Well, finally! Tuesday was Hallowe'en, so now that all the Fright Night/Spooky Season stuff is over, there will be better stuff in the stores. Watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, of course, and the Hallowe'en episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, "Masquerade," with a very troubled Liza Minelli playing the mother of a little girl who was murdered years earlier, but whose attacker, a spaced-out child molester, was just recently escorted by Goren and Eames back to the United States; they soon begin to believe he was not the murderer. Would have watched other things, but James just discovered there were new episodes of Forged in Fire, so we got on Philo and he watched those instead.

The other "event" of the week was the weather: it was cold enough on November 1 to wear my Vermont sweatshirt. In my world, this is exciting!

Otherwise it was nicely routine, with no falls, the usual physiotherapy for James on Wednesday followed by our weekly doughnut treat. Also tried a new breakfast/lunch place with Alice and Ken, Eggs Up, in the shopping center at Brookwood near Hobby Lobby. There was also a trip to Barnes & Noble (finally the November/December "Yankee"!), and I put up the Thanksgiving decorations while James was at his club meeting on Saturday.

The fly in the ointment: it got hot over the weekend, into the 80s. It was disgusting. At least there was a nice breeze so that things didn't sizzle. How ridiculous to have beautiful leaves on the trees and the scent of autumn when the air smells like a heating pad.

And we are happily back to Standard Time, where the clocks need to stay.

Labels: decorations, friends, Hallowe'en, seasons, standard time, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:53:00 PM

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We had to give up "Hair Day" in April due to the pandemic and lockdown, and had a socially distanced one with appointments only for May. In June, a few people gathered, pretty much just to talk, but our monthly lunches along with haircuts kind of went by the wayside.

Labels: errands, food, friends, Hallowe'en, holidays, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:48:00 PM

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Another cold front came marching upon us, but we had to endure the warmth before it. Thankfully it was just 70s instead of the dreadful 90s we had until October 2. The rain that came with it, having crept northward from the Gulf of Mexico (again!), started late Tuesday afternoon, proceeded through Wednesday, when it drizzled, poured, rained, misted, poured, dribbled, poured, and dribbled again—but stayed warm. On Thursday morning we lucked out and got a break in the rain, so we dashed to Sam's Club for a couple of things. We frankly had to dash inside the store, too, because there was only one electric cart free up front and it was rapidly running out of battery. So we picked up what we needed—including, ironically, batteries—and left posthaste, only to have the cart run out of juice inside the front door. Thankfully we only had a few things and we could just carry them to the car.

On the way home we stopped for the twofers at Publix. Like Sam's, they were doing a booming business in giant bags of candy for trick or treating tonight, and many of the employees as well as the shoppers were in costume. (At Sam's we had seen someone in a keen 1950s outfit, complete with full poodle skirt!) Now, when we went into the store, the clouds were lowering and it was still quite warm, about 74℉. In fact, it seemed warmer than when we left Sam's minutes before. We emerged from Publix about 45 minutes later with the rain just starting, and as we turned to drive through downtown Smyrna, it started to pour. By the time we got to the house, it was down to 62. The temperature continued to fall throughout the day, so that it was in the 50s during the news, 40s as we were watching TV, and it went down to the 30s during the night.

After the groceries were put up and lunch eaten, we went to tackle the last big thing before free electronics recycling day on Saturday: the clear plastic computer box in the garage. Back in "the old days," when it was cheaper, James used to build our computers instead of us buying them. We'd pick out a case, a motherboard, RAM, and the parts, and he'd put them together and we'd have a frankenmachine. Well, when these computers broke down we'd toss the broken parts and keep the working parts. These parts were all in the big plastic box in the closet in our garage. Some of the stuff was over ten years old. I pulled it out, James regarded it, and the junk went in a garbage bag. We pretty much threw out almost everything, especially all those phone cables (we had more phone cables than any two human beings should have). We kept a spare keyboard, a spare wired mouse, two power supplies (one never opened), one of each kind of cable, about three network cables of different lengths, and that was about it. James also cleaned out next to his computer and got rid of floppy disks (which I thought we had sacked long ago), games he bought and played briefly, games he bought and discovered he needed something expensive to play them, etc. We had two garbage bags full of junk just from that and a small cardboard box besides the dead fans, lamps, etc. in the garage boxes, and the two little netbooks that we had reformatted. (I did a Marie Kondo with the latter, and gave them a hug and told them how much joy they'd given us before I dumped them in the box.)

I was wandering around YouTube later on, and found some shows I had marked to watch later. These were produced by the Rhode Island PBS station profiling various towns in the state. I watched one about Johnston and was happy to see that, besides the town landfill, which has always been kind of a joke, they had a lot of stories about historic areas (including a history museum that opened after I left the state) and organic farms. The final story was about something I saw flitting around Facebook for months: three wild turkeys who were wandering around Atwood Avenue (practically Johnston's Main Street) without a care in the world, stopping traffic. They caught two, but the third one was at large for months after this was filmed. Not sure if they caught it or not!

We didn't do Hallowe'en, and as far as I can tell, maybe two houses on our street did. Usually you can hear kids outside, but I didn't see any when I looked out the window.

We awoke to a cold but beautiful Friday, with bright blue skies overhead. From shirtsleeves on Thursday, we were in jackets with flannel shirts underneath and hats.

Today we had an early lunch because of James' (and I think Ken's) doctors' appointments at Kaiser Glenlake. We went to Shane's barbecue with just Alice and Ken and missed a larger crowd, but had a good time chatting.

It's a good thing we mellowed out because once we arrived at Kaiser, it seemed to take forever. We got there so early James took his time using the rest room and I refilled all our water bottles while he did, so we were hoping we might get in early and out before rush-hour traffic began. We didn't get to his appointment until a hour after our scheduled time, but there was good news: the bandages were taken off and everything was dry, so she didn't put more back on. But we were so late getting out that we just went directly home. That suited me, because I put away the autumn decorations and put up the Thanksgiving decorations on the porch (and also the mailbox cover).

After last week's Hallowe'en Hawaii Five-0, this week's seemed kind of a letdown with those two idiot bloggers or whatever they were covering the team.

Saturday we were up with the sun (literally, because it was the final day of daylight saving time—and good riddance!—and the sun isn't up until after seven) for breakfast and dog walking before we had to load up the truck and head for Jim Miller Park for recycling day. It was chilly but sunny when we loaded up the power chair, but we weren't even a couple of miles from home when we ran into a bank of fog that we wove in and out of all the way to the park. At times it formed a wall of grey in front of us, then shredded apart once we got in line to leave our junk behind. From there we were planning to go to Harbor Freight and, accordingly, went the shortest way, past downtown Marietta, but they were having, in addition to the usual Farmer's Market, a Heart Run, and some local performers. We could hear one of them singing as we came around Glover Park. James had to thread his way around that, leaving us to head to Kennesaw by way of US-41, where we continued in and out of the fog banks, slipping in and out of the grey curtains ahead of us.

By the time we reached Harbor Freight, it was sunny again. We had a nice browse inside; I love hardware stores! I found some new gardening gloves at a very reasonable price, a few other things, and bought James an anniversary gift: he needed a new mototool. The store was in the same shopping center with a Publix, and we nipped inside to see if they had what we couldn't find in the Smyrna store on Thursday, paper towels (yes) and yogurt (no). By the time this was done, the fog was gone for good and the sky was a brilliant blue.

Then it was time for a little fun, so we stopped at Barnes&Noble. I picked up the new "Just Cross Stitch," and also two Christmas magazines. James also picked up a couple of magazines, and we were in a mellow mood when we stopped for lunch at Panera. Our last chore for the day was stopping at Sam's Club to fill up the truck.

And with this nice day our weekend ended.

Labels: books, decluttering, decorations, food, Hallowe'en, health, holidays, magazines, shopping, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:00:00 PM

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After the wonderfulness [sarcasm alert] of this week, which included being sick on Monday and Quasimodo on Wednesday due to a fall on Tuesday, I was ready for a better weekend. The end of the week did trend better: we had a "fall festival" at work and Friday went normally enough, but sadly James had to work today.

Yeah, I took the opportunity to sleep late. As a Facebook post said, "The best treat this weekend is an extra hour of sleep." LOL. It was nice because I mostly tossed and turned during the night. (Once again I have better dreams in the daytime. Was I nocturnal in a previous life?)

As Aubrey Spivey can probably attest, Tucker's "magic cookies" make him instantly walk into his crate at night. He was down to four. So I harnessed up the "terror," put him on a solid instead of a flexi leash, sat him on a towel in the passenger seat of the car, and took him downtown with me. The parking lot at Cobb Parkway was full, so I worked around the back of downtown and parked at the public lot behind Johnnie McCracken's pub.

Wow. Not only was the Farmer's Market going great guns, but there was a big Hallowe'en event in Glover Park. They had school choirs performing, kids in costume, scarecrows, a big Scholastic Book Fair table, and boxes of free books, mostly children's books, but also some adult volumes. I found an old Dell Yearling book about Ethel Roosevelt; when you see books about Theodore Roosevelt's children they are usually about Alice. The park was filled with families with kids in and out of costume, and even some dogs dressed up. Tucker greeted a pair of schnauzers, many mixed breeds, a shy chihuahua, two toy poodles (one dressed up like bumblebee), a diffident greyhound, and a cocker spaniel. Then, as we were rounding the second row of Farmer's Market booths, there ahead near the Big Daddy dog biscuit tent was a big German Shepherd, even bigger than Tucker's "deadly enemy," the Shep down the street. Tucker did not bark at him, but confidently trotted up until he was about two feet from the big dog, who was standing calmly looking at him, not hostile, just interested. Tucker looked at him for about ten seconds, then retreated behind me. No question who won the dominance game that time.

We walked past the Corner Shop to peek in and say hi to the proprietor, then walked all the way down to DuPre's before returning to the car. Stopped by Dunkin Donuts and got a chicken salad on a French roll for lunch (as I said, not much on chicken salad, but suitably bland for my dang freaky digestion, and the bread is good), then returned home. I think I tired him out. :-)

Later I spent time resetting most of the clocks—Daylight Saving Time being gone, gone, gone finally—and decanting all but one of my calendars (the other is for work and is in my bag) and putting them in place for the New Year. Discovered FX marathoning The Simpsons annual "Treehouse of Horror," so stopped there until it was time for James to come home.

About four o'clock someone knocked on the door. I was busy at the moment and didn't get downstairs until after they'd gone. Figured it was the mailman. Sure enough, the mailbox was crammed with medications  James ordered from Kaiser, my coupon book selection from Barnes & Noble (The Santa Claus Man), and miscellaneous mail. I just had them in hand and was heading back to the porch when I heard a shout from down the street and there was big old plush Max lolloping toward me with his kid following behind. I collared him for her and he rolled over on his back to get his tummy rubbed. What a sweetie.

I noticed that our neighbors across the street were out for Hallowe'en (their little boy usually goes trick or treating) and had blocked their stairs with "caution" tape. I didn't have any of that, but used Tucker's long leash to block ours. I hoped this would stop the kids from coming up on the porch like they did the past two years and banging on the door (as late as 9:30!) even though we had no lights on. [It did. I think four houses in our neighborhood had lights on.]

At six I took Tucker outside and when James got home we were off to West Cobb Diner for supper. We were held up for about ten minutes while police cleared yet another nasty accident at Dallas Highway and John Ward Road (there was one yesterday), and then were served almost supernaturally quickly at the Diner. I guess the advantage of going out to eat on Hallowe'en night is that there aren't any crowds out there. We both have turkey leftovers. And I finished the next Mary Russell mystery, The Moor.

Came home to watch The Real History of Halloween, the For Better or For Worse Hallowe'en special "The Good-for-Nothing," and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. (Oh, and more "Treehouse of Horror" episodes.)

Labels: books, dogs, food, Hallowe'en, pets, seasons, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:58:00 PM

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We had a nice sleep in this morning and then finished the shopping at Kroger. I found the cutest Hallowe'en statue, a witch and her cat, with a haunted house, ghost, and jack o'lantern inset in her skirt. I was going to take it to work until I discovered that it lights up! With all the fluorescent lights, it would be totally wasted at work.

We decided to do something a little different today and check out the Microsoft store at Lenox Mall. Before we got on our way, we stopped at another Publix to check out their supply of lower-sugar maple-and-brown-sugar oatmeal. This must be their most popular flavor, since there was one box left. I also got a box of the mixed "spice" flavors which has four of the maples, two cinnamons, and four apple-and-cinnamons. I hate the smell and the flavor of the latter (it's too horribly sweet), but maybe I can mix them with a maple or a cinnamon sometime.

Well, I turned around to see if there were anymore displays of oatmeal out and what do I see but a big table full of discount books, three for ten dollars! And these weren't the kind of books no one wants, either; there were some popular authors in there, including Jan Karon. I found four, count 'em, four hardback history books: Kenneth Davis' A Nation Rising: Untold Tales of Flawed Founders, Fallen Heroes, and Forgotten Fighteres from America's Hidden History; James Bradley's The Imperial Cruise; Evan Thomas' The War Lovers (with the Bradley book, a pair of stories about the imperialistic movement at the time of the Spanish-American war); and Larry Schweikart's 7 Events That Made America America. Cool!

We haven't been to Lenox Mall in years...literally. Headed there through my old route to work, West Paces Ferry Road. I don't think West Paces has been fixed since I used to work in Buckhead, either. I think the rich folks in that neighborhood figure if the road is bad, it will keep the traffic away. These were already expensive houses when Atlanta was a smaller city; now the old homes are either being expanded or torn down to form new McMansions. There are Spanish-style homes, mock Tudor, even a fancy Italianate one, complete with porte cocheres, automatic gates, turrets, and other fancy decor. West Paces is also the home of a classy private school (Pace Academy) and the Governor's Mansion.

The old Buckhead, the "bar scene" part of town, is gone. It's now the home of expensive hotels and even more expensive condos and restaurants.The ugly old yellow-tile building PGO once worked in is now a five-story glass-and-steel building (all they kept were the elevator shafts) with a classy restaurant on top, the Capitol Grill. All the old favorite restaurants of my co-workers are gone, like the Peachtree Cafe and the East Village Grill. There is one building we remember with fondness; it opened as a restaurant called "J. Paul's." The week they were to open, their liquor license didn't come through, but they had all the employees ready to go and the food about to spoil. So they offered free lunches and dinners so long as you tipped the waitstaff the equivalent of what they would have paid if you had to pay for a meal. One of my co-workers discovered this and all of PGO went over to J. Paul's for the free lunch. Well, we had a convention that weekend—Dixie Trek, Fantasy Fair, whatever—and when a bunch of us were looking for a place to go eat, I remembered J. Paul's. About twenty of us went over one night, and the next, too, and I think for lunch at least once. We called it "the Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Free Lunch" and later someone (I think it was Ron) made up buttons for all the attendees.

Lenox has changed quite a lot since we were there last; it's expanded and of course the stores have changed. There's no longer one bookstore in the mall anymore. :-( I remember how we would go to the BDalton on the first level on Friday nights when I still lived nearby.) However, you can still find lots of parking near the entrance to the food court, so that's what we did. :-) We did visit the Microsoft store, which looks a lot like the Apple store (which we tried to get in later, but it was full of people getting the new iPhone; in fact there was a line outside!). Lots of shiny new computers, but very stark and cold, and there was nothing there that was even tempting.

We stopped at the little kiosk that Starbucks has, and shared a slice of pumpkin bread and a chocolate-chip frappucino, and walked around some more. Bought James some bed socks in Brookstone, and wandered about both Bath and Body Works (with some interesting new scents) and Williams-Sonoma (full of fall-motif foods).

By the time we arrived home, there was enough time to change and tidy up a bit before starting dinner. I made chive-and-parsley turkey thighs basted with white wine and James fixed the last of our Yukon gold potatoes with a little butter and chives. Yum! And enough left to make a sandwich for work!

We spent most of the evening watching the next-to-the-last disk of series four of Murdoch Mysteries. Wow. Can they torment William Murdoch any more than he's been tormented this season? He got a stunning shock early in the run of thirteen episodes. In two of the three episodes on this disk, he faces two more horrific losses. I've heard of character torture, but this is ridiculous!

Labels: books, food, Hallowe'en, memories, restaurants, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:40:00 PM

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It was destined to be a busy Saturday.

We were up and out to get the supplies for game night: Swedish meatballs, onions, and whatever else was needed for the week at BJs. We would usually follow this with a trip to Kroger, but we had a coupon to the newly-opened Food Lion on Austell Road. So we went there for the rest of the fixings instead. The moment we walked into the door they shoved two packages of potato buns at us for free! They were also giving out free grilled hot dogs, so we had lunch.

We brought the food home and while I vacuumed those ever-annoying stairs, James put the meatballs in both crock pots, the little one with meatballs done in barbecue sauce and the larger with the main dish. James doesn't make actual "Swedish meatballs" because the cream sauce would make Juanita sick; instead he makes a combo of poultry and brown gravy, and he added some mushroom gravy to this batch.

With that started, we went out to Borders at "Parkway Pointe." There is a 40 percent off coupon and we just joined their "Plus" club, so each book would be half off! The one book I wanted (The Mental Floss Guide to American History) was already on discount, and I couldn't find the other two I would have liked, so I got the newest Bryant and May book that is in paperback.

After that it was the usual weekly visit to the hobby shop, and then we came home by Baskin-Robbins. (We're adults; we can eat dessert before the meal. <g>)

Then home to finish the last bits of removing books and magazines from the coffee table and setting up the utensils.

We had a small crowd tonight, since poor Jessie was sick—the poor kid is embarrassed since she is already being teased about having "the kissing disease"—and Ann and Clay couldn't make it at the last minute. I wore my "spider cape" and spider hair clip, and a cute little purple spider on my wrist, and James wore his kilt. Juanita had her ski outfit on (since she is still in a cast), and everyone else came as themselves. :-) We spent the first hour or so eating (meatballs, bread, watermelon, mashed potatoes, cookies, and the pumpkin cupcakes) and watching the Georgia-Florida game. Sadly, the Gators won. Later we played one of our new games, Yahtzee Free-for-All, where you either have to make whatever "roll" is on the board, or you can capture another player's card. It was a barrel of fun once we understood how it worked.

The Spiveys went off to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Strand in Marietta, and Juanita home to tend poor Jessie, and we joined chat "in progress." Lots of discussing when Jen would be "free." She is graduating on the 12th, so we only have another week to send her letters. Then she will be e-mailable again.

Slept in as late as we could, since James had to go into work this morning. There was little to clean up after this morning, as James had done most of the rinsing last night, but I put the table back together and vacuumed, and put some things up. I was feeling definitely under the weather this morning, my nose all stuffy and my throat sore. Damned if I know why, but it sure dragged me down as I popped out this morning to go to a couple of Borders and try to hunt down the next issue of a cross-stitch magazine that I wanted. I did get Ideals Christmas and the new Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Magic book, and I found a little "Uncle John's" Christmas book on the bargain table. The December "Victorian Homes" wasn't out yet, but I did find the December "Early American Life" and also "Midwest Living," which I usually get in the fall but haven't seen in months. Picked up the Christmas "Bliss Victoria" and the new "Cooks Country" as well.

By the time I got home my throat was hurting quite badly, so I took three ibuprofin and lay down for a half hour. Also had chicken broth and rice for supper, which made my throat feel better, and watched The Good-for-Nothing (the "For Better or For Worse" Hallowe'en special) and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I have other "spooky" stuff I can watch, like Return to Oz, Midnight Offerings, Haunted History of Halloween, etc, but I usually don't end up watching them. I do the decorations and put on the costume, but I really find Hallowe'en a bit dull.

So here I sit on the steps down to the foyer, waiting as the little goblins come by. Still too many older kids without any costumes at all...come on guys, make a effort, okay? One kid's voice had already changed! Some darling little kids, including one tiny boy who was Dracula, and another as a knight, complete with a makeup moustache! Many demons; don't think they were zombies. As always little girls in princess costumes, a bright-faced little boy as Superman, one tiny child as a convict with a black eye. One little girl was a snow princess among three monster brothers. LOL.

Tomorrow I can pull all this down and put up Thanksgiving decorations, which will make me happier.

(7:56 p.m.: OMG! A girl just showed up in a sailor suit!)

Labels: books, food, friends, gatherings, Hallowe'en

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:49:00 PM

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We had a busy, fun Saturday!

We were up in time to go to the farmer's market. At that point it was nice and cool and we leisurely strolled the booths, bought vegetables, chicken salad, and cheese, and munched on samples. I had a nice cinnamon roll—no icky white icing on top!—and James had a ham-and-cheese croissant for breakfast. We finished just before ten and I suggested to James that we go to Smyrna's Fall Jonquil Festival while it was still cool.

So that's what we did, parking behind Shane's barbecue. We walked all the booths, sampled the dips, talked to some of the vendors, kept bumping into a woman with two cute little dogs on a leash (one who had a cute fuzzy face like Willow), stopped at the library sale and found Burgess Meredith's biography and also a Yankee book, Practical Problem Solver, and bought a Christmas gift. Then we stopped back at Shane's for lunch; neither of us turned out to be very hungry and we brought most of it home.

Brought the things home, then went out to the hobby shop for a while. From there we went up to JoAnn. Walked in the door and was gobsmacked...they have remodeled the whole thing so it looks almost exactly like the one near Gwinnett Mall. So we had to find everything again. The craft book department now looks really sloppy, and I don't think they have as many magazines. I did get a Mary Hickmott's with some beautiful blackwork autumn leaf patterns.

Then we went home and chilled out for a while, and had a bit of supper (I had the oatmeal and yogurt I didn't have this morning) before heading out to Avondale to see the Atlanta Radio Theatre performance of Island of Dr. Moreau. We got there in time to say hello to Amy and chat with Lin before the performance.

Moreau is, as always, intense. By the time it finishes, you are wrung dry. They also did three short pieces, a Rory Rammer piece ("Set Loose the Dogs of Time"), "Inhuman Rights," and a story I wrote for "Bumpers Crossroads" many years ago, "The Stray Dog," and there was an enjoyable musical performer, Julie Gribble, as well. After the performance, we stayed on to chat with Daniel and Clair, then drove home to continue a different chat with Emma, Rodney, Mike, and Meggan.

(Incidentally, we took the rental car today and yesterday, and were listening to WABE on Saturday morning. Found a neat show about food and cooking called "The Splendid Table." Saturday afternoon I went fishing around and found the RSS feed so we could listen to the podcasts. The show we listened to, from last year, featured a woman who wrote about food in gangster movies, and another woman who wrote a book about feeding men and boys. There is also a question-and-answer segment, and one where a person gives the hosts five ingredients in their fridge and challenges them to make a dish containing those ingredients.)

About halfway during chat I started feeling a bit off. Had two trips to the bathroom during the night, and woke up feeling nauseated as well as hungry. Had something light on my stomach before we went shopping, but just kept feeling worse and worse as we went to BJs and to Kroger. James said he know I was really sick because I completely ignored the books and the DVDs at BJs. I just wanted to get home and be quietly ill.

So after the groceries were put away and I had some oatmeal and yogurt, that's what I did. James went to the IPMS club picnic at the new Marietta Aviation Museum (which isn't open yet, but they got to tour the planes and got to see inside the building, which isn't open yet because they haven't yet gotten it from the Army) and I had a nice nap for half the afternoon and, when I was feeling a little better and had eaten some mandarin oranges and peanut butter on bread and had some milk, dubbed off the first five Castle episodes from this season.

Also put up the Hallowe'en decorations after supper, which, I'm afraid, is still aggravating my stomach, despite the fact that James drained and rinsed the ground pork thoroughly and made the pasta mixture very mild. I think the barbecue yesterday set everything off, and I haven't been exactly good with taking my Prilosec twice a day. I kept forgetting while we were away and did only mildly better this week. I cannot miss one of the damn things.

Anyway, I was done in time to watch the first episode of Sherlock on Masterpiece Mystery tonight. This is a modern-set version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, with Watson still as a veteran of Afghanistan (but with post-traumatic stress disorder and a psychosomatic limp) and Holmes as his usual observant self, except this time he texts instead of telegraphs. I loved it—the whole thing's absolutely brilliant, and they haven't made Watson a buffoon (nor Lestrade, either, although I was getting Captain Stottelmeyer vibes from him...LOL).

Who was that playing the cabbie, though? He looked so familiar...

(Oh! they showed a preview for the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows during Extreme Home Makeover tonight. Too cool!)

Labels: decorating, events, Hallowe'en, movies, shopping, sickness, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:34:00 PM

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Don't forget to check out the treats in Holiday Harbour!

Labels: Hallowe'en, Holiday Harbour, videos

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:50:00 AM

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Well, that tears it. It's supposed to be 74°F on Hallowe'en and the same the day after. I definitely can't wear my cat outfit—too hot!

So I stopped by Michaels on the way home. I will wear my brown pants and green top, with two fall garlands wound and draped about me, and a garland of fall berries on my head, with a wand of fall plants, and go as the Spirit of Autumn (or something to that effect).

Labels: Hallowe'en, holidays

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:41:00 PM

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...that's chronicled in Holiday Harbour.

Labels: Hallowe'en, Holiday Harbour, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:52:00 PM

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Sleeping until ten was very welcome this morning! But it was immediately busy as I popped into the car and took it to Carnett's for an oil change and an emission inspection. This came with a free car wash and I was afraid it was going to take hours, so I took the laptop with me and worked on a story. But they were done in a trice and now I don't have to worry about my inspection as I did last year. This will be James' first year having to be inspected again, and we'll need it done before December.

Because I was early, I had a chance to stop at Borders. Susan Conant's newest mystery, All Shots, was out in paperback, and I also got a new cross-stitch magazine. I also stopped at Hobby Lobby, which was probably a bad idea, but what I bought was on sale: some ornaments for my little woodland tree and I found a topper for the library tree (it's going to be The Gingerbread Boy). Also got a ceramic leaf-shaped plaque painted with autumn flowers.

Then it was back to work and off to Kroger.

Well, all I ate for breakfast was a Meal Bar, so when I got home at two-thirty I was ravenous and had a screaming headache. I had bought a little baguette, a little larger than the six-inch sandwich roll at a Subway, and put some of the Trader Joe's chicken salad in it. Man, I don't know how people eat 12-inch long stuffed Subway sandwiches; just this filled half as much was wayyyyyy too much.

It didn't help the headache, which probably came partially from the sun, so I had to take some aspirin and lie down for a while. Then I scrubbed out the bottom of Schuyler's cage, which was another item on my things-to-do list today. Then I had only a few minutes to walk Willow before I had to get ready for the trick or treaters.

This is fun for them but really not for me. Because of the non-time change I had a chance to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown before I had to go "on duty." Then I put the candy bowl on one of the little plant tables we have from Ikea, and sat on the stairs and plugged in the laptop on the landing. Watched the For Better or For Worse Hallowe'en story, "The Good-for-Nothing," then James arrived home with my dinner (chicken from Boston Market), and I sat there alternating reading my Yahoo groups and giving out candy. Lots of cute little kids—a SpongeBob, several Spidermen, a new Batman and an old one, Superman and also Supergirl, a Snow Queen, various skeletons and ghouls, a darling toddler in a bumblebee outfit, witches, etc. The little girl next door came as Elastic Woman from The Incredibles and her mom was dressed as a witch. The one outfit that really blew me out of the water was a little African-American boy dressed as a pimp. I don't understand why his parents would want to perpetuate that negative stereotype. :-(

This daylight-frippin'-savings-time a week later really sucks. Previously I could start at six and be done by eight, latest eight-thirty. Kids didn't start coming out tonight until almost seven—I mean, who wants to trick-or-treat during daylight?—and we had the last couple after nine. However, there weren't as many kids as last year, and there wasn't a racket afterwards in the distance as there usually is.

Anyway, right now I'm making up for neglecting Miss Schuyler earlier by having her cage near me while we watch Jeopardy and What's My Line? She is sitting all fluffed up, with one foot up, contentedly grinding her beak. Mike Romanoff was just on WML. I have heard about this guy for years—he's even referred to in the original Miracle on 34th Street!—but I'd never seen what he looked like.

Labels: errands, Hallowe'en, pets, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:35:00 PM

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...Hallowe'en arrives later than usual in Holiday Harbour.

Labels: Hallowe'en, Holiday Harbour, holidays

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:01:00 PM

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We've had cloud cover from the tropical storm south of us most of the day and only now is the sun seriously trying to break through. It was a very nice day for some short traveling; I could drive with the sunroof open and be cool and collected.

The day started with a refreshing sleep-in. I had a SlimFast bar and milk for breakfast and then drove out for my monthly visit to Books-a-Million. I take the back way, up Macland Road to Lost Mountain Road, which crosses Dallas Highway and eventually turns into Mars Hill Road. Stopped at their Michael's first and—surprise! at least for me—used one of the 50 percent off coupons to buy a Hallowe'en tree. (I guess I'm tired of being "pumpkin Scrooge.") There were two types, a thick trunk with a spooky face and short branches at the top and a black, gnarled ancient type tree (the closest I can find on Michael's website is this, but that's actually a tree for one of the Lemax villages; this is a lot larger, gnarled, and stand-alone). I got the gnarled tree and four packets of four ornaments each (one is a purple bird in a witch hat and another is an owl) and a packet of balls in black, a bright gloss orange, and a matte darker orange.

Also found some small autumn wildlife figures for the display on the mantel (a squirrel and cardinal at the woodpile) and a display of snow shovels and salt that will go perfectly in front of my Woolworth's Christmas building.

At the Dollar Tree two doors down I found two "potions bottles" and bought some new Colgate toothbrushes. DT is the only place that has these toothbrushes at a reasonable price. This is a great DT, incidentally: has a lot of stock including good brand-name things and always looks clean and neat.

Picked up some aviation magazines in Books-a-Million for James and got myself a copy of Country Woman.

On the way down US41 stopped at the Acworth WalMart. The WallyWorld near us does not stock SlimFast bars and I wanted the brownie ones. They had them and I also got a few groceries and the Prilosec that enables me to eat. On the way out I realized I'd forgotten my yogurt. The elderly lady checking receipts at the front let me put my bags on a bench nearby and she watched them for me while I went back for the yogurt. That was nice of her.

I stopped at JoAnn and found the prettiest Thanksgiving resin table decoration. It is a "board" about a foot long and 2 inches deep. On this "board" are two pumpkins, the first with a turkey sitting on it, a bushel of corn, a bushel of apples, a sheaf of wheat, and another pumpkin with a crow on it. The turkey holds a sign that says "Give" and the pumpkins, bushels, and sheaf each have a letter on them, spelling out "Thanks."

It was still cool enough when I got home to leave the car in the driveway with the windows open—XM Radio Classics was playing a Bob Hope Show with guest star Al Jolson—and sweep out the garage. The floor was dusty with lots of dead millipedes all over the place and scattered paper; I brushed it all clean and disposed of the paper. That's better.

Labels: autumn, crafts, decorating, Hallowe'en, housework, shopping, Thanksgiving

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:57:00 PM

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Cakes, songs and memories in Holiday Harbour.

Labels: Hallowe'en, Holiday Harbour, holidays

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:19:00 AM

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Not just fatalistic television series, but even the commercials:

"Who Needs Halloween? TV is Scary Enough"

Labels: Hallowe'en, news, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:26:00 AM

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...at Holiday Harbour.

Labels: Hallowe'en

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:20:00 PM

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The vet trimmed Pidge's beak and claws, but was concerned because the beak looked abnormal; he does have what looks like scratches near the tip. She also noticed something I couldn't see: he has a little growth on the very underside of his lower beak.

She examined his right leg and found no signs of a break or swelling in the area. She did show me the underside of his left foot and there is a raw spot on it. This may explain why he was favoring the leg Sunday before last. It's at the very bottom, and is probably caused by his perches being too flat and even; uneven and rougher ones are better. It's so ironic because I was glad to see the wood perches in the new cage because I was told plastic perches weren't good, but we could never get wood perches to fit Bandit's old cage! I had tried to get the uneven perches when we first got the cage, but all the pet stores were out of them. After that, he was used to the wood and he had the smaller plastic perches and was out on top of the cage and other places a lot, so he wasn't spending all his time on the hard wood.

I'm worried about the beak thing, though. It certainly could be a tumor on the lower beak. And lameness is often the first sign of internal tumors.

He still has an appetite and wants to do his normal things, including preening, despite limping around. I suppose that's a positive sign.

For now I've put some facecloth around one of his wood perches. He doesn't like it and is glaring at it from his upper perch between preening.

Sometimes life hands you lemons and all you can do is bear the sour taste...

Labels: Hallowe'en, pets, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:09:00 PM

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... Autumn Hollow.

Labels: Autumn Hollow, Hallowe'en

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:41:00 PM

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