The Arrival of Fall (and Wendy) to Wisconsin

You know it's fall in Wisconsin when all of the Hortons begin getting excited about the Gaysmills Apple Festival. This year was different in that Arlo and I were among them. We all met up on the first day in the small town you see in the beginning of the blog. There the kids had fun on carnival rides, we all ate a so-so lunch and then looked at the local arts and crafts wares for sale. I don't know about you, but I can just NEVER have too many kitchen towels with Packer logos on them! From there, we went to the flea market, which was HUGE, and wandered through isles and isles of stuff. Arlo and I found an axe, which made Arlo very happy as he can now chop stuff for our fire pit, and for the rest of the day, he kept pointing stuff out that he could chop, if I wanted him to. I declined, as I would think that the vendors wouldn't like it if he chopped up their vintage baby cradles. As the kids grew sleepier, crankier, and louder, we knew it was time to wrap it up and get to the important part of Apple Festival- The Apples!! So, we headed to Arlo's favorite orchard and (to my dismay) we didn't have to pick the apples, they were all ready for us in huge bags. We left with not just one bag of apples, but three. This is very different from my usual 5-6 apples when I go to the grocery store, one for each day, bit. I'm immediately thinking of all of the things I should do to "use up" these apples before they go bad, pies, apple sauce, more pies. Funny enough, I tend to just keep doing what I have been doing all along, one apple a day. Suddenly, three bags don't seem to be an absurd idea. We ended the weekend with a pancake breakfast held in the town church. It was delicious, but some of us (Arlo) couldn't use self-restraint and ended up with a stomachache. Oh, yeah, and to explain the picture of the goat, on the way out of town we stopped at Peck's, a produce place that has a petting zoo out back with goats, potbellied pigs, a camel, a miniature horse, ducks, etc. As you can imagine, this was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

Since then, October has started, our fall shows are in full swing, including Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, and Arlo's recent find, which you should check out if you have BBC, Gavin and Stacey. We have had some really fun times, including when Arlo made me a super awesome suprise dinner of crab legs, asparagus, and corn on the cob. It was delicious! As you can see, I am enjoying it! We have also been having some fun dates, like going out for mini-bowling at Koz's, a local bar, playing trivia at Nomad, another bar, and checking out the local scene at Robert's, up the street from us. I haven't been keeping track of my Live Music Tally, but we went to see some live music too, Cory Chisel and the Traveling Sons (I think that's the name anyway). Cool band. For more detail than that, check out Arlo's blog.

So, other than that, what else? Hmmm...there was my VISIT FROM WENDY!!! Wendy came and stayed with us on her way to Seattle this past weekend and it was AWESOME! It was so great to have someone her who knows me and has been my friend for quite some time. After picking her up at the airport it seemed like she's been here the whole time, we just picked right up. We spent the weekend doing what we did best as friends, talking (a lot), crafting, watching tv, eating, thrift shopping, and drinking wine. In addition, we did two things that we haven't done in the past- sing kareoke and search for a bronz statue of The Fonz from Happy Days. Both were successful endeavors. The singing took place at Robert's. We originally went there to see the Neill Diamond impersonator (don't judge, it's our local bar!), but they were doing kareoke instead, for Sweetest Day (like Valentine's Day, don't ask). As I have always wanted to try it and never had the courage, and Wendy was feeling the same way, we decided that now would be the perfect time, as there were about 10 people in the bar, including us, and the average age was 51. I sang Copacobana, and Wendy did Blister in the Sun. Both were huge hits! It was a wonderful weekend, but it had to come to an end. I dropped Wendy off at the airport at the butt-crack of dawn on Monday morning and then headed back to bed, sleepy and sad after the send-off. Now, it's back to the job search, waiting tables, and perhaps a renewed quest for a new female friend. Not that Arlo doesn't make a fabulous boyfriend and friend, but no one can be someone's everything. Wow, that was a mouthful. Alright, need to be going. Time to exercise and do all of the other things on my list of things that need to get done today. Oh, before I go though, one more thing. Marley's been doing some strange things lately and we are wondering if he's having an identity crisis after living in a house with two cats. Is this weird? Peace out to Bill (and everyone else).