I love ....

I love fall.

I love the crisp mornings, the nip in the air. I love the sights and smells. I love the mums outside my front door; I love the Halloween decorations that I will soon pull out and use to adorn my house. I love the pumpkins that will soon sit on my front porch. I love the changing leaves, even though I will have to rake them. I love to walk through them and hear the crunch.

I love election time. I know, some people feel it drags on forever. Me, I find it fascinating. I love to hear the commentary, read my Newsweek. I love to listen to NPR when they look closely at what the candidates have said and correct them, fact v. fiction.

I loved watching the debate last night. My friend Gale came over, and she and I were all set to cheer and jeer. Unfortunately, we lost power for about 20 minutes, missing the entire section on foreign policy.

I'll give Palin credit. She did well. Now the bar had been lowered after several disastrous interviews with CBS, but generally, she is comfortable in front of the camera. She tried very hard to appear "folksy," with her "you guys" and "betcha" answers. And she is a quick study - she learned her script and memorized her talking points.

But. She did not answer questions, choosing instead to turn everything back to energy. She's not alone - almost all politicians do that in debates. But Biden appeared to answer the questions with more substantive responses.

It was fun to have Gale here. But she's always fun to be around.

Let's see ... I am loving all my friends these days. There's Helen, my neighbor/BFF who is, unfortunately, busy with her job and her kids. But when I do see her, I just enjoy it that much more. There's JoAnn, Gale, Kat, Kitty, Cheryl, Karen, and any number of other women from church (I am sure I have left out several ... sorry). There are friend from my neighborhood - Ann, Debbie, Melanie, Christine. Friends I've known from Miller PTO days, like Kris, Margot, and Holly. Parents of my girls' friends, like Chris and Belinda, former co-workers, like Val and Kat (oooh - two mentions!). I love seeing them, going to lunch, running into them around town, going to parties.

I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such great women in my life.

I am loving my new bathroom. Sure, it's over budget. And it's not done. But it will be fantastic. One of these days.

And last, but not least, I love my husband, my girls. They make me happy every day. Well, almost every day.

I love ... I love ... I just love my life today. And nearly every day.