The Great Pumpkin Carving

Once again, the night before Halloween, Will and I found ourselves carefully carving our scary pumpkins. Alas, this year we weren't carving our own pumokins, but that doesn't mean we skimped on the scary!





We did save some seeds for next year (these were organic pumpkins) and roasted the rest, sharing them with the ladies downstairs busy decorating Halloween Cookies.

The final products:

Visitors

Jen, for an extermination reason at her building, had to evacuate her condo/building for a few hours today with her kitties. They came here for a visit. Coco and Clifford, both tabby cats, are lovely. Almost the opposite to my cat in terms of attitude, though all three are a *bit* big-boned. Ahem.

Coco was immediately comfortable. Once set free from his cat carrier, he was smelling everything, checking everything out though still confined to the kitchen. Clifford, not so much. His freedom from the carrier only meant hiding in one of the few doors he could open and staying there the entire time--which was about 3 hours.

Coco turns to me as if to say, "and where *is* my Fancy Feast?"

Meanwhile, Clifford decides that he wants the lemony-fresh smell of the old mops in the cupboard....only to decide that the deeper coat closet was much safer.

It is like the "Where's Waldo" books of old.

And in case you were worried about kitty confrontation, Jackie was shut up in the guest bedroom, sleeping in the sun the entire time, having been bribed with soft goat gouda cheese. Because she needed the extra bit of food....

Drag Races!

As usual, Jen, Jeffrey, and I went to the annual High Heeled Drag Races in Dupont Circle that mark the official beginning of Halloween. "Ladies" parade around in costumes and the highest heels imaginable and then race for two blocks for a free bar tab. It is fantastic. The costumes are always great. Princess Di always shows up, and this year we were joined by the Queen. A local politician Carol Schwartz, always there to glad-hand the crowd, was doubly there. And Marilyn and JFK usually make an appearance. This year we had some fabulous Sarah Palins and Michelle Obamas. The FLSD ladies were there with their babies. And my favorite themed ladies, this year: make up!

Don't take her baby away!

Mary Kay was joined by Coco, Cover Girl, and Max Factor

The Mad Hatter at the tea party for Alice

Sarah and Cindy. Note Sarah's price tags on her clothes!

Playboy Bunnies handing out champagne

Results the Gym Cheerleaders

Marilyn and JFK

New Pets

Will and I have new "pets." We bought a Kessler painting. Kessler is an up-and-coming artist who shows his wares at Eastern Market. We have started seeing his works around the country and so we made our first art investment purchase. With the way the stock market is going, it was a wise a decision.

Here are our new "pets": the Three Amigos. They are hanging perfectly in the dining room. We couldn't be more pleased.

Will's First High School Football Game

Will had never been to a high school football game, him being British and all. Thank goodness our friend (who happens to be our tenant) coaches a championship high school cheerleading team which happens to cheer for a winning high school football team on Friday nights so we could rectify that situation.

For the cost of $5, Will got to experience, for a night, what American high school is all about. He isn't too sure that he missed much by going to school in England.

The marching band and the drill corp confused Will more than impressed. Maybe it was because we were trying to figure out which video game went with each song in their video game theme song montage. We only got Super Mario Brothers....

It being a rather chilly night, the girls wear warming uniforms. But the football team was doing great! Three touch downs before half time!

For the most part, the crowd (or the cheerleaders) didn't follow the game, which the blue team ended up winning. But I was trying to think, did I *really* know what a first down was in high school when I attended the games? I don't think so.

afternote: Will said that there was more going on at this game than any professional league team game he has attended. "It's all over the top, isn't it really?" Why yes, and you didn't even see a Homecoming game!

Our first fire of the season

Hmmm, I am now thinking that maybe we skipped autumn and went straight to winter, because Will and I had our first fire of the season.

When it gets cold outside, in an effort to try to keep the heating bills at bay, we shut up the room in which we normally watch t.v. Instead, we move the t.v, close off that room, and make do without that space (which, if you have seen the house, is entirely possible to do).

This year, I had a stroke of brilliance: switch the short, uncomfortable couch in the sitting room with the long, comfy sofa in the t.v. room. Will agreed to the brilliance. We attempted to execute this plan yesterday and sadly, the brilliance only went so far.

Meaning, that we could pull out the long, comfy sofa into the sitting room, but couldn't push the short, uncomfortable couch into the t.v. room. The short couch has arms that are too puffy to push through the door. Soo, we rearranged the sitting room regardless, now having two sofas (one slightly more comfortable that the other), two chairs (not counting the crazy small African chairs), and the t.v. We have plenty of seating in our sitting room.



All of this moving just to be able to enjoy our first fire (deliciously warm), watching Jon Stewart, (hilariously entertaining) while in a completely prone position. It, of course, was totally worth it. We tested it out and it works beautifully: Will was asleep within minutes.

p.s. oh, yeah, we burned the wood we pilfered recently and it burns good. real good. in fact, you can come and sit in one of the numerous seats and watch it burn. just bring a sweater for the rest of the house as the heat isn't on. and your visit won't change that, sadly.

Autumn is *officially* here

How do I know that autumn is here for realz?

I went with Jen to her company's picnic last weekend and not only did they have an apple press--to make apple cider with their own, homegrown apples--but they had these:


That's right people: homegrown, home made caramel apples.

It is Official: Fall is Here.