It is already my weekend, due to public school fall break. Today we have made gingersnaps, 18 hour bread, vegan crockpot chili, and shrinky dinks. And done 4 loads of laundry and met a very nice HVAC guy. Yet to do: grocery store, and Target for a new tarp and a scale (mr. flea is planning to put himself on The Hacker's Diet. There is a diet for everyone, I guess.)

Tomorrow we are off to pick apples in Western NC, eat dinner in Asheville, camp out and probably get rained on. Then to Smokey Mountain National park, probably ditto. Home Monday.

Ooh jealous. I miss the Smokies.

In fact, I am all sorts of homesick for autumn, and I can't work out why. It's never hit me like this before and I'm really happy and contented in my life. But boy howdy do I miss midwestern fall. There are trees that turn here (although not in my neighborhood) but they only turn yellow. There are no reds and no oranges. It's very weird. And then it's mostly junipers and pines anyway, which I appreciate in the deep of winter, but right now I want autumn.

I would like to go apple picking!

I ADORE apple picking. Really I am starting to think it is a sin to live in places that apples won't grow.

It's so fun and easy! And mostly a nice drive to the country and then a lot of cooking -- IME, more apples than you need get picked in about 15 minutes.

And no, I don't really care about the name. It's for regular use, so no one's really going to be looking at it. BUT! I could make up some story about how I stole it off a dead man's body if people ask! That would be awesome.

That would be awesome! The back of my hand is still blue from the dog-walking incident, and I told my husband I wanted to tell people I'd been in a fight. He didn't seem to think that was likely.

Liese, I'll e-mail you about the Bible. I'm thrilled it's going to someone I know and who will use it. It really is a lovely book -- gilt edges, maps, indices, etc.

Home to my folks for Turkey Day, Canadian Edition.

Ditto

I like apple picking, too. Maybe they'll still be in season when I visit my friend in Charlottesville in a few weeks.

Tonight: put my bare-root rose in a pan of water with some powdered vitamin B (it supposedly encourages root growth), meet my friends for media night.

Tomorrow: running group, plant the rose, go to wine tasting.

Sunday: as little as humanly possible. Maybe laundry, but no promises.

Sweet. Will look for the email. You can be assured that I'll bang it up and scratch the gilt off! Hee.

I love apple picking too! It used to be one of my favorite growing up in Ohio things.

And we had a great orchard in New Mexico, although not a pick-your-own. But here we're missing it. I was actually thinking about looking for one.

There's actually some sort of orchard on our way to our farmer neighbor, but I don't know if it's nuts or what, and they never put a sign out, so they are either not actively cultivating or they don't sell to the public. It's not apples, though, because I can't see the fruit.

Okay, I lied. I know I have your e-mail address somewhere, but I can't find it. Can you e-mail me?