Halloween Evening

Just a little bit after 5 o'clock now, and I'm hearing some thunder out there. Today was such a pretty day, so I hope this evening's weather doesn't ruin the night for the kids who have planned to go out trick-or-treating. Clear Lake City and Houston gives kids about two hours for their trick-or-treat fun..... from 6:30 till 8:30, I think it is. I hope the weather gods keep the rain up in the clouds tonight till at least nine o'clock.

I went to one of the local gift shops this afternoon.... one of the more price-y ones. They have lovely things, and most of their inventory isn't found in the other shops. But the owner loves her items dearly, and prices them accordingly. I usually look around her shop before a holiday, then go back right after the holiday to buy what I want at a more reasonable price.

Being that I was up at the fabric store looking for wide ribbons with a Thanksgiving design, I decided to pop into the gift shop to see if the Halloween inventory was on sale yet. I've been keeping an eye on these designer dolls.... wrinkled witches in beautiful Halloween-y gowns. I love these dolls... they have handpainted old-crone faces, but they're wearing cosmetics as if they're young spring chickens. The witches have red hair that's twirled into the most outlandish styles and embellished with tiny pearls and black spiders. They're wearing flowing robes of gold and black, high-heeled shoes with rhinestones on their toes, and the expressions on their faces seem to say "Am I the most beautiful witch in the world or am I not?!" Actually, I think they're called fairy-witches, because they have wings on their backs.... black wings in the shape of bat-wings.

I was going to buy these witches last year, but I didn't get to the shop till the week after Halloween and they were all gone. When I went there today, they weren't marked down yet, but I asked the owner if she was going to mark them down any time soon. She knows that I go in there a lot, and I guess she doesn't mind that I buy her sale and clearance items, because she sold me the two remaining witches at her after-Halloween price.

I just love them..... they're designed by Mark Roberts, and they sell for way too much money, but being that the sale price was so good, I bought both the small 14" one, and the larger 24" one. I'm guessing at the heights of these, but that's about right. They will surely be the hit of next year's Halloween party, and of course I'll use them for decorations and/or centerpieces for every Halloween party we have from now on. The witches have flexible limbs, so you can pose them any way you'd like. I have one sitting on a doll-size chair on the dining room buffet right now, and the other one is draped along the top of our largest music box... she looks like a vamp.... and she's perfectly adorable for a wrinkled-up old witch.

We turned the clocks back one hour this weekend...... I hate it that it gets dark so early now. One more reason to love the summer months--- longer days. I can hear the wind kicking up right now, and there's a sprinkling of raindrops hitting against my sitting room windows. As my friend B would say: "Dang it all! The rain is going to flat-out spoil the fun!"

The Eyes Have It........

The buzzing is still going on about all the "eyes" on last night's buffet table. Meatballs with eyes, creamed-cheese eyeballs...... black olives for eyes on the meatballs, green eyes on the cheese balls. Last night's chefs got into the spirit of Halloween, which made for lots of fun as we all looked over the food dishes on the dining room table. (And found some of them looking right back at us!)

The best costume, by far, was our friend L with his "Paul Sr." of Orange County Choppers get-up. Every time we think of that, we just smile and shake our heads. If you put L next to the real Paul Sr., you would think they were brothers. But until last night's party, we really never looked at L that way, even though my husband and I do watch Orange Country Choppers when we get the chance.

Everyone was caught up in the Halloween spirit last night.... shirts and blouses with Halloween colors and designs, skeleton earrings, plastic spiders in hair, blue and green and black nail polish, face painting, faux tattoos, Halloween socks, light-up rings that looked as if they were spinning on fingers, and everyone wearing the light-up Halloween pendants that we gave out as our friends came into the house.

My husband and I were both flattered to learn that neighbors of ours turned down a Bridge party for last night--- they love to play Bridge but they told their Bridge group that they would just hate to miss one of our parties when they can get to play Bridge any day of the week. Our young friend C and her four friends came to our party instead of going to the High School for the Homecoming celebration. I'm sure they'll want to go to the Homecomings when they get a little older-- they're all just in 9th grade now. C called us up this morning to thank us for letting her bring her friends... she said they all talked about it all the way home, and they called one another first thing this morning to talk about it again. One of the boys said to C: "We've got to do this again-- when's their next party?!"

Well, the next big party is the Open House for Christmas. We don't play Charades then, because the focus is on Christmas, but we always plan some sort of surprise entertainment for everyone. (Which has already been arranged, but I can't mention it here yet.) We've told C that she can invite her friends to that party as well, and she has already asked me if she can come help me with decorations. Not just for the Christmas party, but for any party that "happens to come to your mind." (I just love that girl to pieces.)

Tomorrow is Halloween, and the Trick-or-Treaters will be around looking for goodies and surprises. We have a curfew here... Trick-or-Treating is only allowed between the hours of 6:30 and 8:30, no matter what day of the week Halloween happens to fall on. Little kids are only allowed to be out on the street if an adult is with them, and all teenagers have to be at home by 10:00 at night. Halloween is meant to be fun for kids, and the Powers That Be in the towns here try to keep it that way with the curfew.

We've been having sunny and warm days, and 60-something-degree nights, so I hope that continues for the kids as they go out and about tomorrow night.

After the Party........

......... It's nearly 1:30 in the morning, and I'm wide awake after another unbelievable Charades party. I don't know if Halloween had anything to do with tonight's madness, but it sure didn't hurt. We were all in rare form with Charades, and it seemed that everyone wanted to just keep on playing.

The costume hit of the night for the adults was our friend L, who came dressed up as Paul Sr. of Orange County Choppers. L already has the mustache and goatee, and his daughter drew some faux-tatoos on his arms, which everyone could see because he came in the door with a sleeveless tee-shirt on, just like Paul Sr. The likeness was incredible, given that L has nearly the same physique and hair as the owner of Orange County Choppers.

For the teenagers, the best costume was worn by C and her friend L--- one costume which they shared--- half of the costume was an angel (L) and the other half was a devil (C). The devil half was in red, complete with devil horns and a red pitchfork. The angel half was all in white, with a halo and a star-topped wand. To complete their costumes, C's face was painted red, with a fake green nose, and L's face was painted white, with a fake white nose. The noses were attached with some sort of costume glue, and both were over-sized and totally outrageous. Being that the girls shared the same costume, they had to walk together, sit together, eat together, and play Charades side by side. They looked like one huge person, with two heads. Every time you looked at them, you just couldn't help but laugh.

C and L came with three friends of theirs... three boys, all in costumes-- a 1960's hippie with dreadlocks and a peace-sign around his neck, a wizard complete with flowing robes and a long white wig and beard, and Bat-Man. All the kids played Charades, they all brought food for the potluck dinner-- one of the boys likes to bake and he made a cake for everyone.

The foods on the buffet table tonight were outstanding.... meatballs with olive eyes, creamed-cheese green eyes, vegetable casseroles, chicken casserole, homemade cornbread, chicken and pasta salads, Tex-Mex vegetable salads, turkey & swiss & artichoke pinwheels, homemade chocolate cake, Italian cream cake, homemade banana pudding, strawberry and cream cake, chocolate eclairs, a layer cake decorated with spiders, pumpkin cheesecake, three-cheese pumpkernickel breads. And I know I must be forgetting something.

Everyone loved the party games....... they all liked picking out books by the covers only, and when I told them they'd find either a bookmark or a surprise on page 31 (chosen for the date of Halloween), that made it even better. (The surprise was certificates for free ice cream at our local ice cream shop.... I had those in six of the books.) The guessing game for the number of orange Tic-Tac mints in the pumpkin jar was a hit, and the kids had fun with guessing the number of spiders in the treat bag. Prizes went to the winners, the ones farthest away from the correct numbers got the mints and the spiders.

I had light-up Halloween pendants for everyone, and the ones with pumpkin-stickers on the backs of their pendants got special prizes........ and I did the same game just for the ladies, with fancy Halloween headbands for each of them to choose, just one with a pumpkin sticker and a special prize for the winner. I found those sparkling headbands just last week and decided to include them with this party rather than save them for next year's Halloween party, as I'd originally planned to do. Lots of special gifts tonight, plus the usual party-bags for everyone when they left at the end of the night.

I had two tables set up in the living room for tonight's party, and that worked out really well because more people could sit around the tables instead of holding their plates in their laps. Plus we had the small table set up with extra chairs in the breakfast room, so that was extra seating also. Four tables in all, each with ivory tableclothes and pumpkins in the middle of each.... the living room, dining room, breakfast room all looked very festive. And of course, as with all the parties, everyone goes to the kitchen and wants to hang out there.

We had hot apple cider tonight..... which everyone loves here. I usually make that for our Christmas Open House, but thought the hot cider would be nice tonight since it was cool outside (about 60 degrees). One of our neighbors told me that she could smell the aroma of the hot cider as soon as she walked in the front door. I added cinnamon sticks to the cider, and red grapefruit slices studded with cloves..... delicious.

Another Halloween.... another party..... we all had such a good time. These parties are a lot of work to put together, but it's all worth every minute. Our friends walk in the door with a smile on their face and they leave asking when the next party will be.

And Halloween isn't really over...... the kids will be Trick-or-Treating on Monday, and I've got lots of goodies waiting for them. I hope the weather is as nice on Monday for the kids as it was today for us. And soon after the Halloween decorations come down and go back into the holiday closet, down will come the Christmas decorations... a little bit at a time.... so by the time Thanksgiving comes, this house will be dressed up and ready for the Christmas tree which we put up and decorate right after turkey-day.

Time to call it a night...... I'm the only one in the house who's awake.... my husband is sound asleep, so is Gracie....... so are all the cats. What a great night this was...........!

Pre-Party Day.....

I've been trying to get as much done today as possible, so I will have less to do tomorrow. Usually, on the day of the party, I'm ready to relax by the time everyone gets here, but then there's no time to relax if you're going to keep a party going.

And of course, aside from my usual pre-party to-do list, I thought of a great centerpiece for the buffet table. One of my small table-top holiday trees was all decorated with fruits, grapes, berries, and birds, and was just sitting in the closet waiting for Christmas. It looks more like Thanksgiving than Christmas, with all the autumn-colored fruits and berries. Well, now it looks more like Halloween! In between all the fruits and birds, there are now bright and shiny orange pumpkins, black and silver bats, black and orange witches, and silver spiders. I've got a big orange bow at the very top of it, along with two little witches holding pumpkins. It looks perfectly spooktacular, if I do say so myself.

I also went through my closet this morning and decided what to wear, which will save me time tomorrow. I've got a long black skirt, long black top--- both in a silky material which is very comfortable and won't be too hot. Black stockings and black heels, and I've got all my Halloween "jewelry" ready to go--- my purple witch-purse in the shape of a pointy-toed boot, which hangs around my neck like a long necklace. Along with that, there's the lighted pumpkin-necklace that all the ladies will get tomorrow night. I also have a black-cat beaded necklace that I wear every Halloween---- layers upon layers around my neck will be the order of the day tomorrow. For my wrists, I have two silk and ribbon bracelets with black beads dangling from each of the ribbon points. For my hair, I've got two black and silver cats. I know my husband's first question is going to be "And what are you supposed to be?" My answer--- "You've heard of a court jester? Well, I'm the cat jester!" -- I'll see if he thinks it's as funny as I do.

All the gift bags are out, the prizes for the games are out, the battery-powered "candles" are in the porcelain pumpkins, the walkway is all decorated, and even the Quackernackle Choir is back. Those are my four white porcelain ducks that sit on the spiral steps of a wrought-iron plant stand in the front flowerbed. I had taken that out of the yard when we were preparing for Hurricane Rita, but I missed having the ducks out there. I always "dress" the ducks for the holidays, and now they're all wearing outfits of orange pumpkins. (I used clear plastic Halloween gift bags--- I wrapped up each duck in one of those, and instead of seeing the plastic bags, all you see are the orange pumpkins that cover each bag, so the ducks look like they're in costume. Too cute!)

Enough of a break for the moment...... now I've got to get all the plates and flatware set up on the buffet. Another thing that I usually leave for the day of the party, but I'm going to get that done this afternoon. All the cats are out on the screen-porch, and probably wondering why they can't come into the house. Once I get start getting the house set up for a party, they're not allowed in here. Not a rule that they like, but they'll get over it.

"It Ain't Over Till It's Over...."

.... and now it's over.

The Chicago White Sox won the World Series. Four games in a row. The Astros left too many men on base and couldn't catch a break. Correction-- they couldn't make their own break.

They just couldn't bring their men home. Note to Astros: Home---- that little white pillow-thing in front of the catcher. Funny thing about baseball--- unless you get your men home, they don't put a run up on the scoreboard for you.

Oh well, at least tonight's game didn't go into extra innings and we were spared the extra heartbreak. Sure was quiet in the ballpark after the last out. Except for the White Sox and the sprinkling of Chicago fans in the park. We shut the TV off after watching the Chicago team jumping up and down and hugging one another. And of course, they showed the sad faces of the Astros as they stared out of the dugout, probably thinking it could've been them doing the jumping and the hugging.

Well, as the saying goes--- "Wait till next year."

Just think.... we get to go through this again.

Oh goodie.

"The Terrible Twos" for Mickey Kitty

Given that cats and dogs mature faster than babies, I would guess that Mickey Kitty is now in the "terrible twos" stage of kittenhood.

He is discovering all sorts of things around the house and I can barely keep up with his curiosity and inquisitiveness. Mickey Kitty loves silk flowers, and it doesn't matter that I give him silk flower-buds from old arrangements---- he wants to capture his own, which means stalking and attacking the silk flowers that are in a few vases around the house. He has learned how to pull off a silk bloom without disturbing the rest of the arrangement. He bats his prize all over the house, from room to room, from chair to chair. His favorite place to hide the blooms is in one of my husband's shoes. Ever try to put on a shoe that has been stuffed with pink satin roses?

Mickey also loves the Halloween decorations, especially the orange and black candles that I have in the living room and on the table in the foyer. I don't know how he gets the candles out of the porcelain candleholders, but he manages to do just that, without disturbing the holders. He will take the 12-inch-long candles and hide them behind the pillows of the living room sofa. The candles aren't damaged, but I've noticed a few teeny teeth marks around the pumpkins and ghosts that decorate the candles.

And my poor beaded fruit--- Mickey has discovered my collection of that. He especially loves the purple plums and the red cherries. More than once, I've caught him walking across the living room with a beaded red cherry hanging out of his little mouth. All I have to do is say "Mickey!!" and he drops the cherry, then rolls over onto his back and looks at me upside-down with an innocent look on his face. He has learned to take advantage of the "cute factor" of kittenhood.

It's going to be interesting when we start putting up the Christmas decorations. All my little table-top trees that I have for every room will probably not be ignored by this little kitten. None of our other cats have bothered with our Christmas trees, except that they all like to take a nap underneath the live tree that goes in our living room.

I don't think Mickey will be content with a nap underneath the 10-foot tree.... something tells me that he's not going to be satisified unless he gets to the top of it and pretends he's an angel.

Ouch! Baseball Hurts!

Astros, Astros, Astros.... what are we going to do with y'all?! You give us a gift by winning the pennant and then you break our hearts by letting the White Sox walk all over you. Not once, not twice, but three games in a row. Fifteen men got left on bases last night.... if you could've managed to get them home, we wouldn't have been awake till 1:30 in the morning as we watched a game that sliced our hearts into pieces with every swing of the bat.

And pardon me for calling attention to Bagwell, but for someone with such shoulder pain, he surely managed to swing that bat mightily and toss it to the ground when he was called out. My sister called me three times during last night's game. Both she and I thought last night was going to belong to the Astros. They were up 4 -0... I decided to take a bubble bath, and at about the same time up in NY, my sister decided to take a shower. We both got back to our TV sets before half an hour had passed, and in that time, the score was 5 -4, and it was the White Sox with the 5 runs.

As soon as the phone rang, I knew it would be my sister. I picked up the telephone and instead of saying hello, I said: "What happened? It was 4 -0 when I went inside to take a bath.... I came out and the White Sox scored 5 runs!" My sister screamed into the phone: "You too?! I took a shower because I thought they would win this one, and I came out and the White Sox had scored."

So there was my sister and her husband up in NY... her husband was smoking cigarettes and pacing up and down their living room.... shaking his head and telling the Astros that they were killing him. My sister told me that if the Astros lost the game, she'd probably have to call an ambulance for her husband.

And here we were down here, my husband and I, watching the game in total disbelief. Both teams kept changing pitchers.... the Astros kept leaving men on bases.... the White Sox scored again and then again. Both of us were talking to the television, but the Astros weren't listening.
We watched till the bitter end. We walked across the house and got into bed totally exhausted. I told my husband to look on the bright side--- "At least we weren't at the ballpark and we didn't have to drive all the way home after watching that massacre."

There's another game tonight. We get to do it all over again. Oh goodie.

Go Astros! (Please........)

Okay, so the Astros couldn't win a game up in Chicago. Well, that doesn't surprise me--- it was way too cold up there for a baseball game. And in a ballpark without a roof? How uncivilized is that? Last night's game was played in the rain, and I'm sure it wasn't a warm rain, judging from all the White Sox fans bundled up from head to toe. You could see everyone's breath as they screamed at the umpires.

Tomorrow is the night. The Astros will be in their own ballpark. Three games in a row, in downtown Houston. Now don't you think they might just win all three? (The first person who says "when pigs fly" will be asked to go read another blog.)

We're having a "cool front," as our weathermen like to call it. The temperature tonight is about 60 degrees, and I've turned the heat on in the house for the first time since the last cool front came through in February.

60 degrees. Positively freezing, in my opinion, but at least it doesn't feel as cold as it did last night. We had lots of wind last night, which made it seem colder than it really was. This morning was cool, but it warmed up around lunch-time and the afternoon was beautiful... sunny and warm, and it felt like a Spring day. Basically, we really have two seasons down here-- Spring and Summer. Unless, of course, The Powers That Be throw in a cool front or a cold snap, to make sure we're all paying attention.

Speaking of paying attention: Listen up, Astros---- don't be leaving players on the bases. When they score the runs, the point of the whole game is to bring them home. Home. You remember what that is? The little white pillow-like thing that sits on the ground in front of the catcher?

Baseball and Beignets

The Astros lost last night's game to the White Sox. I guess my playing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" on the piano didn't help, nor did the beignets. On the bright side, however, C loved the Astros placecards that I made, and my husband used computer magic to put her and Craig Biggio together in a photograph. I'm sure that picture will be hanging up in her school locker come Monday morning.

When C walked in the door last night, she had a large shoe-box in her arms... inside was her collection of baseball cards, which we all looked at when the commericals were on. I didn't realize she had such a nice collection of cards. My husband showed her his own baseball keepsakes, among which was a ticket to a World Series game that cost less than $10.00, which totally amazed C. As she said--- you can barely buy a soda and a hot dog in a ballpark now for that amount of money.

Speaking of those beignets.... they were sort of okay, but nothing at all like the ones from Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. I think New Orleans' beignets are like New York bagels.... the only bagels that taste like NY bagels are those made in NY, and the only beignets that taste like the ones in New Orleans are made in Cafe du Monde. Maybe it's the water... maybe it's the oil.... maybe its the professionals doing the baking.

Tonight's another game, though, and hopefully, the Astros can win this won. They could've scored a little better last night had they not left men on the bases at the end of the innings. (Don't I sound like I really know baseball?)

Gorgeous day today... sunny and warm, nice balmy breeze coming from the Gulf. And that's another thing... it was freezing up in Chicago during the baseball game last night. I guess the White Sox players are used to that, but the Astros were at a definite disadvantage. I'm sure they will play much better when they get back to Houston. It's nearly 90 degrees here, as opposed to Chicago's 51 degrees during last night game. Totally uncivilized to be playing baseball in such frigid weather.

I was watching the game last night and seeing all the Chicago fans bundled up in coats and hats and scarves, and I swear it made me so cold that I got up and made hot chocolate.

Baby Grand

My piano lessons continue each week, and I'm getting better and better. Better to the point that on some Wednesday mornings, my teacher K sits there speechless, with a big smile on her face.

She sits there speechless, I know, because it wasn't too long ago that I was struggling to learn all the notes on the keyboard. And struggle I did, until my dear friend Frankie said to me: "Must you learn them all at once, dear child? Just take them as you would play them-- one note at a time."

Well, didn't that make perfect sense? And why wasn't I doing that?

Once I got on the one-note-at-a-time method, everything has been just fine. It doesn't take me as long as it once did to learn a new song, and once I get the notes down, I can sail through it without trouble. Although, sometimes my mind is singing the words to the song and my eyes get ahead of the notes and then I lose my place in the measures which makes me skip over a crucial note. But K said that's a normal mistake, and I just need to concentrate on the music, not the lyrics.

Whatever song I play, it always sounds better on K's piano. She has a Concert Grand in her living room. Beautiful, huge, seven-foot-long Grand piano. It makes me sound like I've been taking lessons for much longer than I have been. So of course, now I'm looking at our living room and wondering... Can we fit a Baby Grand in here? (K says the Baby Grands are "only" five feet in length.)

I really don't think so. The only place a Baby Grand could go in our living room would be near the three windows by the fireplace. And therein lies the problem-- the fireplace. The heat from the burning logs would damage the soundboard and keep it out of tune.

The piano we have now is a Kimball upright.... very pretty piano with beautiful wood and wonderful carvings and graceful legs. It sounds lovely, and fits perfectly along the wall underneath my vintage cameo portraits of Victorian ladies.

Now that I can play.... really play.... my ear can distinguish between the rich sounds of my piano and the extraordinary lush fullness of K's Grand.

I found my music sheets to "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and I was practicing that this morning. Seems appropriate to play that tonight before the Astros game. I guess it doesn't matter whether I'm playing on an upright or a Grand.... as long as I'm playing the correct notes.

One note at a time, as Frankie suggested.

"A Million Little Pieces"

The above is the title of the latest choice by Oprah for her Book Club. Finally, finally, she has gotten back to current authors. Not that I minded the classics, although I have to question why she felt we all needed to muddle through William Faulkner for June, July and August.

A Million Little Pieces is the true story of its author's own struggle with various addictions. James Frey writes as he thinks, all his thoughts tumbling out onto the page, sometimes without benefit of punctuation. Unlike Faulkner, however, you can understand everything Mr. Frey is writing about.

Sometimes you can understand it so well that it makes you feel his heartache right there on the page, which makes you re-read that particular paragraph right then and there.

Again, this is a "lesson every day" kind of book. Today's lesson was the length of one sentence: "Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner."

I can see that sentence alone prompting Oprah to want everyone to read this book.

Houston Astros vs. Chicago White Sox

There is a local church here with a small billboard-type sign on their front lawn. The sign has letters that can be easily changed and there's something new on their sign every few days. Always something interesting and whoever is making up what goes on the sign has a great sense of humor. This week's sign reads: "God loves both teams, but..... Go Astros!"

Go Astros indeed. Houston is going out of their minds with World Series fever. When the Astros left downtown Houston to head for Chicago, thousands of fans were there to send them off. Most of the fans were throwing white socks at the team buses, the socks ending up in the road so the buses had no other recourse but to drive over them and pound them flat. Coincidence or not?

The first game of the Series is tonight. Our young friend C is coming over with her mom to watch the game, and we're having a potluck dinner. My husband cooked his famous Greek stuffing the other day, being that he got all the ingredients at the supermarket when we went grocery shopping. So there's a big casserole dish of that in the fridge, plus there are hot dogs, and Crescent rolls waiting to be filled and rolled and baked. I also have enough salad ingredients to fill up the largest salad bowl. (Salad? for a World Series? Whatever works... and that works for me.)

I also have a beignet mix from the famous Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. I've been wanting to make those, and I almost made them for the tea party last week, but I had more than enough sweets and sandwiches as it was. My husband doesn't really like beignets, but I do, and so do C and her mom, so tonight's the night for those. (Baseball and beignets? Why not? Maybe the combination will help the Astros win the first game.) I think instead of making the beignets in a square-shape, as they do at Cafe du Monde, I will make them in baseball-shaped rounds. Baseball Beignets. Sort of has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Since my young 14-yr-old C is saving all the placecards I make, and she expects to find them every time she comes here, I made up World Series placecards for each of us. I used cut-outs from the Houston Chronicle..... pictures of players, small headlines, the Astros' logo. The best things I found in the Chronicle couldn't be cut out, because I'm sending the main section and the special baseball section up to my sister's husband. He's the biggest Astros fan, and he's thrilled to finally see them in a World Series. I told him I'd mail him all the Astros parts of the Chronicle until the World Series is over, so I can't be cutting up those sections of the paper.

I showed my husband the baseball placecards, and he looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. "We're eating in the TV room tonight, not the dining room."

Oh. I didn't think of that.

Well, the placecards came out very well, and they will look just as Astrospecial in the TV room as they would have in the dining room.

"Houston, We Have a Pennant."

That was the headline of today's Houston Chronicle, which celebrated the outcome of last night's Astros game. The Astros haven't ever been in a World Series game before, so of course this is a big deal down here. I don't think there's an available ticket to one of the home games, unless you want to pay hundreds (possibly thousands) of dollars to a scalper.

We'll be watching the games on TV.... better seats, but I guess you can't compare that to a seat at the ballpark. My husband is already preparing. We went food shopping this morning, and he got the essentials-- hot dogs, iced tea, chips, nuts. (I bought dried pineapple, so I guess I'm ready too.)


Food shopping..... I am hating it more and more. It's better when we both go, because my husband can lift the heavy things, like the cartons of iced tea and the large boxes of cat-litter. All the big items are just getting heavier these days.

And I thought it was just me, not liking the new layout of the grocery store. My husband said it was non-intuitive. (Translation: confusing.) The store wasn't crowded this morning, so at least that was a plus. I walked up and down every aisle and got what was on my list. My husband walked up and down every aisle and got what was new and interesting. At this point in my grocery-shopping life, I don't care what goes into the shopping cart.

The supermarket has some new shopping carts, with a little car attached to the front of it. Children can sit in the brightly-colored car and pretend to steer it around the aisles, while their parent pushes both the car and the cart around the store. (The whole contraption must weigh a ton, especially when filled with groceries.)

Maybe that's the answer. Next time we go grocery shopping, I think I'll just sit in one of those little cars, and my husband can push me around the store while I say "Are we done yet?"

Waiting for The Dough....

(How's that for a play on words...)

Ever since the weekend we stayed up in Magnolia because of Hurricane Rita, we've been trying to get a Pillsbury Bread & Dough Machine, just like the one that our new-found friends R and A had in their Magnolia kitchen.

Honestly, the aroma of fresh bread baking in the morning was just heavenly while we were there--- and it sure took our minds off of the approaching hurricane. Made the entire house feel warm and cozy, more so than it already was. And imagine... you just pour in all the ingredients, plug the machine in, and within two hours, you have the most delicious loaf of steaming-hot bread.

We looked around at a few of the local stores...... found lots of bread machines, but not the Pillsbury one. I tried eBay, and lo and behold, there was one listed. Apparently, it had been a wedding gift that was used once or twice, and then it just sat on the counter.

Off to eBay it went, and I was lucky enough to be the winning bidder, getting it for a ridiculously low price, plus shipping. That was a couple of weeks ago now, and I'm still waiting for it. The seller has been in touch with me since the end of the auction. She's at home with a new baby, her husband goes off to work with their one car, and she gave him three eBay packages to mail the day after the auctions ended. The packages sat in the car's trunk all week, till I eMailed her to ask when (and if) the bread machine had been mailed.

Oops. She found them still in the trunk of the car. Deepest apologies, busy with baby, only one car, so sorry for the inconvenience. Not a problem.... I told her not to be too hard on hubby. She told me that the bread machine would be mailed out yesterday, so I'm hoping that she or her husband did just that.

I figured we could try out the bread machine and see if we like it, and see if we'll really use it enough to have it take up counter space. If not, I'll be either donating the bread machine to the local Senior Center, or listing it on eBay myself in the not-too-distant future.

A Lesson Every Day

There are lessons everywhere, if you're paying attention to the moment. Every moment. You can't miss one moment, because you might miss a lesson. And as my friend Frankie always used to tell me: "Isn't that why we're all here? To learn?!"

On today's Oprah show, there was a blind woman who went to Tibet to teach children. Amazing. Even more amazing was her answer to Oprah's question to her about her going all the way to Tibet on her own, to teach, given her own blindness.

The woman's answer was something like this: "That's the great thing about being blind.... you can't see the obstacles in front of you."

I thought that statement was very profound. Imagine having such a positive approach to one of life's greatest disabilities. Keep that in mind the next time you're complaining about a trivial pebble in the path of your life.


The other lesson today was at the end of a book I've been reading by Robert Inman. This author's books are written about people and places of the south, and I've read all of them. Wonderful, heartfelt stories, all of them. This latest one is called "Captain Saturday."

Near to the end of the book, as the main character is coming to grips with the untimely and accidental death of his parents (which happened when he was a child), he comes to the following conclusion as he's in a plane flying over the ocean where his parents plane had crashed and was never found:

"There were no tears. Instead, there was the dawning realization that Tyler and Rosanna (his parents) weren't out here, any more than if they were a pile of dust-becoming bones beneath a marble slab somewhere on land....... They were himself, part of his essence, their echoes and hauntings, and that was something he must consider carefully and at length in the days ahead....... And grieve over, if that's what it took. Grieve and celebrate..... They were himself and always would be. They were himself and his son..... The living part, that was the thing--- not what was lost, but what was left."


The most enlightening part of that paragraph to me was "The living part, that was the thing--- not what was lost, but what was left." My dear friend Frankie used to tell me that a person could ".... live eternally, live forever, live till the sun exploded...." as long as there was someone walking on the planet that kept the memory of that person alive.

One more extraordinary, powerful lesson, caught in a moment, because I was paying attention.

Never Met a Shoe I Didn't Like.......

Well, maybe that's not exactly true. There were a lot of shoes made during the 1970s that I absolutely hated.

Now, however, pretty shoes are back on the racks, and have been for years. We have a great shoe store called "Shoe Cents." Designer shoes, mostly, at the best, best prices. I don't go there because they have good-name shoes, I go there because there are so many styles to pick from, and all at reasonable prices. For both shoes and purses. I tried the new "DSW" shoe outlet.... very disheartening. Lots of shoes, but also higher prices than you would expect from an outlet store. I did find just two pairs of summer sandals there, that were on their "last chance" rack. The way I figure it, if you have to be lucky enough to find reasonably-priced shoes you like in your size on a last chance rack, then you're probably not going to find much every time you go there.

So it's "Shoe Cents" for me, and I've been shopping there since we first moved here. I left there today with seven pairs of shoes and two purses. Considering that I went in there to replace two pairs of black shoes that I just flat wore out, I found more than I thought I would. Gorgeous black heels, in varying heights--- some for dress, some for casual, plus a cute pink pair of flats for next summer, and a pair of bronze-beaded heels for my gold silk slacks. Honestly, when you find great shoes and they all fit, how can you stand there and decide which to buy and which to put back on the shelf? (As my dear Audrey (my husband's mom) would be telling me: "Honey, life is too short to waste time with such choices, so buy them all.")

I also stopped into the Hallmark card store, which had a big display of Halloween items. I thought I was finished buying for this month's Halloween Charades party, but I found such cute things, and thought of another game to use them for, so I bought enough for all of the ladies at the party.

Beautiful day today........ sunny and warm, not broiling hot, just a little breeze. A very tropical-kind of day. I hope it stays like this for most of the "winter" months, which is the way it always used to be. Seems to me that last year and the year before, we had too many plain cold days when you needed a jacket or a coat instead of just a sweater. I can remember winters down here when a simple blazer was all I needed for a winter coat.

Note to whoever is in charge of the Clear Lake weather.... don't be blowing cold winds our way between now and Mardi Gras time. Speaking of Mardi Gras, I read in The Chronicle yesterday that New Orleans is planning to have their usual celebrations and parades for Mardi Gras. Good for them...... that city went through enough tragedy this summer.... now it's time for them to start planning for happier days.

Tea Party Sunday

My first Halloween-themed tea party....... extremely successful..... lots of fun for the 8 of us. We started at 2:00 this afternoon, and no one made a move to break up the party till nearly 6:30.

At the last minute, I remembered to put the bubble-machine out by the front walkway, so everyone came in the door laughing and smiling over all the bubbles floating around the lawn and the house.

We were in the dining room for most of the afternoon----- everyone met in the living room and talked for a bit, then they looked over the game table and wrote down their guesses. They had fun picking out their "tea lady" pictures and their books. Then into the dining room we all went, and that's where we stayed.

Everyone seemed to be comfortable right where we were, and I've learned never to move a small party into another room because it breaks up the conversation and the momentum. We talked and laughed, and I gave out the prizes for the games.... we did one game per course during the tea. I don't think there was any stretch of silence that lasted for more than 15 seconds.

The colorful scarecrows in the vases were a big hit, especially when they realized that they could take them home. And the books...... the three ladies who hadn't been here before were just thrilled to be picking out a book as one of their party-favors. On page 31 (in honor of Halloween) there was either a bookmark or a certificate for free ice cream at Goodie's Creamery... just one ice cream certificate among the ladies, but I made sure to put a free ice cream card into the tea books that I had bought for my young friends C and L.

We had plenty of food on the table, even though I tried not to make enough for an army. I swear, any mixture that I can think of to roll up in Pillsbury Crescent Dough is always popular. I've been cutting the dough-triangles in half for the tea parties, to make them as small as the other food items on the platters. This time, I rolled them up with sliced turkey and swiss, and chopped-up artichoke hearts. (Delicious!) And I think I've had enough of the pimento-cheese sandwiches. I've made those for each party now.... time to look through my tea books and find something new, even if they do say that a southern tea party must have pimento-cheese sandwiches.

Two kinds of mini-cookies (oatmeal raisin and chocolate chunk)..... those were a hit with the two girls especially. Mini-cheesecakes topped with slivered almonds and orange & yellow & brown sprinkles (Halloween colors).... I think there was just one of those left over. I made mini muffins with bananas, cranberries, pecans & pineapple....... those were popular, but I made too many of them.

L made a cream cheese ring covered in strawberry sauce which was very good, and looked happy and festive on the table. C's mom L brought pastries from our local French bakery, La Madeleine... everything from that bakery is always over-the-top delicious. I also had chocolate-filled cream puffs...... they were good, and even better when I dusted them with powdered sugar, but I wouldn't buy them again. I have a cream puff recipe from my Aunt Dolly and those are better.

I also made tiny Italian-style open-faced sandwiches, using a dense whole wheat roll (sliced into thin pieces) and topped with sun-dried tomato-pesto, diced red & yellow peppers in oil, and sprinkled with Romano cheese. That was a new recipe I tried, and there were just a few left-- I heated them up just long enough for the cheese to melt.

That's another thing I did differently this time...... first I served the hot and cold sandwiches and filled Crescent rolls... and after a little while I brought out the desserts. Much easier to serve, easier to not over-eat and fill up all at once.

During the tea party, all the cats were out on the screen-porch, and Gracie stayed in the laundry room, with a gate up inbetween there and the kitchen so she could see out. We didn't hear a peep out of Gracie or any of the cats for all those hours. When the party started to break up, everyone went out to say hello to the cats and to Gracie. During the summer, I had found a Halloween bandana for Gracie, so she was wearing that today--- all dressed up for the Halloween tea.

What a great afternoon..... these tea parties are fun to prepare for, fun to host, and it's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon once a month. One of the "new" ladies said she felt like she had run away from home and came to an exclusive spa. What a nice thing to say!

Gelato Shop and Shakes

We went out to dinner tonight, to Babbo Bruno's....... delicious, as usual. We ordered two of the off-the-menu items...... spinach risotto with scallops and shrimp, and grilled Pacific salmon. I've been on a risotto kick there...... first with acorn squash, then with parmesean cheese, and tonight with spinach. So much on the plate...... I eat less than half of it and bring the rest home.

Being that we were already near the Italian gelato shop, we went there for dessert. It turned out to be dessert for one (me) because my husband decided he wanted to try a different ice cream shop out there near the restaurant. After I had my chocolate and pineapple gelato (half-scoop of each), we drove on to "Shakes," which is a tiny ice cream shop with drive-up and walk-up windows. They serve soft-serve, custard-like ice cream, similar to Dairy Queen (which I don't like) and Carvel (which I loved when I lived in NY).

"Shakes" had three flavors of ice cream..... vanilla, chocolate, and pumpkin-- the last being a seasonal special that's only made for a few months of the year. I don't know if they add a fruit flavor (like strawberry) during the summer months, because tonight was the first time we stopped there. Normally, they just have the vanilla and chocolate, and they'll add any kind of syrup or topping that you can think of, if they happen to have it.

I wasn't going to have ice cream from "Shakes," since I'd had the gelato, but my husband and the man behind the counter got to talking about ice cream flavors and the counter-man started giving us spoonfuls of each flavor.... first the vanilla, then the pumpkin, then the chocolate. And these weren't tiny quarter-teaspoon tastes, these were heaping tablespoons-worth of tastes. Over the top, in a big way.

And all the while that the counter-man is telling us about the ice cream, he's cracking jokes and creating a comedy routine. We stood there at the window laughing with him, enjoying the show, and enjoying the samples of each flavor. My husband ordered a small cup of the pumpkin and the vanilla, and I didn't order anything at all. I explained to the counter-man that we had just had dinner, but I left out the part about me already having gelato.

The counter-man was a scream........ I told my husband that he finally met someone who could come up with one-liners as fast as he could. My husband asked the counter-man if he was the owner of "Shakes" ----we both thought he was, given the way he was talking about the product and the way it's made fresh every day. Turns out that the man works all during the week in a cubicle at one of the local banks. Then he works at "Shakes" on Friday and Saturday nights, "Just for the fun of it."

And fun he had, and so did we. He gave us coupons for free ice cream, telling us to come back when we were really hungry so he could make a bigger sale than $1.90 for two scoops of ice cream.

The custard ice cream, by the way, was delicious...... better than Dairy Queen, and right up there with the Carvel that I remember when I was a kid. Wonderful texture, not too freezing-cold, and the pumpkin tasted just like whipped pumpkin pie.

Three very different ice creams.... Goodies Creamery, Italian Gelato, and now Shakes. They're all delicious, and they're all within a short ride from our house. I know what that means: I'll be doing leg lifts and squats and lunges for the rest of my life.

Sugar Cubes

It seems that for every party we have, whether it be for the Charades group or the tea parties, I do one thing that goes a little "over the top," as the saying goes. I guess my record stands because this morning I was using sugar-glue to attach tiny orange pumpkins and black bats to sugar cubes.

Believe me, that was not my intention when I woke up this morning.... it just sort of happened. I was making a list of what I needed to do for Sunday's tea, and I wrote down "sugar cubes." I didn't want to forget to take out the box of decorated cubes that I found in the League City gift shop a few weeks ago. Each of those cubes have a tiny flower on top--- in pastel colors of pink and blue and lilac and yellow. Very pretty, but clashing with all the colors I'll have on the table for Sunday-- mostly orange and purple and gold, with a bit of black.

So I got to thinking... I had these tiny 1/4" orange pumpkins and black bats--- made of sugar, to be sprinkled on top of cupcakes or cookies, which I had planned to do when I started baking tomorrow. Now wouldn't it be cute if those little pumpkins and bats could sit on top of the sugar cubes? They were the perfect size for the little cubes, but how to get them to sit there. I've watched enough baking shows on the Food Channel to know that sugar can be used as a glue when heated, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I melted two teaspoons of sugar in a tiny bit of boiling water. Mixed it all up, and I had a thick "glue." One drop of that sugar-glue (using a toothpick) in the center of each cube, then I used a tweezer to get either a pumpkin or a bat in the center of each cube. Within just a minute or so, the sugar hardened and the tiny decorations were stuck there. Taaaa-daaaahhhhhh! Perfect!

Instead of putting the cubes into the sugar bowls, I set them on three little white plates which I'll set out on the table. The cubes look adorable, especially on the gold-trimmed white plates, and C and L will love them.

Now of course, my mind is thinking ahead and wondering if I can find tiny green-sugar Christmas trees and red candy canes to use for sugar cubes during the month of December. I have lots of holiday sprinkles, so maybe just using the tiny red and green sprinkles for topping each cube would be festive enough.

Tea Party Games

I spent some time this afternoon getting some games ready for Sunday's tea party. I decided to borrow some of my guessing-game ideas from our Charades parties. I try and do different things for each party, so no one will get bored with the same games. As little Miss C tells me: "Your parties are so much fun because no one knows what to expect."

With that in mind, I changed around some of the guessing games for the tea party... taken from Charades and adapted to an afternoon tea. We'll have the two young girls (C and L), plus five women. I filled up one of those small orange plastic pumpkins with buttons, covered it with clear cellophane and decorated it with purple ribbons. Guess the number of buttons, and win a Halloween-themed prize. (The one whose guess is furthest from the correct number "wins" the little button-filled pumpkin.)

For the next game, I filled up a plastic Halloween favor-bag with those little goldfish snack-crackers. They make them in different colors now, and those look more festive in the bag, which is mostly clear with little pumpkins scattered on it. Guess the correct number of goldfish and you win a prize. (And the one whose guess is furthest from the right answer gets the bag of goldfish.)

I also found more tea-lady cards..... and cut out their pictures from the greeting cards and wrote their personality traits on the backs of each. We've done this game before at another tea party, but now there are different cards to choose from, and everyone had such a good time with those before. It's challenging to sit there and look at these pictures of wrinkled, hatted & gloved elderly ladies holding teacups and make up stories about them. It's all done in good fun, and the cards make us all laugh.

For the centerpiece, I'm using some of the pieces from my collection of beaded fruit. I took all the orange, purple, and green pieces..... a good-sized pumpkin, green gourds, purple grapes and plums, oranges and tangerines..... they're all arranged in a pretty white and gold bowl in the center of the dining table. On party day, I'll put on a fresh ivory-colored tablecloth, gold and white china, purple napkins, and all the little scarecrows and pumpkin-placecards will make the table look colorful and Halloween-y.

The best part of these tea parties is seeing the look of pure joy on the faces of C and her friend L. They usually walk all around the dining room table very slowly, oohing and aahing over the china, the placecards, and the centerpiece. So easy to make a centerpiece from things that are right around the house.... there's always something around to fit the theme.

So easy to put a tea party together. C is having a good time, so is L, and so am I.

Mickey-Houdini Kitty

Try as I might, I just can't keep a bell-collar on Mickey Kitty. He's getting bigger now, and the little elastic-stretch cording just isn't working on him anymore. I need to keep a bell on him because he's still small, and very fast...... and if we don't know that he's close by, we're bound to trip over him. Not good for him, not good for us.

I still had ShadowBaby's bell-collar from when he was Mickey Kitty's size, so I thought that would work just fine for now. Mickey Kitty doesn't agree. He didn't mind the elastic-stretch cord with the bell, but this thicker collar just isn't his style, I guess. No sooner do I have it on him, and I can hear his little bell jingle-jangling as he tries to get it off his neck. And he always does. I don't know how he undoes the little clasp, but whenever I find his blue collar on the floor, the clasp is always undone. Maybe he's telling me that blue just isn't his color?

Well, I guess he wins. I will go back to keeping an elastic-stretch cord on him, with his little bell. I'll have to stop by PetsMart and see what types of collars they have. Maybe I can find one with a different clasp, or one that isn't so wide. Or one with a lock and key that he can't get off.

Halloween Tea Party

My sweet little C and her friend L are in the mood for tea again.... so we're having a pre-Halloween tea party this weekend. I've made placecards with pumpkins and ghosts on them, and I've bought little scarecrows for each place setting. I found tiny creamers and vases, one for each setting, and the little scarecrows will rest on them so they're setting up just a little higher than the teacups.

I found tea books for each of the girls, "Time for Tea," by Mary Engelbreit... lots of cute ideas for tea cakes and tea parties, and lots of colorful photographs that I know the girls will appreciate. The little books, along with the scarecrows sitting the creamers, will be their party favors. As well as the placecards. I've been trying to out-do myself with the placecards, since C is using them to decorate her school locker. I went to Hobby Lobby last week and found lots of stick-on decorations that were made for scrapbooking, but work nicely with the heavy cardstock that I use for the placecards.

I also invited their moms again, as well as a friend of ours from Babbo Bruno's. When I told K about C's interest in tea parties, she asked me if I would invite her to the next one. Well, what better reason to put together another tea party?!

Instead of playing the Tea Bingo game again, I bought a deck of pumpkin-shaped playing cards. C taught us a game called "Kings in The Corners" when we were up in Magnolia during Hurricane Rita, so I thought it would be fun to play cards with the pumpkin deck. Keeping with the theme of the party!

Speaking of tea party themes, I also bought decks of cards in the shapes of Valentine hearts and Easter eggs, so when those months roll around, I'll be ready. Seems that we've been having a tea party every month. Which isn't a complaint, mind you. I'm just trying to stay ahead of myself so I have things in the house for each theme.

And as I type this, AngelBoy is sitting by my feet, meowing his little cat heart out. Either there's no food in his dish, or there's a litter box that needs attention. Bless his little blue-eyed cat-soul.

Brown-Eyed Mickey Kitty

Bless this little brown-eyed kitten......... he's full of love, full of joy, and just makes us smile. As soon as you look at him, he flops over on his back and looks at you upside-down with his cute little eyes. Light-brown eyes on this little chocolate-brown kitten... gorgeous coloring.

We've been letting him sleep inside the house for the past couple of nights. He slept on my husband's pillow for a few hours, then switched sides and slept on my side of the bed, with his little body on the bed and his head on the edge of my pillow. The nights are still warm, and ShadowBaby, who usually sleeps on my side of the bed, fell asleep on the screen-porch and didn't come in when I called him, so I left him there to sleep, along with AngelBoy.

Last night, Mickey Kitty was the only cat inside the house. He didn't wake us up, but as soon as my husband got out of bed this morning, Mickey jumped off the bed and was ready to start his day. Each cat is so different....... when Rusty slept inside the house, he would wake me up every few hours because he wanted food. (Which he didn't get in the middle of the night.) AngelBoy would always wake up around 3:00 in the morning and want me to pet him or play with him. He would drop one of his toys near my slippers and meow till I saw it there. Or, if he used his litter box in the middle of the night, he would wake me up to let me know the box needed to be cleaned out. (Honestly! He doesn't like a soiled box, no matter what time of the day or night it is.)

ShadowBaby, when he's sleeping inside, will always wake me up between 5:00 and 5:30 every morning. He wants to be let out on the screen-porch at that hour, and he will do whatever he can to get my attention at that early hour..... jump to the top of my husband's dresser, or walk on the end table near my side of the bed, or press his little nose to my nose until I just give in and get up and let him on the porch.

But Mickey Kitty...... sleeping all through the night....... what a great cat! I hope he doesn't outgrow such a saintly habit.

Italian Dinner and Gelato

We went to our favorite Babbo Bruno's last night for dinner... delicious as usual. We've been going there for such a long time now that the owner/chef will make us things that aren't on the menu, as long as he has the ingredients in his kitchen. Which he usually does. I was in the mood for risotto last night, which wasn't one of the features, but Stefano made it for me, and topped it with grilled scallops. Totally delicious........ I ate just half of it, and the other half is sitting in the fridge waiting for me.

We didn't have dessert there last night, because we wanted to find a fairly new gelato shop that opened up close by. We drove down the road a bit, and within ten minutes or so, we found it. Wonderfully decorated, sparkling-clean little shop, and all they sell are specialty coffees and homemade gelato. They had a beautiful display of about thirty choices of gelato. I tried the pineapple and the chocolate.... two flavors in the smallest serving-cup they had (the kiddie size). Absolutely delicious. Not to mention convenient, being so close to Babbo Bruno's. They have delicious desserts at Stefano's restaurant, but they're very rich, and if you're not splitting them with someone, you can barely get through one after having dinner.

So this weekend has been filled with Babbo Bruno's, homemade Italian gelato, the downtown Greek festival, and right now, the Astros are trying to win a tied game against the Braves. Does it get any better?

Greek Festival Weekend

This is the 39th year for the Greek Festival on the grounds of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral near downtown Houston. This Greek community began in 1917 with just a few Greek immigrant families, and now it's one of the largest Greek communities in the country. And this was their weekend..... from Thursday afternoon till tonight. Gorgeous weekend-- sunny and warm without being broiling hot, and not a raindrop in sight.

We met our friends K & B at the festival just before noon-time. Before we got on the line to get our dinners, we stopped at the cookie and pastry booth, and it's a good thing we did--- all they had left were two kinds of cookies-- finikia and koulourakia. All of the baklava were gone, and theirs is so good that they were selling cups of the crumbs and people were putting it over their ice cream. (Another ice cream treat to try!)

The Greek church ladies must cook around the clock for weeks on end, because they feed an enormous amount of people. You can buy an entire dinner for just $10-- and they give you a serving of pastitsio, tiropita, spanakopita, soutzoukaki (meal roll), Greek salad and bread. If you don't want the dinner, then you can buy Greek foods a la carte--- tiropita, spanakopita, dolmades, gryo, souvlaki, and even Greek pizza.... and those are just $1 or $2 per serving.

Because this was such a beautiful weekend, the Greek festival has been busy for all of the days. When we got there today, the dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) were all sold out, and so were all of the desserts except for the two cookies I mentioned. We bought a dozen of the finikia, and two dozen of the koulourakia--- and by the time we got on the line for our dinner, all the cookies had sold out.

This festival is one of the most well-organized events that we've ever gone to. The lines are long for the food booths, but they have so many people helping out that you're really not waiting for a long while to get your food. The foods are so good, and all homemade with the best ingredients, that you don't mind the wait anyway.

The church group sets up a gift shop in the community room of the school...... everything from books and tee-shirts to fine jewelry and art, and there's also clothing and imported foods and Greek pottery. And wherever you go on the festival grounds, there's Greek music playing, so even if you're not Greek, you'll think you are by the time you're ready to leave. Great food, great fun...... the only thing that can keep us away from this festival is a heavy rainstorm.

Cracker Jack and Ice Cream

I was watching the Food Channel the other night and I saw part of Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals." She had things cooking on the stove-top which I didn't see, but I caught her show as she was preparing the dessert.

The theme for her meal must have been a casual baseball dinner or something, because her dessert had two ingredients-- Cracker Jack and vanilla ice cream. (Now don't say "Yuck!" till you read the rest of this.)

What she did was take large scoops of very cold vanilla ice cream, about the size of baseballs, then she rolled the round scoops into the Cracker Jack so every part of the ice cream was covered and she could form the balls into nearly-perfect baseball-sized servings. Back into the freezer they went, till it was time for dessert.

Then she went back to finishing up her dinner, which I wasn't paying attention to and I can't even tell you what she was cooking because my mind was busy thinking of the Cracker Jack-covered ice cream.

I'm not a vanilla girl....... I've liked chocolate ice cream for as long as I can remember, and about the only time I'll try a new flavor is if the chocolate ice cream has either pineapple or pecans or fresh cherries mixed into it. In fact, if I could have an ice cream flavor made just for me, it would be Chocolate Cherry Pineapple-Pecan. But really, plain chocolate, if it's a good homemade ice cream without additives and preservatives, is just perfect.

So there I was, cooking salmon and mixing a salad (very healthy) and thinking about covering a golf-ball sized scoop of chocolate ice cream with Cracker Jack (sort of healthy, given the smaller serving of a golf ball instead of a baseball). The only problem was, I had no ice cream in the freezer, and I didn't have any Cracker Jack.

We don't often keep ice cream in the house, because we'd just keep eating it. Most of the time, I do have fat-free, sugar-free chocolate ice-pops (about 40 calories each), which gives you the taste of rich chocolate if you have a good imagination. I don't keep Cracker Jack in the house, for the simple reason that I'd keep eating it till it was gone. I've loved Cracker Jack sinced my dad bought me my first box when I was a kid. We had a deal--- I ate the Cracker Jack, he ate the peanuts. That was "way back when" a box of Cracker Jack was a little bigger than the individual-serving boxes they have now, and there were lots of peanuts along with the carmel-coated popcorn. I would guess the ratio of peanuts to popcorn back then was about 2 to 6. Now it's about 2 to 60.

Anyway, while my husband and I were eating dinner that night, I told him about the Cracker Jack-covered vanilla ice cream. He didn't think it sounded good, but I told him that chocolate ice cream covered in Cracker Jack would be worth a try. He looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. (My husband doesn't like Cracker Jack... but he does eat the peanuts when I have one of those small boxes.)

Last night, when my husband came home from work, what do you think he brought me?! A bag filled with half a dozen little boxes of Cracker Jack, and a pint of homemade chocolate ice cream from Goodies Creamery. As my Aunt Dolly would say: "My hero!"

So there I was last night at 10:30, with a small scoop of chocolate ice cream covered with Cracker Jack. The ice cream was a little soft by the time he got home and I wasn't going to wait and let it re-freeze with the Cracker Jack on it. I just sprinkled the Cracker Jack on top of it and tasted it. Absolutely delicious. Honestly. Unless I was making a special dessert for company, I wouldn't bother rolling the scoops in the Cracker Jack and re-freezing them. The soft ice cream was perfect with the crunchy Cracker Jack.

And just to make sure that it did indeed taste as delicious as I thought it did last night, I had the same thing for lunch today--- a very small scoop of ice cream with Cracker Jack on top of it. I'll tell you......... life may not get any better.

Running Errands...

Lots of errands today.... lots of stops.... and a lot of little things got done.

I had to go back to Barnes & Noble, after we were just there yesterday. I had bought a book from their "last-chance" sale table and discovered that I had already read that book. It was one of my favorite authors, and I usually keep her books, but this one wasn't a keeper (according to the journal I keep on books I've read). I could've saved it for the give-away pile of party books, but I figured if I didn't like the book well enough to keep it, then I don't want to push it on to someone else.

So I returned the book, and found a box of vintage Victorian-designed Halloween cards. Beautiful blank cards, perfect for either Halloween invitations or greeting cards. 24 cards for just $6.95, which is less money than two packages of Hallmark invitations. At the rate I'm going now, I have enough invitations for the next three Halloweens (not counting this one, since those invitations are already out).

Then I went to League City, to deliver invitations to our friends J and L at the antique shop, and to just chat and see how they fared during the storm. J made the mistake of driving east, so he ended up in a friend's house (one bedroom/one bathroom home) with 14 other people. Because Rita veered off to the east, the little town he was in had 75 mph winds.... J said it sounded like a freight train crossing Highway 3. As for L.... she and her granddaughter drove to San Antonio. They shopped, they strolled along the Riverwalk, they took in the sights and the markets and had a grand time. I told L that the next time a storm threatens us, I'm going to San Antonio with her! Along with my husband, the dog, and all the cats, of course! (And no offense to our new friends in Magnolia who hosted us during Rita--- they're moving to Colorado because of a job transfer, so they won't be available for the next hurricane.)

Another stop was to a little League City shop called Nana's Attic. I buy freshly-ground coffee there for my husband, and that's where I buy all the flavored tea-- they have delicious English varieties. I also found pretty little sugar cubes there, each one decorated with a tiny sugared flower. I had just a few of those for one of the tea parties for C and L, and the two girls just loved those fancy sugars. I intend to save these special sugar cubes for the girls.

Lots of goodies to look at in Nana's Attic, and I always find something that I can buy for someone's birthday or holiday gift. While looking around the store, I thought of a great idea for the placecards for Christmas dinner, so I took some time making choices for each one of those little table-gifts.

Also stopped in at the Half-Price bookstore, to see what was new in there. I found a few books for Christmas party favors........ I usually buy Christmas books and just wrap them in red ribbon and keep them in a basket in the foyer. Between Half-Price books, and the bookshop in the local library, I've found quite a few this year.... plenty to give away during the month of December when friends and neighbors come over for the Open House, or to see the tree.

It's after midnight now....... we're up late to see the outcome of the baseball game between the Yankees and the Angels. Always a close game with the Yankees, especially at the end of the season. Between the Astros and the Yankees, we've been watching the games. Actually, my husband watches the game, and I listen to him talk to the television while I'm in here typing and that's how I know if they're winning losing, or doing totally stupid errors.

I think the Yankees just made an error. I just heard my husband say "You've GOT to be kidding me!". (If the Angels had done something stupid, my husband wouldn't care.)

Holidays....

Here they come...... Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's....... and they will be here and gone in a heartbeat.

Right now, I'm in the midst of planning our Halloween party. Invitations are written and will be sent out this week. Favors and gift-bags and special prizes are all ready and waiting on the closet shelf. All I have to do is decorate, and I'll be doing that within the next week. I was in a card store yesterday and found cute Halloween invitations, so I bought them for next year. I considered leaving them there and buying them when the store puts them on sale after Halloween, but there were just three packages... too cute to take a chance that they'd still be there.

We've made up the list for the Christmas party, and I've already got the invitations for that. I've already begun wrapping Christmas gifts and getting them packed into shipping boxes. Other Christmas gifts (specialty foods) that I send from catalogs are already ordered and set to be delivered during Christmas week.

We're still talking about New Year's Eve. I'm planning to have a sit-down dinner here at the house, for 10 or 12 people. An ultimate pot-luck dinner, with friends bringing a really special and fancy recipe to share with everyone. I'd have to ask some to bring appetizers, others to bring a main course, maybe someone else to bring soup, then a special bread, and one or two spectacular desserts. This way we'll have everything "from soup to nuts," as the saying goes, and we can have a relaxing, leisurely dinner without the confusion of a busy restaurant. And champagne or wine........ can't forget that for the holiday. I'll have to start making a list for that.

As I type, the trash trucks are outside, picking up all the tree branches and limbs that fell during the hurricane. Piles of branches are all over every street, piled up near the curbs by homeowners or gardeners. Thankfully, the city is sending extra trucks to pick everything up and make it all disappear. I know that all our friends will be asking everyone at the Halloween party what they did and where they went and how long did it take as they ran from Rita.

Hopefully, by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, Rita will be just a memory.

Robert Frost

Nursery rhyme indeed---- the line I was thinking of yesterday came from a poem by Robert Frost, which was sent to me this morning by my friend F up in NY.

Lest that I get a letter from a descendant of Mr. Frost, I will re-print his poem here..... with thanks to F and apologies to Mr. Frost.




Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here, To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer, To stop without a farmhouse near. Between the woods and frozen lake... The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake.... To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep... Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep... And miles to go before I sleep....And miles to go before I sleep.

Miles To Go Before We Sleep.....

I seem to remember a nursery rhyme that had something like that line above, but I can't remember the rest of it. That line does, however, seem appropriate for the many stories we've heard about the mass exodus last week from the Gulf Coast areas south of Houston that were on course for Rita's destruction.

We went to Babbo Bruno's last night, and their restaurant is just getting back to a normal schedule. Parts of Friendswood were without power for four days. The owners of our favorite restaurant had power in their home, but not in their restaurant. They had to toss away everything that was in their freezers and refrigerators.... very costly fish imported from Hawaii never made it to the tables.

Everyone in the restaurant last night got hugs from the owners, along with questions asking "Where did you go?" and "How many hours did it take you to get there?" Everyone has their own story... and their own personal trauma attached to leaving their homes and not knowing what they'd find when they got back. I think the memory of what Katrina did to New Orleans was so fresh in everyone's mind that running from Rita seemed the right thing to do for mostly everyone here.

"Run from the water, hide from the wind." That's what The Powers That Be in Houston are using as their mantra for future evacuation mandates. Now they're saying that too many Gulf Coast residents left their homes needlessly. Really? Don't they remember Mayor White on the local news (as well as CNN) telling us all to take the storm seriously and not doubt its strength?

As the old saying goes--- "Hindsight is 20/20." They can say whatever they want to now that it's all over. The bottom line is that we were just plain lucky that Rita changed her course.



We went to the movies this morning...... to see "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Wonderful, beautiful movie. Great music, outstanding cinematography. Amazing story, filled with interesting characters. There is a young boy named Eddie in the film, who plays the caddy for the young amateur golfer who competes against the professionals in the U.S. Open. Little Eddie is short and pudgy, and he has just the sweetest face. The way he walks in the film (a waddle, actually) reminded me of our Rusty (our oldest cat). During the movie, I whispered to my husband that if Rusty could magically turn into a little boy, he would look and sound like Eddie.

So now, of course, whenever I see Rusty, I imagine him walking and talking like little Eddie of today's movie. Great movie....... Just what we needed for a break from Rita.