Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

pumpkin

Happy Pumpkin Dunking Season!

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Happy Pumpkin Season everybody.

I got the first clue seeing the huge stacks of pumpkins outside the grocery store a few weeks ago. Then inside, I spotted pumpkin donuts and Cheerios. I had no clue those existed. Where have I been?

It’s official. Snacking season is off to the races!

It’s pumpkin everything. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin eggnog, pumpkin decorated cookies.

Really, we all just need to walk around in sweatpants. Oh wait, many folks do. Gotta love an elastic waist for the holidays. And the kickoff event is tomorrow. Candy palooza. Whether you take the kids or grandkids out, or stock up and eat at home, you do you.

Given the current crazy in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, I am sure there will be a brigade of frog costumes on the march this Halloween. Support the ribbits!

For those of us who just eat candy at home and are proud of it, Oregon might have another dousing rainstorm, but we’re good. We’re not the beaver and duck state for nothing. If we didn’t do things in the rain, absolutely nothing would get accomplished.

Plus, Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood got lots of snow last weekend. SNOW!

You know what that means. On Halloween I will be kicking off the Crock Pot season, with a recipe I stumbled across on Pinterest. Crock pot creamy chicken parmesan soup. It looks so good. And I prefer the appliance does the simmering, while I relax. Genuis invention. In case you want to try it, here is the link. https://ladysavor.com/crock-pot-creamy-chicken-parmesan-soup

And what will I be doing while waiting on my Crock Pot?

Binge watching more of Ted Lasso on Netflix. I’m probably one of three people on the planet who has not seen the series. But I recently did my free trial to watch a baseball game and here we are, after the trial is over. Better use it before I stop it.

In the meantime, why did I bring up pumpkin dunking?

Because the adorable, rescued otters at the Oregon Zoo, Lincoln, Juno and Sushi, are practicing their moves. Why don’t we have an otter basketball league? Right?

Oregon Zoo Otters

Stay safe and spooky on Halloween!

Time change: Don’t forget, it seems early, but here in the USA, we turn clocks back an hour on Saturday, Nov. 1st. Except for the places that don’t. Like Hawaii. Such smart people…

Harvest Or Hibernate?

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Sky view of Spec Ops Cat new favorite spot; empty paper box in the sun. Nap ahoy!

Huge Harvest Moon last night. Which partly explains my urges to nap or eat. Or eat and nap. With the golden light of Fall turning the leaves red, orange and dead, time to conserve energy.

We are having glorious eighty degree weather right now here in Oregon, so no need to hibernate. But I want to. Is it the pumpkins in the store? The Halloween candy stocked in all the aisles? The sun setting at seven p.m.? Yes.

Then that true sign of winter appeared on tv; Hallmark Christmas movies start on Oct. 26! My intent is to read, write and craft this winter. Seems I went down the rabbit hole this year and started collecting card crafting items. Swore I would not go there, but I did. (Gemini Junior! Diamond Press! Anna Griffin! Stop me now….. )

However, I will not be making my Christmas cards. Really. I send fun cards and I have a ton of those from last year’s clearance sales. I try to be cheap, er thrifty. But notice I did not say never. I’ve eaten that word so many times it’s not funny. So now I avoid it. 

The harvest festivals are starting and the farmer’s markets are closing. Can snow be far behind? Let’s get ahold of ourselves. Stop that. Time to go fondle my craft supplies. Paper therapy.

Spring will come again. Right after I eat myself into a stupor this holiday season. Time to go fire up the treadmill; for Spec Ops Cat.

Might be time to start hoarding cans of Libby’s pumpkin pie mix. Just to be safe…….    

Pumpkin Pie For Hamsters Too?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                   (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

The only thing better than Thanksgiving is turkey and pie leftovers. Obviously this well-loved hamster has the same weakness I do for pumpkin pie. Watch this expert chow down on an entire pie; hamster size that is.

Have a great weekend and Happy After Thanksgiving Quirky Friday!

Skulls, Halloween Candy And Tiaras?

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by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

This year is flying by and I realized I don’t have any Halloween decorations up at home. My last luncheon visit to my favorite antique store I stumbled upon this snappy skull dressed with a tiara. Now I’m not that thrilled with skulls, but I’m a big fan of tiaras so I had to take a pic. Decorating idea. In my case the tiara would be on a pumpkin. A baby pumpkin.

Skull with tiara. I was not kidding!
Skull with tiara. I was not kidding.

I won a pumpkin decorating contest at the day job one year with a miniature pumpkin decked out in a mini Santa hat and sunglasses. No carving even. I’m lazy. It’s all in the presentation folks.

Organizing the candy shelf at home this past weekend, it used to be a bowl but it grew, I unearthed some leftover candy from last Halloween. Not sure how that happened, but miracles do occur during the holidays.

The sunrises and sunsets are getting closer together now and all I want to do is hunker down with a book, bottle and blankie. My bottle would be filled with chocolate milk. I’m a wild one! With the urge to hibernate coming on, I focus on the holidays to distract me from the short dark days. Plus I look forward to staying inside and reading.

A member of my writer group mentioned there might be another pumpkin shortage. I went straight to the store and loaded up on Libby’s canned pumpkin and Carnation evaporated milk. Safe for another year. I may still have some pumpkin leftover from the last shortage scare. Might this be a marketing ploy at some point?

I also picked up a new pumpkin spice muffin mix I saw at the grocery store. Plus I’m on the hunt for my special pumpkin chips I can buy only at this time of the year. Which is another reason why the repair person will be installing a new motor in my treadmill in a week; I actually killed the motor. Heaven knows I cannot go into the holidays without a working treadmill. It’s the calorie grazing season!

Hope you all are enjoying your pre-Halloween test candy so we can all go out and buy the real Halloween candy for the treaters.

Happy Snacking? Got candy? Run for the pumpkin products too!

Are All Pumpkins And Writing The Same?

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by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Got together with my writer support group this past weekend. We always have interesting conversations. One topic included how writers trained in one type of writing can run into roadblocks and challenges switching to another style of writing.

Pumpkin pallooza! Took a couple of these fun baby pumpkins home with me from The Barn in Northeast Portland - each has their own personality.
Pumpkin pallooza! Took a couple of these fun baby pumpkins home with me from The Barn in Northeast Portland – each has their own personality.

Isn’t all writing the same? Nope. On the newspaper it seemed pretty clear; news, editorial, feature and sports writing were all different animals. News would be like a police report with more details, editorial an opinion supported by evidence, features were true short stories and sports a combination of feature and news with more storytelling.

When a  journalist tries to write memoir, they can fall down Alice’s rabbit hole. Trained to be objective and keep personal thoughts and feelings out of reporting, a memoir requires running naked for all the world to see including thoughts, feelings and (gasp) our personal emotions. It takes time and practice to master the switch.

The same goes for fiction, poetry, short stories, screenwriting, non-fiction and blogs. Each writing type requires different care and feeding. No two writers are alike. Or pumpkins. Imagine if everyone only liked one type of writing? Boring. If there was only one way to carve or decorate a pumpkin or if all pumpkins had to be the same size and shape? Really boring.

Writing genres and pumpkins have a lot in common. No two are really the same and every reader gets to choose their favorite. Pumpkin or book. Or comic. Or YouTube video. Are writers allowed to change pumpkins, er genres? Yes. Will it require homework and study? Yup. Should that stop us? No.

All writing improves the craft, even if we find out we don’t want to write fiction or non-fiction or ad copy. That is part of the process. So when you are picking out your favorite pumpkin and admiring the creations displayed this week remember; in writing and pumpkins – variety is the spice in writing – or something like that. Happy Halloween!