Celebrate the Small Things- October 17th

Thanks to our host Viklit and co-hosts Diana Wilder, L.G. Keltner, Cyborg Mom and CaffeMaggieato!

This week I'm celebrating...

Apples!  Two weeks ago we went apple picking at a local orchard and I hand-picked a half a bushel of apples I plan to make into pies, tarts and cobblers as the month progresses.  Walking through the pumpkin patch got me humming the Charlie Brown theme and wishing I had a blue blanket with me.  There was also a fall festival at the orchard so we munched on apple cider donuts and cider and I had some of the best pumpkin ice cream I've ever tasted (not to mention the homemade fudge I brought home).  It was a wonderful day and it totally got me into the spirit of things.

Huzzah!  Last weekend we hit the Ren Faire and I was in full costume.  We saw the regular shows including the falconry display which I love (Malfoy's owl from the HP movies was there!) and heard bagpipers rock out.  I ate some yummy junkfood, bought some pretty things and watched a glassblowing display.  I departed with an amazingly sale-priced half case of my absolute favorite wines- a dutch apple blend and a holiday spice wine which, when combined and heated, create something they call a "Hot Wench" which is one of the most delicious substances you can drink.  I was especially thrilled because last year our plans to attend were ruined by a poorly timed flu shot which made me sick as a dog for the weekend we had planned- I am now happy.

And, finally, back to running  A couple of weeks ago I caught a bad cold that took forever and a day and a full course of antibiotics to finally get rid of.  Because of that I didn't run for almost three full weeks.  In addition to a couple of 10k races the next two Saturdays (tomorrow being the first) I've also got the marathon coming up fast so I knew I had to get back up to snuff.  Thanks to running last Friday, Tuesday and yesterday I finally got myself back up to a full 6 miles so I have reason to believe tomorrow's race will go well.  I still have a long way to go (since 10k isn't even half of the marathon mileage) but I feel like I'm back in a good place to be able to do that and it feels really good.

I'm hoping to get a haunted house in before the end of the month and I've got a whole bunch of other Halloween-y activities to find time for so my hopes for the rest of the month are high.  Have I mentioned how much I love October?

What about all of you lovely folks?

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1. Suzanne Furness The Word is. . .	2. tara tyler	3. Lara Lacombe - Romance With an Edge
4. Life, yoga and other adventures	5. Ink in the Book	6. My Baffling Brain
7. Tyreans Writing Spot	8. Writing Off the Edge	9. Lexa Cain
10. The Write Game	11. Writers Mark	12. Entertaining Interests
13. Reading, Writing and Everything in Between	14. Effectively Human	15. Diana Wilder - About myself, by myself. . .
16. Pasha, From Animal Shelter to A Sheltered Life	17. S. K. Anthony	18. Queendsheena
19. Bouquet of Books	20. melanie schulz	21. Shah Wharton's WordsinSync
22. Intentional Insights by S. Kelley Harrell	23. Simply Sarah	24. M. J. Fifield
25. Constantine	26. Nana Prah's Blog	27. Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
28. The Beveled Edge	29. Fiction and Film	30. Mere Joyce
31. Life Happens	32. Rhonda @ Laugh-Quotes	33. Shells, Tales and Sails
34. OnBecomingAWriter	35. Viklit	36. Words World and Wings
37. J. A. Ward Writes	38. TF Walsh	39. Scribbling In The Storage Room
40. Just Get It Written	41. Fanny Barnes Thornton	42. Anything BUt Ordinary
43. Bames Live	44. The Block	45. Lisa Casian
46. The Beauty of Eclecticism	47. The Blog of Author J Lenni Dorner	48. Julie Jordan Scott: Let's CELEBRATE!
49. lLittle Big Girl	50. Tizzy @ Creative Therapy	51. Inside the Secret World of Allison Bruning
52. Here's the Story (WR)	53. Secondhand Shoes, A Novel	54. My Little Avalon
55. this and that. . .	56. Claudia H. Blanton	57. Rambles & Randomness
58. TheCyborgMom	59. India's solution to Garbage Management	60. Stephanie Faris, Author
61. Damyanti@ Amlokiblogs	62. ANANYA TALES	63. Achoo
64. QRSTUV	65. Day 3 #AtoZBloggingChallenge	66. Service from Heart: eat, travel, learn, laugh
67. Planet Kimberly - Writing, Paranormal, & Stuff	68. The Unwavering Part of Me	69. Kidbits
70. Kristin Smith--Swords and Stilettos	71. Author Jon Broderick	72. Brian Fuel Matters
73. Mountain Springs Publishing	74. Black Coffee and Cigarettes	75. Romance and Mystery, writing my life. . .
76. Be Positive in Life and Writing	77. Chicken Road Diaries	78. Happy Edinburgh
79. My Inner Geek	80. My Miracle Life

Celebrate the Small Things- Preparing for Christmas

It's Friday Celebration time with our dear host, Viklit.  As always, click the link to sign up and see the full list of all the awesome bloggers participating.

This week my celebrations are:

Christmas Cards!  That little guy is my dog, Buddy, and he's staring daggers at me for putting him in that reindeer costume.  One of the best parts of having a freakishly adorable and tiny little guy like him is that you can torture him with ridiculous costumes and there's not a damned thing he can do about it.  (I'm pretty sure there's a special place in hell reserved for people like me.)  At any rate, I walked into the post office on Wednesday with a stack of those cards and a tower of boxes containing home-baked Christmas cookies (which take me forever to make but are so worth it) destined for places all over the US.  Friends and relatives are going to be greeted by that when they fetch their mail over the next few days.  And that makes me giddy.

Christmas Parties!  We had our usual potluck at work yesterday and I ate so much I spent the rest of the afternoon in a near coma.  Tomorrow is the company-wide Christmas party where I will again be eating way too much.  And in case all that doesn't put me into a diabetic coma we've got our karate potluck scheduled for tomorrow night, complete with the most ridiculously fun version of Pollyanna gift-giving I've ever participated in.  Awesome.

Christmas!  It's only a few short days away and I will be spending those days wrapping gifts, baking up a storm and trying to soak in every bit of the wonderfulness this time of year can offer.  I hope to take a brief break to go see the new Hobbit (cause how freakin' amazing is that gonna be?!) but other than that I'm in full-on holiday mode.  The key to this time of year, I've learned, is to be as present in the moment as humanly possible.  I know that's a good thing to practice in general, but especially now when things have the potential to pass by in a whirlwind.  So I will do my absolute best to pick up all the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of this wonderful and wonderous holiday, and to be grateful for every single minute of it.

Happy Holidays!

(P.S.  Don't forget to hop on the web Chrstmas Eve for the 50 States of Pray group posting hosted by the amazingly thoughtful Mark Koopmans.  If there's anything to put you in the Christmas spirit, that's it!)

Celebrate the Small Things- Thanksgiving Edition

Thanks to Viklit for hosting this weekly expression of gratitude!

It's been a great week for me so I've got lots to celebrate!  For starters:

Happy Thanksgiving!  I had a wonderful holiday!  Spent the day surrounded by family, ate entirely too much good food, got great compliments on my contributions to the meal and just generally lived it up Thanksgiving style!  I have so many, many thing in my life that I am thankful for and spending the day being very aware of them made it wonderful.

Vacation!  We're only allowed to carry over so many vacation hours into the new year and I was over my max so I sort-of had to take some time off so I wouldn't lose them after the last pay period.  So the days surrounding Thanksgiving (i.e. before and after) are vacation days for me.  There's been some chores but for the most part our plan is to play as much Lego Lord of the Rings as possible.  (Do you guys know the Lego games?  We're addicted to them!)  So much fun!

NaNo  I am a scant 800ish words away from finishing my 50k and what's more I think I'm pretty danged close to finishing the story- period!  I have never, ever in the five years that I've done this had "The End" coincide with 50k!  Never!  And I can't tell you how good that prospect feels- though I'm going to try because there will definitely be another post up here when I'm done!

2nd Interview  So you all remember me going a bit nuts last week about that interview I had and how well it went?  Well I got the 2nd interview so I'm even more excited now!  I really, really, REALLY want this job and I think they want me, too.  If you've been crossing your fingers for me keep 'em crossed and God willing I'll have a big announcement about being hired next week!

Great week, great holiday, and great friends to share it all with!  So share your celebrations with me!

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1. Suzanne Furness The Word is. . .	2. Julie Flanders	3. tara tyler
4. Lara Lacombe - Romance With an Edge	5. Life, yoga and other adventures	6. Ink in the Book
7. My Baffling Brain	8. Tyreans Writing Spot	9. Writing Off the Edge
10. Lexa Cain	11. Michelle @ Writer~In~Transit	12. The Write Game
13. Writers Mark	14. Entertaining Interests	15. Reading, Writing and Everything in Between
16. Effectively Human	17. Mary Pax	18. Diana Wilder - About myself, by myself. . .
19. Pasha, From Animal Shelter to A Sheltered Life	20. S. K. Anthony	21. Agenthood and Submissionville
22. Defending The Pen	23. Queendsheena	24. Bouquet of Books
25. Kidbits	26. Black Coffee and Cigarettes	27. melanie schulz
28. Shah Wharton's WordsinSync	29. Intentional Insights by S. Kelley Harrell	30. Simply Sarah
31. M. J. Fifield	32. Constantine	33. Nana Prah's Blog
34. Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne	35. Shayla's TeaGarden	36. The Beveled Edge
37. Meredith's Musings	38. Sarah J. Clift	39. Fiction and Film
40. Scribbling In The Storage Room	41. Mere Joyce	42. Patricia's Place
43. In Between	44. A Place on the Bookshelf	45. Bames Live
46. Life Happens	47. Michie	48. Rhonda @ Laugh-Quotes
49. Shells, Tales and Sails	50. dreaming of publication	51. My path to self publishing multicultural novels
52. Lowfell writers place	53. My Little Avalon	54. Ashley Nixon YA F, S; A LF
55. Writeful Melodies	56. Reviews From A Bookworm	57. Finding Time
58. OnBecomingAWriter	59. Viklit	60. The Narrator's Study
61. Author M. J. Flournoy's blog	62. Feather's Passion	63. The Enchantress @ chinkysinghal. blogspot. co
64. Mei - Thankful for my furry friends!	65. Sandra Cox

On Halloween Treats

I am a baker.  I’m not a frequent baker but when I bake, I go all out.  Halloween is one of those times when it’s no holds barred for me in the kitchen.  Both because of my fondness for the holiday as well as the fact that Halloween treats are pretty special in their own right.

Monster’s toes.  Mini mummies.  Cheesy eye balls.  Ghoul’s grog.  What other time of the year do you get the chance to create delicious confections that look like disgusting monster’s body parts or ingredients in a witch’s brew?  One of my favorites?  The aforementioned monster’s toes that look like their name but taste like their ingredients- chocolate covered pretzels.  (The chocolate is green and the toenails are almond slices.)  They tend to go over well.

Usually, I display my baking abilities at my annual Halloween party.  This year, for a variety of reasons, I didn’t host one.  But I love baking and can’t skip the opportunity to make my favorite Halloween treats.  So I was up till super late last night making tons of sugary treats for my co-workers which I served at our monthly potluck.  And I did host in my office, since I covered my office in Halloween decorations at the beginning of the month.  And, because I do usually host my own parties, I had tons of left over Halloween plates and cups and napkins and my creepy lack-o-lantern tablecloth.

While no one was in costume, it was still a great little party.  And all my co-workers complemented me on the food, which is half the reason I bake anyway.  That and the fact that there’s nothing better than a big plate of monster’s toes.