Morning Coffee

My dear friend – it’s been so long since we last saw each other! Let’s chat over a hot cup of coffee.

I can’t believe it’s been weeks since we last talked. Wait. Three Weeks!?!? I guess I haven’t been a very good friend. But, let me catch you up on what’s been happening.

I’ve started adding pictures to my book. This is proving more difficult than I thought as I try to decide what to put in, what to leave out, what captions to write, and what photos to let speak for themselves.

School was out for another Hurricane Day due to Hurricane Michael. Our area didn’t get much damage, but of course we wouldn’t know that until after the storm. Better safe than sorry. We’re still good on days, too.

I joked with a friend over making John Calvin- inspired wall art for Hobby Lobby and made this:

I made a few burgers. One of them I wrote about and one I still have to post.

Krystal and I made a trip to Second & Charles one weekend and I picked up a few books. I also went to the library. Now I have more than enough reading to make it through the end of the year. I also added to my Pusheen collection.

After several years, I finally broke down and bought Death Wish coffee. It is well worth the price and is possibly not only the strongest coffee I’ve had, but also the best tasting. Now I want to make coffee with a Chemex. Just FYI, I’m only drinking one of these a week.

Oh, I can finally tell you what was in that brown box I got back in August! It was a copy of Karen Swallow Prior’s On Reading Well. After several false starts due to Hurricane Florence, I was finally able to schedule and record an interview. I did my first ever solo interview with a blue-check-verified-on-Twitter author!!

You can listen to the interview here, or subscribe to “Christian Humanist Profiles” on your favorite podcatcher and look for the “On Reading Well” episode. You can also read my review.

Several weeks ago I received my usual newsletter from Quail Ridge Books, my favorite independent bookstore within driving distance (read: two hours one-way).

Imagine my shock when I saw that Cressida Cowell, author of the How to Train Your Dragon books would be making an appearance! Krystal and I love listening to her books in the car on our long drives to the cons (especially since they’re narrated by David Tennant). We just had to go see her – in costume of course!

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That’s right folks – Cressida Cowell herself liked and responded to our posts. But it got better. Quail Ridge posted us on their Instagram feed:

And in the signing line Cressida was more than gracious taking photos with her fans, but she asked to take a picture with us!!

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Of course the day couldn’t be quite perfect, and on the way home the air quit working, the check engine light came on, and we got a flat tire. We rolled down the windows and put air in the tire (it had gotten low due to changes in temperature). We made it home safely.

The following day I reset the code for the engine, which (so far) has fixed the air and took the car in for a long-overdue oil change and air filter replacement.

That evening was also our school’s “Fall Family Fun Night”. As usual I baked a pie for the auction. It didn’t go for as much as it had in the past, but the response? Oh, the response!

I had a piece of your pie and oh my goodness. Yeah. Best pie I’ll ever have in my life. 💚💚💚💚💚💚

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The next day Krystal and I headed down to the Fayetteville Comic Con. We had fun in our Viking cosplay and had our first-ever caricature done:

On the way back we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel and I bought a box of banana MoonPies and a bottle of Moxie soda as our local grocer was out of both. A good thing, too, since on Monday I found out that our local Publix is no longer stocking Moxie soda. Now I must rely once again on the kindness of traveling family and friends.

This past Thursday I once again traveled back to Quail Ridge Books, this time to see author John Scalzi, on tour for his now-NYT Bestseller The Consuming Fire. If you look at his Twitter bio you’ll see this:

So of course I had to make him an apple pie.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with him this trip, but he did write this inscription for me:

And then, the next day, he tweeted about the pie!

For those of you wondering, here’s what the pie looked like. Of course, now that I have a famous author’s endorsement, I can’t help but blurb it.

On the way back I got another low tire and had a bear of a time getting the in-car plug to work properly; in fact, I had to drive slow until I got home to fix and inflate everything.

The next day (Friday) all the tires on my car were low and I ended up running forty minutes late. Thankfully I generally plan to be 75 minutes early.

Yesterday (Saturday) was the last really long run before the OBX Marathon November 11. It was a rough run as I was kind of in a hurry, and in my hurry forgot a few important things, namely my anti-chafing gel and acetaminophen. I also fought against an ever-changing wind. Still, I finished and came in under my personal goal:

Then it was off to Tryon Palace to volunteer for a few hours:

Towards the end of the day I sneezed once and it was like opening the flood gates. Now I’m on medication that makes me incredibly drowsy (heed the warning that says not to drive or operate heavy machinery!!), my head is dizzy and stuffy, and I feel like I’m struggling to breathe.

Hopefully this clears up soon.

Whew, that was quite a bit, wasn’t it?

What have you been up to?