November 2

Hard as it may be to believe, we got the entire teardown of the haunted house finished yesterday in only 3 hours. Moon came by around 10:00 am (bearing Krispy Kreme donuts, no less!) and was of invaluable assistance in getting the props & tarps taken down. Just as we got the last roof tarp down--and I am talking the exact second it hit the ground--it started to rain. Luckily it didn't last long; in fact, it stopped pretty much as soon as we had finished getting the props under cover. Sigh. Anyway nothing was damaged & better to have the rain during teardown than on Halloween night. (We were actually pretty lucky on that; it rained Halloween morning, yesterday afternoon, yesterday evening, and again this morning but was clear and rather warm during the trick-or-treat hours. I took the picture of this rainbow on the way to work Halloween morning. It was huge; I couldn't get the whole thing in the shot, but there is a mini-movie on my flickr site showing the full expanse for those interested in seeing it.)

About this time we were hot, tired, and bordering on cranky as we faced the prospect of taking down the 13 wall panels & hauling them to the backyard. The three of us got two panels down when The Boy arrived. Hurray!! He carried about 7 of them to the backyard by himself. I was rather impressed, as those things are HEAVY. Ralph & Moon were working together moving one at a time (with a dolly no less) and The Boy would just lift one onto his shoulder & carry it back. I am grateful to both The Boy and Moon; we couldn't have gotten it done without them, and never in just three hours!

Afterwards Ralph, The Boy & I headed to George's for lunch. Moon had already left before we thought of going out, otherwise we'd have invited him to join us. We shared a plate of halumi (grilled goat cheese & fresh tomato on pita triangles) for an appetizer. The Boy had the gyro plate (sliced meats & pita with veggies and rice) while Ralph & I had gyro sandwiches (sliced meats, tomatoes, cucumber, onion & tzatziki on pita) which were fabulous. We took home a dessert each as we were too full to eat one at the time. The guys had baklava (layers of phyllo with honey & nuts) and I had khataifi (shredded phyllo, nuts & cinnamon with chocolate sauce; it went very well with my morning coffee today).

Had some frustrations after that, though, and typical of my mood recently they were of course Dire Events rather than the stupid little annoyances they should have been. First the dress I had planned to wear for the Day After party did not fit, so scratch the Princess High & Mighty Told You So Boss of the World costume. Decided to go as a fortune teller--day after, predicting the future, that fits with the theme a bit. Took a not-so-restful nap secure in the knowledge that I had a costume. Woke up, got my green skirt, got my shawl, even found a scarf that would do for a head wrap. Could not find ONE Faire shirt that wasn't in need of washing. Sigh. Ended up wearing PJ's (for either the day after I retire or the day after I am committed). Decided to wind some sock yarn so that I would have a project to take along (knitters among the Teeming Millions will understand that need) & even with the swift & ball winder I managed to get a tangle in one of the skeins. Much bemoaning & flinging of yarn ensued, although I am pleased to say that I refrained from using profanity. (Ironically, the yarn is called "Happy Feet.") Decided to just take the ball that wound nicely, then remembered that I lost about half my needles when my needle bag dumped without me noticing it--thus, no size 2 DPN's for sockmaking. Sigh again. Took some size 5 straights thinking I might make a lacy scarf instead.

The party was nice, although we only stayed about an hour (Ralph's back was really hurting him). Didn't even take my project out of the bag after all that. Spent most of the hour chatting with MH2 and some people from SS's church. Very pleasant, which is why it seems so strange to me that I wasn't unhappy about leaving so early. Probably because I *was* tired & I was glad to be able to get to bed.

Today I plan on going to a local yarn store that I have never been to before. I would like to get some more size 2 DPNs for one thing, plus I haven't bought any new yarn since March or new fiber since April. I don't know if they carry fiber, but if they do I think I'll pick up just a wee bit. For some reason my fiber stash consists almost exclusively of beige, orange, and earthtones. My yarn stash consists of a bunch of handspun bits, too small for any real use on their own & too different in color/thickness to combine; the two balls I wound yesterday (and yes, I got the tangle out although I had to cut the yarn to do so) and two other skeins of sock yarn.