This year we put a big pumpkin outside and a row of tiny pumpkins inside.
David says that it looks like a pumpkin parade with elephants. (The elephants are awesome vintage bookends that David gave me for my birthday. The vases are equally awesome pieces made by Bloomington artists -- the one on the far right was a gift from Hoosierkitty.) 
OK, this is not going to become a squids-only blog, but I came across this one while I was looking up the Piglet Squid, and I had to post about it. This is (dramatic organ music) the Vampire Squid.
It's a deep-sea squid with a built-in vampire cape, red on the outside and black on the inside. Like Dracula, it can flip the cape around to shield itself (as in the first picture). And its scientific name is Vampyroteuthis infernalis, which means "vampire squid of hell!"
Could there be a more appropriate squid for this time of year? It even has a pumpkin posture. I think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing vampire squid-themed Halloween decorations at Target.
I love squids, which is why I was so excited to see this creature. It's shown up lately on Cute Overload and other websites, with people claiming that it can't be real and has to be a Photoshop creation. But it is real. It's a Helicocranchia, otherwise known as the Piglet Squid.
There are different varieties, but they all look sort of like small floating pigs with crazy hair.
The nose is really an extra-large funnel. The Piglet Squid takes in water by expanding its muscles, then expels the water through its funnel, propelling itself through the water.
It's about the size of an avocado and has a permanently bemused expression.
This is a Piglet Squid from the Sea of Cortez. I wish I had seen one when I was there with Louise and Jennifer.
As the Piglet Squid swims, it twirls its little tail fin like a helicopter. Clearly, it is one of the cutest and most awesome squids ever. And I did not make it up! It really exists.
It's still warm, sunny, and green in Tallahassee. But inside our grocery store, it looks like fall.
Last fall they had a few orange pumpkins. This year they went completely insane with every kind of pumpkin-like gourd imaginable -- yellow, green, red, and even some giant blue hubbard squashes. Those bizarre warty pumpkins are actually peanut squashes.
We spent a long time looking at all the wonderful varieties of pumpkins, but in the end we went with one brilliantly-colored Cinderella pumpkin.
Now our doorstep looks like fall, too. 
This book stack is a tribute to my brother Will. Congratulations on finishing your first half marathon!
If you thought it was exciting to follow along with Louise's kayak race this summer, wait until you see her new blog, 64 Degrees South, about her work in Antarctica. Wow.
What happened to my hair?!
I got it cut and had red highlights put in it -- and actually, I like it. Also: look at all the nicely organized books behind me! 
Yesterday I met David in his office, and we went to a department lecture on Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica. Behind David are our Latin texts, which we're moving to his office as part of the book organization project.
Yay, muscadine and scuppernong grapes are back in season! They taste better when served from a martini glass. Why does that work with sweet foods, but not savory ones?
So I'm organizing all the books in the household. Which means clearing off all the bookshelves. Which means that some things had to go into the walk-in closet in my study, even though it was so full I couldn't actually walk in it ... which means that I had to clean out the entire closet before I could finish the book project. How can the contents of one small closet expand to fill an entire room?
And then shrink to fit neatly back into the closet again?
I guess it's because now almost everything is in a box.
And now that I've cleared the study floor, I can use it as a book sorting space. 
So yesterday David was in the kitchen refilling the watering can, and I was organizing books, and we were having a nice, quiet afternoon. Then suddenly there was a bloodcurdling scream from the kitchen.
A terrifying thing had happened: one of the leaves stuck to the side of the watering can jumped off and attacked David. Except that it turned out not to be a leaf, but instead a very small, very sticky frog. A tree frog. Excitement ensued as David chased the frog all over the house. Helpfully, I ran for my camera.
In the end, David cornered the tree frog on the leg of a folding table, which he carried outside, freeing the frog. Then he went back to watering the plants. I went back to sorting the books. And the tree frog resumed its impersonation of a leaf.
For some reason the art of Nina Katchadourian is really speaking to me right now. She does this "Sorted Books" series of photographs, in which the titles of books form little stories or found poems. They are wonderful ...
... especially this one, "A Day at the Beach." Genius.
I started to see stories in the book piles that are currently surrounding me.
And I tried to make some of these book-pile stories myself. It's not as easy as Nina Katchadourian makes it look.
