ThanksMasOween

The busy season of Thanksgiving means that it is the even busier season of Sky Walk Painting and we are up to our paramecium in it. We started last week, prior to Thanksgiving because there is a thing called "Christmas Tree Elegance" that raises funds for the Symphony and they wanted their sky walks decorated in order to get the most advertising they could.

We have ten sky walks to paint this year and we are almost half way there. After tonight, we will be half way there.

In the meantime, we have had all the associated Thanksgiving stuff going on. We had our Wednesday night out and enjoyed an evening at Bluz at the Bend.

Then we got up at 3:30 and stood in line at SpandexTown (Walmart) to get a George Foreman Grill for 75 cents. We were 768th in line and lost out to a old lady with tattoos oozing from her skinny shorts. Editor's Note: If you really believe that we gave up precious sleep to stand in line with the Truely Retarded, then my sarcasm in the previous paragraph needs to be tweeked up a tittle.

Next we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, sponsored by Toyota, until the Rockettes, sponsored by L'Eggs, kicked their long lovely gams into our hearts. Then we had to wait for Santa, sponsored by Mattel, to wave at us, thereby guaranteeing a wonderful Christmas season.

Thanksgiving was with the family and friends at the home of my sister's friend, Nancy. Mass quantities of food were consumed and then we went home and slept.

On Friday, we painted.

On Saturday, we painted.

Susan had to work Saturday night so I putzed around the house and did some stuff. Among my stuff to do was laundry. During the laundry stuff doing, I discovered that it was once again time to call a plumber and have our drain roto-rooted. It was backing up into the basement.

So we spent the rest of the weekend being very careful about how much effluent we put down the drain. The drain is long enough that we can drain things until it backs up. Then we need to give it a couple of hours to empty out.

This made it especially fun last night when we had our own
Thanksgiving meal. We like all the left overs and stuff so we always have our own meal if we don't have the opportunity to host Thanksgiving, which we never do.

We had to be very careful with what went down the drain and we had a shit load of dishes to do throughout the course of the meal prep and meal post prep.

It all worked out and we made it to Monday. Which means now we have to go back to work. Ugh!

In the meantime, here are some pictures.

Snow Day Eleven-Niner

Let it be known for the record and officially unto intoward paternity that November Niner is the first official snowfall of the season.

I'm not sure weather (Get it, weather/whether) November Eighth should really be the date because that's when the snow started.

But to be an official snowfall in my world, the snow has to stick and that didn't happen until later.

In any event, I am content with saying Eleven-Niner for the first snow of Twenty-Twelve.

I don't imagine it will be around long. It never stays on the ground this early in the season. But it may well be a sign of things to come.

Another great sign to point to is the number of car crashes during the morning commute. By that yard stick, Eleven-Niner again qualifies.

Also, for you Numerologists out there, Eleven-Niner is the opposite of Nine-Eleven. Coincidence? Probably!

Old and Out of Touch

As I write this, the President is speaking, giving his victory speech to the majority of people with whom I am clearly out of touch.

Basically, if I voted for you today, you lost! There are couple of exceptions, but only a couple.

But the great thing about the U.S. of America is our ability for a seamless transition of power without too much consternation and you move on to fight another day.

But it is now official as proven by the election of 2012. I am old and out of touch with America.

So now we have Gay Marriage and Legalized Marijuna in the state of Washington, which reminds me of a Bible quote that makes more sense now. "If a man lays down with another man, he should be stoned" Leviticus 20:13.

A Crime that's not a Crime

We spent our extra hour in the comfort of the bed. It was fabulous. Usually I try to save my extra hour for later in the week. I might use it to take a long lunch or read a good book. But I was tired and really rally really enjoyed using it to sleep more. I have a feeling that will be a major theme in my life going forward.

Susan worked to clean inside and I worked on the outside. I pulled the post holders from the flying ghost out of the ground and raked and blew the leaves around until they formed nice neat piles. 

Yesterday, I loaded the leaves from the curb into my garbage can. They filled the can and left me with very little room for garbage. Upon reflection, I realized that these leaves technically belong to the city since they were in the street. I decided to return them to the city by dumping the leaves I collected into a pile of leaves in the park directly across the street from the house. One might say this is illegal. Another one might say you're full of shit! I say, what leaves are you talking about?

So what we are dealing with here is a precarious legal high wire. I guess it would be best if we never spoke of this again.

All Hallow's Clean A Ween

We spent our Saturday cleaning up and stowing Halloween Stuff. Good Lord, we have a lot! It was raining for a good portion of the day which made it all the more fun when I did get out into the yard to gather up the decor. I have a quartet of hay bales that I have no idea what to do with. Perhaps I'll put them on Craig's List and see if they get hauled away.

I guess I have nothing more exciting than that to say for today.

Revised T or T Totals

We have discovered that our neighbor upon whom we rely for Trick or Treat totals ran out of candy and temporarily suspended distribution while making a run to the store. 

Another neighbor a few houses away also keeps a running total with a clicker and told us they counted over 1,400. I'm not going to get nitpicky with the numbers. Let's just say we had a "Shitload" of kids (and a few adults) stop by the house on Wednesday Night.

Eleven Se7enty-Three

The first kid showed up at 4:40PM. Actually, that's not true. One kid who had been running around the park with his track team from North Central High School knocked on the door at about three and said, "Trick or Treat?" He asked it like it was a question. I told him I'm not ready yet. I hadn't even brought up the candy from the basement yet.

The rain stayed away. It turned out to be a great night. Here are the pictures!

That last picture above is pretty indicative of the crowds we had. At one point, it was like that for a good hour. Just kids coming up one side of the stairs and going down the other.

I am still amazed (for the eighth year now) at the number of people in our neighborhood considering the low number of houses that are lit up and giving out candy. There are approximately 75 houses around the park and I bet there were less than half open for Halloween.

We threw our last candy (lollipops) at some kids at about 8:30. Then our party started. This is the party where we clean up all the crap out in the yard and deposit it in the living room. Then we have some Sloppy Joes and beer. We were all so tired, we just sat around the table and enjoyed the quiet.

So another Halloween is in the books. Eleven hundred kids have our candy and we have some clean up to do.