Halloween at Home

I decorated today for Halloween.  I know, cutting it close.  I did, however, have all the batteries.  What I didn't have are those goofy 2.5 volt little tiny light bulbs that go in two of the pumpkins.  I guess I will try Micheal's or an auto supply place.

Any who, here we go.  First, the dogs.  

These only lasted a second, and Melanie refused to wear the devil horns and immediately took them off and began to destroy them.  Maybe I should try the angel halo.

Buffy in her Bats in the Belfry look ~ which Amy says is her normal side.

Right now, it looks cute.  Hopefully tomorrow with the dark of night and flickering lights, it will look spooky.

I, of course, now feel that I don't have enough candy.  So a trip to the grocery in the morning.

Mom, Amy and I went to Homestead Gardens for the Holiday Preview - the real deal is Saturday but it will be MOBBED!!!! So we discovered that if you go the night before, it is all ready and no one is there.  We went tonight because tomorrow is Halloween.  We are all totally in the holiday spirit.  As much as I love Thanksgiving, I love the spirit and lights and music and movies of Christmas.

And, in case no one except the Williams and me stayed up and watched the Giants win the World Series, Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants!  I recorded it, so I can watch it again - I have some Orioles games recorded, so I can make it through til Opening Day.

Happy Halloween!!
Love, Leslie

Almost Halloween

It has been a fun couple of days:  here is a picture from Saturday: And I apologize right now for missing some names!!!!!!!!!  I cannot believe that it has been 24 years since Dad went to pickup Christian and his mom on the Chapel side of Dahlgren Hall.

Andy is now the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Portsmith Naval Hospital and is up for Captain.  Christian is in the Navy Reserves and works for Rockwell Collins.

Sean's wife, Sean, Christian, Andy, Kate (Andy's wife), Sean's daughter, Sean's son Hudson, Blaise (Andy and Kate's son, and Millie (Andy and Kate's daughter)

Sean, Christian, and Andy

Okay, and now for a preview of early Halloween:

A vase made of skulls with decorative spider

A bug in the bathroom - do you detect a theme here?

More spiders - they were everywhere!

Guest bathroom

Crime scene, no just a decoration in the basement.

Skulls, brains and lovely crystal balls.

Dining room table

Bar in basement

Ok, I will stop here - but her house is truly fabulous and the party goers will be properly horrified!  

On the other fronts, I got to go with Amy to pick up her new car - 2015 Honda CR-V and it has all the bells and whistles - back up camera, blind spot camera, brakes by itself, her phone syncs with the car - it does everything.  Except cook. Oh and there is no bathroom in the car.  

This is the car - not a selfie and I didn't take it, it must be Honda's photo.

 

Then I came home to watch the Giants lose Game 6 ten to nothing!!!! A complete beat down!  Luckily there is a game 7 tonight. And then, 5 months of baseball reruns and the dark of winter.  

Time to get going - walk the dogs, go to the grocery store.......

Love,

Leslie

Old Friends

This weekend was beautiful.  I got the porch decorated for Fall - I have some Halloween touches, but more will go up on Monday or Tuesday.  And I bought the Halloween candy, so we will be ready for the kids.

I changed up the look of this pumpkin,

The end of summer, I change the sugar water in the hummingbird feeder, but I think they have all left for sunny Mexico.

You can barely see the touch of Halloween - the big gold spider on the leave of the ammaryllis.

It was Homecoming at the Naval Academy and Christian Horak and Andy Van Slyke came back.  I went to the football game with them - it is unbelievable that they graduated 20 years ago!!!!  We had such a good time catching up - if your ears were burning, they wanted to know what everyone was doing - and there was a lot of laughter.

Navy fumbled on the first possession of the game against San Jose State, but they managed to turn the game around and win.

We have the carpet guys coming out tomorrow - again - because the red wine stain came back!  I told Mom that we can get it cleaned again and see if that helps or turn the carpet around and hide the murder scene under the couch.  And yes, we have gone to white wine.

I talked to Lori today and she caught me up ~ Jesse went to Knoxville, TN with 7 others and went to the Alabama - Tennessee game!  However did they get tickets?  Or, did they just tailgate?  That is what I would have done.  Maren moves back home next weekend - to save money and study.  Lori is thrilled.  Carolyn is doing training in the field - and has to eat MRE's, which she is not loving.  Lori says she does love the triage and experience of treating patients in the field.  If there are any mistakes in my reporting, you know you can contact me and give me the real story.

This may not be the best post - I am tired and want to take a nap - the late night Giant's game are killing me.  I was texting Carole at the game and I think Hunter Pence should be the MVP, but I guess I will wait until after Madison Bumgarner pitches tonight.  I do like him.

And look at this cutie pie!  I took this last night on my phone - sent it to Amy who re-sent it via e-mail so I could share this very good picture!  Do you know who this is?

Much love,
Leslie

A Mini Road Trip ~ Always an Adventure

The rain has finally stopped! It is clear and beautiful.  The trees are beginning to turn:

And here is the front of the house:

I haven't gotten the fall/Halloween stuff out yet, but I believe it will be today.  I had to get up early because mom had arranged for Stanley Steamer to come out today and their range of hours was 8am to 12pm.  They showed up at 8:30.  Why were they here?

Well.  Mom like to have wine in the afternoon and I guess she fell asleep, I heard a small clunk ~ she dropped the glass of wine.  Of course it was red.  Red wine on the Lacy Champion rug and white chair.  

But, it is now clean.  The guys did say NOT TO USE RESOLVE on it as a cleaner.  Okay. We are going to all white whine.  Wine.  That won't stain.

Yesterday Amy and I drove into DC to go to Politics and Prose on Connecticut Ave., NW.  I googled the directions and Amy had her iphone.  We went to see Craig Johnson, the writer of the Longmire series - which we love!!!!!  So, we set off at 5:30pm - the program started at 7pm.  We found our way in - suburbia in DC - lots of traffic and no parking.  We found Politics and Prose - it is right in the middle of a neighborhood with a couple of little restaurants next to and......no parking.  So we drove around corner, found some parking in a neighborhood and started walking (a forced march to nowhere).  Amy had the iphone so we were following Suri.  Suri led us astray, we doubled back, got turned around - looked suspicious -  Suri drained out and the phone went black - HORRORS - found the car, and because it was now 7:30pm, left. We were so turned around and had no map and no charger. This is why smart phones are not a good idea.  A good Rand McNally would have been fabulous.  Of course, in my car I have maps of Maryland, Delaware and Annapolis.  No DC.

In DC, eventually you always find a road you know.  We found East-West Highway, which I have driven on and we went East.  Doing fine.  All of a sudden, we were on Georgia Avenue going South.  We are not sure how that happened, because we made no turns.  Then, I start seeing street signs and I tell Amy we are going into DC - she does not believe that until we see Howard University.  Amy says to keep going and turn left on M street.  Which was one way and not ours.  We eventually finally saw a sign for 295 - Praise the Lord!  We get on it and are, of course, going south.  We turn around and get going the right way - have a little detour around National Harbor - loved the lights and the lit up giant Ferris wheel.  Beautiful.

Finally the Beltway and we are going to Amy's most fav place to eat ~ Chipolte.  Until Amy sees that it is now 8:30pm!  We have been in the car 3 hours.  So, I took Amy home.

Great road trip.  We decided no more trips to where there is no parking.

I do have two more road trips lined up ~ The Barns in Gambrills (which is Crofton) for a big sale in a Barn and the Christmas Bazaar in Middleburg, Virginia.  Both will occur in the DAY LIGHT and I will have real maps.

The dogs want to go for a walk.  Enjoy your day!  And, GO GIANTS!!!!

Love, Leslie

Success

I have sat up and watched all of the playoff games.  Last night, I was up watching the Giants come from behind to beat the Cardinals and take the National League Pennant.  I texted Carole and said that it was a great game and how nice to finish at a fairly decent time.  11:30pm - ish - however, for her at the game, 8:30pm?  There is something to be said for watching sports on the west coast.


But, I forgot to ask ~ where were you guys on the flag?  Who was holding?  Where were you sitting?  Mom says she say Tony at least 6 times.


I was at Nancy's this afternoon - her columns look gorgeous!  They are now high gloss white! She is also decorating her house because Zoe is having a Halloween party  - and, may I say, it is spectacular!  I will go over with my camera and take photos. 


Zoe also has been asked to join the National Honor Society in Spanish and Art.  Nancy says she has given up drinking milk and is tall and skinny - I can't wait to see her. 


Time to go and vacuum  the car and get ready to go to Flight Jacket Night at the Air and Space Museum. 


More later!
Love, Leslie

Game 4 - The San Francisco Giants

Last night, we had more excitement.  It was pouring yesterday - and DC, Alexandria, Arlington and PG County had a tornado warning.  Luckily or unluckily, we  only had torrential rain.  I called Amy to check on her and she was in bed because her back was hurting.  She texted that Chilpolte would help.  So, I suited up and went out to get her a burrito and diet coke.  While I was at Amy's, mom called.  Mom said that she had taken a nap and woke up and the power was out.  Crap.


I had planned to go to the grocery store, but I went home because it was getting dark.  Every light is on all the way home - but our neighborhood is completely dark.  Double crap. 


I need to take the dogs out, get candles out, and mom has decided at this time to walk around the house - it is a bit busy.  I open the front door to get the dogs out and - thank goodness for the best buy I ever made....the double gate on the front porch, because a new family is out walking their 2 year old with their two dogs and the only unleashed unfenced dog in the neighborhood (Boog, who is a very sweet, very big Boxer) charges the two leashed dogs, who then go after him.  A complete disaster - dark, wet, 2 year old, leashed dogs, unleashed dog.  Boog's owners were frantically calling him, I brought my dogs back in, mom is milling around, my dogs are highly excited and WANT to go out and in the dark pandemonium, one of the pictures on the wall falls and comes very close to Bennett.  I hear breaking glass - and now I yell.  I yell at everyone to SIT DOWN.  Mom says for me to not yell at the dogs.  I don't say anything, I am calm - I really want HER to sit down.


We're now going to Amy's house.  Amy is ready for us (she knew as soon as the power was out Mom wouldn't stay here), I get mom in my car with her ipad, cashmere wrap and a lean cuisine, blow out the candles, get the dogs and their dog food  in the car and leave.  It is quite, calm, nice.


At Amy's we watch the end of the Orioles game, which ends in a 2-1 loss to Kansas City.  I would have been so much fun to watch the Orioles and hopefully the Giants in the World Series.  A dream.


We then start the Giants game and start texting and calling Carole - mainly to annoy her at the game start - to see if she is home watching or at the game.  Tony answers the phone - they are going to the game tonight!!!!! And, two of them get to help unfurl the American flag during the playing of the National Anthem!!!! How much fun is that?????!!!!!!! I will record the game and MAYBE we will see Tony, Carole, Jane and Emma somewhere in the crowd.  It is a sea of orange - It would have been so great if the Orioles could have played them.  It would have been orange overload.  But fun.


Just so you know, I haven't checked the basement yet. That can wait.


Have a beautiful, Orange, Thursday!
Love, Leslie

What's Going On?

I have to send this to everyone.  Amy sent me an e-mail about Buffy ~ who is aged and infirm and is 13 years old!  Amy says that Buffy has turned into Dad.  Why you ask?  Well, today Buffy would only eat the butter that her medicine was in.  What you say?  Yes, Dad in his dietary craziness - nothing green, and the majority in the Snickers, mashed potatoes, M&M's food category - did one day eat butter.  I can't remember if he ate it on anything - he probably did, but it was alot of butter.  

And of course, he wasn't eating good butter - it was probably I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, or some other version.  Amy served Buffy Kerry Gold Irish Butter.  I keep Land O' Lakes butter in the house now, but I have never had the Kerry Gold.  Might have to try it.  And here is the photo that Amy sent with her e-mail:

I think she is flipping me off.  Pretty sure.

Ok - we are having a series of storms and night before last I heard a transformer blow and yep, out power went out for 5 hours.  And when the power goes out, so does the sump pump.  And when it rains and the sump pump doesn't work you get water where it shouldn't go.  

I went into the basement ........ and no water.  A miracle!!!!!!  I do have to go down and replace some light bulbs and get ready to get the holiday decorations out, but I am very happy that I don't have water.  And believe me, we have had LOTS of water down there.

I have been watching all the baseball games and they have been great!  This afternoon the Orioles have to win, or they are done.  I can live with that because they outdid their expectations and they were alot of fun.  I am cheering for the SF Giants - and what a great series SF vs Baltimore would be!  Would Jane and Emma be making voodoo dolls of great Oriole players?  Maybe.  Hopefully not of the great Cal Ripkin, whose number 8 is the same as sweet darling Hunter Pence.

Tomorrow night Amy and I are off to the Air and Space museum to hear one of Dad's classmates speak.  This time is it James Lovell speaking - the astronaut.  We all went to hear our Uncle Bud speak on the spy planes (and he was great!  You can see his speech replayed on the internet.)  Hopefully Captain Lovell will be as good.

And, in case you are wondering, the remote is still gone.  I am doing Mom's laundry and it is not mixed in with her sheets.  It will show up sometime somewhere.

Love, Leslie

Rain, Rain, Rain - is it a Curse on the Orioles?

 

 

 

 

Ok, it is game three of the American League series - and it is raining in Kansas City.  It rained in Baltimore for the first two games and it is raining again.  This is so wrong!!!!!!

 

 

You can't fight Mother Nature.  Oh well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the plus side, I am getting a head start on the Christmas side.  Ho, ho, ho!!!!!

 

~Love, Leslie

 

 

On the remote side - it is still missing.  Hmmmmm.  I searched under the bed.  I believe it is in the sheets.  I will look in the laundry.





The Mystery of Life

I could not find the remote in the computer room.  So I went looking.  The obvious place is.......Yes, mom's room.  And ....... there it was.  Why does she have it?  Because she can't find her remote.  So I looked around.  And looked under the bed.  I did not find the remote, but I did find an empty vodka bottle.  And, silly me, I asked why was there an empty liquor bottle under her bed.  Mom looked at the bottle and said "I am saving it to put lemoncello in it."  Of course. 
I will look for the remote tomorrow.
Do you know where yours is?


Love, Leslie

Planning Ahead

I was so surprised to see a lone hummingbird today at the feeder.  He stayed for a while and then disappeared.  It is cooler and supposed to rain.  I didn't want to do anything today, I toyed with staying in bed and having Mom ask me if I were sick ~ but reality prevailed and Amy called and needed some help.  I helped her set up her new headboard for her bed.  It is gorgeous and makes a huge difference.  They sent slats for the queen sized bed instead of the legs for the headboard, but the headboard is so big, that it is ok without legs.  If the legs ever appear, it will be taller and then she will have to raise the picture over the bed.   But for right now, it is very nice and she won't whack her head on the wall.  Which is always a plus.


I am watching a replay of game three of the playoffs between the Orioles and the Tigers.  Norris versus Price.  And you know, it is just as enjoyable.  It is 50-50 if I am loving watching Detroit get their ass handed to them or if I am just loving watching the Orioles win.  I will be watching tomorrow evening for game 1 against the Royals.


Ok ~ heads up everyone!  The holidays are fast approaching and I know that I have either tantalized you or annoyed you with the fact that I am working on a present and have purchased a present.  Plus, I got the Christmas stationary and envelopes for Mom's Christmas card letters.  SO...............get your lists percolating.   Toss a few ideas out there.  Don't forget, I am helping Mom ~ so this goes for the grandchildren, too.  If you read this......you know who you are.  Get some wish lists out there on Amazon, or drop me a note.  I did call Maren - on the telephone - and left a message.  I know, she doesn't (a) answer those calls and (b) respond later to those calls.  I should have left a text.   


Amy and I are taking Mom to Homestead Gardens tomorrow.  We had such a good time at the brief visit with Lori, we are going again and hoping to miss the crowds. 


By the way, for those people who go to Myrtle Beach, here are a couple of places to eat that were reviewed in the Washington Post as pretty darn good:
Malibu of Surfside -  "deliciously authentic Italian" and Chive Blossom on Pawley's Island - and they deliver!  So, plan ahead!


Don't you love it when it all works out?

Love,
Leslie

So Sad, Summer is Over

As I am sitting in the kitchen, I notice that the hummingbirds have disappeared.  Usually I see one or two in the morning, and then a bunch later in the day.  I keep clean sugar water in the feeder still - the books say that I should keep the feeder up so that migrating hummingbirds will be able to rest and feed.  And then, as I was looking into the backyard, two foxes ran through the trees!  Very cool.

It is time to clean out the beds and take down the tomato plants - blech.  I don't feel like this preparation for winter.  Maybe I will straighten out the garage, clean out closets and do yard work - which I should do.  But I don't want to do.  I would rather take a nap.

Ok, enough procrastination.  I will start small.  I have got some stuff to mail out so I will go to the post office.  And I will finish Mom's laundry.

Saved!!!! Amy just walked in.  I will get up and get started on the small stuff and move towards the other projects.  I am not ready for cold weather and winter.  I need some energy and motivation - some pressure.  I can piddle around and the push to Thanksgiving and Christmas could be motivating.....I will let you know.

Amy saved the day!  Mom has been having issues with her iphone - never mind that she has macular degeneration in both eyes now - I believe she was downloading a ring tone - and it would not ring.  It did take Amy a couple of hours, but she got it to work!  Maybe we should adopt some 8 year old kid to handle the electronics in the house.  It might help.

Love, Leslie

What a Glorious Weekend!

Ok, I had to start with this:

the Orioles just played the third game of the series with Detroit.  The Orioles beat Scherzer, Verlander and just now, Price.  Congratulations to the Orioles who are now on their way to play the winner of the Los Angeles Angels - Kansas City Royal series.  Go O's!

Lori and Jim were here this weekend and we started off by meeting Carol and Bob Turman at the Killarney House.  We ate on their front porch so Snoopy could join us. 

Lori and Amy had their marathon shopping experience at TJ Maxx on Saturday and we all went to dinner at Lure's.  Delicious and they have a Smith Island cake - Saturdays was Red Velvet and Amy loved it and had a gut bomb. 

Today, we went to Homestead Gardens - and we thought we were so smart going at 9:30am - SURPRISE - it was their fall fest and the place was mobbed!!!!!!

These mums were ENORMOUS!

This we loved - Black Pearl - an ornamental pepper plant

The greatest orange petunias!



 

 



 We took Mom home and then met Jim out at the Equestrian Center for lunch and some more shopping at the Capital Classic - a very fancy horse show.  I believe we will go earlier than the last day for better shopping. 

At the Equestrian Center for lunch and shopping.

A pet pig that had his own seat in the truck.

We had so much fun, and today finally felt like fall.  It was very cool this morning which does put one in the mood for fall and all that goes with it. 

I am still diligently working on a Christmas present while I watch the baseball post season.  Still a secret. 

Enjoy these days!
Love, Leslie