Still-stupid weather...

..... but at least it's warmer than it has been all week. The sky has been a tease...... just when you think you're going to have a blue-sky sunny day, the clouds roll in and everything gets grayish white outside. The hard-freeze is over, though, which is a good thing. It would be really nice if we could get through a week without having a hard-freeze warning from the TV weather wizards.

We went to dinner last night at B & G's house, along with J & J, and S.... very nice dinner, with the weather being the talk of the night. (The weather and the economy has everyone talking these days.) Everyone is thoroughly tired of having to 'fret over frozen pipes,' as B said. B & G live in an old house that was built in the late 1800s... their home started its life as a school-house. That particular house is said to be haunted, but B says it's a friendly spirit. Years ago when she had workmen doing some renovations there, one of them ran down the stairs from the second floor and flew out the door as fast as he could..... apparently, he saw the 'friendly spirit' and it scared the daylights out of him. B said he never did come back.

The inside of B's house is rustic-looking, with wood floors, wood walls, wooden beams..... all original windows, all original moldings and trim. The kitchen is teeny-tiny, but there are two pantry-rooms off of the kitchen. No room in the kitchen for a dishwasher, and B doesn't want to put one in because then it would take away storage space, which is at a premium in that little 9x12' kitchen. I'm so curious to see the second floor of that house..... there's one room that has small windows from wall to wall and I have to wonder if that particular room was one of the classrooms from the old school-house days.

During the month of October, B and G set up a wooden skeleton on their front porch.... he was sitting on a square hay-bale and wearing one of G's hats. The skeleton was moved to the back porch after Thanksgiving and now he's sitting at their picnic table, with a beer bottle propped up in his hand. Last night as we got out of the car, the moon was shining on that part of B's backyard and the skeleton had an ethereal glow around him.

It was nice to get together with the neighbors..... and when we got home my husband and I got to talking about hosting a Valentine's dinner. Actually, we've decided that it would have to be an afternoon lunch rather than a dinner, because we would invite friends from Houston and our newest friends from the other side of town. No one likes to be driving home late at night on these dark roads, so a lunch get-together would make everyone much happier. So that's the plan, and I will start making some phone calls this week. I've already fixed up the living room and dining room with Valentine's decorations...... this is our second Valentine's Day in this house, so it will be nice to have a get-together here and enjoy the decorations.

And if the weather gods will start smiling on Texas again, we could all enjoy some Texas-style weather.