1. I took the photo above last Friday afternoon during what I suspected would be the last trail walk of the season for my Chief Culinary Consultant and me (I think I was right). The leaves were so vibrant, but unfortunately, most of them lay on the ground. Goodbye, fall! I’m sad to see you go, but I’m looking forward to the holidays – it makes the cold, wet weather worth it!

2. I’m pretty sure my dog dreams that he’s Superman while he’s sleeping. I have no other explanation for this:

3. Current pet peeve: Use of the word “totes” in place of “totally”. It burns my ears when I hear it and my eyes when I read it. I must be getting old, because I’m totally over all of this abbreviated slang talk being used since text messaging and social media took over the universe. I’m yearning for some proper English.

4. Although I’ve never succeeded at a daily photo challenge before, I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring again this month. Hopefully it will get me ready for some good holiday picture-taking. Check out the November Photo-a-Day Challenge from fat mum slim for all of the details! Below are the prompts for November:

You can check out my daily photos on Instagram and Twitter – look for the ones posted with the hashtag #FMSphotoaday. I’ll be posting a roundup of all of my November photos here in a blog post after the month is complete.

5. Last year, my Chief Culinary Consultant started watching Homeland before moving back to Pittsburgh. After months of telling me I needed to start watching it and getting caught up on the first season (it just started season two), I finally sat down to watch the first episode a few days ago. I was hooked less than 10 minutes into the episode, and could have easily spent the next 6 hours watching the show. The next day, I watched three more episodes. I can’t wait to finish season one and get up to speed on season two! If you have Showtime and haven’t seen it yet, you HAVE to watch it! I was totally missing out!

6. We caught the last half of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on Wednesday night. Charlie Brown always gets me in the mood for the holidays, and now I can’t wait for this:

7. Speaking of Halloween, I didn’t buy any Halloween candy this year (no trick or treaters at my house, which is on a main road). I feel like I’ve deprived myself, and now I’m craving Snickers and Reese’s peanut butter cups. I feel a candy binge coming on!

8. Because I can’t wrap my head around how anyone could not love bacon…

9. I’m pretty sure that in four years when the next presidential election rolls around, I’m going to ban myself from Facebook. If I don’t remember, please remind me.

10. TGIF! Hug a friend this weekend!