An early cold snap.

Stupid weather. The temperature dropped to 49 degrees last night, and the high today is only going to be around 70. This usually doesn't happen till late November... the weather gods are not being kind. But on the bright side, the temperature will be back to normal by tomorrow... 60 degrees at night, 80 during the day. The trick-or-treaters will not have to wear sweaters after all.

The cats had to sleep inside last night... too cold on the screen porch. I don't know if it's cold for them, or cold for me, but my reasoning is that if I can't sit on that porch and be comfortable, then neither can the cats. When the cats sleep inside, my sleep is sporadic at best. AngelBoy was in the laundry room and he took a while to get used to that idea, not having slept in there since January or February. It usually goes like this-- I put him in there with his little bed and his food and water dishes, then I close the door. Within two minutes, he's banging against the door with his paws. Back in there I go.... and he gives me the sad blue-eyed kitty look. I'll be good, really... please let me out of here. I don't trust that blue-eyed cat. So we repeat the closing of the door and the banging of the paws on the door two more times before he settles down. That cat doesn't like closed doors, plus the laundry room has always been his "time-out room."

Mickey Kitty slept on my pillow and ShadowBaby slept near the bottom of the bed, twice walking straight up my body to put his nose next to my nose-- Are you sleeping? Don't you want to get up now? That cat weighs about 18 pounds... there's no describing how heavy he feels as he walks up my legs and up my chest and sits near my neck. And sometimes, if he's too tired himself to walk back to the foot of the bed, he plops himself down on top of my chest and buries his head into the side of my neck. I can see the headlines now: "Clear Lake Woman Dies of Suffocation by Cat."

The pet-voting signs are popular on our street. Not only do we have a Gracie For President sign in front of our house, but my husband made up a Vote For Ranger sign and a Vote For Astro sign for two of our dog-loving neighbors. One neighbor told my husband that her dog Astro now has five votes-- all from neighborhood kids. My husband was going to make signs for all the dogs we know, but it would have taken him way too much time.

Our neighbors are still talking about the Halloween party. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the hurricane season, for one thing, and all the neighbors got to see one another and talk about how lucky we all were to have escaped major damage from Ike. Out of all the parties we give during the year, the Halloween get-together is the most fun. I think it's the costumes-- people can be silly and outrageous, without consequences.

I have de-Halloweened most of the inside of the house, being that I had so many decorations up for the party. It still looks like Halloween in here, and I won't take anything else down till this weekend. All the pumpkins on the front porch are still fine, except that we had to replace one of the small pumpkins the day before the party. I had gone out there to get the mail that day and noticed that a swarm of flies were hovering above one of the pumpkins on the wrought iron sculpture-- that particular pumpkin was in direct sunlight and had started to bake in the heat. My husband went to Kroger and got another one, and I carefully lifted the squishy pumpkin off of the sculpture and put it in the trash. The flies weren't happy about that and followed me all the way down the driveway to the trash cans.

I guess the warmest part of the day will be around noon-time, so I will have to keep wrapped up in sweaters till then. We've turned on the heat in the house, the first time since February. I walked early yesterday, after lunch, because I thought it would be too cold after dinner, which it was. You get so spoiled with warm weather, I swear.

Dancing With The Stars--- if Cloris Leachman doesn't get voted off tonight, I swear I will just scream. She should have left a few weeks ago, but I'm guessing that all the senior citizens are calling up to vote for her every week. It surely isn't her great dancing that is keeping her on that show. One of the judges was very honest last night, telling Cloris that "We lost Toni Braxton last week so we could watch this!"-- and "this" was in reference to Cloris ridiculous Cha-Cha attempt. Give us all a blessed break. Tell Cloris to go home.