BOO!!!!! IT'S HALLOWEEN!!!!

LIZARD COUNTER:  28

I think our neighborhood is skipping this ever so fun holiday.  Same goes for me, for the first time EVER.  I've always been a fan of putting up decorations around the entire house ... but this year all I did was buy candy.  Not that anyone will show up since not a single house in the neighborhood has even one pumpkin outside.  I guess we are all too old!!

The morning sky was interesting.  There were holes here and there with blue sky showing through.  We are expecting rain all day today, putting the kibosh on the kiddos candy hunting.  Yes I have two boxes of goodies just in case, but I imagine I will keep most of it!!

I can't believe I got up enough energy to actually become presentable and head out to Costco.  I think I only go maybe three times a year.  This time I'm low on garbage bags.  I was shocked to see the line begin to appear at 8:30.  Within ten minutes, the line was almost around the block.  What the heck?  Apparently they were all waiting for Pokemon.  I guess it's a box of collectible cards?  

All I wanted was garbage bags and some veggies.  Nothing near as interesting.  I got in the door at 9:00, only to be plied with caramel pecan pie.  I proudly walked right on by.

In less than 30 minutes, I was actually home.  This is it ... water, Brussels sprouts, one package of chicken, croissants because they were $5.99, SHRIMP!!!  Just your normal stuff.  But here's the kicker.  The sign for the shrimp said $10.99 per unit.  Apparently that box-o-shrimp is 1-1/2 units because it cost me $15.99 in spite of the $10.99 sign.  Since when does Costco try to scam you???

Here lies $230.00 work of not darn much.  I think it's cheaper to shop Walmart.

Oh there was SO much more I wanted to get ... especially in the bakery department, but I was a good girl, only because I truly can't fit anything more in my freezer.  I had a hard time stuffing that chicken in.

Literally two minutes later ..... though pretty hard to see ...... the lizard counter dings once again.  This is number 28.  I grabbed this one with a Kleenex.  He was quite happy when he hit the ground under the bushes.  What am I going to do with that CAT!!!!!

Sorry ... blurry picture .... I was running on empty and after putting away the food and tossing the lizard out the door,  I headed back out for gas.  $5.57 is the price today, cheapest it's been in two weeks.  The blurry is when I realized I left the meatloaf I had just prepared in the oven.  YIKES!!

Luckily I had 45 minutes to get fuel and a car wash.  I quickly went through the cheapest one and raced back home.  

Isn't she pretty?  Good thing you can't see inside.  She really REALLY needs a vacuum.  This Jeep ... she's been towed to Alaska and across the U.S. to Maine and back.  She's fourteen years old and has had nothing but oil and tires.  They don't make them like this any more.  Of course I only have 40,000 miles on it too.  Shhh don't tell anyone!!

I made it back in time to save the meatloaf.  It's made from mostly turkey with a little hamburger thrown in for flavor.  It's the barbecue sauce on top that makes it tasty and perfect for sandwiches.  Good thing, because it took up the very last of the space in the freezer.

Maybe I'll throw out a couple of Halloween things on the front porch.  Truly, I don't want to eat TWO boxes of candy all by myself!!

Here's my boy waiting for the toy to move so he can attack!!!   Hug your fur friends constantly because one day they will no longer be with you.

IT'S NATIONAL KITTY DAY!!!

 The moon ... she's still hanging out over Central Cal, lighting the way for the clouds and my morning run.  Sometimes that doesn't work out quite as planned.

It was cold, so an entire change of wardrobe had to be acquired.  I was freezing from the get go.  In less than a quarter mile I was struggling.  What's up with that?  I was doing so good!  My breathing was off and my legs were saying all kinds of bad words.  I had to walk time and time again.  I thought twice about checking my heart rate, but hey .. it wasn't in the RED, so I kept going.  

I finally gave up and just walked the last of the 1.86 miles.  The good news is I recover quickly and my heart rate and breathing dropped to normal in one minute.  Maybe tomorrow it will be better because I'm sure NOT going out again today.

Can you believe it?  It's the END OF OCTOBER.  I checked the internet to find it was NATIONAL CAT DAY.  Not a thing I ever celebrated before, but I suppose since I've been adopted, I should probably Mom up.  Here she is ... not the least bit interested in the tiny piece of pork loin OR the stinky can of expensive kitty food I bought for her.  It's also time for the dreaded TIME CHANGE ... da da daaaaaa!!!  

It's hard to believe she looks this good after her most likely year long ordeal.  Her mouth just cracks me up.  Perfect for Halloween, yes?

Thank the Good Lord I had absolutely NOTHING on my menu today.  No meetings, no accounting ... which turned out to be a good thing since I was so tired from the past two days, topped off with running.  

With too many eggs in the fridge for most likely too long, I drug out a package of bacon to fry up for a Cowboy Quiche.  I truly debated between the air fryer and the fry pan.  The pan won, and I'm sure you know why ... easier to clean.

Two hours later ... VOILA ... eggs, cheese, onions, bacon and tomatoes became quiche.  Too bad I just ate some of those chili cheese breads, because when I swallowed the last bite of the first piece of quiche, I was WAY overloaded with food.  Gluttony is a sin, yes?  And a glutton I was, paying for it with a stomach ache.  Silly girl ... don't do that again!

Since it's now close enough to DECEMBER .... I'm putting up my Christmas Tree.  What else am I going to do with three entire days off?  Vacuum?  Oh heck NO!!  Once a month is plenty for that pastime.  

Out to the garage I trudged, looking for THE box.  I actually have three boxes of trees out there, two of which are huge 9 footers. I'm past that stage of my life and now opt for the tiny little pencil tree that requires little in the way of decorations and WORK.  

Here's how easy it is.  Stick twenty styrofoam pumpkins in the branches and cut up one big Hobby Lobby bouquet of fall flowers.  Instant Halloween tree that will last all the way through Thanksgiving.  When Christmas rolls around, I'll switch them out for Christmas colors.  That's when I'll wrap eight of those Amazon boxes I've been saving to put around the bottom.  Add an automatic timer so you don't even have to turn it on and off and VOILA!!!  

It took Missy La La all of three seconds to jump down and investigate. I've no doubt I will find pumpkins rolling around on the floor.

I am desperately in need of a Costco run, so I guess I will put on my big girl pants and actually go outside today.  Here's hoping I don't break the bank with unnecessary purchases!!!  

I SCREAM AND BASEBALL

Sometimes things hit you right between the eyes.  No I don't have a bulldog, but the sentiment could not be better.  I'll take a brownie with ice cream any day of the week. 

The moon was still up when I left the house.  Kicking and screaming I drove off to an Elks Meeting.  When I retired 15 years ago, I swore I would never leave the house before 9:00, let alone have an 8:30 meeting!!!  Unfortunately, I can't tell you what it was about because it was confidential.

You can tell how excited I am about this one.  Here I am, sitting on the pool table with phone in hand because four of us had to be seen in a space 4 feet side.  I was taking pictures of my knee and thumb in silence so the State Labor Commissioners Office could not hear the click.  

What a bunch of losers.  Did I say that?  I mean what a bunch of terrible attitude people who talk down to you like you are the scum of the earth.  It was SO obvious from the first three seconds that they had no interest in hearing what we had to say.  Enough said!!  Well not enough really, but if I say more, I'll get in trouble.  Do they actually PAY people to be rude and obnoxious like that???

Three hours later, I got home just in time for lunch.  Pork loin tacos!!  That disappeared in a flash before I was headed back out for accounting duty.  I'm running on barely four hours of sleep.  That can have two outcomes.  I either get VERY cranky, or I laugh at everything!!!

That was another four hours of pain with no gain, trying to convince two companies we already PAID that bill.  It was another hour of tracking down checks that were not cashed ... mostly because they were written TWICE ... and every other weird problem you can think of.  There were several fits of laughing along with making fun of AI.  They have a long way to go before they get that figured out.

ICE CREAM .... I NEED ICE CREAM!!!  But first I whipped up a few of these delicious Ortega chili cheese bites.  I ate five when they came out of the broiler.  Okay ... they really were for a party that I decided not to attend, so that was dinner.  They just might be breakfast too!!

It's ICE CREAM time.  I put a healthy scoop over that terrible pumpkin dessert I made.  Truly, Ice cream makes everything better, including my attitude.

Kitters didn't care much either way.  I was as exhausted as she seems to be here.  I was so tired I was grinding my teeth.  Oh that's not good at ALL.  I KNEW I should have ordered a big bottle of wine with my groceries!!!

Yup there was another dessert in my horoscope.  Just because I can, I ate a SECOND bowl (they really are quite small) of dessert while I watched game four of the World Series.  

Man those guys are playing crazy good baseball.  I could barely hold my eyes open, but I held in there until the very end.  CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BREWERS!  They made it to the World Series only once ..... in 1982, and lost.  This is their first EVER win in the history of their league!!!  If you didn't watch the game, you missed the most amazing looks on those guys faces!!  I'm sure Uecker was looking down on them all.  That was SOME GOOD BASEBALL!!!

Even Cooper would have wanted to watch THAT game!!  After all, he was a BALL expert!!!!

BINGO DISASTER!!

WELL .... the night could not have gone worse.  The infernal machine did a number on me.  I'd love to tell you all about it, but I'm running on 4 hours sleep and have an 8:00 meeting with a lawyer and a private detective.  They are both Elks members, so at least that part isn't so bad.  

I'll relay both stories tomorrow ... so for now, here's my sweet boy Cooper.  At least HE can always make me smile!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!

Best way ever to start out the day!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN CHANCE!!!  I'm not counting the candles, but don't burn the house down, okay???  I'm sure Patty will play the chicken dance for you!!!  Have a great day!  Eat PIZZA and CAKE!!!  I'll bring the cookies in December. 

I was up, but not moving very fast on this morning.  I kept getting distracted.  I took the pork loin out of the freezer, but I spotted a can of Pepsi.  That reminded me of the two credit cards that needed payments, followed by I really SHOULD vacuum the house so I drug the vacuum out ... but I succumbed to the YOU NEED TO RUN in my head, so just got dressed and hit the road.  It seems to happen a lot these days.

The moon was still up as it hit me that it was too cold to be running without a jacket.  Oh well ... too late now.

I did okay this time ... running most of the two miles I covered.  Even with the sun coming up, it was a chilly run!

When I got back, I completely forgot the vacuum (probably on purpose) and grabbed the card from my camera.  Not the best moon picture, but it does look like it's on fire.  

This one got a little better with the clouds floating by.

Not the very best, but it's all I got.  I did finally get all the batteries charged up and set my gear up for a photo trip next week.  I'll tell you about that one later.

Kitters has found her new hang-out spot in the sun.  She slept here most of the morning.  By the way, she is not a lightweight any more.  This kid weighs in at 11.5 pounds now.  A huge increase from the one pound she started out at.  AND it's her birthday, though I really don't know exactly when that is.  The Vet seems to think she is now 3 years old.

I was on Amazon for the next couple of hours trying to find a replacement for this battery pack I used with my phone.  I loved it ... and it worked perfectly.  Sadly, my new phone connections do not work with it, not to mention the outside cover disintegrated into a sticky mess.  What's up with that??

Squirrel!!!  That's when I noticed Kitters wonky eyes.  The left one always looks bigger.  By the way, the LIZARD COUNTER is up to 27!!!  I spotted one skittering across the floor.  Boy those guys are hard to catch!  I skittered after him clear across the house before corralling him in a cardboard box.  Out the door he went!!

I know ... the vacuum is still sitting there ... but this quilt was calling me to finish it up.  I stitched on the last borders in record time.  It's ready for quilting.

That reminded me of the Halloween quilt I made last year, so I brought it out for show.  

In less than two seconds, Missy La La was laying on it.  I just love her skull face mouth.  Yeah, she got shooed off to the floor.  FINALLY I actually DID vacuum the floor ... in the entire house ... once I figured out how to RUN the vacuum.  I suppose I should do that more often!

I spent the rest of the day watching game 3 of the World Series.  Talk about a crazy game!!  The Brewers got into the fifth inning and just went ballistic.  They scored EIGHT runs in that inning, a World Series record, bringing them up to a total of ten to win the game 10-1.  They are now 3-0, having won the first three games of the series.  I'm just guessing here, but I think it's a good bet they will win.

PUMPKIN BUTT

 Welcome back to Sourdough 101.  Isn't she beautiful????  This is one of the best looking ones for me because it's not over baked.  At 7:00 I had the oven on to a scorching 500 degrees.  Oops ... forgot to put the dutch oven in to heat up too.

Did I mention my oven is about 50 degrees off in temperature?  I bought a new temp gauge to keep inside, but who knows if those are accurate.  It's a good thing I took a look before I put the dough in.  The temperature read 500 degrees ... the same as the oven.  That's a first!!  I dropped the dough into the pot and grabbed my razor thingy to make the cuts.  

I'm new at this.  Previously, everything I used to cut didn't work well at all.  Can you see the pumpkin??  My main cut across the top was WAY too deep, so I tried to be nicer with the pumpkin.  So here she is .... PUMPKIN BUTT!!  That butt sticks out SO much further than the rest of the loaf!  LOL

The pros make all kinds of crazy cuts with this thing to make gorgeous looking loaves.  Hopefully I'll get a little bit better at the decorating part.

The crumb?  Not bad at all.  I used my handy dandy hand slicer so I could package it up for the freezer.

Yes of COURSE I had a piece freshly toasted from the oven and smothered in butter.  Oh my ... this is the best tasting loaf I have ever made.  The flavor is perfect!

Unfortunately, I made a big mistake.  I have two jars of starter.  Instead of using half of one and making another starter out of the rest .... I used it ALL for that loaf.  Too bad Charlie ... that is the one that had all the flavor.  The other starter ... not so much.  I split the other one into two jars and set up these two for the next loaves.  I know it just won't taste the same, but I guess time will tell.  

Here's another must-do for sourdough.  Yes, this is a nasty kitchen drain.  It will be clogged up completely if you make many loaves of bread without the little netting placed over it.  If you let any sourdough starter go down the drain, it will turn into concrete in the pipes and plug them up.  Pull it off and drop it in the trash ..... no bill from the plumber.

With that now done, I was determined to go on a shopping spree.  It's probably been a year since that happened.  I was headed out for Marshalls ... the only store we have in this town.  But first ... I was down to 1/8 tank fuel in my truck, and even less in the Jeep.  Time to get maybe half a tank of diesel.  Luckily for me, the highest priced place nearby was DOWN to $7.98 a gallon.  It was $9.00 two days ago.  I got $150 worth ... not even half a tank full.

That put the big kibosh on my shopping spree.  Good grief ... Marshalls has stocked up for Thanksgiving, so much so that you can barely walk through the aisles.  Mostly because people just pull stuff off the shelves and throw it on the floor. WHY do they do that????

The clothes were packed so tightly you couldn't even pull something out to see it.  I ended up with this $16.00 purse.

After picking up six bundles of washcloths off the floor, I found these stuffed way in the back.  I needed some new ones ... and a cute little bundle of two hand towels.  Do you have any idea how many little plastic things I had to cut off those towels to get them apart?  TEN .... TEN plastic thingies was definitely overkill!!!!

What a shopping spree.  That's all I got ... one cheap purse and these towels.

Dinner was of course a grilled cheese on sourdough.  I don't know about you, but I'm VERY careful about how I butter my bread so when it's put in the pan, the pieces fit perfectly.  Except this time.  I buttered the wrong side and of course it didn't fit the bottom piece.  Not even close.  Oh I ate it with no problem, but I got parts and pieces in my lap the entire time!!

As the sun set, I remembered it was a full moon night.  Time to get the camera out.

Oh but wait ... the batteries are all dead.  Truly, I haven't done much with photography lately, and it shows.  I plugged in both batteries, having no idea what the green lights meant.  I thought that was how much charge they had, but one never got above 50%, yet it was fully charged.  

I ran outside to get a few pictures ... it was just coming up amid the clouds.  But for the life of me, I could not remember which way the settings went.  It's a pro camera with dozens of buttons.  Oh I remembered which ones did what, but not the order.  My finger muscle memory is gone when it comes to that quick shot.  I guarantee you it won't look like this.

Also known as the freezing moon .... yup it's COLD .... and the falling leaf moon .... yup the leaves are falling .... it was when the Indians would hunt for deer after their corn harvest was done.  

It was a VERY nice moon, but I doubt I got any pictures worth posting.  I'll check them out this morning.

Cooper never liked the cold or the falling leaves.  He would much rather sit on the couch with his Mom ... and his ball!!