Fall Dates

I love Fall, except that we don’t really have one here. I mean, we’re just about in mid-October and the forecast calls for 90 degrees for the next 10 days.

Also, Thomas and I don’t really go on “dates”. We usually just stay in or go to his parents’ house for events. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like some dates!

Assuming the weather cools down and we get some fall-like temperatures, I would love to go to a pumpkin patch to pick some pumpkins. Who am I kidding, I’ll go even if it’s 90 out.  I’ve never actually done this before, but it seems like so much fun. Now that we have our own home we can decorate and I love fall decorations. I already bought some mini pumpkins to put in the living room.

We headed to the festival at the local college/farm. I had never noticed that they had a pumpkin patch. They had freshly growing pumpkins but mostly they had pumpkins that had been placed there. Either way we had fun and found a nice sized pumpkin for $4!

Haunted Festivals! I love to be scared. I love to feel protected by my husband even more. Although it has been my experience that more than protect me he delivers me to the people doing the scaring. Either way, I enjoy going to the haunted houses. This year we had free tickets!

On Saturday night we went to The Rise of the Jack O Lanternshttp://therise.org/ - an event that is hosted in Los Angeles and New York every year. It's about 5,000 pumpkins (or funkins) that are carved out. They have a ton of amazing ones:

Movies. I guess this doesn’t really pertain to being an autumn date, but we never really go out to the movies. We usually watch them at home, which is nice, but it can get boring, too. I think there are a couple I’d like to check out in the next couple of months.

We didn't go on a date to the movies, but we did go see the Alexander movie with my brother and the kids on Sunday afternoon. Very cute movie! 

I’m pretty lame. These are as fun as it gets in my head. I’m looking forward to reading other dating ideas to beef my calendar up a bit!

Favorite Fall Drink

I confess…

I don’t love coffee. I know! I KNOW! Please don’t hate me.

I just can’t deal with the flavor drinking it. I’ve tried. I’ve tried drinking it with different syrups, flavors, sugars, whatever. Nothing works. Even the pumpkin spice ones. I only ever drink it if I’m to be driving long distances and need something to keep me awake. At which point I get it iced so that as the ice melts it tastes less and less like coffee.

HOWEVER, I do like dipping my donuts in coffee. I also LOVE the smell of coffee. 

Still, I have a Starbucks favorite. Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate  Some people get freaked out by the salted part, but it is amazing. I wish it were under 90 degrees here so I could enjoy this today, but it’s super-hot. I have to wait another month before it’ll be cool enough to drink. They put the salt on the top, and add caramel and toffee syrup. The toffee is what really makes it amazing. It should be called Salted Toffee Caramel Hot Chocolate.

I’ll sometimes have this during the year, even once the stores run out of the salt. I just ask them to make it with the toffee. Of course that toffee makes it so high in everything that it’s horribly bad for you, but I don’t have it often, so that makes it okay, right?

If you’re ever in the mood for hot chocolate I definitely recommend this drink at Starbucks!

So... We're All Talking About Fall, Right?

Friday, Sept. 19: What's your favorite season and why?

This is not as easy to answer as you might think. I live in Los Angeles which has amazing weather 95% of the year (okay, maybe 99%). In the past week we endured a heat wave that took temperatures soaring to 115 and only brought them down to the mid 70’s at night. Which to me meant AC on constantly and windows closed.

Before this heat wave we had an amazing summer with temperatures going up to 90, but not much more than that. Nights were cool and dipped into the 60’s. It was an unusually not-hot as hell summer.

The rest of the year is mostly the same. The temperatures stay between the 60s and 80s. Very little rain. Never any snow.

But still, it’s hard to pick which season I like the most. Right now I am thinking Fall, mostly because I like the spirit of fall. I love the cinnamon smells, the potential leaves (because a lot of the trees around here are evergreens) on the ground, the salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks, and pumpkin. I LOVE pumpkin flavored things and specially Costco Pumpkin Pie. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It is great AND cheap ($6 maybe?).

I also love the idea of being able to put on sweaters and boots. Usually it’s too warm for this, but sometimes we get lucky and the days cool down enough to allow a sweater for at least the morning and late evening. I’m hoping that after this heat wave it will be possible again.

Maybe I like fall and winter because we don’t really have them here and if we did I would prefer the summer. Here’s to hoping we have a cool streak beyond this heat wave!