Wow, November has sure gotten off to a warm, balmy start! I can't believe that the temperatures today were in the 70s - record-breaking for sure! Even now, at 7:30 at night (and long after sunset) it is 69 degrees. We made good use of the warm weather this weekend - Matt and I (and Hannah, of course) worked in the yard on Saturday (after I got back from the baby shower for our friend Wendi), putting away all our furniture and tools and garden art and reorganizing the garage for winter. We were so productive we figured we all deserved a good romp at the
dog park. On Sunday, Matt and I went out to breakfast at the
Pancake House (Tom and Steph, we FINALLY got to use that gift card from four years ago!) - here is a picture of Matt sitting outside the restaurant, enjoying the nice weather and reading the paper! I also took Hannah for a super long walk yesterday - in short sleeves. This is all quite crazy. If it wasn't for the whole business of disappearing species and possible ecological collapse, global warming might not be so bad!
Halloween is a big deal in our neighborhood. Actually, it has become a big deal
for our neighborhood
because of one neighbor who is REALLY into it. Here are just a few scenes of the pre-Halloween scene two houses down:
The sign in the back reads, "Tomb of the Vengeful Mummies"
So many kids flock to our neighborhood because of this house - one neighbor called it "the Vaughn effect." And because of the nice weather, we had our front door open all night, and could hear the continual screams of scared kids! Apparently Vaughn and friends have all sorts of tactics to frighten the trick-or-treaters. Kids still talk about it by the time they get to our house. In fact, the neighbor girl and her friend dared each other to peak inside Vaughn's front porch a couple days before Halloween - they came running home afterwards afraid of getting caught, and whispering about the "zombie" they had seen inside. Our grand total for Halloween night: 216 kids! A new record for us ... although this is the first year we didn't run out of candy, allowing us to see the night through to the bitter end.
As I was looking back through photos for this entry, I came across this photo taken a couple weeks ago. This was after Hannah's and my day of hunting. Hannah was chilled and exhausted by the time we got back to my parents' house. My dad kicked out his recliner (one of her favorite places to lay), Hannah jumped up and got buried in the afghan and petted for the longest time. She warmed up and happily snored away!
Yep, that's me in the first blaze orange I've ever bought for myself! This is a far cry from Nina's style - more "down home" than "downtown." But given my recent interest in hunting, I figure blaze orange represents my roots. And of course - HANNAH, my newest hunting buddy, is laying on the floor in the background, checking out the new jacket!
