I should have taken a before picture of my cute apple mummy turnover before I warmed it up and melted its eyes. But it was delicious and I can’t feel too bad about it.

I hope you all have a wonderful week before Halloween! Pick up your favorite candy. Figure out what costume you want to wear around the house or to the grocery store. Settle on scary or cute for your jack o’lantern’s style. You got this!

I was perhaps not as dedicated to the Readathon as I should have been. I finished one book, started a second, and made progress on a third. But I also went to a (socially distanced) concert, played too much on my phone, cooked supper, watched SNL, and knit.

But I still think that’s okay. I mean it’s 2020. Any forward progress that doesn’t come with a slap across the face has to be considered a win, right?

And I had fun reading, which is its own reward.

This Saturday, I’ll be taking part in Dewey’s Readathon. I have no plans to do the full 24 hours, but will be spending some of my waking hours reading.

And to prep, here are my answers to the opening survey:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

The U.S. Washington, D.C., in particular.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I left the final third of How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse to finish as part of the event, and I’m very invested in the outcome.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

I probably did not prep adequately for snacking at home, so I’ll be taking a coffeeneuring break at some point. There will be a baked good of some ilk.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

My reading tastes in 2020 run toward romances, because I desperately need some happy endings. I’m a big fiction fan, but sometimes branch out into memoir. I am a big proponent of my local library, which kicks ass and which lends me way more books than they should.

I like to bake, knit, garden, and hang out with friends when there’s not a stupid pandemic going on. I have a demanding cat named Corey, who does not particularly care for reading. And I am a big fan of holidays, particularly Halloween and Christmas. (I run a Virtual Advent Tour in December for bloggers. Drop me a note in the comments if you’re new to the blog and interested in more details.)

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I think the last time I participated was last fall or maybe spring 2019. I will be interspersing my reading with some outdoor time — and probably some politicking.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I ran into my friend Katie, from my volleyball team, as I was on my way to the garden. It was great to catch up in person.

2. I got up early on Wednesday (my one meeting-free morning) to head to our local yuppy grocery store/restaurant/bar because they recently launched a weekly apple cider doughnut special. The doughnuts were … terrible … but now I don’t have to get up early on any subsequent Wednesday to rush over there. (To be fair, it does sound like fryer oil temperature and their desperate attempt to keep up with the demand is to blame here, so it’s possible they could rectify the situation in the future. But I don’t need to pay to find that out.)

3. A relapse of warm weather meant I went to the park to read after work while wearing shorts and a tshirt. I mean, sure, eventually I was using my phone’s flashlight to finish the chapter, but I wasn’t cold!

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Intellectually, I understand that if my knitting stays in my purse and I do not work on it, it will not progress. Yet, somehow, when I pulled it out tonight, I was surprised that it was still just the handful of rounds I’d knit last week. If only elves were knitters, rather than cobblers! (Or if I could knit in my sleep…)

I am making progress with my book. I’m pretty much at the halfway point, and I’d be surprised if I weren’t done by Saturday, since I really like the characters.

Anyway, see what the other Unravelers are up to at As Kat Knits.

I may have mentioned before that Rudi is generally the cook around here. It’s not that I can’t cook; it’s just that I don’t particularly like to. And that when I do, inevitably supper happens at midnight. We eat dinner pretty late around here on a normal basis, but my cooking took us to such new levels after Rudi’s first convalescence years ago that he resumed cooking duties within a week of returning home. After his second surgery, he took over the next night.

However, needs do as needs must, and after ten days of sort of suffering through the easy options in my pantry, tonight I pulled up my big girl pants and made stuffed honeynut squash for supper.

I had ingredients on hand because I keep shopping as if someone in the Burrow is going to cook real food. Corey has shown no inclination, so it really did fall to me.

Anyway, they were stuffed with a combination of millet barley, spinach, garlic, shallots, and cranberries and topped with feta. The cranberries made it a tart filling, which contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the squash.

And I was smart and cooked all the honeynuts I had, so I should have two more meals that just need to be reheated.

Thank the heavens.