Halloween at work, 2009

Yesterday was the work Halloween party. Just about everyone dressed up in costume, and there was a very nice lunch to go with it: tacos al carbon, beans, rice, and cake. I noticed something interesting during the lunch, though. All the people who had cake were happy, laughing, and chatting. Those who didn't all looked very bitter and disdainful. You could almost hear their thoughts: "I want cake, but I will not have cake. I am stronger than the cake. You cake-eaters are weak even if you think you are having fun." Incidentally, it was really good cake. I'm with Erma Bombeck on this one; she once said, "Think of all the women on the Titanic who skipped dessert that night. What a waste!" Anyway, here are some pix from the event:


The winners of "Funniest Costume" went to: Andy Gibb & The Bee Gees, as portrayed by SC, Mr. Boss Man's Boss, WM, and JN. Incidentally, people who are 6'-5" in their stocking feet should not wear platform shoes, especially when walking through doorways. Ouch!


A shot of the extremely yummy, happy-inducing cake. It was marble with chocolate pudding for the filling & buttercream icing. I brought some to the escrow ladies upstairs. AM liked it so much she actually did the Happy Food Dance :-)


Mr. Boss Man himself, dressed as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. His costume was a big hit, and he might even have won a prize if he had stuck around for the party instead of going back to work.


My other boss, Ms. Boss Woman, showing support for her favorite team. Go Angels!


LL doing a marvelous Michael Jackson impression. She was actually part of a group costume that included KR as Liz Taylor, MG as Prince Michael (complete with mask), and KB, fresh from maternity leave, as Macaulay Culkin.



And the winners of Most Original Costume went to a joint effort by Homeowner Services and the Construction Managers for their portrayal of "Geoffrey Giraffe and the Toys R Us Kids." They certainly got my vote! Unfortunately the photo I took of the entire group came out really blurry. I'll see if I can yoink one from MG, as I know she took a lot of pix.

I just wore my Faire outfit for the day. It's funny--I've worn Faire clothes for so many years that I didn't feel like I was wearing a costume at all. I have never before had so many people tell me I looked cute as I did yesterday. Weird.

Halloween party

Had a very good time at the Halloween party last night. Talked with old friends & people I'd just met, decorations were wonderful as always, good food, many good costumes with prizes for best, most original, and most humorous. I've posted pictures of the winners:



Most original went to "Scottish Air Force."




Most humorous went to "Spanish/Swine Flu."




Best costume went to "Ruth Buzzi and Arte Johnson." Yup, that is me and Ralph. Yay us!!

It's the weekend again

Let's see, posted last weekend, and the weekend before that, and the weekend before that. I am starting to see a trend here.

Busy day ahead of us. Need to finish the last few things on the costumes. Who knew it was so freakin' hard to find an old-fashioned hair net? I might actually have to MAKE one. Sheesh. Ralph is going to go over to M's from archery to see their Halloween decorations, plus there's a play that he wants to go to this afternoon, plus of course the party tonight at MS & SS's place. And as always the household chores need to be done.

I've been very bad about riding the exercise bike. Need to start doing that again.

And that's all I've got for you today. Should have some good pics from the party next time.

Silverado Days and Pioneer chicken

Had a very nice day today. Did some housework, and while the place wouldn't win any Good Housekeeping awards it wouldn't embarrass me to have people drop by unexpectedly either. It always feels good to have the place tidy.

Took a quick trip to Michael's because Ralph wanted to get a basket to keep cords & things in. I picked up a couple items too, but I'm not saying what as they will be fashioned into Christmas gifts & I don't want to give anything away. I will post pictures after the holiday, though.

Next we headed to Silverado Days in Buena Park. MH2 & PH2 were going to come, but they are busy moving PH2's mom so they weren't able to go. Nothing too exciting--a few booths, rides, and games--but it was free parking & free admission, AND there was a chili cook-off & tasting/voting was free. There were about 8 different kinds of chili. The first one we tried was the best IMHO, very spicy and meaty. There was also a chicken chili which I liked very much, however the mild flavor made it taste more like a chicken stew than a chili, so even though it was delicious it did not get my vote. I kept expecting there to be dumplings in it.

Funny thing--there was a hang-glider ride there, and I took a picture of it because I thought it was pretty neat. After it went around a couple times, I decided to take a second shot to make sure I got one with people in it (there weren't too many riders at the time). Here are the two pictures I took:












I could not have gotten two more identical shots if I had tried.



After that we went to Pioneer Chicken in Bell Gardens. This may not seem like a big deal, but this was the first Pioneer Chicken I have seen since I was in my teens so it was a real trip down ol' Memory Lane. It was wonderful, too, exactly how I remembered it.

Well, going to keep the post short tonight. I want to do some knitting; I'm on the bottom ribbing of the shirt, and have another project that I want to go over the pattern for and make sure I've got all that I need for it.

Yay, it's the weekend!

. . . although I don't know why I'm excited about it. No real plans other than archery & housework. Buena Park is having some sort of old West days this weekend, might go to that, or to the Oktoberfest in Anaheim.

Kinda missed out on dance class this week. We went, but I wasn't feeling well & only did the first set (2 dances). Ralph did the second set without me, then we headed home. I took some Pepto and went straight to bed. Felt better in the morning; I was really sorry to miss class because we've been enjoying it so much, and it's really fun now that we know more than just alemande left & grand ring.

And sadly, that's really all I've got for this post.

Posts? Why would a blog need posts?

Wow, 10 days since my last post. And still not much to write about other than yesterday. What's so special about yesterday, you may ask? Well, my niece KT and her son AT were out visiting, and the family had a picnic get-together at a park near Dad's place. Ralph & I brought a Honeybake ham, rolls & 2 gallons of home-made lemonade (which required the juice of two dozen lemons, e-gads!). Dad & J brought homemade potato salad, donuts & chips; The Boy & The Girl also brought rolls & chips, and Lizard brought two batches of brownies. We all had a good time chatting for about three hours, at which point it got a bit chilly for those of us in shorts & we packed up for the day.



I got a little bit more done on my sweater/shirt. I've had to pretty much stop working on it because the pressure from sliding the 232 cotton stitches along the circular needles is causing arm pain. That's kind of frustrating because as you can see from the photo I'm only about 2 inches away from starting the bottom ribbing (about 16 rounds), then adding the sleeves to finish it up. Still, better to slow down and take it easy now than to push on & end up damaging my arm so badly that I can't knit at all. And looking at this photo of me trying it on, all I can say is: "Dang, I've got big boobs!!"

Ralph & I went Halloween costume shopping today. I was pleased with how much we were able to find. We need a few more items but all in all we got the majority of the shopping finished. And no, I'm not telling what we're going as--you'll have to wait for the photos. So far we've only told Lizard, so she better not spill the beans, even if I *did* forget to bring her repaired Eeyore to her on Saturday.



We stopped for lunch today at The Fish Tale, a very nice seafood place about 10 minutes from home. Ralph had shrimp & scallops with potatoes, and I had a soup/salad combo. The soup was of course clam chowder, served in a sourdough bowl that they had actually scraped most of the bread out of so I had a full serving of soup in it. Most places only make a tiny dent & you get hardly any soup at all. I told the waiter to "surprise me, as long as it's not Italian" on the dressing for the salad, and he brought two tiny pitchers: one of bleu cheese & one of honey mustard. It was kind of fun switching between the two, although I did like the honey mustard the best & ate mostly that. Ralph helped himself to the bleu cheese & about 1/3 of my salad. The meal came with a round sourdough loaf, still hot enough to melt the butter. Yum!!!! I was quite full when we finished eating although right now I am thinking longingly of the pie in the fridge.

Oh! That reminds me. I saw a cookbook that I want; I would have bought it at the time if I'd had enough cashola on me. It's all desserts, and it's called "Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy." The recipes seem to rely heavily on chocolate, caramel, and/or marshmallow creme. A chef after my own heart. . .

October 1

I've noticed that I really haven't been blogging much lately. It's not that my life is any less exciting, or any more (or less) busy than it used to be. I think it's just part of me not being on the computer as much as I used to. I've been spending more time knitting, spinning, reading, and yes even riding the ol' exercise bike (which I'm skipping out on tonight, so there).

MG & LL have started putting up Halloween decorations at work. I'm still getting used to the fact that we can do that; in the old Irvine office, Halloween decorations were forbidden after the company had a decorating contest, and someone complained that the decorations were Satanic & creating a hostile work environment (she was given 2 weeks leave until after Halloween). They've got a huge spiderweb draped over their cubicles & across the hallway. I'm one of about 4 people in the office who can walk under them without having to duck--and no one seems to mind it. They either duck or use the other hallway. Amazing. MG & LL have also put up a couple tombstones & rats, and a skull with a wig & glasses that to my eye make it look like Andy Warhol.

Speaking of Halloween, Ralph still hasn't decided if he wants to do anything at the house this year. He really got burned out with last year's over-the-top building. I suggested today that we maybe do a small ghost town, putting cowboy hats on the skeletons & having Western-themed tombstones such as "Here lies the rustler/Old Black Bart/Shot by the Sheriff/Through his black heart," and get the fogger going. He seemed to like the idea. Wonder if we could get some tumbleweeds from somewhere? Hmm, and maybe a noose hanging from the tree by the deck.

Survivor is on tonight. I didn't enjoy last week's episode, as it had way too much arguing and drama for my liking. I think when The Powers that Be decided to include Evil Russell, they forgot that a villain has to have some redeeming characteristics or who wants to watch? At least Johnny Fairplay was entertaining with his scheming. Evil R is just plain malicious. If this week isn't any better, there's a good chance I'll stop watching.

Oh, and if you can't tell, today's photo is of a stick-insect in a terrarium. I took that photo at the LA County Fair last month. It was really hard to get a good shot.