Today's first topic: funny CNN.com headlines. I'm not talking about those "news of the strange"-type stories (Would-be Bank Robber Writes Demand Note on Own Deposit Slip), but rather articles for which the subject matter is truly serious, but the headline itself just isn't so. For today, see China's Space Base Not Where Thought. My first thought upon reading this was, "Um, you mean the space base isn't in space? Where is it, then?" Of course, what was meant is that China's launch facilities weren't in the earthly location many/most people (at least among those who care) thought they were.

The previous winning CNN.com funny headline rather lost some humor after reading the story behind it, but just try to read the words Arrest in Fatal Amish Tomato--Tossing Prank without grinning. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not taking pleasure in the fact that someone was actually killed in the tomato-tossing prank, just that the fine folks at CNN couldn't think of a way to headline the story without such seeming insouciance about the whole thing.

Onward to business: I doubt that I'll be doing much canning in the next two weeks, unless I can get my hands on some decent looking brussels sprouts that aren't too expensive. Instead I'll be preparing for my household's first annual Fall Fest. The menu is: chocolate bread pudding (the one that calls for 8 egg yolks and two cups of cream), gingerbread cookies and pizzelles, apple muffins, pumpkin muffins, s'mores, and popcorn balls. To drink: warm cider, spiced wine, Oktoberfest Bier and regular juice boxes for the kids. We bought one of those coffee dispenser thingies you see at Borders to keep either the cider or the wine warm so I don't have to keep running up and down the hill with a pot full of hot liquid - hopefully we'll find another one in the next couple weeks. Plus, my husband's brand new power inverter will allow us to play tunes off of the tractor battery, so no running endless extension cords through the yard for people to trip over in the dark. As an added bonus, the need to create a big pile of sticks is prompting us to clean up the yard well before our natural inclination (which inclination is that?) to do so would have kicked in.