The jack-o-lanterns are extinguished, wild characters no longer roam the night seeking sugary handouts, and one ninja turtle and one ladybug are all tuckered out, sound asleep.

It's less than an hour to November, so I'm going to take the little bit of 31st that I have left to say Happy Halloween!

Impact! It's not just for fonts anymore!

Speaking of fonts, here's a great font joke that makes me giggle every time I hear it....

Two fonts walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, "Hey! We don't serve your type here!"

Hmm...maybe it's funnier if you're a graphic artist?

So anyway, as I was saying about impact....my convertible coupe got a good-sized nudge toward being a compact today when approached rather forcefully from behind by a mid-size SUV.

That's right. I got rear-ended. During what passes for rush hour around here. In an underpass.

Don't worry! I'm okay. (I think. My back hurts, but I'm not sure if that's from the accident, or jumping back into my Pilates routine this morning.) And, the children are okay, since they were in the safest place that children can be in an accident--far, far away from the car, still at daycare. My poor little red convertible, while not injured as badly as it felt like from the initial blow, is still to be counted amongst the rolling wounded. I'm not really a car person, but Lion, who is, says that there are some welds underneath that are broken. Exterior damage is minimal. It remains to be seen what the ultimate verdict will be.

The crazy, Murphy's-laughing-his-butt-off-at-me bit of this is that we paid the darn thing off just this afternoon. *sigh*

Oh! And speaking of Murphy....after the accident, after the police report, I took Lion's truck to go pick up the children, and came nose to nose with a nice little notice that a child was sent home with head lice! So, not only am I shell-shocked, I'm itchy. *shudder*

It is sooooooooooooo a Monday around here.

However, that's not to say that the everything has been all bad around here. Far from it! The leaves are leafing in lovely fashion, the children are growing and thriving, the weather is delightfully fallish, and a person's a person, no matter how smallish!

Oh...wow. Too much Dr. Seuss for the kids? Or adrenaline overdose for me? I admit I'm feeling a bit wacky right now. Still, here's a little tidbit that was pretty darn funny this weekend.

This past weekend, we were at the store trying to find some black pants for Cub's ladybug costume. The children were reaching the very end of their good behavior, and were having trouble with the whole, "look but don't touch" concept, so Lion said, "Hey, you two! Keep your hands to yourself!" Only to look up and see two teenagers who'd been sort of draped around each other on their way through that part of the store leap apart, blushing and stuffing their hands in their pockets.

So anyhow, that's the story right now. Speaking of stories, I've got a whole bucketload of things to talk about, including a scouting outing, trick or trunking, rollerblading and more! Maybe all it took was a good jolt to shake me into writing again.

Ushered in by two days of heavy rain and occasional fierce lightning, the first breath of winter gusts down from the north. Almost overnight, the leaves have begun to don their fall colors. We haven't had the first frost of the year yet, but it isn't exactly shorts weather, either. It's the sort of day for staying inside, curled up by a roaring fire.

The silence that crept up on me in September has lingered on into October. Mostly, it's been busy around here. Extra projects, both at work, and around the house, have kept us hopping. This past week was positively infested with meetings.

Now, however (and yes, I know I say what I'm about to say with depressing regularity as well), I hope to get back to doing a little more posting. And a little more writing. I guess we'll have to see how both of those go.

Now, if you'll excuse me, their's a big fuzzy blanket, and a book calling my name.