As I write this note, I am making lists and making piles. I leave tomorrow for the Miami Book Fair International, the fifth time I have attended this wonderful multi-day booklover's dream event. More than 350 authors will gather there to talk books this week and through the weekend. Nirvana. I travel a lot, which the Sagittarian in me just LOVES, and have made lists of what I need for day trips, short trips and long trips that I click down when packing. But somehow, the night before I still find myself up way later than I planned, adding things to my itinerary, making notes on places and people I want to see in whatever city I am headed to, winding yarn for projects to knit while traveling, deciding what books to take with me, making last-minute notes for the staff in New York, and plotting little details to make my hotel room comfortable and my trip just a bit more special.

Halloween will be upon us on Saturday, and my 14-year-old son, who reads comics in the paper, as well as collections in books, wants to be Hobbes from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Thus, my main task for these past few days has been working with him on his tiger costume. I had thought we could use tiger print fabric for this, but I couldn't find ANY in stores near us, so it's orange felt stripes on a black sweatsuit. He told me this is probably his last year to trick or treat, so he has a plan to hit a TON of houses. Do your kids have any great book or comic character-themed costumes in mind for Halloween?

As I write, I keep hearing the theme song from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" in my head. Yes, the countdown to the annual sugarfest is on. Update: There is no tiger print fabric available in our area to create a Hobbes costume for Cory. I know since I searched for it for three hours last Saturday. I came very close to buying an orange prison jumpsuit costume in an adult size and altering it to fit him and plunking stripes onto it, but instead I picked up a black sweatsuit and some orange and white felt for what was going to be an intense craft project.

It feels like summer just ended, yet here I am already making a list of things I need in preparation for Thanksgiving. Seriously folks, is it just me, or did October fly by? While autumn is beautiful in the Northeast, with it comes the waning hours of daylight and the certainty of colder weather in the months to come.

Halloween will be upon us on Saturday, and my 14-year-old son, who reads comics in the paper, as well as collections in books, wants to be Hobbes from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Thus, my main task for these past few days has been working with him on his tiger costume. I had thought we could use tiger print fabric for this, but I couldn't find ANY in stores near us, so it's orange felt stripes on a black sweatsuit. He told me this is probably his last year to trick or treat, so he has a plan to hit a TON of houses. Do you have any great book or comic character-themed costumes in mind for Halloween?

Halloween will be upon us on Saturday, and my 14-year-old son, who reads comics in the paper, as well as collections in books, wants to be Hobbes from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Thus, my main task for these next few days will be to work with him on his tiger costume. I had thought we could use tiger print fabric for this, but I cannot find ANY in stores near us, so it's orange felt stripes on a black sweatsuit. He told me this is probably his last year to trick or treat, so he has a plan to hit a TON of houses. Do you have any great book or comic character-themed costumes in mind for Halloween?