Fall Back

We gained an hour of sleep and I am posting the weekend backwards, just because I'd already started loading up photos when blogger decided not to cooperate so my intended Halloween post did not get done on Saturday. On Sunday, I had brunch with the Ballyhoo Bunco babes. Great food, great company, and lots of laughs, as well as a little bit of business.

Lori, Juliette, Erin, Lou, Michelle, Hilary, Jane and Melanie

There's Sonia in the corner--she was taking the other photo. :)

Saturday night, we were invited to a party at Steve and Goldfish's beautiful new home. Rich enjoyed making a caramel apple with all the trimmings. We had fun hanging out, eating (a constant theme, isn't it?) and visiting with folks. I decided I would make some cupcakes to bring and found directions for a fairly simple looking "bat" to put on top. I needed plain chocolate wafer cookies to cut in half for wings, round chocolate candies for the face, and some gel frosting to paint a shape onto the wings and to add eyes. No biggie, right?! Off to the store I go. All of the chocolate cookies have filling (think Oreos, etc) or are chunky or otherwise NOT right. I can't find any round chocolate candies. I find frosting, M&Ms and some chex mix that has chocolate covered mini pretzels in it. I am thinking, "okay, those little pretzels would look like wings wouldn't they?" I get home and pour out the chex mix to find about 7 mini pretzels mixed in with all the other crap. What the heck?? So that idea is out the window. I go to the other store and have no more luck. I am annoyed with my whole "project" by now. I decide to put those little pumpkin candies on top instead so head back to the store, where there are none left. I grab a bag of candy corn, stick them on top of the cupcakes and call them done. Oh yeah, I had to squeeze piano lessons in there somewhere, too. I have not mentioned piano lessons lately, have I? Let's say it's going slowly but I know more than I ever knew before. I suppose that counts as progress. :)

I can't believe this is the only photo I have of Steve in his chicken costume. There was a smoke machine going at the time, which adds to the spookiness. Yes, that was quite a costume. I looked online for "last minute costumes to make from things on hand at your house" but Rich was not impressed with any of the ideas and wouldn't go for them. I thought we could paint our eyes black and paste a big "P" on our shirts (black eyed peas, get it?) but he seemed to think I was out of my mind.

GF, the cutest little monkey around. Thanks for your hospitality!

We had a few trick or treaters before we left for the party. We set our big bowl of candy out on the porch with a note that said, "The wicked witch watching from the window wants you to take two pieces of candy and leave the rest for the next kids." We debated whether there would be any candy left and whether the bowl would be smashed when we got home. I really thought there would still be candy in it but it was emptied out, though still intact. SO we either had lots of visitors or someone didn't buy the wicked witch ruse and scored big.
Friday I took the day off, other than doing a few quick work-related tasks from home. I thought I would get a lot of housework done, which did not happen. I met my friends and former coworkers for lunch and some of them were already in the Halloween spirit. We celebrated Darcel's three year anniversary at work and Michael Jackson joined us.

Darcel and her family are all very creative. She said she wanted to go as a piece of toast one year when she was little, and her mom pulled it off, complete with a pat of butter. LOL

Char was a cute purple kitty cat.

Judi wore her Halloween shirt.

Donna and I were the only slackers with no costumes.

Darcel even had the moves down.

And Judi had her matching socks.

In other news, our cat Kali decided to present Rich with a gift the other night--a baby starfish she apparently found at low tide. She proudly laid it by his chair and circled around expectantly, waiting for him to take notice. At first we weren't sure what it was. It did not appear to be injured so Rich carried it back to the water and set it free. I am sure it had a freaky little ride in Kali's mouth before being dumped onto our living room floor--hopefully it is over the shock by now. Kali has upped the caliber of her gifts--the last one she gave Rich was a dead fly that she ceremoniously dropped in his lap.

We were watching "Mad Men" last night and loved it when Don Draper told his wife to "take a pill and go lie down." I told Rich that needs to be his standard line any time I start getting excitable. Think of all the chores and projects I could avoid.