most of my life as a student or working in academia. Kinda odd, when you think about it.... But as a kid, I loved the start of the school year! I was the kid that was drooling up the stationery aisle at the K-Mart. Yeah. When we finally got a Staples in Philadelphia, I was about 12. You'd think that it was Disney World, the way I reacted. And I am still a sucker for a great pen! But anyway, lots of fond memories of autumn make it my favorite time of year.