Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Haaaalloween

I am not usually one to blow my own horn, but I think my pumpkin turned out awesome this year, thanks to Google images. I just "googled" jack o lanterns and liked this one and "Bob's your uncle." There it is!
Speaking of "Bob's your uncle", if you haven't seen The World's Fastest Indian on DVD starring Anthony Hopkins, you should. It's a delightful movie, based on fact, about a 67 year old man from New Zealand who wants to ride his motorcycle in Utah's annual Bonneville Salt Flats race. I've been trying to get my kids to watch it for years. I get no respect!
Anyway, back to Halloween. I'm posting, after a very long hiatus, to validate that we had 76 trick-r-treaters - our most ever - and topped Missy's next-door neighborhood by 36, which has never happened. I don't even know how to begin to analyze that, but it even ran through my mind that maybe the economy had something to do with it. That's how focused we are on the subject with the election today. People without jobs and children starved for candy because of it.
On Halloween we have a tradition of eating chili and cornbread and then talking to my Mom when it's over to compare how many kids we had. Mom has been sort of complaining for several years now about how their aging neighborhood doesn't get many trick-r-treaters anymore. True, they only had 26. They love Halloween. And until this year, they have been carving a pumpkin - yikes! At 88 and 86. This year, though, Cheryl bought them the plug-in variety.
Our neighbors up the hill on Broadwell had their usual display of life-size Halloween characters, some of which are motion sensitive and light up and say scary things. We walked Mojo up to see them on the 31st and our neighbor Paul was still hooking some up, so we got a chance to introduce ourselves and ask him where he had gotten his "friends." He said just from all over the place - Spencer's Gifts, Lowe's, the Halloween tent that sets up in the Mall parking lot, Walgreen's, etc. I wonder if the little kids skip that house as they might look pretty scary to them!
While watching all the parents who come with their children (it was a nice mild night I might mention), I thought about halloweening when I was a kid. We certainly never had a parent with us. I asked a friend on fb (facebook) whom I've known since I was 5 if she remembered ever having a parent with her, and she said no and the only thing she remembered about it was on the next street over from ours, the people had a bowl of pennies and you got to reach in and take as many as you could hold. I remember that now too. How many pennies do you think a 7 or 8 year old could hold? Not enough to wipe you out financially, but the teenagers that come would sure try . . . as only a teenager can!
I do have this not-important piece of info for you, though. When given the choice of Reese's peanut butter cup, a Hershey's chocolate bar or a packaged Rice Krispee treat (the chocolate ones are incredible), the resounding fav was: Hershey's chocolate! I thought it was going to be Reese's. Now I know what I will buy next year. Because what I don't give out I can use to make a "some-more" in the microwave. Yuuuum!

Meet the parents: Martha and David

Meet the parents:  Martha and David
Aren't they cute?

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Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007
In Atlanta with the Pfaff's

Bill and I had a wonderful time with Dave and Erin at Erin's parents, Roger and Muriel Pfaff, in Marietta, GA. We drove down on Sunday and spent 2 nights at a Drury Inns & Suites, but ate all our meals (except the free breakfast at the motel) with the Pfaff's. Erin has one sister, Alison, and her boyfriend, Mike, were also in attendance. Mike is a med student at MCV, where Bill's brother Jim went (a few year's ago!).

We got hooked on dominoes, which we played when we weren't eating one of Murierl's wonderful meals. Of course, when we played we ate homemade cookies and candy, made by Erin and her mom. Dinner Sunday night was a wonderful chicken dish over pasta; Christmas Eve was 2 kinds of hearty homemade soups and homemade rolls; and Christmas dinner was prime rib. Wow! Were we impressed. Best thing to me: sticky pecan rolls at Christmas breakfast. Super yum.

On Christmas Eve we went to a candlelight service at 11:00 p.m. at the Pfaff's Lutheran church. It felt very similar to our Methodist candlelight service. I think the big Christmas present was something called a Wee, an interactive games thingy played on your TV. Like all playstation things, it's beyond me.


March 2008 Snowfall

March 2008 Snowfall
Our only snow this year which was with us for one evening and the following half day.


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Bill

Bill
Bridgestone Racing Academy



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Favorite Quotes

Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life . . . Picasso

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind . . . . . . . Dr. Seuss

The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away . . . Robert M. Pirsig "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret . . . Henri-Fredric Amiel

What worries you, masters you . . . . Haddon W. Robinson

When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience , so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape . . . Louise Erdrich in The Plague of Doves

Queen Lucy . . . RIP

Queen Lucy . . .                  RIP
The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. ~Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

Princess Gracie . . . RIP

Princess Gracie . . .  RIP
black dogs aren't as photogenic

The girls

The girls

Sharing VandysView

Sharing VandysView
Dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really. ~Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Lucky

Lucky
Dave and Erin's lucky stray that walked into their front yard and got adopted - he's a very joyful dog

Magi when she was a puppy

Magi when she was a puppy
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams

Family

Family
The VandeWater boys - Bob, Bill and Jim

Bob Bill and Dr. Jim

Bill's mom Ann (DeLanghe) VandeWater

Bill's mom Ann (DeLanghe) VandeWater
birthdate: 6/3/1915

Jim and Bev

Jim and Bev
Bill's brother

The Women in my Life

The Women in my Life
Mom, Patti, and Cheryl

Dad's 83rd birthday

Dad's 83rd birthday
Our Christmas baby

Where is that other brother?

Where is that other brother?
Nina, Mike, my handsome older brother, and Bruce, my handsome youngest brother

There he is!

There he is!
Patti and Steve, my handsome younger brother

Sean and Mike - Lake Tahoe

Sean and Mike - Lake Tahoe

My nephew and his girlfriend

My nephew and his girlfriend
They're cute too

The whole Motley Crue

The whole Motley Crue
Aren't we cute?