Hello, hello! Guess what day it is? Not hump day (unfortunately), but Monday, which means I have 31 more minutes to upload a post.

The only problem is, the post I was going to share today isn't finished being written is, uh, experiencing technical difficulties loading words onto the page, and had to be postponed. Thus, I am here to tell you...to tell you...whatever pops into my head to say at 11:31 at night! (2 minutes have apparently flown by since I first began to ramble.)

So what do I care to say at such a late hour? That summer is flying by waaaay too quickly, but - provided we get to keep the fantastic weather - dad has been working hard to convince me that fall is certainly a good thing coming.

Step one in this campaign was that we finally have one of these puppies for our 1800-2700 pounds of apples we get each year:

See how you can crush and press the apples at the same time? Plus, it apparently improves the quantity by quite a bit, and also, you know, we don't have to rent one anymore and lug it back and forth. My mouth is watering for cider and my hands are itching to once again compete with Charae for the best cider-pressing team!

Step two in Father's Fabulous Fall campaign was that, quite unexpectedly, we were confronted with the fact that he can make killer apple pie. I'm talking seriously amazing. And I never knew it in all my born days!

I guess you could say that, here in the Evergreen State, fall is synonymous with apple abundance ~ thus, much as I love the warmth and the sunshine, Father's campaign has been successful, and I am looking forward with great anticipation to the coming months.

14 minutes left.

um...

Oh! I can tell you my Chick Fil A story! Back in July, when I was road tripping home from Branson with my grandparents, we happened to be going through a part of the country where there were several - you guessed it - Chick Fil As! Having never been to one, but supporting what the restaurant has stood for, we stopped there for lunch one day, with fantastic consequences.

Rolling out of the restaurant later....

Papa and I ordered a sandwich; grandma ordered a salad, and papa added a sundae to his meal. I toyed with the idea of ordering fries, too, since...I really like fries, but decided against it. Only to have cashier (who we think was a manager) ask me (upon finding it was my first time at a Chick Fil A), "Do you hate french fries?" "Um, no. I love them," was my confused answer. "Well, then," he informed me, beginning to punch a secret code of buttons on his register, "I'm going to give you a complimentary fry, because you have to try this sauce with them," (handing me a stack of sauces). "Ok - cool! Thanks!" I decided I'd gotten a pretty sweet deal. Little did I know, it was just the beginning.

"You know," he paused before ringing up our total, "you really need to try our chicken sauce, too, so I'm going to give you a complimentary chicken. No - two. One fried and one grilled. You'll love this sauce," (handing me another stack). "Wow...thank you," was all I could manage now, wondering how in the world I was going to eat all of this.

"And," he added, warming to his theme, "two cookies!"

By now, I was chuckling so hard, I could hardly manage a "thank-you."

"You know," his exuberance waning, "Chick Fil A was originally from Georgia, so I'm going to give you," (beginning to go crazy on the buttons again) "a Georgia peach milkshake as well!"

At this point, I think my eyes popped out of my head. How could he give me all this free food? How could I possibly eat it all?

Is this a normal amount of food for 3 people???

I cannot believe all this food

Took me a while to finish everything... :p

And now, my dears, it is 12:10. So I'm late anyway. Would have been on time...or at least closer to on time, except for the internet skipped out on me for a while.

So, since we're here, I might as well wish you a happy Tuesday!!

And ask if you can taste the apple pies yet.

And advise you to tell the cashier if it's your first time at Chick Fil A.

And bid you good night.