Halloween!

Today and tonight, we had family visiting and at least 4 sports games were watched on the giant TV. We got enough trick-or-treaters that Jason had to shut off the porch light at 8:15 (we still have a few pieces of candy left, but obviously we need those for our own treats).

It's 50-some degrees outside, and clear. I can't remember a single Halloween when I didn't need my winter coat and usually an umbrella, too! Lucky kids this year.


I made brie with pecans, chicken tortilla soup (quite spicy! It made me sweat.), hamburger tortilla pie (not quite spicy enough), a jack-o-lantern, and roasted pumpkin seeds. Plus we had chips and queso and salsa and lime beer. We are stuffed.



Usually in October, I watch lots of scary movies, and I had looked forward to it this year, too. But somehow I only managed to watch 1.7 scary movies and they were not very good! Quarantine looked interesting -- it stars Jennifer Carpenter, who you may know as Dexter's sister or one of the skinny friends on the Wayans brothers' White Chicks. It's a little Blair Witch-ish, in that it's filmed in all camcorder-style. I give it a MEH and a shrug. It didn't grab me.

I watched 7/10 of The Wicker Man, from Scotland circa 1973. A Scottish policeman receives a letter stating that a 12-year old girl has disappeared from a small, weird island known for its fruits and vegetables. He flies out to investigate, but finds the locals to be exceedingly unhelpful. Soon he discovers that they're all pagans! He thinks they're going to sacrifice the girl because they had a bad harvest! They have sex in the cemetery! He himself is like 38 years old and is waiting until he gets married to lose his virginity. Then it's May Day, and they're teaching the children -- the GIRL children -- that the Maypole is a phallic symbol, and he's trapped on the island because they did something to his plane, and then I didn't see the end. So. If it were more engaging, or if there wasn't QUITE so much folk music, or if it were funnier that he was such a prude, I would have finished watching it.

Ooh, I just read a spoiler, and it turns out that the locals need to sacrifice a virgin to appease the crops gods, and HE IS THE ONE! And, I see that the actor playing the virgin cop was 43 at the time. So, there you go. Oh, plus there is a kid named "Myrtle" but with the Scottish island accent, it took me like 8 times of hearing it to figure out what the heck her name was. So there's that. Accents always add something to scary movies.

Today, on Halloween, I thought lots of channels would be playing scary movies while I carved my pumpkin, but nope. "America's Next Top Model" had a marathon. "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" was on (which could definitely be a nightmare under some circumstances).

So, I've left the menfolk to their many sports events and am typing away while I watch the original Friday the 13th. Finally, life seems to be in order. October = scary movie. Or, in horror movie terms: Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch. Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah.

NaBloPoMo!

Hmm. Am I really going to do this?

Okay, YES! I am going to take part in NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. It means that I am making a solemn vow to post every day during the month of November. AND I can't cheat and get them all ready ahead of time and then have Blogger put them up for me each day -- Blogger doesn't offer that feature.

And, next week will be really hectic with work. AND we'll be on the road/out of town for several days around Thanksgiving.

Yet I still feel compelled -- COMPELLED, I tell you -- to be a NaBloPoMo-er.

It starts tomorrow!

Oh yeah, Happy Halloween!

100 Years

If my grandma Inez were still alive, she would have celebrated being 100 years old on October 12th! It is hard for me to believe that I knew someone who was alive 100 years ago. Sometimes I forget how old I am, or how long it's been since I was a teenager. Time is getting harder to keep track of.

I never spent a lot of time with my grandparents since we lived far away from them. I didn't know them well. But they raised my mom to be a very intelligent, caring, thoughtful, responsible, daring, funny woman. My strongest memory of my grandma is of her smiling shyly, and like she was on the verge of giggling. She had a great smile.

She also had beautiful lilac bushes in her yard, and I always think a house should have lilac bushes. And a big porch. And candy on hand at all times. And a dressmaking dummy. And an attic filled with old treasures. And lots of smiles and giggles.

Book 82: The Coffin Dancer

Yet another Jeffery Deaver novel starring Lincoln Rhyme, the retired detective who still solves crimes. In this episode, an old enemy of Lincoln's returns: the hired killer who was responsible for the death of Lincoln's one-time love interest.

Besides being entertained by multiple characters and plot twists, we get to learn about airplanes and piloting -- pilotry -- being a pilot. Deaver seems to do a lot of research for each novel, and on a wide variety of topics, and we get to learn all that in addition to the latest in evidence examination.

I laughed out loud when I read a little bit of Deaver's bio the other night. "Former attorney and folksinger..." The folksinger bit really cracked me up. I just do not associate hippie folksinging with lawyers OR crime-solving. He is more complicated than I would have thought, had I ever thought about it.

Book 81: The Stone Monkey

Another Lincoln Rhyme novel by Jeffery Deaver. This one is centered around the topic of illegal immigration from China. It is fascinating to read the descriptions of Chinese culture, traditions, and superstitions (run fast in front of an oncoming car for good luck!). As usual, there are lots of characters and interesting plot twists.

There are a few instances of poor proofreading, like: he got out of bed and got into the shower. He heard a noise, so he jumped out of bed to see what it was. Boo!




As a side note, a really interesting book I had to read in law school was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It is about Hmong refugees who moved to the U.S. after helping us fight in the Vietnam war. The title references a young girl's epilepsy, which is seen much differently by her family than by the American doctors who try to treat her. It is a great book that illuminates the differences in perspective and culture between the Hmong refugees and the Americans who interact with them.

At our old house

We had a leak this summer, and there was a sagging spot in the ceiling.

This rude Greek man came and cut a hole in the ceiling, throwing plaster everywhere: on the tarp he laid down, on the floor that wasn't covered with tarp, and over the counter into the kitchen!

Here he is with his head in the hole he made.


He did fix the leak, which was good... after he called in backup! He had to have a second plumber come over to tell him what to do.

The second plumber was certain he'd been in our townhome before. Then he realized that he'd recently been in FOUR other townhomes in our neighborhood because of the exact same problem.



For one thing, each house should have a water pressure regulator on it. None in my row of houses has one.

For another thing, that plastic piping that you can see up there is totally illegal now. It was okay to use it when it was installed, but now it's banned because it can't handle enough water pressure. The second plumber tested the level of pressure in our house: 60 lbs. The amount of pressure those pipes can handle without leaking: 50 lbs.

Our landlady is considering getting the house re-plumbed, but she's not sure yet if she'd just prefer to keep fixing leaks for $400 a pop or pay $2000 one time and fix it for real.

We don't have to worry about it!



The neighbor 2 doors down (loose screen from screen door flapping in the wind) had a leak in about the same spot as us at the same time, but hers didn't result in just a bulge in the ceiling which was full of clean water. Nope, her dining room light fixture filled with poop water! Ewww! Hopefully her landlord has fixed that by now (but it doesn't look good since that screen is still flapping).

Books 78, 79, and 80: Lincoln Child Thrillers

All three of these novels are thriller fiction with a large technological component. Child always employs several points of view, shifting between them so we get to know more than any one character does. They're tight, entertaining, and quick to read.

Deep Storm is about an underwater discovery that might be the lost city of Atlantis or might be something even more exciting! Military and scientific forces battle each other when it becomes clear that the underwater mystery is causing sickness in the crew. Has a great epilogue.




Utopia takes place in an ultra-modern amusement park near Las Vegas. Robots with the ability to learn are suspected of causing problems with the rides, but their creator simply cannot believe that it's true. Perhaps there is such a thing as TOO much technology.



Death Match concerns a new computerized match-making service in which a MILLION data points are examined to make sure people are truly compatible. There is an Artificial Intelligence named Liza who runs the system, and she learns about love along with other life lessons. She has access to all kinds of information, and she may not always use it as expected. Again, Child warns us that giving too much freedom and power to our own inventions may not be good for humanity.



I'm behind by 3 books! I hope I can catch up before the year ends. I will be extremely busy with work for the next few weeks, so I won't have much chance to read. Maybe I can make it up during our long holiday-travel drives.

How I Spent Last Week

*Saw our first rainbow at the new house


*Had our first snow at the new house


*Had our second snow at the new house


*Looked up the symptoms of swine flu. My sickness matched up very well. I didn't go to a doctor, since I heard that when you call to make an appointment, they tell you to just stay home for a week. I don't know if it's true, but based on my experience with doctors being almost always useless, it was easy for me to believe.

*Read some thrilling novels to keep entertained. I read three by Lincoln Child, who often collaborates with Douglas Preston to write about a great character: Agent Pendergast. Preston also writes on his own, and his solo novels would be my second choice. But, I've read all those, so I had to read Child's solo works. They were fine, but his focus is on technology, artificial intelligence, etc... I prefer Douglas's areas of expertise, which are archeology and American Indians. Anyway, the Child novels did keep me entertained through my aching and moaning and whining and shivering.

*I'm still loving the show "Dexter"! The new season has not disappointed me.

*HBO finally decided to allow us to watch the second season of their Spanish-language detective show, "Epitafios" (Epitaphs). Two detectives track a serial killer (and the serial killer may be returning the favor). Both detectives are seriously flawed (one regularly plays Russian roulette). It's fun to see the difference between the Argentinian idea of modern police technology (which is probably pretty realistic) compared to our outlandishly exaggerated "CSI" fantasy labs and budgets.

*Managed to stand up long enough (in several short spurts) to peel off the top, vinyl layer of my "USA Varsity Sports" wallpaper border. Except for this stubborn 10-ft area over the windows, which is taking as long as the rest of the room combined.



*Finished up the final cleaning of our old house and retrieved our vacuum cleaner, which I have been longing for here. I never thought I would long for that thing, but it is true. I'm so happy that I'll never have to see our neighbors again! I'm especially happy that I'll never see them organizing another neighborhood basketball game in my driveway OR peeping in my windows!

**So, not too bad for being so sick. This week is off to a better start already, though I'm still only at about 75% of my regular energy level.

October 6 News

I'm sorry to announce that I've been stricken with a COLD. Sore throat, coughing, phlegm, sudden intense aches throughout my body, exhaustion, headaches, and sadness. Actually, today I feel 100 times better than yesterday (possibly sleeping 12 hours last night was the magical solution!). I still have a very, very sore throat, coughing, and phlegm, but no aches. Yay!

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I haven't finished any more books and am now behind on my reading. I hope I'll catch up before October's over. I'm partway through several, so if I focus on finishing those, it shouldn't take too long to catch up.

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We've got 8 good-sized boxes of stuff to donate, plus an office chair and a microwave. I've got 3 boxes of books and videos to give to my family at Thanksgiving. Plus there are a few other things that I'm still working on talking myself into donating. I'll get there, but I'm not quite there yet.

In the house, we're still shuffling around the weird stuff, the papers, the knick knacks, the paddywacks, the art work and collectibles. I'm also trying to remove a wallpaper border which says, "USA Varsity Sports". Why would anyone make such a stupidly themed wallpaper border, and who in their right mind would buy it and glue it to the wall? It's taking hours and hours to remove it. I've tried getting it wet, wetting it with vinegar, and using a hair dryer to melt the glue. All seem equally effective. It still takes a lot of elbow grease. It seems that my cold is using up all my grease, so I'll have to return to that project a little later in the week.

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I'm getting my craft stuff all organized, so hopefully I'll have something new to show you before the month is over.

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It's October, and that means that it's time to watch scary movies! I love it. First will probably be Halloween. Oh, Jamie Lee Curtis with your white tights! Stabbing your brother in the neck with a knitting needle and poking him with a wire hanger. I'll never get tired of it.

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Sparky asked me if I miss Rattail yet, and the answer is YES. Although I must tell you some disappointing news about him: he trimmed the tail! He started wearing the rattail loose instead of in a braid, and cut off a few inches of length.

Oh, and the rumors told to me by another neighbor (whose dog pushed through the screen in the screen door this spring and now it flaps in the breeze, very classily) about the rattail family turned out to be false (at least partly).
1. I've been told that it is 4 kids that get you the most welfare, not 5 (so they had that extra one for nothing, if their goal was more income)
2. They were not being evicted, but were trying to buy a house and the deal fell through
3. The mom doesn't do nothing, but is going to some kind of nursing school

We ended up giving them our aquarium and my little trampoline, and we saw that their house is even smaller than ours was (narrower and more hallway-like). Their kitchen was a tiny little box, last redecorated in the '80s and filled floor to ceiling with dirty dishes. Their garage is packed to the gills with stuff, but they plan to clean it out and make a playroom for the older kids to use this winter.

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See you soon, hopefully with some book reports and photos of a room with no "USA Varsity Sports" wallpaper border.