Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Wynne is back with a new blog (link in my reads) and it really makes me miss the good old days when we decorated our blogs with all the cute country graphics.  The Jack-o-Lantern luminaries above were part of a Halloween set from Graphics by Grace.  Why do you think they don't show up on Blogger as transparent?  I'm sure Annie would know as she's an expert with Blogger.  I'm worried about her since she hasn't posted since Sandy hit in full force.  I googled the area of the New Jersey shore where she lives in and they do say the power is out so I hope all is fine but she just can't get online to let us know she's okay.  I'm wishing I had given her my cellphone number because maybe she could get a text message out.  Will have to do that in the future so we aren't in the dark... no pun intended!    

We will go over to Jessica's this evening so we can see the boys get ready for trick or treating.  Pat's dad will be there so we probably won't be needed to go with them but we may watch a little bit to see how they do this year.  Mainly we're going to try and get a few photos of them in their costumes.  Since we live at the top of a hill with no houses across the street, we rarely get any trick-or-treaters.  We always buy candy just in case but we buy candy we like- 3 Musketeers for Jeff and Snickers for me.  See, not only can't we agree on politics, we can't agree on candy!

Sigtag by Susie

Frankenstorm!

Just a quick post about Sandy!  This really is a historic storm. New York and New Jersey are getting hit hard!  Connecticut and the whole North Eastern seaboard is in danger  Ground Zero is flooded, the show doesn't go on on Broadway, the subway has four feet of water.  Annie has been posting updates as she is on the shore in New Jersey.  I've been able to keep tabs on Annie by looking on my blog list on the right which updates when there's a new post.  Annie's blog is Cottage by the Sea.  Also in the line of fire is Toni whose blog is Countryside News.  She's in upstate New York. You can check in on them too.   Heather is in Connecticut but posting on Facebook

 Hurricane Sandy

Howl-o-Ween

We found another dog event to attend on Sunday.  This one was called the Howl-o-Ween Pooch Parade and Pet Expo.  It was at a park in Simi Valley.  We picked up Ryan and Jacob and took them along.  I knew they would enjoy seeing the dogs in Halloween costumes.  The link above has lots of photos and tells about it.  I only took a couple of photos.  It was very hot so we were in the shade and the photos were all a little dark but here's one so you get the idea.  I took this shot to show you how the owners were dressing up to match their pooches.

The boys were hungry and wanted to go to a new McDonald's that opened by their house so we went through the drive thru for a couple of Happy Meals and then took them to a local park to eat and play on the play equipment.  Since Cooper and Kanan were with us, we had to get them out of the SUV.  We're trying to find a day soon to take the boys to Disneyland.  We were hoping to do it while Disneyland was decorated for Halloween but we're running out of time.  We don't want to go while it's still this hot.  Bad enough standing in long lines without the sun beating down on you, too.  We haven't told Ryan and Jacob yet because they would be going crazy asking every day, "When???"  They will be so excited!

Our House

Isn't this a perfect cartoon for Jeff and me?  We've been cancelling out each other's votes for 38 years now.  I don't know if you can see all the parts but it's really quite clever.  On the blue side, a Prius with an I Love Obamacare bumper sticker.  On the driveway, the New York Times,  MSNBC on the TV and a photo of Bill Clinton on the wall.  On the red side, a Hummer with a Tea Party Patriot bumper sticker.  On the driveway, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News on the TV and a photo of Ronald Reagan on the wall.  It says "'Til Vote Do Us Part" but Jeff and I have always been able to agree to disagree.  He'll tease me about hiding my absentee ballot and I'll give him misinformation about our polling place.  We watch the debates together and agree on some things and disagree on others.  We have a sense of humor about it all.  

We are having Santa Ana winds beginning tonight.  You know I always talk about them.  They heat us up in October, November and December and are often the cause of brush fires.  They are featured in the Christmas movie, The Holiday and I also just found out that The Beach Boys recorded a song entitled Santa Ana Winds!  I found it on YouTube and while not one of their better songs, it still sums up this unique weather phenomena in the Los Angeles area.  It's HERE.  Have a great weekend!  Here's a pumpkin I carved for one of our past Homework Assignments.  It's a sunflower.

        

Down on the Farm

We had a great time at the McGrath Farm and Pumpkin Patch.  This is an organic farm and we often stop there on our way home from the Ventura area.  Jacob and I met Ryan's class there at 10:00.  Ryan had his first school bus ride and he seemed to enjoy it.  All the kids were wearing huge t-shirts that their teacher made for them.  They add the names (or pictures) of the different field trips they go on throughout the year.  Farmer Phil gave the kids a talk about organic farming and about seasons and the fruit and vegetables that are in season at different times of the year.  He introduced us to Levi, the bunny.

They had a small area with farm animals that we visited.

Someone was looking for food

You can see the t-shirt I mentioned.  Jacob had a scary skeleton shirt on.

They had fun in a corn maze.  That's Ryan's teacher in the background

Happy boys with their little pumpkins

After the school bus left, Jacob and I went into the farm store and bought a basket of organic strawberries that were delicious and an interesting looking bunch of green onions.  They look different than the ones you buy in the market.  They're more bulbous and the green stems are thinner almost like chives.  Also delicious!

Pumpkin Patch

October is always a fun month with lots of street fairs, harvest festivals and pumpkin patches.  On Sunday, Jeff and I went to the Thousand Oaks Street Festival.  We decided to go there instead of the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival since the former is free and the latter charges admission and the booths and activities are pretty much the same.  Today, Ryan's class is going to a Pumpkin Patch at one of our local farms in Camarillo.  It will be his first time on a school bus and he's been experiencing a bit of angst about this but now he's coming around because he's going to sit with his friend, another Ryan, and he knows I'm going to meet him there.  I'll bring along Jacob.  Should be a good opportunity for some more cute Autumn photos.  Remember these from last year?

  

I miss Ryan's long hair.  I'm trying to convince Jessica (mainly Pat) to let it grow out at least enough to make a little spiky top.  

This was a favorite photo and I used it for the cover of a Photobook that I made for Jacob last Christmas.

Bouncing Back

Ryan had a miraculous recovery and was able to go to school on Wednesday and have his birthday celebration after all.  He went from a fever and hardly holding his head up to being excited about filling up his goodie bags for his classmates in a matter of a few hours.  Jessica got home from work and had to get busy making Halloween cookies to share.  Here's a photo of him on his 5th birthday (can you tell) wearing his birthday crown from school.  Sorry I cut it off but I took a quick photo with my cellphone.

  

Yesterday we went down to Channel Islands to go kayaking with Chris but when we got down there it was too windy and the kayak rental place told us it wouldn't be safe to go.  Fortunately, I had a Groupon for flights of beer and appetizers at a local restaurant in the area so we had to make do with that.  It was supposed to be our reward after a hard paddle but we got the reward without the work.  

Our heatwave is over and we have cool and drizzly weather ahead.  If the weather isn't too bad we have our local Pumpkin Festival in Calabasas to attend this weekend.  On Monday, I have a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Ryan and we're still looking for a day to take the boys to Disneyland.

Ryan is Five! Happy Birthday!

How did Ryan get to be five already?  Doesn't it seem like just yesterday he was born?  Poor little guy is sick, too.  No fun to be sick on your birthday.  When Jeff picked him up from school yesterday he wasn't feeling well.  They went to the 99 cent store to buy things for birthday goodie bags for his classmates at school.  Since it's so close to Halloween, they bought a lot of Halloween themed items- pencils, erasers, stickers, etc...  When they got here, Ryan didn't want lunch which was a bad sign because he always eats a lot after school.  We took his temperature and it was a little over 100 F.  I took him with me to the market to get some children's Advil and we picked up some cute goodie bags at Michael's.  I doubt that he will go to school today so will have to have his little birthday celebration at school when he's feeling better.  Just as well as there's another little boy with the same birthday so they were going to have to double up anyway.  Now they both can have their own celebration day.  Here's a photo of his Avenger's birthday cake.

Ryan really wanted a pet for his birthday.  His dad is allergic to cats and dogs so I'm afraid he will grow up furry petless like I did.  My mom was allergic to cats, dogs and birds- think I'm over-compensating now?  So Jessica bought him a Beta fish.  Ryan named him Dexter and had to have Avengers as decor for the fish bowl.  Ryan loves Dexter so much... he visits him all the time, feeds him (with monitoring,) says goodbye to him in the morning, tells him he loves him, etc...  Jessica is terrified that Dexter will die and wishes she hadn't bought such a uniquely colored fish as he will be hard to replace without Ryan noticing.  Let's hope Dexter hangs in there!

Bark in the Park

On Saturday, we took Cooper and Kanan to "Bark in the Park."  It's a festival for dogs and their owners and dogs are welcome.  They had lots of contests:  smallest dog, biggest dog, ugliest dog. cutest, best trick, , dog/owner look-alike, etc... and best Halloween Costume.  They also had small dog (under 25 lbs) races, dog agility demonstrations, Search and Rescue dog demonstrations and pet adoptions.  There were many booths with lots of free stuff- treats, food, toys- which Cooper and Kanan loved.  Tillman, the famous surfing and skating bulldog, was there along with Norman the Scooter Dog.  For the sports fans, there were autographs from famous baseball players of the past:  Steve Garvey, Steve Yeager and Jose Conseco.  I took a couple of photos of the dogs in costumes.  This guy was filming the event for a TV Show (does anyone recognize him... I think he's from Animal Planet or one of those channels?) and he kept saying the event was in Hollywood!  We're about 30 miles from Hollywood but I guess it's close enough if you live elsewhere in the US.  Here's Elvis.

  

And another couple of cute costumes

The bassett is a yellow submarine

Once in a while, I'll record dog shows on the family room TV for Cooper because he likes to watch TV.  I happened to see this girl and her dog win the national championship in frisbee with this dog recently.  I recognized her because of her blue-tipped hair.  This dog really flies through the air!

Thunder Bolts and Lightning...

Mamma Mia!  We got caught in a downpour!  Rain was predicted and a little fell Wednesday night but by Thursday morning the sky was blue with puffy clouds.  I told Jacob that we'd walk to Costco (stroller for him) and Grandpa would meet us there later and drive us home.  Jeff was at the dog park and we didn't want to wait for him.  We did our shopping and then stopped for our usual Costco lunch... Jacob has a slice of pizza and I take the second piece home for later when Ryan gets home from school.  By the time we were ready to leave the sky had opened up and it was pouring.  There was no way to get to the car without getting drenched.  Jeff pulled the SUV up and I handed Jacob to him over a little wall and then Jeff and I put all our purchases in the car.  We were both soaked through.  By the time we got home it was lightning and thundering and Jeff and I both got flash flood warning sirens on our iPhones.  We're on a hill so we don't worry about flooding but poor Kalani was in the backyard so he was happy to see us arrive and let him in.

Today is my birthday and Jeff and I are going to lunch and a movie.  We're going to see Argo which is getting great reviews.  Jessica has the day off so we won't have the boys.  Justin and Sarah will be here over the weekend and we'll celebrate my birthday and Ryan's 5th birthday which is on the 17th.

I have a small update on the mystery of the headless pigeon.  Our neighbor said he saw a hawk swoop down and take it's head off.  Okay but that still doesn't explain how it was precariously perched on our backyard fence.  Still, it's better than worrying that there's some wacko pigeon-killer running loose in the neighborhood.

Finally, here's the latest photo of our Halloween front porch.  Ryan keeps suggesting thing to add and he's keeping with my black and white theme.  I did add the black cat he wanted but then he suggested a skeleton because it's white.  I reminded him I have a tiny skeleton on my entryway organizer but he wants a full sized skeleton that you can dress up!  I told him maybe next Halloween.  Happy Weekend!

      

Macabre Mystery

Sounds like a good pre-Halloween title, doesn't it?  But we had something creepy and weird happen.  Jeff noticed our cat Kalani staring up at an area of the fence between our house and the people who live behind us.  He walked up to see what had Kalani so spellbound and saw that it was a bird... a pigeon.  It was dead and it was precariously balanced on the top of the fence.  Upon close inspection, Jeff could see that it had blue tape around it's legs, like bands for marking pet pigeons.  But the really weird thing was that it's head was cut completely off.  Under it's wing, there was some blood and what looked like a gun shot hole.  We asked the people behind us if they had any ideas about it and they didn't.  The only good explanation I could think of was maybe their gardener found it while mowing the lawn and stuck it up on the fence but even that doesn't really make too much sense.  It's a mystery!

While I'm on the topic of Halloween, I thought I'd mention a few children's books about Halloween.  Every day when he gets home from school, Ryan wants me to read two books to him.  His favorite is called Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O'Connell.  It's an inexpensive little paperback but kids love it.  I used to read it to my 1st and 2nd graders.  Once they realize that the witch is behind all the costumes scaring the ghosts, they feel like they're in on an inside joke and just love it.  The second is called Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman.  It's a cute book about cooperation and sharing between a witch and other spooky creatures.  If you have older kids or grandkids (maybe 2nd-4th graders) I recommend Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini and it's sequel Zoom Broom.  Both those books were real crowd pleasers when I was teaching.  And if you're book shopping and want a great Thanksgiving book that's funny, there's "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" by Alison Jackson.  I'm so pleased that Ryan wants me to read these books to him every day!

Halloween Orders

Ryan is really into Halloween this year.  I think it's because he's not quite as terrified as he was in the past and his bravery is creating a bit of an obsession.  He wants to wear his Halloween costume all the time.  He's going to be Ironman.  Here he is on Friday watching The Avengers movie on my iPad while wearing his costume.

On the porch, I have my huge spider on the front door, the new spider web with drop down spider, a bat, and then Ryan insisted I should have a ghost.  So I ran around looking for a ghost that wasn't too scary.  He liked it  but then informed me that now I needed a black cat.  Can an order for a witch be far behind?  At least all this is fitting in with my black and white theme!

On  Sunday, I planted my fall- winter flowers in my front yard flower bed.  I planted peachy orange and violet blue pansies and a back row of taller of dark orange and yellow fresia.  I hope they'll be as successful as my spring-summer marigolds and gerbera daisies!

More Lost Photos Found

Thought I'd post another couple of photos from the recently discovered roll of film from over 30 years ago.  I had it put on to a CD.  Here's a photo of me, Justin and Jeff at the LAFD graduation.  I loved that dress and still remember it.  You can see it better in my previous post.

Also on that roll of film were some of the earliest photos of Justin that I have.  I posted this one below on Facebook and friends were making fun of it saying Justin looks like he's playing air guitar.  I said he was just woozy from the Beck's beer the doctor told me to drink each evening while I was nursing.  Times sure have changed... can you imagine a doctor saying that now?  But European beer has more brewer's yeast which is good for you.  It may not be the best of baby Justin but I couldn't get over how cute and young Jeff is!

Jeff was such a big help to me during that first 6 weeks or so of Justin's life.  He'd stay up late watching horror movies and rocking Justin until he needed to bring him to me for nursing in the wee hours.  As you can see, Justin is younger in this photo than the top one so this was probably before Jeff made it into the LAFD.  What a great thing that was for us... a fantastic job that he loved going to every day of his life.  Thousands apply to the LAFD and only a few make it.

On Thursday, Jeff and I went to the Pottery Barn.  I had a $25.00 gift certificate (that you earn from purchases) plus a "spend $50.00, get $25.00 off" card so that meant I could get $50.00 worth of merchandise for free!  I found this very nice hurricane type glass candle holder that has a bottom that you can fill with whatever you want so you can change it's look seasonally.  I bought a birch candle and fall leaves and here's my display for my living room coffee table.

  

At Christmas time, I'll add something like ornaments, pinecones...something Christmassy, in the summer seashells, etc... you get the idea,  It's really quite large... larger than it looks in the photo.  They're called "Double Tiered Glass Hurricanes" and you can see them HERE. 

  

Kodachrome, You give us those nice bright colors...

Remember that Simon and Garfunkle song?  They were so great!  Anyway, after finding that roll of 35mm Kodachrome and having it developed, we found it was from Jeff's graduation from the LAFD back in 1977!  I've been really busy and haven't had time to take the film back to Costco to get it on a CD so I scanned one of the photos that shows the whole family.  Jessica wasn't even born yet and she just turned 32 so you can see how old this photo is!

  

From left to right:  

Jeff's grandfather, my mother, Jeff's grandmother, Jeff's dad, me holding Justin, Jeff and Jeff's mom.

I had to add a new label category called, "Seriously?!?"  Here are the first two entries:

1.  My Scooba is acting up... not putting down solution or sucking it up.  I have a lifetime warranty through Hammacher Schlemmer but rather than packing it up and sending it in for a new one, I tried iRobot support. Can you believe one of the suggestions is to drop it on the ground 3 times?  Seriously?!?  What's funny is I tried it and it seemed to help.  We'll see the next time I use it.

2.  Jeff and I are at Home Depot shopping for bathroom things and I see him put a half dozen or more shiny brass door hinges in the cart.  What are they for, I ask?  He replies that they have painted over the hinges at the house where Jessica and family live so he wants to replace them.  You mean the doors where we have just put all "oil rubbed bronze" door knobs on?  Seriously?!?  Sometimes I don't know what men would do without us when it comes to details!

Eerie Siri

Just a quick post because we've had a busy weekend.  We're working on remodeling one of the bathrooms in the house where Jessica and family live.  I'll post a photo sometime this week when we're done.  We've been having fun with our new iPhone 5's.  We've been downloading apps and learning more about the phones.  We are completely impressed and fascinated with Siri. You can ask Siri to do things for you like make a call, send a text message, etc... but "she" will also answer questions and give you information.  I asked Siri on Saturday afternoon if UCLA won their football game and she came back with a yes, the score and even a scoreboard showing what happened in each quarter.  I asked where the nearest McDonald's was and she came back with several locations and a map to each.  It's really impressive!  I asked, "Siri, what is the meaning of life? and she said, "All evidence to date suggests it's chocolate."  If you ask again, it will give you more philosophical answers.  Siri is eerie!  Here's a screenshot of page 2 of my iPhone where I have many of the apps that friends suggested.

The other day, we found an old roll of undeveloped film.  It was over 30 years old so we took it to Costco to have it developed.  What a find!  It was photos of Jeff's graduation from the Fire Department.  There are photos of the whole family:  Jeff's grandparents, his mother and father, my mom, and Justin when he was about 7 months old.  I'll either scan the photos or maybe we;ll see if Costco can put them on a CD for us.  That would probably be best.  Wow, we are all so young!  Happy October!