Let it be noted that on the way to work this morning, I saw the first snow flakes on the season. The leaves are still on the trees and the kids haven't even trick or treated, but there were definite snow flakes this morning.

I guess this means winter is on the way. As much as I love the carefree days of summer and the crisp mornings of fall, this year I am ready for the self-imposed hibernation in winter. I'm ready to bake quick breads and whip up huge batches of warming soups. I'm looking forward to lighting candles around the living room and cuddling on the couch with Chris and Prada as we catch up on television and reading.

Happy Hour for the Pregnant Girl

Upon entering the working world years ago, I came to treasure the magical time known as happy hour. Gathering with friends or co-workers at the end of a long working day quickly became my favorite way to spend the 5 - 7 p.m. time frame. We would catch-up, commiserate and gossip over pints of beer, glasses of a wine or fruity cosmos. A particularly tough week would call for an extra dirty gin martini and some extra half price appetizers.

Clearly, since the Olive has been on board, my happy hour time has decreased dramatically. Sure, when I need to make an appearance at a corporate event, I'll go and sip water and trade stories, but the happy hours with my friends have pretty much totally ceased. While I might miss the taste of a particular drink, it's not the alcohol itself I actually miss, but the time spent catching up and celebrating the end of another work week.

Luckily I have good friends and we have found a work around. Later this month, a couple of us will meet up for candle making and gossip (and they will have wine). Last night I met up with a friend for massages at a spa. We were able to catch up in our robes while sipping tea and then we both got all the kinks worked out. While I didn't leave with a buzz, I did leave very relaxed.

Green Baby

You want to know a secret? And it is a secret because we are not sharing baby names until the little guy or girl gets here. So here's the secret: for about a day, I really wanted to name our baby boy (if it is a boy) Kermit. I think it is adorable and quirky and strong. I looked up the meaning (without envy) and loved that it was of Celtic origin, but at the end of the day I just couldn't name the baby after a frog. Even if I really love that frog. The kid would go through his whole life hearing it's not easy being green.

And speaking of green, we are firmly on the green team for this baby. For those of you who don't frequent mom chat boards, that means we are not finding out the gender of the baby through ultrasound before he is born. To avoid calling the baby "it" we switch frequently between he and she. We also call her by the term "the olive" (I wouldn't recommend doing this, because you will never look at a relish tray the same way again).

To carry this whole green thing even further, we are also trying hard to have this baby be carbon neutral. Well, actually, we just want to surround him with the most natural products possible and make sure the baby's existence doesn't have a negative impact on the Earth. So we're planning as green of a nursery as we can get, I'm planning on cloth diapering at home and using disposables while out and about, and I'm all about hand me downs.

So, if the olive does turn out to be a boy, he won't be named Kermit, but he will grow up knowing it is easy to be green.

Class

So last week was the first session of the course I am teaching this fall. I had prepared discussion topics, found a blog entry for me to read and the students to remark on and had copies of the syllabus and session-long assignment. In addition to introductions and going over the roster, I thought we would spend about two hours in class. Except I forgot that I talk really fast and the students weren't as engaged in the discussion as I had hoped. I ended class after one hour.

Tomorrow, though, I'm ready to delve into the meat of the class. I have Power Points on the first three chapters and a little in class writing assignment planned, plus some discussion of the homework from last week. The class is scheduled for three hours each week, so I am determined to be there for at least the first two and half hours. Even if I have slow down my speech pattern and take two long bathroom breaks, we'll be there for more than two hours.