snaps on saturday

First middle eastern percussion lesson today. I know, I know, another new hobby I probably do not have time for. Like the poor guitar back there. 

I'm hoping that 20 years if being a belly dancer gives me an edge though!

it's amazing i get any sleep at all

L to R:

Mr.Darcy on my left hip

Gaara pinning one side of my foot

Riley pinning the other

Teeny the chihuahua (not pictured, because she has burrowed UNDER the blanket) is on my right hip

Heaven help me if I roll over! When I do, I get the death glare from ALL of them!

here she comes...

...here comes Speed Racer!

She's a demon on wheels!  

(if you don't get the reference, here....let me help)


And, YES...our speed racer is a SHE!!  My good buddy Sandy is not only a race car driver but a racing instructor.  That there be her fancy "regular street car" parked behind my humble cross-over SUV.

Today she came over and took MyFavoriteKid out for a little driving lesson.  He's nearing the end of his permit time and getting ready for his actual behind the wheel test to get his license.

She was not teaching him how to drive like he owned the track, but she was teaching him some tricks about how to handle a vehicle more safely and especially how to really pay attention to what other drivers are doing on the road and how they telegraph their idiocy just before they do something ass-y.  In other words, she gave him a good sound "defensive driving" lesson.  I suspect that defensive lectures get absorbed by the teenage brain more deeply when it comes from someone other than their mom....and especially when the person "lecturing" is someone as cool as Sandy :-)  (And I doubt she lectured, actually....she's much cooler than that, and lecturing isn't quite her style anyhow)

What a treat for MyFK!
And for me!!

I hope she wasn't pulling my leg when she said he was a good driver....because her approval helped me relax just a wee bit more from my now frequent passenger seat perch.

I keep hoping that soon will come the day when he chauffeurs me around while I knit!
Heh.

fingers busy...

...hand sewing.

Re-purposing men's dress shirts into kitchen towels :-)

as if i needed a new hobby

One of the things TheNiece and I did together while she was in town was to take an "Intro to Sewing" class at A Verb For Keeping Warm.

I have used a sewing machine before, but it's been a good 12 to 15 years since I last touched one, and it was just for some very simple hemming.  My very first sewing machine came to me on my 13th birthday, and I recall making patterns and sewing clothes for a baby doll....but by the time my late 20's had rolled around, and I had lost that adventurous spirit and could barely sew a straight line.

TheNiece hadn't used a machine before at all, but she is indeed very crafty, and there is a cousin that she visits regularly who sews, and she has been looking on with much curiosity.

We sewed little drawstring bags, and I learned quite a bit about things I never knew (having been selft taught).  Little things like, ohhhh....grain lines, and tips and tricks to keep the machine running smoothly.

Well, I've been bitten by the sewing bug.

I pulled out the machine that I had in deep storage in the garage, fiddle with its creaky parts and got it up and running.  I'm going to do a few more of the project bags, some like what we made in a class, and few other types I am finding tutorials for online.  And next up after that, some linen napkins.  Then (*gulp*) I'm going to try making a few skirts.

I might look like I'm wearing napkins. LOLOL
But we'll see.
I'll keep you posted.

ketchup

More backtracking... the retelling of the visit with the niece!

So. Sushi and holiday lights was Sunday, and the next day, the Monday, I stuck to my regular routine of leading practice at the zen center and then visiting James at the convalescent hospital.

While I was off doing that, TheNiece and TheMostImportantGuy (who was on vacation) ran a bunch of errands, including going to the pet store to fill up stockings for the dogs (Riley, Teeny, and one for her to take home to her dog Desi-Bongo).  They also went to the cemetery to leave flowers for family.

Later that night, MyFavoriteKid joined us and we went to the Oakland Zoo to see "Zoo Lights". It was quite as fabulous as I remember it being the last time I went (I think MyFK was what....5?? LOL), but it was indeed very festive, and we got a kick out of riding the train in the dark through the zoo.

My favorite part???

SANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loooove Santa.
More proof of my love of Santa here (circa 2008).

the tv wins

It's too close to 9pm for me to write anything of substance, and by the time I'm watching the NEW SEASON OF DOWNTON ABBEY (squeeeee!!) it will be 11pm and I will need to be off to bed.

I should have planned on writing earlier...but I was busy being shuttle mom for MyFavoriteKid who had auditions today, and in between times I was working on fixing my old sewing machine that I just pulled out of retirement! 

I feel a flurry of crafty activity building on my horizon :-)

snaps on saturday

Snaps On Saturday?  
(not!) 
These pics were taken on Sunday December 22nd, the first night TheNiece had arrived in town (and so begins my little photo tour of what we did during her visit, which will span the next few posts).

The night she arrived we all (we all being: me, TheNiece, MyFavoriteKid, and TheMostImportantGuy) headed to our favorite local sushi joint.  As we exited the freeway, I took a look to the right to make my turn onto the main drag, and my heart stopped. It was only dusk, yet the sky was completely aglow, a big blob of lights poking out from between a few trees several blocks away.  We went right past the sushi place and followed the lights like little flies...and there it was. A house decorated like none other. We drove around the block with out mouths gaping, but kept going and made a commitment to come back after dinner when it was dark for a closer look.

What we had stumbled upon was Christmas Lights Vallejo:

The most lights I have ever seen per square inch. It's a single family house, and these folks live on a corner lot, so it even wraps around.  There are lots of moving parts, like a ferris wheel and a merry-go-round. You can walk through the whole display. Christmas music is playing, and a couple of times a week, Santa is there for photos. It's all done by this sweetheart of a retired guy and his lovely wife, and one of them always stands on the porch handing out candy canes. He said last year they ordered over 18,000 candy canes and they ran out before the end of the season.

We had no friggin' idea this was happening right here in our little town.
Amazing.
It would absolutely bring the spirit of the holiday into any grinch-y little heart!! 

not the post i promised...

... but a chihuahua in fuzzy pajamas trumps everything.

Little outfit compliments of my friend Jan of the Friday morning knitters :-)

preamble

It feels like "the early days of January" posts should be forward thinking, but alas....I am feeling very reflective. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity (hence no posts), and I'd like to share some it with you over the next few days.

TheMostImportantGuy has a Newphew(TheOlder) and a Niece(TheYounger) by way of his only and elder sister, and brother-in-law.  TheNephew is 21 and had returned to living at home after a stint out on his own. His presence back at home was creating drama beyond belief (up to and including some legal action). It's not been pretty. And TheNiece, who is 18 and in her senior year of high school, has been under quite a bit of stress with all the family upheaval.  She was feeling uncomfortable at home and staying and friends houses, and with the drama with TheNephew still unfolding, we invited her to spend her winter break with us.

At first I was.  What the heck am I going to do to keep an 18 year old girl entertained?!?! I wasn't doing anything but getting in trouble when I was a young girl, so I certainly cannot look to myself for inspiration. And although I do have a kid of my own just a year younger, he is all boy. TheNiece is all about the pink and cuteness. 

MyFavoriteKid was slated to spend most, but not all, of his holiday break at home, too....and MyFK also wanted to have a buddy of him own come stay with us for a few days (three teenagers in the house! yikes!). TheMostImportantGuy was also getting a much needed break from work, and I really wanted to him to enjoy himself, too.... so I needed to come up with things that pleased all.

Well, I came up with a list of ideas of things to do, and everything pretty much worked out!

Over the next couple of days I'll share pics of our escapades :-)

happy new year!

This year I'm focusing on "the Happy".

I know I've been missing in action these last several days, but it's been due to a very welcome but very active time with a visiting relative. More on that soon, but meanwhile, I just wanted to pop in and wish you all the best!  

New year, new moon... it bodes well for fresh starts, I do believe! 

XXO!

most lights per square inch

snaps on saturday

MyFavoriteKid is buried in the back there somewhere... 

At the "Be A Blue Devil For A Day" workshop. Auditions on the 5th!

every night

Every night.
It's my very own personal bedtime story.
Dog battles.
In my bed.

blech.

I honestly don't remember the last time I have been this sick.  It's just a terrible head cold, thank goodness...but man, am I wiped out.  I wake up every morning hoping to feel improved (because I am doing all the right things to get well), but instead I wake feeling just as bad as the day before.  I've passed on several things are important to me, including missing improvisational Circle Dancing with the dance troupe tonight.  I'm taking a pass on the Friday knitting group as well. I have to get over this! I have elfing to do!!

interesting.

My neighbors (YeOldHaus) are a constant source of entertainment. 

a little nuts

I'm tired. I'm still sick with a cold. And I still did a little bit too much today when I probably should have tried resting.

That's not keeping me from staying up too late searching for hand embroidery patterns for tea towels.

Because, ya' know. I need a knew hobby or something. 
Just before midnight.


Like I said. A little nuts!

meh.

I get a little (a little?!?) whiny when I'm sick, and guess what. I AM SICK.  *sigh*

I started feeling the tickle Friday night.  Saturday I knew I should try to get ahead of it by laying low, but I had a focus group to go and I had already paid in advance for tickets to take MyFavoriteKid and a couple of his buddies to see the new Hobbit movie. By Saturday night I felt even crappier (despite vitamins and zinc and all the rest of the homeopathic whatnot I have in my little apothecary).

By Sunday morning I felt like I'd been punched in the face, plus my throat was hurting a bit, too.  I laid low (finally) pulled some homemade soup I had stashed in the freezer for an emergency just like this one, and by the afternoon I felt improved and did a few tasks. A few too many tasks.  Was wiped again by Sunday evening and now here it is Monday, and I'm still a wreck.

I'm off to bed now (a little too late) after a day full of not getting a whole lot of anything done, and can only hope tomorrow will be better!  I've got things to do, man!!

snaps on sunday

Should have been a snap on Saturday, I know....but I've got a nasty head cold, and was down for the count a bit early last night. Fell asleep before posting!

So tonight I bring you....

....the Princess and The Pea.

date night in napa

partay

A lilltle wiped out. Tonight was TheMostImportantGuy's company holiday party and that meant many hours if travel by car and train, us everything in between....like the party part! 

I have no photographic evidence of the evening 

Thank goodness. 

LOL

scenes from last weekend

On Sunday, TheMostImportantGuy was Chicago bound on a business trip and MyFavoriteKid was at a drum corps audition. I had the day to myself to decorate for the holidays.  Being alone meant I could enjoy an eggnog and listen to all the Holiday tunes I wanted to! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... 

high school winter concert

MyFavoriteKid's first time performing with the Jazz Ensemble :-)

And then first time doing percussion for the Wind Ensemble (rather than playing clarinet like before)....

 ...which means now I only get "top of head" shots!

testing testing

Posting using my phone using a new (to me) app.  

Here we go. Crossing fingers! I really need this to work for me!

 

Photo taken yesterday at an Open Studio event. I spotted it on an artist's inspiration board in her workspace!

i'm not sure exactly what is going on here

Long time no blog, eh?

I'm not sure exactly what is going on with me.  At first I thought I was just frustrated with technological issues and the lack of ease of posting. Then I thought I had things to say but was just too busy to say them.  Then I thought I had nothing to say at all. Then I thought I did have something to say, but it sounded rather depressing or whiny. Then I ended up being too depressed to post at all.  THEN I finally realized that maybe part of my feeling depressed was because I stopped posting in the first place.

Well, however I got to this spot, here I am.

If you were to look at me from the outside, there's not a whole lot going on with me. Pretty much the same ol', same ol'.   But it feels like my internal life is exactly the opposite of that. Way too many thoughts and feelings about all sorts of stuff. Sometimes when there is that much going on in my crazy inner world I start looking like a deer in the headlights.  I freeze in my tracks.

At the forefront of my crazy-brain:

~ I have some anniversaries happening, and contemplating marking them creates an overly sentimental me.  TheMostImportantGuy and I just celebrated 10 years together last month.  That was a good one. The best, actually :-)  And February marks 20 years of dancing, also good (except see the next item on this list, and you'll maybe understand why it's a little emotional), and....next March it will be 10 years since the car accident. I'm not sure exactly where that fits in to the scheme of things (ie my mood), but it has me thinking about it more than usual, so it must be doing something to my mood.

~ I am planning on taking a break from teaching dance (in its present form) in the spring.  For a couple of years I have felt like I need to let it go and make room for something else, and I keep waiting for that something else to appear first so that I'll know when it's time to quit teaching.  I've been waiting so long for that thing to appear though, that I think I might the order reversed. I think I need to let go and make space first so something else can come in.  You know, when one door closes, another opens, and all that.  It's like I'm trying to wait for the next door to open before I close this one, but that usually isn't how it works for me. Usually the door has to shut, and there is time spent in the corridor waiting for the next door to open.  I've always been keen to point out that, "the hallways can be such a bitch."  But they don't need to be. So I'm working myself up to be HappyInTheHallway for ahwile.  Sometimes "Not Knowing" is a really clean place to be.
  
~ I'm watching MyFavoriteKid grow into his own very awesome young man. I am in awe of him, to be honest with you. I know I'm his mom and all and we all think most highly of our own kids, but I swear to you, if I wasn't his mom and I met him somewhere randomly, he'd impress me.  So what's happening now is that I'm dealing with that thing I guess almost every mother has to deal with at some point: that happy-sad thing as you let them go. It's a beautiful and awesome feeling. And at the same time it hits me in the chest in a way that makes me want to sing achy-breaky country songs. LOL  I know y'all know what I'm trying to say here. 

~ I'm worried about James (the guy at the convalescent hospital that I volunteer visit), and my responsibility for his care has shifted, and I'm really muddling my way through it all, to be honest.

~ I've been in therapy for a few months now, both solo, and in couple's counseling with TheMIG. All is well between us.  Really. It is. Fear not.  We are doing great. We're just getting some help learning how to understand where each other is coming from, 'cuz lemme tell ya'...we come from entirely different backgrounds and we grew up with some extremely different family cultural norms, and it's like we speak different languages sometimes. It's been a real gift to have someone (our therapist) translate for us, and even better, teach us how to do it ourselves so we're aren't dependent on the guy. Love it.  In my own personal therapy, I am learning how some behaviors that I learned (or perhaps was taught) very early in life pretty much pop up in every. single. place. in my life. that I look.  I'd really like to write about it, but because it involves my family (who are readers), I'm not sure I can.  I've been deeply considering another blog about it all elsewhere and being a ghost-writer or assuming some crazy pen-name (like there is anything crazier than AmpuTeeHee..??)

~ I am seriously struggling with what it is taking me to manage two households (TheNewDiggs and YeOldeHaus).  It's going to take me a much a longer post to dive into that, but I will eventually because quite frankly, I'm probably going to need advice.  But for now, I'll just say that it's weighing on me far more than it probably should be. I'm probably making things more complicated than they need to be.


So. That's where I'm at.
A whole lot of mulling things over, basically. Not a bad thing really, except you pair all the thinking and feeling with the cold snap we're having, and I'm just quite happy huddling up in my cozy little hidey-hole over here, and that's why you haven't seen much of me!

Now that I've broken my own ice, let's see if that puts me back on track again.

can't win

the clink

I am tempted to do a search on my own blog and see how many times "Poor Riley" shows up, but quite frankly...I don't wanna know.

When Riley woke up this morning he had a limp, and by an hour later he was hopping around like a 3-legged dog.  I called the vet first thing and lined up a noon-thirty appointment. 

The little hole on his "thigh" had closed over pretty well (I had trimmed the hair away and doused him with a medicinal spray given to us for Teeny's last adventure).  But there was another little pin-prick of a hole on his "ankle", and the whole ankle was swollen.  The vet said the puncture wound was deep and it went right into the joint. If it was from a wild or feral animal (which I am sure it was), they carry crazy bacteria in their mouths.  She shave his leg and found more little holes on the other side of his ankle bone.  Where I thought it was the poke of a claw, it was more likely a bite.

Lovely.

More shaving, some drainage arrangements, and while he was out, I had them clean his teeth (might as well spare him another vet visit later...it was overdue).  The doc said they were moving his leg around while he was knocked out and his heart rate went up indicating much pain.  When I pick him up tomorrow morning, he'll come home with "a party hat"....a broad spectrum antibiotic that will be switched to a more specific antibiotic once the cultures they took show results...a few types of pain meds...and the need for hot compresses.

Do you have any idea how many times we've been through stuff like this?  Not just for Riley, but "times four" once you count how many times I've done this for the other animals that live here? I am so over it. I LOVE MY PETS. They are my family.  But this is getting a little crazy.

Anyhow.
Riley's in TheClink tonight.  I'll spring him tomorrow.

*sigh*

curse you, blogger! and you too, cat!!

That's it. I am going to need to find a better solution to remote posting. I have to. Because bouncing back and forth between two houses with a 17" laptop just aint gonna happen. I have to be able to blog with my phone, or I have to give up my post-a-day habit.

On Friday night, I made a post about MyFavoriteKid performing. It didn't go live until Saturday, thereby causing me to miss Friday altogether.  Then, I made a photo heavy SnapsOnSaturday post on Saturday proper, and it bounced due to the file being too huge!!  arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!  Sunday I had content, and created a post with a photo, but just left it stuck in note format. Defeated. I am defeated.

I'm not sure yet what I am going to do about all this.

And meanwhile, while I was sitting here typing this up and working on re-posting all the back stuff....
I let Riley out back for his final whizz of the evening, and he was attacked by some animal hiding in the bushes!!  We have had skunks and racoons lately, but I think this might have been that damn feral cat.  I saw him across the street earlier.

Anyhow...I heard Riley yelping and some other animal making some crazy noises and then Riley came running back with his tail between his legs when I opened the door.  I have now found several puncture wounds on his legs, so I have to go do some snipping of hair and dabbing wounds.  I'm hoping this isn't another vet bill from hell.

you know you're old when...

...you go to a pub on a Friday night to see a rock band....

...and the drummer is your kid!!

(Sent via iPhone, cross yer fingers this even works LOL)

off the wagon

I'm not even off track. I'm entirely off the wagon, aren't I.

Well, the best I can do for either of us right now is to share with you this video of MyFavoriteKid's performance at their final drumline competition this weekend.  It's sort of a big deal because while they placed 2nd out of the 3 bands in their division, the Percussion section (yes, capital "P") took FIRST PLACE OVERALL.  That means that Percussion (and MyFK is on snare) took 1st Place out of 15 bands, and several of the bands they overtook are bands that are two categories higher than then in terms of proficiency during the winter drumline season. BIG DEAL.

If you want to spare yourself the full performance, I suggest clicking forward to the 6:10 minute mark where you can see an isolated percussion-only section.  Oh, and if you wait for the 7:15 minute mark...? The kid making that freakin' awesome catch on the rifle??? He's part of the Hands In Motion Club that I facilitate at the high school, the group where the kids make things by hand and donate then to charity. In other words, he's a knitter ;-) 

error message

Something isn't working between me and blogger and trying to upload post with photos using my phone. 

I'm fine. And I love it that some of you check on me to see if I am dead or not when I miss a day :-)

I haven't had much actual computer/laptop access is all, but I have posts in que that I'll upload by the end of the weekend, so join me for a cuppa something and a game of catch up Monday!
xo

upcycle

This picture isn't current, and I'd probably posted it way back when, when I took it.

I'm just in a wonky mood (nothing like an hour in therapy discovering you have yet more issues to work on), and so here I am, looking through old photos trying to unwind so I can get some sleep.

Here.
Here's another.

Happy bunny in the garden.

No?

Ducks in dumpsters, maybe?

Hahahaha.
Yah. Okay, that worked. 

Nothing like a good chuckle for a nightcap ;-)

looks way too familiar

boxes on the brain

Planter boxes, that is.

Now that we are done remodeling the interior of TheNewDiggs, our attention is turning to the yard.  We're going to start by fixing up the front yard, the border beds, really....and trying to figure out how to hide (but leave accessible) the city back-flow thingy that is an ugly eyesore right there on the front lawn.

But I'm also starting to more seriously ponder vegetable gardening in TheBack40, as we call it.  It's a huge space to garden in. Over the past 2 years while we've worked on the interior, I've been watching the sun and the water, to see where everything lands naturally. We've taken some gardening classes, started to compost (sort of...we need to ramp it up, though).

I'm not ready to install a full vegetable garden until I am living there full time (another year and a half away), but it's not too early to start the design process.  It's not to early to start researching surfaces that are wheelchair friendly, beds that are narrow and easy to reach across from a seated position, raised beds that have a edge on them that can be sat on.

I made the mistake at YeOldHouse of putting in some raised bed that I can't get a wheelchair out to. Stupid!  I have the perfect spot to grow stuff, and I can't get out there to prattle around in the garden.  I wont make that mistake twice!





So that's what I'm doing. Planning, planning, researching, researching....saving up for pathway materials and someone to help install them. Daydreaming, really.  But hopefully with a tangible end in sight!

i...i....

....I am at a loss for words.

(info)

snaps on saturday

Local (very local) Open Mic Night....

...featuring one very little girl singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (and a couple of other songs, all made up, and all to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) :-)


Today MyFavoriteKid had an all day rehearsal/competition day, and I sat it out!  I went to a "Crafternoon" hosted by a local artist's group in town called TheHub, where I was steered to a divey (and most excellent) Indian Food Restaurant that we'd never discovered because it was hidden in a strip mall we never pull into.

Good Day. Got ahead on my knitting, as I also knit at the open mic night!

happiness is....

Rolling in late to the Friday morning knitting group, only to find the a birthday party is in full swing....

...complete with fancy cheeses and olives and pastries....
mimosas and handmade liquers.

Then heading straight from there over to the Interweave KnitLab to do a little shopping with a few of the girls...

Good times.
Good company.
And a little bit of good yarn came home with me too! :-)

happy halloween!

Another delayed post hung up between my cell phone and the blogger app. 
I must be doing something wrong. 
I'll investigate....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Poor Riley. All dressed up with no place to go. Not even a kid to bark at!!

It was 8:15pm and  even with all of our awesome Halloween decorations in place at TheNewDiggs, not a single trick-or-treater!  I was starting to tap into that "I throw awesome parties, but nobody comes" feeling, so I decided to distract myself in the kitchen (this also kept me from dipping into the cauldron full of Halloween candy).

Thanks Bon Appetit magazine for the my new favorite fall cocktail recipe:
The New England Express  
(choo choo!!!) 
thyme flavored simple syrup, dark rum, angostura bitters, apple cider, lime juice and fizzy water


I watched people outside for a bit, and realized that people were driving by, slowing down seeing our decorations, and almost pulling over to get out....but we were pretty stand-alone in terms of other houses handing out candy, it seems....so folks would just keep driving by since we weren't a "cluster" of homes "in the spirit".   We didn't  have a ton of actual foot traffic because a) there isn't a sidewalk on our side of the street!!, and b) our house is on a busier street, and there are quieter residential streets directly behind us (hmm! maybe next year we hand out candy from the back entrance?!)

We finally got several waves of kids around 8:45.  Got rid of most, but not all, of the candy.  The little kids across the street sat for a long time on their front stoop just watching the shadow display in the window loop 'round and 'round, which tickled me to no end.

All in all, a good time. But I'd like a little more excitement! I think we need to become a "destination" address :-)

as I often say: shop, drop!

I don't know about y'all, but I am feeling SO exhausted lately!  This getting up in the morning in the dark is for the birds! (well, actually...even the birds aren't up as early as I am!!) 
I'm seriously looking forward to the time change.

Today was nice.  I had some free time to myself in the morning, and I used it to go through a few stacks and piles that have built up over the last few weeks.  Liberating. 

In the afternoon MyFavoriteKid needed some shuttling around, but since he has his learner's permit and needs to get more hours under his belt, I let him do the driving.  He's doing great, but I'm still white knuckling it a little bit.  I wonder if I'll ever get comfortable enough where I can knit in the car while he drives.
Ha! That'll be the day!

Hmmm.
I wonder if I WAS knitting....would I be white knuckling less....??
Can any of you out there chime in on that??


This evening I went to a little party that involved clothes shopping. I went to one of these parties last year, and I was very skeptical.  Basically, it's a clothing designer that retails her line sort of like a Tupperware party (anyone remember those?!).  A person agrees to be a hostess and invites a bunch of her friends.  The representative shows up with a ton of samples, does a presentation, and then you get try on the goods (because this is clothing and not tupperware, it looks like a lot of women ripping off their clothes and drinking wine though...much more fun!)
You pick out what you want, you fill out an order form, and your order gets sent to you the following week or so. The hostess gets a bonus gift or credit or something based on how her friends buy.

Like I said, I was skeptical last year.  The prices seemed a little steep, and some of the things I really wanted to try on weren't sampled in my size (ie big), so I just had to hope it would all work out.  It turned out that once my shipment arrived, there was only one blouse I didn't care for, and they had no problem accepting a return.  Everything else I ordered I kept. I have been amazed to find that the fabrics are totally what you are paying for. Nothing has faded or pilled, nothing looks worn. The fabrics have totally held their shape, and the look and feel like quality.  There was one item I ordered and kept last year that I haven't worn much, but only because it's a little on the fancier side, and honestly, I just dont get out that much!  But I do love it, and it fits and looks great!! 

This year I learned from that and spent my money on a few things that are more on the casual side. I know that they will get worn to death. 


Alrighty. Tired. Early wake up again tomorrow (5:30am...gah!) and then probably up late tomorrow with Halloween!  So I'm hitting the hay.  xo!

:-)

our spooky window!

I loooove Halloween.
Every year I add one (ok ok, sometimes two) new decorations to the collection. 
Last year, it was Helsa. 

This year I picked up some jumbo spiders with a 3-foot leg span to crawl over the side of the house (whee!).....and thennnnnnn....since TheMostImportantGuy now has a good quality projector, I bought a spooky DVD that you aim towards your window: 

  

thanks to TheMIG for the upload!

TheMIG's video was shot to show how it looks in relation to the house, but you can get a clearer shot of the actual video, click here.  I bought our copy by way of Grandin Road, where I also bought Helsa last year!

We already had a little audience (the neighbor kids from across the street) sitting outside and watching and squealing....and then I spotted another adult neighbor getting into it, too.  This is by far my favorite decoration ever. 

snaps on saturday

oops! I just discovered that this post got hung up in the system as a draft! 
day late, dollah short ;-)
sorry!
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Dinner at South Park Cafe in San Francisco....

Local Tomato Salad with Shallots....for me the Skirt Steak, for TheMostImportantGuy a Braised Vegetable CousCous, some beet puree and roasted brussel sprouts.  There was a delicious dessert, too....but I uhhh...
ate it. LOL

Then we met up with MizzCraftini and her hubby to see Dorado Schmitt & the Django All-Stars at the new SF Jazz Center.

SUPER great music. This is the stuff I listen to around the house most weekends. I have Hot Club of Paris CD's, but usually just plug "Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli" into Pandora, and of I go. Hours of Happy.

That really should have been a complete enough evening, but MyFavoriteKid was spending the night at a friend's, the dogs were at the pet sitter's, and TheMIG and I had the itch to keep going, so we stopped at a local dive bar on the way home.....

....where we saw a highly entertaining band that sang songs about things I can't mention here (because I don't want hits to the blog from people that are searching for lewd terms for male body parts LOL) 
A real hoot, though.  And there is nothing like a rock band that also has a trumpet.
We liked them A LOT :-D

I think we got to bed around 2am, which 15 years ago used to be early for both of us, but now is ridiculously late.  

 
 

last hurrah

Final regular season football game, which means final half time show for the marching band this fall season. Two off-campus competitions left to go....

But let's not pretend.
Then Winter Percussion Season begins, including auditions in December for next summer's Drum Corp stuff.

So I guess it aint a last hurrah at all!