Happy Monday!

And it is a happy Monday because I'm not at work!  I had a lovely long weekend - Friday morning we had a small convoy (ok, 2 cars) down to Dayton OH to see my brother and his lovely fiancee and create some shenanigans.

It was pretty unanimous - a skeleton had to go with us so we could play with it.  I took 2 - just because a smaller one is easier to take places.  Here's Al (the big one) and Chuck, ready to go!

 Laurie had way too much fun with Chuck.

 She managed to get 4 truckers to honk at her on the way!  I had to pace them so they had a chance to look over and acknowledge exactly what they were looking at!

 See?  Way too much fun.

 This is just a smidgen of the alcohol that was in our room!  I haven't imbibed like that in a LONG time!

 We shot some movies, too.  Terry needs to send them to me so I can put them on YouTube.

 They went to the pool, but didn't go swimming.

 Chuck at Cracker Barrel.

 We went to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday.  Laurie wanted to go see all the shows, so we ended up splitting up.  I was walking with Mom & Lulu and I saw the camel rides and announced I wanted to do it - so did she!  They are a hell of a lot bonier than horses!  And we watched the jousting.   It's a nice RenFest.  I didn't take any pictures of the cool costumes I saw, since I never would have gotten to look at anything else!   And since the day was calling for rain, the crowds were probably less than on a regular day.  As you can see, we're wearing jackets.  It started to sprinkle rain right before we left - then it downpoured.  Perfect timing !  

Saturday night we went to the Lewisburg Haunted Cave and it was top-notch!  It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest haunted house and has won all sorts of awards.  It's in an old mine shaft and they used that to the best advantage. It takes over an hour to go thru!  I won't do any spoilers, other than it was awesome. Oh and only 1 clown and he wasn't even necessary.  He was at the bottom of the seemingly entrance tunnel and was holding up groups so we didn't run into each other (we did anyway but it still worked.)  Totally worth the $16 to get in.

When we came out, there were a couple local police officers there and we ended up stopping and chatting with the one guy for about 15 minutes.  He's worked the cave for the last 8 years and was telling us some great stories.   Totally appreciated the fact that they were there.  

Mmmmm bacon.

 I got a message from Randy Saturday night telling me that Jack had a run-in with a skunk again.  So when I got home last night, he needed another bath.  Randy gave him one, but I have no idea what he even used.  So both dog and house reeked still.  We got some stuff called Skunk-Off and scrubbed him down and used Febreeze where he's been sleeping so it's mostly tolerable in here now.

The kitties were happy to see me.  Here's Chester & Daisy on my lap again.  And Al & Chuck were happy to go back out in the yard with their buddies.

My agenda for today (Randy & Angel are both at work right now) is to grab some lunch, then take stinky boy out to Tillson Street so I can look at the set-ups in daylight.  We thought to go tomorrow night to see it after dark, but Angel has to work, so we'll go when she gets out of dance Wednesday night.  It's getting close to Halloween, so the crowds will be growing!

#TFTLS

Skywatch Friday 10/23

A perfect fall day!

Pontiac, Oakland County, MI

Linking up over at Skywatch Fridays.

#TFTLS

Happy Hump Day!

I'm finally over the plague!  There's still a residual cough, but it took a good week to feel close to normal. 

OMG - the kid finally got A JOB !! ! ! !! !  Apparently there had been a conversation at dance about what she was doing in all her free time (sitting on her ass in front of the TV) and her teacher told her she needed to come work for her.  She manages a Thai restaurant.  A couple nights later, Meghan messaged Angel and told her if she was really interested, to report to the restaurant the next morning at 10:45!  So she went and really liked it.  She'll be hostessing, but she learned a lot more than that while she was there.  HOORAY !!!

This weekend is a family trip to Ohio to see my brother and indulge in some shenanigans.  Randy has a meeting Saturday and Angel has training, so I'll be going without them!  But both my sisters, a brother-in-law, 2 nieces and a nephew-to-be are all heading down there Friday morning.  It should be fun, maybe, hopefully!  Maybe even a trip to the Ohio Renaissance Festival!  

So, I'm 95% done with my outdoor Halloween set up!  I have 2 headstones that are in mid-paint job and the 3 really big ones are leaning against the house because the damn wind blew them over and snapped the dowels holding them up.  So I need to replace those.  Right now it looks more like a skeleton party than a cemetery (12 full sized skeletons, 7 small ones, 3 dogs, 3 cats, a rat and some random loose bones) so hopefully it'll look better with the rest out.  

 These are my favorite guys out there - the little ones running with the Beagles.

I went thru my totes and only pulled some of the indoor decor out.  I didn't bother with the apothecary at all.  I didn't even fill every flat surface of the hall bathroom with fake rats (like I usually do, because Angela hates them!) I just put a couple in there.   It's plenty festive.

So I need to take the car for an oil change, take Daisy to the vet for her rabies shot (we took her in to get declawed last week and while she was groggy, she took a bite out of the vet!!) So I was INFORMED I needed to bring her in for her shot.  I need to run to the hardware store for new dowels.  I need to do some laundry.  And pack.  Tomorrow's gonna be a busy day!

She's clearly getting along quite well with Chester - here they are sharing my lap.  It's a quite the balancing act until Chester laid across Daisy's head and tried to smother her.   Her fur is really as silky as it looks! 

So that's all here.  I mainly wanted to get a post put up today so I could add this!

#TFTLS

Holy Crap!

Have I really not posted this month at all???

Damn, I suck.  On the plus side - I'm really happy with how my yard looks for Halloween!  Planning ahead for next year - more headstones for the cemetery!  It looks rather like a skeleton party right now (12 full sized ones, 7 little ones, 3 dogs, 3 cats and assorted loose bones!) Click HERE to see more - I have a blog just for H'ween goodness!

Anyhoo, not much to report.  I've been trucking along like the name of the blog says - slow & steady.  I've been losing 0.6 lbs here and 0.7 lbs there.  At least I'm on the downward spiral!

Did you know that Weight Watchers is getting rid of their Activelink activity monitor???  No one at my meeting place knew about this!

They must be planning a lot of changes, since they've been out of the spiral bound tracking journals for a good month that I know of.  And I popped in the office my work, too.  Nothing.  Oh, and when I checked out the online store, they offered a FitBit.  So I'm wondering if they're fazing out their own thing and just concentrating on systems that people may already have?  Guess I should start shopping around.  Any suggestions??

I'm sad right now - besides getting rid of my meeting time - I loved going right after work and getting it over with - my leader also left!  Fearless Leader Dez was the shit.  She had a dynamic personality and was funny and interesting and she made you really want to go to every meeting!  The lady there today was Meh.  Very vanilla.  She's only been a member of WW since last fall, lost 24 lbs to get to goal and is now working for them.  She wasn't very exciting at all.  I may consider looking around for other times.  In miles this office is closer, but in amount of traffic - the one I used to go to is much better.  I only changed offices because this one is closer to Miss Angela's dance studio.  But since she's driving herself now.....that doesn't matter to me!

The new kitten is obviously getting along with at least one of the older cats.  Here Daisy & Chester are sharing my lap.  It was quite the balancing act.  Then Chester chose to lie across my lap - on top of Daisy's head.

I'll leave you with this funny....

#SnS

Halloween setup has begun!

Cheers!

A caffeinated libation!!  

Ugh, I'm trying to inject some caffeine into my system, I don't drink coffee often.  Started to get a sore throat and felt achy Wednesday and only stayed at work for like 2 hours Friday before coming home and sleeping most of the day.  I still feel crappy (stuffy, coughing, sneezing, etc) & headachy, but I'm pretty sure that's because I'm used to drinking a LOT of water per day and since I didn't yesterday......I'm feeling that now.  I'll be back at the water when I finish this.  

So yes, Halloween setup has begun.  I got the cemetery fence, headstones and Mosh Pit of blowmolds put out the first day (Tuesday after Angel's birthday!) and didn't do much else until a couple days later when I took the coffin & skeletons out. 

~one of these is not like the others~

I've already started moving things around (expect for the blowmolds - they're good).  I never expected these words to cross my lips, but I may have commented I thought I had too many skeletons! And I don't even have the little ones or animals out yet. But I've figured out a way to make them work.  And I'm still tweaking the lights.  That's my bane every year. 

{before}

But first......lemme take a selfie!

There's very little H'ween in the house so far, due to it being a disaster and I get overwhelmed when I look at it.  The combination of too small a house & too much stuff is gonna be the death of me.  On the plus side, we have a new furnace so we don't have to worry about carbon monoxide poisoning this year! 

Little nugget Daisy is settling in just fine. Tomorrow we'll have had her a month and I can tell already she's grown considerably.  She looks less kitten and more gangly pre-teen.  She is definitely my cat - she loves to be on my lap and follows me around a lot.  She's Chester's shadow, too.  Maddie still isn't thrilled with her, but he's been really good with her. 

 She even followed me into the bathroom and made herself comfy.  

Awkward! 

I am such a basic white girl!  I'm all about the fall themed foods right now.  

We met the rest of the family for dinner last weekend and I got the Bewitched Bread Bowl......

OMG. Heaven.   The savory pumpkin / bacon (in every bite!!) was offset by just a hint of sweetness from the roasted apples.  It was SO GOOOOOOODDDD!

 We've demolished the Oreos.

 I just picked up the Peeps & M&Ms last night but they'll have to wait until I get a sense of taste back. 

But anyway....it's supposed to be a gorgeous weekend and I'd love to get some more stuff done outside and even throw the windows open and get busy inside, but for now I'm going to take some more DayQuil and possibly take a wee little nap.

Being sick sucks.

#TFTLS

Friday Funnies 100815

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Skywatch Friday 10/9

Sunrise over the parking lot at my work.

Troy, Oakland County, MI

Linking up at Skywatch Friday

#TFTLS