Halloweiners

Our friends, Ron and Glynnis, had their annual Halloween party last night. They LOVE Halloween and Glynnis has spent many years amassing the most fabulous collection of Halloween art and decorations. Their whole house is dressed to the nines with cobwebs and orange and black. This year we have so much going on that we really didn't start thinking about costumes until the night before. I rifled through our box 'o costumes and found the Napoleon Dynamite wig Paul wore last year. I popped it on and thought, "who do I look like". Well Little Orphan Annie came to mind. I had all I needed and Paul just got the bald thing, monocle, and bow tie and we were Annie and Daddy Warbucks. Matt snapped this of us as we were leaving. It didn't get many party pics while I was there 'cause I was, well, partying. Dancing, drinking, fun games, great food, and cool prizes. This is our hostess, Glynnis, darned if I hadn't already gotten a dress for my birthday party...

Had to get one of the three witches with their heads together on the couch. In the middle is Ann Marie, Glynnis' mom, and flanking her are Glynnis' cousins, Jane and Shirley. They were all too cute in their wonderful hats.

And again, Glynnis, but you get to see just some of the plethora of Halloween decorative beauties. I hope yours is a treat like ours was.

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Oh boy, we had so much fun celebrating our 12th anniversary on the eve of. Paul was leaving for a business trip early for a golf tournament, so we went out the night before. Most wives would not have allowed this behavior on their anniversary except I had so much to do (see previous post) and needed the space. Paul has a bad habit of looking dreamy-eyed because he blinks when he has his picture taken when I'm the one who was just finishing my THIRD French Martini~I was buttery-toasted. We went to one of only a handful of chi-chi restaurants in Columbia, had a great meal, martoonies, and they even had Creme Brulee which is our favorite desert and what we shared on our wedding night so all was perfect!

Mental Health Day, at least most of it...

Very early Thursday morning I woke up and started stressing over what I was going to work on first. I've got several really, really very great things coming up. I'm turning 50 and my whole family is coming from Oregon and my oldest son from Texas to celebrate. We will be celebrating my sister's, our friend Glynis's, and our friend Phil's birthdays which are all three on the same day. Then we'll be having a wing-ding for all the fam on my birthday. Then the day after everyone except Mom go home, Mom and I are leaving for Nebraska by car for the Silver Bella Workshop and for me to see where my maternal grandparents grew up. Sooooooooooo, you can imagine all the details swimming in my head. Oh, I'm also a vendor at Silver Bella so I'm making as much art as I can for that. Sooooooooo, I decided that I was long overdue for what I call a "mental health day". That means no phone, no outings, no dressing, no cooking, cleaning...it's about magazines, cross word puzzle, daytime t.v., and this photo-op while I was chillin' on my front porch right after I refilled the bird feeder.Things did get exciting late in the afternoon...I won't go into the rumble outside our house which included about 30 teens...with the arrival of a package from the cottage in Leesburg.

It's was an order I had made on their new website but when it comes it looks like a gift, see how great the wrapping is?

And more fun inside...nests for gifts for...ummm...ummm...people. Overall I did recharge my battery somewhat but rid my psyche of the resentment of not having a day off in so long I can't remember. I highly recommend these mental health days, if you need a note from a doctor I can get you one, no questions asked...

My Kind of TV

Ever since they took Gilmore Girls off the air this is what I'm watching on Tuesday nights from 8-9 and many other times in between! I bought this antique t.v. and stand from PJ's many years ago when we were still at Oella Mill and had always intended to put an aquarium in it. Last week I finally got my motivation. When I was out at the Pink Cabbage a man found a box turtle in the middle of the road and offered it to me. I brought "him" home knowing Matt would love it. I had already named it even though I know kids have to name their pets themselves. I wanted to name "him" Arkemitis, long for Ark, short for Almost Road Kill. Then when I found out he was a box turtle I wanted to name him Cassius Clay. Anyway I spent many hours getting the guts out of the t.v. and cleaning it. When Matt came home he decided that the turtle looked like a "Herb". So off we went to get Herb a tank, pool, branch, etc. $91 later Herb had a new pad. BUT his tank didn't end up fitting in the t.v. without Justin having to weld it open plus, plus, plus...too much trouble. Herb is doing well, loves his live bloodworms I feed him but we can tell he really wants to be out roaming instead of stuck in a cage. We read online that they have very strong homing devises and he'd spend the rest of his life trying to get back from whence he came if we let him out near our home, so we are taking him back out to West Friendship this afternoon to let him go. P.S. Herb's cage has started to smell like shit so I'm not crying too hard, we have enough stinky pets without him. Hate to see yougobye.

Ho hum, was I in the paper again today?

Well not today but last week. I want to be careful because I don't want to abuse their generosity of letting me speak. I remember when I lived in CA that the same guy would write letters to the Monterey Peninsula Herald every time either he or someone else farted. I don't want to get a rep like that but there have been so many things lately that have hit too deep. Plus my hubby hasn't even read this one. It stops getting exciting after a while, well, for everyone else but me. A little cheese with your ham?

Save it for the shrink...

Oh I don't know. I guess I got nostalgic this morning after I placed an order with Junk Gypsy and realized they operate from my home town. I miss that place every second of every day. So I got to lookin' at some of my old photos and this is one that always tickles me. Trudie's Kiddie College in College Station, Texas. "Trudie" was Mrs. Hardaway, on the left who ran the private kindergarten and first grade from her home. The only good memories I have was that she had a wonderful back yard with a super-cool playhouse and toys where she let us play about 30 seconds each day. We all hope she's burning in he...well now that's not very Christian is it? Gawd what a fanny hole she was. My sister went there, too, five years before me. When I was born, Mrs. Hardaway asked Valori to share with the class what she had new at home and she said, "A toy cash register.". I won't take your time to share the specific event of trauma she caused me that made me forever hate school but suffice to say the boy who sat next to me peed his pants almost every day. I think she had a swastika tattooed on her you-know-what. Any question about why I drank so much beer at the Dixie Chicken in high school? Didn't think so.