Welcome to Dallas, Texas!

We've been in Dallas for a little over two months now.  I thought "Farewell to Unalaska" would be the end of this blog and I would either stop altogether or begin a new blog to document our new life in Texas, but I kinda like the idea of finishing out 2015 before letting this go.  So bear with me as I recount the last couple of months in a few more posts.

I think this was the first day we were in town after our long flights and worries about the cats!  We spent a couple of nights with Sarah and Miles and kids before moving into our apartment.  I was so happy to finally be here and to be with the kids!

I had rented an apartment for us when I was in Dallas in September.  Of course, we had sold most of our stuff and the rest was on a ship which would take several more weeks to arrive.  I ordered a couch, and a small dining table and two chairs but they had not arrived yet either.  Our first task was to rent a car so we could run our many errands, and to buy a mattress so we'd have something to sleep on!

We found an eco-friendly mattress we liked and made arrangements to pick it up at the company's warehouse the next day instead of waiting 3 more days for a delivery. The weather had been sunny and warm until we had a major rainstorm with high winds--you guessed it--the day we had to pick up the mattress.  Okay, it wasn't too bad when we left the apartment, though the storm was in the forecast.  By the time we found the warehouse, it was raining.  The mattress was completely sealed in  thick plastic so we loaded it up anyway and hoped for the best.  On the way back to the apartment, we were suddenly engulfed in a total deluge of Biblical proportions, as Rich later described it.  It was quite an adventure trying to see where we were going and not run into anything with a mattress hanging out of the bed of the pickup.

Luckily, we made it home with no mishaps,  but the mattress managed to get wet despite the wrapping.  We took the hair dryer to it and stood it up in the bedroom under the ceiling fan.  It was not a cheap mattress and I was horrified to think we might have ruined it right off the bat.   Thankfully, it's fine, if a little water stained!

We had many move-in adventures but over a couple of days we got settled into our little one bedroom apartment.  It's brand new so we are the first ones to live in it, and it's very nice, but very small!  We're only here till July so it's fine for now, and right around the corner from Sarah and Miles--bonus!

Our Alaska cats are used to running around outside and going in and out as they please, but all that has changed.  We are afraid to let them outside because it's a new environment and we don't want them to get lost; there's a busy street at the entrance of the apartment; there are lots of cars in the parking lot; and although we are happy our patio faces a woodsy area known as "The Greenbelt," we don't want them getting lost in the woods.  So we bought some harnesses and leashes and, of course, they hate them!  Kali won't even consent to getting her harness put on. Ajax will let Rich put his harness on sometimes but he acts very funny when wearing it, lying on the floor, rolling around, almost making Rich pull him with the leash.  Rich has taken to carrying both of them out onto the patio periodically to get a little fresh air and sunshine.  They are usually anxious and happy to come back in. Poor kitties--we feel badly for them and know they are bored just sitting around the apartment most of the time.  Hopefully once we get into our house in July, they will feel better and will be able to go outside some of the time.

Bonnie and David and kids came for Halloween weekend and we had lots of fun with them!

 The kids were all into dressing as various movie characters this year. Elle was "Mal" from "The Descendents" and Emery was "Disgust" from "Inside Out."  :)  

 In character! LOL

 Luke was "Spiderman."

 Beck was "Bad Cop" from the "Lego Movie."

 Ada was a little Tinkerbell

 and Jack was Peter Pan

For some reason, I didn't get many pix except at Halloween, but we had a wonderful time together.  Loved being with two of my girls!

 Bonnie and Luke

Ada swinging

Elle and Emery had a lot of fun together

We kept Emery and Luke while Bonnie and Dave went furniture shopping with Ada one day.  We met Sarah and Miles and kids at the movie and wandered around the mall. A fun time was had by all and before we knew it, it was time for them to head back to Amarillo.  I'm not so sad any more because I know we will get to see them lots more often!

Trick or Treat time

Rich got into pumpkin carving last year. You might remember his very cool witch and fraidy cat jack-o'-lanterns from previous posts. This year we decided we would each carve one so we bought two pumpkins earlier in the week. Tonight while I was lying on the floor in front of the heater (yes, it's been a cold, sleety, rainy day), he got started on his project.

After seeing how long it took and how precisely one has to follow the pattern, I am already whining about doing mine. I told him he could do both. I just like the IDEA of doing things but don't necessarily like to put out so much effort. Sad, isn't it?

Finishing touches
Voila! Pretty cool, huh?

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.

Witchy Woman

Rich's witch pumpkin turned out really well! He has this carving thing down.
Both jack-o-lanterns are on display in the kitchen window. Come by and see us! We are hoping they last till Halloween. I told Rich he could carve a few more but he nixed that idea pretty quickly.


We've had a pretty quiet and routine week so far, which is nice after the recent flurry of activity. Tomorrow I'm going to the annual USAFV Domestic Violence Awareness luncheon, which is always interesting and informative, although it's a shame that we still need that kind of activity. Unfortunately, domestic violence is still a huge problem. I hope we can all do more to increase respect, love and peace in our households and our communities. Thanks to USAFV for all the good work they do.

Fraidy Cat Jack-o-Lantern

Rich decided it was time to carve a pumpkin for Halloween. Look how great this turned out! I am highly impressed!
Our fraidy-cat Jack-o-Lantern is sitting in the kitchen window greeting the passers-by. Rich had so much fun, he just might carve another one!

Pretty cool, huh?

Well, it's been a crazy week and I have done a terrible job of documenting any of it. Today I helped with a baby shower for a friend who is having twins and I forgot the camera's memory card. You should have seen the very cute "two peas in a pod" cake! It was sort-of ironic that I was at a baby shower here while all my girls were in Dallas for a shower for Bonnie. I hated to miss it and to miss seeing all of them. But we will be on vacation in less than a month so will be happy to be with them soon!

All week we were working hard at the radio station for our annual pledge drive. We decided to do something different this year and reduce the hard-hitting pledge calls to just one day--Friday. Because we have so many talented local musicians, and live music in the studio has been the favorite part of past pledge weeks, we continued this tradition Monday through Thursday. I am always amazed at the level of talent in this small community! There are so many great singers, songwriters, and musicians that it's hard to squeeze them all in to just a few days, but we tried to showcase as many of them as we could. Friday I had to get up at 6 AM--something I haven't done in a very long time! We started out the morning with coffee and muffins at the station so our listeners could come by, chat with staff, request a song, look around, and hopefully make a pledge. We had a nice turn-out and lots of fun visiting with folks. Dan and Darrell were guest DJs from 8-10--these guys work at the hotel and every year, they get the morning kicked off with their high energy, great tunes and sense of humor. To make it even better, the hotel manager pledged to match all employee donations during the 9-10 AM hour which created a frenzy of giving. The phones were ringing off the hook and people were literally walking in the door with wads of cash in their hands! I've never seen anything like it!

Melanie and I then took over as guest DJs from 10-11. Right away, we were intimidated that there was no way we could follow Darrell and Dan! Melanie brought some songs for the country music fans and, of course, I had to have my rock and roll queued up. We jokingly referred to ourselves as "a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll," shaking our heads that we would ever have any reason to reference Donny and Marie Osmond. LOL We had a lot of fun, even if we were not quite Dan and Darrell.

At lunch time, we had pizza at the station and another crowd of people. The rest of the day included more guest DJs and representatives of community agencies stopping by to talk about their work while playing some songs they wanted to hear. All the while, I was typing away like a maniac, trying to get everyone entered onto the membership list. I am telling you, I could not catch up! What a great problem to have.

Finally, at 7 PM, we had an after-party at the Harbor View Bar and Grill with the band Bunker Battalion playing music for us. We also gave away a round trip Alaska Airlines ticket, which is a hot commodity around here!

At the end of the day, we had doubled our goal of $10,000 and were all very happy and exhausted. But a very good kind of exhausted. I will say again that I have never had a job that was this much fun!

I took my camera to work and never took one photo. We took a bunch with the office camera, though, so I will grab a couple and post them next week. I also have to load as many as possible on the KUCB blog but that probably won't happen till Monday so check back then! And KUCB would still be happy to accept any donations, even though the official fundraiser is over. :) www.kucb.org

The snow is certainly creeping down the mountains. We had a little bit in our yard and on our deck this morning. I am not ready!