Thursday 13: Falling for Fall

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Autumn Running from iStockPhoto.com

I haven’t been blogging lately – the need to do so ebbs and flows, and that’s okay – but I woke this morning to the sight of frost on the neighbor’s rooftop, so thought I’d share a list today in the grand old Thursday 13 tradition.

  1. Onomatopoetic Environments: Crunch! go the leaves beneath our feet. Creak! go the trees as they are pushed by the wind. Groan! go the pipes as hot water rushes through them. Hiss! says the heater when we cave in and turn it on.
  2. Sweater Weather: We’ve settled into the time of year when we can wear long sleeves or a light sweater during the day, and bundle into comfy cotton-flannel pajamas in the evening.
  3. De-bugging: Okay, we still have a few mosquitoes here in Texas, but there are fewer of them, and the stragglers are sluggish. If only the fleas would go away, as well.
  4. Cozy Mornings: Birdsong, soft light, whuffling dogs, fresh coffee, oatmeal with craisins, lingering over coffee…
  5. Guilt-free Baths: I might still take bubble baths in summer, but in fall I don’t feel like I have to justify the need to soak in steamy, sudsy, lavender-scented water. Also? I love the tingle on my skin, when I step out of my warm bath and into the chill air of the bathroom.
  6. Frost: Frost counts as a “weather event” here, and we’ve just had our first glimpse of it. I love the way the sun melts it away, oh, so slowly, as warm light replaces cold.
  7. Fall Produce: Yes, our modern society allows us to have squash and apples year round if we really want it, but food tastes best when it’s actually in season. Pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash, root vegetables, and apples – fall foods, all.
  8. Soups and Stews: Fall is soup weather. Rainy days, cool nights, and the need for easy lunches all mean that my crockpot gets a workout. A recent favorite? Chicken and sweet potato soup. So delicious.
  9. Quilts: I have no desire to step back in time and live on the prairie with the Ingalls family, but I do love the way a warm quilt doesn’t just serve a purpose, but is also a piece of art. I have books on quilting, and all the required materials, and yet, I never take the leap into making a quilt of my own. Must. Fix. This.
  10. Lamplight: This is a frequent theme with me, but I love the soft light of lamps, as opposed to harsh overhead lighting. I also love streetlamps, and fall is when you get to enjoy deep twilight and glowing streetlights in prime form.
  11. Figure Skating: I’m not a big follower of sports. I’ll watch the occasional baseball or hockey game. I like seeing soccer players in those tiny shorts. But the sports that I actually look forward to are horse racing (in spring) and figure skating. Skate France is on tv this Sunday. Guess what my plans are?
  12. Festivals: I’m a sucker for a good small-town festival, and fall is rife with them. Apple festivals. Pumpkin festivals. Craft fairs. Harvest fests. Even the state fair. Some are cheesy, it’s true, but it’s good to embrace hometown corn once in a while.
  13. Antici…pation: Even without the knowledge that Christmas is creeping ever closer (or we’re creeping closer to it, as the calendar is fixed), fall always fills me with anticipation. For holidays, for seeing family, for favorite foods. For the first local performances of Nutcracker. For the first time I see my breath when I take the dogs out in the morning. For the sense that all of the dying leaves and dwindling greenery isn’t an ending, but a Great Preparation for all the things yet to come in the next week, month, quarter, year.

For more of my thoughts on autumn, check out last week’s Sunday Brunch post, Sunday Brunch: The Light in Autumn over at All Things Girl.

Find a PetSitter, Help A Shelter Dog

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CuddlyMax

This is quick and dirty because it’s Halloween, and I’m hugely busy, but I wanted to share this before the campaign ends tonight.

The folks at DogVacay, a site that helps you find a pet sitter, are providing a meal to a shelter dog for every new sign-up they get during October. They asked me if I’d mention it, and even though I haven’t used their site…yet…I think they offer a great service, and I’m a sucker for anyone willing to help an animal.

Max, Teddy, and Perry think this is pretty cool, especially since they were all shelter dogs, once upon a time, and are also familiar with what it’s like when their humans go away, and they have to stay with a pet sitter (or, more likely, have a sitter stay with them.)

We used to kennel Cleo (RIP) and Zorro (RIP) but switched to sitters years ago because it’s less stressful for the animals, and one less thing we have to remember.

So, check out DogVacay, and sign up today, and feed a shelter dog.

(I was asked if I’d write something, but there was no compensation for doing so…Happy Halloween!)

Sunday Salon: Henna and Holmes

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Sunday Salon

I haven’t done a Sunday Salon post in the better part of a year, and when I have done them in the past, I’ve always hosted them over at my book blog, Bibliotica, but I felt like talking about what I’ve been reading, and I felt like putting it here.

Over the last month, I’ve re-energized Bibliotica thanks, mostly, to TLC Book tours and Pump Up Your Book. Both companies are women owned/women run, which is something that matters to me. Whatever are personal opinions about politics, religion, fashion, or the perfect espresso drink, I believe it’s important for women to support other women.

In any case, Bibliotica has at least three posts a week already scheduled through mid-November (and I’m booking December and January now).

I read quickly, and I find time to read in between doing other things, when I have to, because not-reading makes me cranky. I read in the bathroom, in the bathtub and during meals if Fuzzy and I aren’t eating together. I read in bed, I read out by the pool…you get the idea.

There are some books that I enjoy and never think of again, and some that stick with me. Of the latter type that I’ve read in the past few months, Michael Perry’s Visiting Tom: A Man, A Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace is a favorite, because Perry’s memoirs are always incredibly vivid and honest.

Dora Machado’s The Curse Giver was a beautiful, lyrical fantasy with a great balance of romance and action.

Painted Hands, by Jennifer Zobair is a great glimpse into the life of the modern Muslim-American woman, shows us that there is such a thing as Muslim Feminism, and taught me that some women hide their hopes and dreams in their henna tattoos when getting mendhi on their hands for weddings.

For the last week, I’ve been immersed in The Displaced Detective series by Stephanie Osborn, which gives us a new version of Sherlock Holmes, set in a time and place that is essentially our own (and includes references to Stargate, and the Eleventh Doctor, among other lovely details.)

Those books won’t be featured until next week, but they’ve not only kept me vastly entertained, they’ve also rekindled my ever-present-but-often-dormant love of all things Sherlockian, and a little more Holmes in one’s life is never a bad thing. (Actually, Tabz gets some of the credit for that, as well.)

Today, I’m finishing a book about having a healthy voice (that’s for tomorrow’s review) and puttering around the house. I might catch up on Project Runway. I might just play with the dogs or do some laundry. My eyes are still really tired – I scratched my right cornea early last week, and was essentially offline Wednesday and Thursday because I couldn’t see – and I’m trying to limit computer time on weekends, because there’s such a thing as being TOO plugged in.

I love puttery Sundays with no real plans, almost as much as I like soaking in the tub while listening to NPR on Saturday evenings, and frou-frou coffee.

Speaking of which, I talked about all of those things in this week’s Sunday Brunch, which is subtitled On Being a Fan.

Happy Reading, and Make it a Great Week.

We All Float Here

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Under the Tub It may be a first world problem, but for someone who styles herself The Bathtub Mermaid, it’s a personal tragedy: my bathtub is broken.

Early last week I was taking a bath, and I overfilled the tub. When I pulled the drain plug to let some water out, instead of just the plug coming up, the whole drain came out of the tub. Upon investigation, we learned that the elbow joint meant to connect the drain to the drainpipe was on the ground under the tub.

We called the home warranty company, and they sent a plumber who said we had to remove the ceramic tile step at the end of the tub. We tried, but there’s no way to do that without breaking into the actual floor. However, when we cut into the drywall half-wall at the back of the tub we saw that the pipe is NOT under the ceramic tile, but under the tub.

So now we’re waiting for the plumber to come back.

Meanwhile, there’s a gaping hole in the fake wall at the end of the tub (Fuzzy has put his dremel case in front of it, so a) I don’t have to see it and b) the dogs won’t explore it and c) no creepy-crawly things emerge from it) but I’ve clearly read too many Stephen King novels, because every time I see the expanse of exposed pipe, or catch a glimpse of the drain hole in my tub, in which the drain fixture currently is not, I keep thinking of Pennywise the Clown from It.

I’m really glad my neighborhood doesn’t have old-style gutters with metal grates, because, as it is, every time I enter my bathroom I hear a filtered version of Tim Curry’s voice growling, “We all float here.”

DCC Fan Days is Coming

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DCC Fan Days

Just a quick update to let people know that I’m covering Dallas Comic Con Fan Days (Website: http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/fandays.html) the 4-6 of October. I’ll be doing this in my role of editor-at-large for All Things Girl.

Last year, we attended as ‘just fans’, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted to engaging with the actual comicbook (one word, per Stan Lee) artists, so this year my focus will be on that, and on the fan experience in general.

Fall in Love

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couple-with-heart-smiling_by_laskvv-via-istockphoto

An excerpt from a letter to a friend’s daughter:

Fourth, fall in love. Fall in love hard. And often. Enjoy it, because love – real love – is messy and exciting and kinda scary. But don’t get married. At least, don’t get married until you’re over 25, have seen Europe, have lived on your own for at least a year, and have experienced at least one TRULY TRAGIC love affair.

You can hear the whole letter, and a wee bit more in today’s entry for the Dog Days of Podcasting.

Link: DDoP #16 – Unsolicited Advice.

Dog Days of Podcasting: Steeping

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Steeping

I wrote a cafe vignette called “Steeping” yesterday, and recorded it for today’s entry into the Dog Days of Podcasting project.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I can’t believe you lingered here long enough to let espresso go cold, as busy as it is in here today,” Sarah ventured once they were alone again.

“I was working on a poem,” David confessed.

“I had no idea you were a poet. Are you published? Can I read your stuff?”
“I am, when I’m not wearing bike pants and delivering documents around town,” David answered, taking each of her questions in order. “I’ve published a couple pieces here and there,” he continued. “And as to reading it…the stuff I’m working on right now needs to steep a bit.”

“Poems steep?”

“Just like tea,” David said.

You can listen to the whole piece at SoundCloud or click play in the applet below:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/107408428″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Dog Days of Podcasting

Dog Days of Podcasting: Sunday Brunch – Mail Call

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letterboxes-615

Is it technically Sunday Brunch if I record it at 6:30 PM? Do I really care? The answer to both questions is NO!

The piece itself is the Sunday Brunch piece from 26 August 2012. You can read it, listen to it on SoundCloud, or play it in the applet below.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/107216257″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Dog Days of Podcasting

Dog Days of Podcasting: Darmok and Dogs

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Dog Days of Podcasting

This episode really should be called “Swimming with Morgan,” but it’s not. It’s just a ramble. I’m tired and my throat hurts, and it just struck me that if I’d finished any of the three things I had started to write, I would have had a much shorter entry.

Eleven minutes on Darmok and Dogs.

Accompanied by Teddy Bear on the Rawhide Chew, if you hear weird chewing sounds

Listen at SoundCloud or click below:
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/106974070″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]