It's Autumn!

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Gettysburg, PA, for the wedding of my girlfriend's son and now daughter in law. We stayed at the Gettysburg Inn, right on the square. We were in the Eisenhower Suite. It had the king sized bed.
Beautiful couch, with the TV armoire to it's left.
Nice little table area.
Jetted garden tub, which I tried out. Very relaxing!
Separate shower.
Electric fireplace. Very convenient- just turn the switch on!
The wedding was in a beautiful church high on a hill. There were some unusual guests! This is Brody, the couple's first dog. He sat so nice thru the ceremony! On the other side of the aisle was their other dog, who was more restless.
Courtney, the bride, looked beautiful. The two flowergirls ran up the aisle to their Moms- so cute, and so fast I didn't get a picture. The reception was in the Gettysburg Hotel.
Rob, the groom and his minions AKA groomsmen, made the floral arrangements. The chunks are pieces of pumpkin, in clear glass vases. Very creative! Place cards were tiny pumpkins with the guests names attached with hatpins. Very seasonal!
We passed on battlefield on the way to the wedding. An open field with a marker- very sad. We didn't feel the need to go to any others. On the way home the leaves were starting to change.
We knew we weren't in Jersey, because it wasn't flat! Look at those mountains in the background!
Miss Millie was waiting for us. She curls up in the strangest places! Last Saturday Steph dropped off the dogs, and she went to NC to visit Ed, Heather, Eddie and Julianna for a week.
Toast is on the left, Whiskey on the right. My hair was wet and just brushed back. Everytime I'd sit down, Whiskey would be right on my lap.
He'd settle for Ralph if I wasn't sitting down. The dogs were both good all week- we're just not used to having them around, and going outside with them several times a day.
Whiskey sleeps like the dead. They both slept with us, and he would go under the covers down by our knees, and not stir all night. He wouldn't even wake up in the morning when Toast got up to go out!
I think Whiskey is under the throw, and Toast on Ralph's leg. Steph got home last night and picked them up. She had a really nice week in NC. She and Heather made pumpkin rolls, and she brought us one in a cooler! They did some shopping, and spent a lot of sister time together.

I've been working on another granny stripe afghan. It's coming along well- I'd have Whiskey on my lap, working on the afghan over him, and Toast on the ottoman. I'm reading the new Lee Child novel about Jack Reacher called Worth Dying For. Very good, but Reacher stories always have a lot of violence in them.

I've also downloaded several more books, mostly free ones, to the Nook. I've been reading the Nook and Kindle boards, mostly looking for book recommendations. Since the Kindle has much more of the market share, their boards are much busier. Both boards frequently compare the two. I decided on the Nook because of the touch screen, and the ability to download books from various sources, and to borrow books from libraries. I see the e-readers like cars- basically the same, with the difference in the details. I'll never read exclusively from the e-reader, because I'm too cheap to buy the newest fiction when I can get it from the library for free, and Mom can also read the library book.

It's gotten so nice and chilly at night! The leaves are turning nicely. We have neither the heat nor AC running, so I feel like I'm beating the utility companies out of money!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

I think I'm losing my mind!

I can't get anything accomplished, and my memory is totally gone. Add that to thinning hair, anxiety attack and sleep issues! The latest problem is that I have a referral to a specialist, and an appointment on Wednesday, and of course I can't find the referral. I've torn the house apart, and it's nowhere. I just left a message on the non urgent line of the primary, asking for a duplicate.

Steph went to visit Heather, so we have the dogs. Everytime we dogsit, I remember why I don't have a dog. They're constantly underfoot- you can't get up without at least one of them going with you to where-ever.

We went away for the weekend last week, to Gettysburg. My friend Barbara's son got married on 10-10-10, so we left here Saturday and stayed over Saturday and Sunday. We had beautiful driving weather. I have pix, but haven't gotten around to downloading them. We drove past a battlefield, but didn't take any tours- it's too sad a place. Too many people died there for me to act like a tourist.

Yesterday we went to Pennsville to the Riverview Inn for a fundraiser that my friend Carol was involved in. It's right on the Delaware River, with the twin bridges in sight. The food is always good there- we had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

I've managed to not take a nap every work day this week! And our timeshare company finally got Steph's account fixed, and her week deposited. The lady who called said they did it as a courtesy, and I wasn't having it. I responded that they were correcting their own error, so it wasn't a courtesy at all.

I've been watching all the Views, Ellen's and Oprah's that I've been DVRing. It's so great to forward thru all the commercials, especially the political ones. I saw my first Xmas commercial, for Kmart's layaway.

I fixed Steph's jeans (again) and she picked fabric for a phone case. I've got lots of things I want to sew, but no inclination to start. I finished up all the soft baby yarn I had, and now I'm working on a scrappy afghan. I've also downloaded more free books to the Nook.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

What a week!

Our thief was back! I've been keeping the car locked, but we leave the garage door open, as we have for years, for Cliffie the garage cat. The snowblower, ladders and lawnmower are chained. On Monday Ralph realized that the Rascal Scooter was missing. He'd seen it, and taken a pic of it, on Sunday. He called the police, who came out and made a report. The "person" had been arrested last Thursday (after he'd been outside our house) for stealing power tools, but was out on bail. The police were going to investigate. Since we never had a problem in 22 years, and I don't believe in coincidences, it was either him or someone he told. The scooter is pretty old, and worth only a couple hundred dollars, but I'm really pissed off. I hope the next people he tries to rob have a really big mean dog and it rips his throat out.

So now we close and lock the 8 foot gates, and lock the car, and use the alarm. What a pain.

I've been downloading a lot of cheap and free books to the Nook. I've also been watching the Kindle boards, since sometimes the sale and free books are different. Rumor has it that both devices will go down under $100 as the holidays approach. That makes a lot of sense- practically give you the device, so you get addicted and spend a fortune on e-books. If the price goes that low, I'd get a Kindle to keep my Nook company. I have more than one sewing machine, why not more than one e-reader?

Yesterday I had a tooth break on the back of my partial, so I took off today from work to get it fixed. Since I was already off, I had bloodwork done also. Entirely too much fun- I'd rather have been at work.

I just finished a terrific book (from the library) Vermillion Drift by William Kent Krueger. He writes a series about Cork O'Connor, who lives in Minnesota. Cork is sometimes a police officer, sometimes a PI. There's a mystical side to the books, and a great sense of place. He's probably written a dozen or so books about Cork, and they're all really good.

Much as I love my Nook, I have a price limit of $5 or so. And anything my Mom would like to read, I get from the library. I don't think DTB's (dead tree books) will go out of style anytime soon.

So tomorrow is Friday! And I have to spend the afternoon in a Universal Precaution class. We have to have a class every year, not that anything ever changes. And we have to teach the staff at our school. I refuse to teach the class til after I have to sit thru it. And when I teach it, it's short and sweet, "If it's wet, don't touch it."

Ralph and I had to run over to send our CD player out for repair, so we ate at Chipolte for the first time. They're known for using local produce. I had a chicken burrito and Ralph had soft tacos. It was too early in the day for Steph to meet us, and we wanted to get over and back before rush hour. Lots of food, reasonable prices.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Wow, it's October!

It's feeling like fall. Last night it got down to the 50's- we actually had to close all the windows. We got about 5 inches of rain between Thursday and Friday.

We have October birthdays! Florence, Charlotte and Justin all were born in October, as well as my friend Jean. And we're going to an October wedding on 10-10-10 in Gettysburg. My friend Barbara's son is getting married. We're making a weekend out of it, since it's probably 3 hours to Gettysburg, and we've never been there. For the first time ever, school is open on Columbus Day, so Barbara and I put in for a personal day.

John is up for a long weekend to visit with Mom, so we're all going out to breakfast at the diner tomorrow morning. Tonight Steph, Ralph and I went to Pasta Pomodora for a surprise retirement dinner given for Ralph by his ER friends. He didn't suspect a thing, since we frequently have dinner with Steph. He was totally shocked!

I read ten books in September, all from the library. That brings my total for the year so far up to 121. I'm still getting adjusted to being back to work, and a couple nights a week I nap when I get home. Last night I went to sleep around 10, and slept til after 9 this morning. I think I only crocheted for an hour all week, and I've been reading the same book for days- Nevada Barr's new one, called Burn. It's really good, I just can't stay awake.

I was talking to Manda the other night- they've been married for 3 months already! Now that they're not worried about getting laid off, they're settling into being a married couple. And Steph is settling into her first semester at St. Joe's, working towards her Master's.

I was talking to Heather yesterday, and she's waiting for her pecan tree to start dropping pecans. It's a huge tree, right near her deck, and it produces lots of pecans. Last Christmas she made fabulous cookies with them. Between cookies and the wine she's making, she'll have a lot of gifts ready to go.

The days are getting shorter, and the leaves are just starting to turn colors. Christmas is a short 3 months away!

The other morning, as the students were coming in to school, one of the 8th grade girls said to the girls she was walking with, "The next time I get in trouble I'm doing it with a smart person!" We laughed all day- words to live by!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

The times they are a'changing.

Twice during the summer, in the middle of a Saturday night, a white sedan parked outside of our house. Since we're the last house on a dead end street, and the road literally ends in front of our house, it was strange. The first time a person in a hoodie got out and walked back into the woods, and was gone for a couple of hours. The second time, the person walked back up the street. We were concerned, so we stopped at the local police station for advice.

The officer we spoke to said if it happened again, to call the police. He said any car parked outside in the middle of the night is suspicious.

At 0400 Thursday morning, in the rain, the car was back. Sitting running. So Ralph called the police. Two police cars pulled up, and the officers walked all around, shone flashlights into the car, and talked to the occupant.

A third officer went up our driveway. Our garage sits about 100 feet off the street. The officer asked Ralph to look around and see if anything was missing, as the guy in the car is a known scavenger, especially of copper. Things had been moved, but nothing was missing.

Then they opened my car door- I never lock my car in the garage. The car smelled like smoke, and the $18 I had in the console, as well as the several dollars in change, were missing.

Because no one witnessed it, the guy couldn't be charged. The police told him to go away and stay off this street. The one officer came in to talk to us. He said our little town isn't the way it used to be. There have been burglaries, and it's not safe to leave my car unlocked.

Ralph went thru the car- my library books were still there, the papers I had in it to take to work weren't disturbed, and the GPS was still safely under the seat in it's little pink bag. The next morning I realized something had been taken. I'd been out to lunch with the work group, and I'd brought home a piece of cream cheese bread, and forgot and left it on the passenger front seat, and it was gone, to add insult to injury.

So even distance up a driveway, and motion sensor lights aren't enough to stop a determined thief. I hate it, but that's the way it is, and I have to lock my car everytime I come home.

And so it goes.
Holly

Rainy Days and Mondays

No one wants to get up on a dreary, rainy Monday, even Miss Millie.
Last weekend I had a burst of energy and a little spare time, so I loaded a quilt onto the HQ16. That's as far as I've gotten, I haven't even put the batting on the frame yet.
The HandiQuilter 16 gets it's name from the 16 inch throat. It's not a commercial machine, more for hobbyists, which is me. I can't picture myself quilting for others for money- then it would be a job, and I already have a job.
The backing goes face down, with the bulk rolled back onto the front roller, if you do it correctly- I've been known to forget to roll it back onto the front rollers. The top goes face up, and the batting will go in between. The first thing to sew is to run a row of stitching across the top, to hold the layers together.
The backing has to be at least 4 inches bigger than the top- I have plenty of extra.
Last weekend Toast and Whiskey came for the day. I couldn't get a pic of Whiskey, he was always on my lap or underfoot. This weekend Ed, Heather and the kids came up to go to a wedding. Saturday was Ralph's last shift in the ER. Ralph and Eddie's birthdays were both last week, so we had a party!
I got a big cake from Sweet Eats, half white cake and half chocolate, to please everyone. They did a gorgeous job of decorating it.
Of course we all sang Happy Birthday. That's Julianna in the Spiderman mask. We had to make the 5 boys come in to do cake and gifts- they were having such a good time playing outside that they didn't want to come in.
Auntie Steph lit the candles for Spiderman Eddie.
The ER staff gave Ralph the "No Work Zone" sash to wear.
Eddie is so grown up at 7, even with a mouth full of candy! He's changed so much since his last birthday!
Julianna had her pretty dress on, and stayed close to Mommy. It was a nice party- it started at 4, and everyone was gone by 8.30- the kids had school today. Ed and Heather and the kids left around 9 to go back to Ed's parents house- they don't sleep here because of Ed's cat allergy.

They left after breakfast this morning, and didn't hit any traffic. Heather called a while ago, and said they were ten minutes from home. We probably won't see them again til Christmas, or whenever we decided Christmas is this year. I hate that we see them so infrequently, but we all have to work- except Ralph! Ralph is actually looking for a non-nurse job. He's ready to move on, after 29 years of nursing, most of it in the ER.

I just started the new Nevada Barr, "Burn" from the library. I'm only a chapter in, but it's already good.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Thursday night

Wow, it's almost 2 weeks since I posted! I thought about it, but never got around to it. We've had gorgeous weather, in the 70's and low 80's til yesterday when it went to 92. Last night we had a thunderstorm- it sounded like lightening hit right outside the house. I was amazed that the power didn't go out.

Being back to work has been hard. I didn't have a routine from the end of March til Sept 1- I was used to sleeping when I was tired and getting up in the middle of the night if I couldn't sleep. Now that school has started, I'm up at 0630 and staying up! At least a couple times a week I have to come home and nap after school.

It doesn't help that I've been having anxiety attacks a few times a week, in the middle of the night. My primary said they're absolutely hormonal, so I have to consult the gyn. Stupid things- what if I get appendicitis? What if I can't work and Ralph isn't working, and I run out the sick time and we have no benefits? What if someone in the family dies? All legitimate concerns, but not for the middle of the night.

And my knee has been bothering me big time, but I won't go to the ortho, since I can't have it replaced right now. I just limp a lot.

On the positive side, it sure was nice to get that first paycheck of the school year! And it's nice to see my school friends every day.

And, I loaded a quilt on the HQ16! I haven't quilted it yet, but it's waiting for me! And I'm still churning out baby afghans- I'm determined to use up the baby yarn. I've got 4 or 5 done, and enough yarn for one or two more.

I loaded a bunch of books onto the Nook, but the silly library wants its books back, so they have to come first. I love Free Book Fridays on www.bn.com, and usually download them. Two weeks ago it was a biography of Budda- I passed on that one. Snore!

September has been a good reading month- I've read Coming Home, the new Mariah Stewart. Veil of Night by Linda Howard, who is almost always good- she had a real clunker about 2 years ago. Whiplash, the new Catherine Coulter, which was fluffy but fun. Summer in Sonoma by Robyn Carr, who's getting to be one of my favorite authors. Dog Tags by David Rosenfelt, also a favorite author.

The last time I talked to my girlfriend Pat we had a discussion about e-readers, and she's now the proud owner of a Kindle! Another convert!

Tuesday was Ralph's birthday, today is Eddie's, and Ralph is two shifts away from retiring from the ER! Ed, Heather and the kids will drive up tomorrow to go to a wedding on Saturday, so of course we're partying! A birthday/retirement party on Sunday with a Spiderman theme. Any time they come up we find a reason to have a party.

And so it goes!
Holly