Random Thoughts

It is warming up around here again. I don't know what the high temperature was but it is supposed to be 73 tomorrow.

Fall in Mississippi is different than fall any other place I have lived. There aren't many leaves changing colors (nothing like in Ohio and Michigan) and the temperature is all over the place! I am not complaining, mind you. Just observing. Our apartment complex manager said that someone came in and said that Mississippi skipped fall this year. We went straight from summer to winter. It was in the low 60s that day, so if that is what winter in Mississippi is like, I am good.

A few other random thoughts:

• I am on the lookout for a pick your own orchard. I can't seem to find one in Mississippi or Alabama. All of the websites I have found to look up pick your own places have turned up nothing. Any ideas or websites would be appreciated. I don't want to continue paying $8 a bag for apples. (I have found them cheaper, but it isn't consistant.)
• Kitchen decluttering is coming along. As I go through it, I realize that there is a lot that can be stored away a seasonal (skewers for the summer, for example) and more than I thought can go to out. Some I am going to take to the park tomorrow to see if anyone in my homeschool group wants them before I post to Freecycle.
• I ordered the part from Cuisinart - which leads me to ask "What happened to customer service?" I found the part online and decided to call Cuisinart before I ordered - just to make sure it was the right part. The first guy I talked to was nice, but not helpful at all. He told me they didn't even have the part available any more. I called back and the second customer service rep was not nice at all. She raised her voice to me and called me a liar (when I told her that the other guy said it wasn't available.) I do not give my money to companies who treat me poorly so I confirmed that it was the right part and ordered it from somewhere else.
  
• Tomorrow is our Halloween party with our homeschool group. I bought popcorn balls, and I think I am going to make these. If Marty gets home from work any time soon, that is. If not, I will stop and pick something up on the way.
• Tomorrow is also a pizza party at our apartment complex. Pizza and candy. Gee, I wonder if any of my boys want to go?
  
• I still haven't decided if we are going to hand out candy. The complex manager said that not many kids trick-or-treat here, but I wonder if I should still have something for the few kids who show up.
  
• There has been a discussion about chicken paprikash on a website I frequent, and it brought back memories of our vacation up north. (That's the upper peninsula of Michigan for you southerners.) The family who owns the resort we stayed at were Hungarian (well, he was) and she made the best. paprikash. ever. It is the easiest thing ever to make (I used this recipe) and it was pretty good. (Not as good as her paprikash, but close.) I served mine over egg noodles and did not make the home made spatzle that she did. I just don't have that kind of energy. The leftover juice is safely tucked away in the freezer for paprikash soup.
  
• An old friend and I had a text message chat today. She ran in to my mom the day we changed from a Michigan to Mississippi number... right before I called my mom with the new number. Her husband ran in to my mom again and got the new number. She is going to call me tonight, after 9. (I assume they are a cell only family.)