Halloween Costumes

Troy decided he wanted to be a WWII flying ace for Halloween. The best example of what he wanted was this picture of Amelia Earhart. We found the hat (faux shearling), goggles and white silk scarf at various websites and he'll wear my leather bomber jacket. I'll post a picture of him later.

Zack says he's got a costume set up too, but I have no idea what he's planning on. He hasn't trick-or-treated since the 8th grade, but I hear things are very different at college than they were in middle school. Go figure!

Marathon Weekend

Troy and I were up Sunday a.m. at 5:00 to have breakfast and be at the Parish Center at 6 for our part of the Marine Corps Marathon. We (the Scout troop) help the marines set up and hand out water and Powerade. It's an amazing thing to witness. The first to go by are the wheelchair racers-- no legs (or non-working ones), pedaling their special rigs with their arms. Also saw a blind runner with his sighted running partner. They were lightly tethered, giving them both the chance to use their arms as they ran and to keep them close to each other if/when they were overtaken by the herd. And it is very like a herd. The faster runners go by, barely slowing to grab at the paper cups of water or powerade we were offering, then the mad rush of the other 22,000 going by. I guess it was about 8:30 that we saw the wheelchair racers go by, then by 9:15 it's all over except for a few stragglers. Thousands and thousands of paper cups smashed in the street (Lee Hwy. at Adams St., in our case). Then the Scouts and the Marines get busy and 15 minutes later you'd never know we'd been there. The trash trucks lumber by picking up the bags of trash, the street sweepers do their thing, and then we're done. A whole bag of clothing was collected for donation-- shirts and jackets shed by the runners as they got warmed up. Our station was at mile 2, so there was more there than there would be down the road. It was cold, too. I didn't dress in enough layers. Took me hours to get fully warm again. Troy spent the rest of the day variously in front of the tv under a blanket or in front of the computer with his aviator cap on.

Cedar Closets

I have not just been breaking in the new drinking glasses lately! The first two pictures are of the master bedroom closet, the second set are Troy's closet. No snarky comments on how not-tidy they are, but I wanted you to see the cedar. Russ did a beautiful job installing tongue-in-groove cedar and shelving and trim. He did this work before Zack was born. You can still smell a little cedar, but not much. Nothing reminiscent of a gerbil cage. He also had to work around gables in the roof.

New Lamps

We made it to Crate and Barrel finally to spend our gift cards. Hurray for gift cards! We bought two of these desk lamps for the livingroom. It might seem funny to get new lamps in an old crappy livingroom, but we do still use the room and it was too dark to read with the one lamp. I like this style because its heighth is adjustable. It goes nicely with the apothecary cabinet (the one piece of furniture in the livingroom that we'll keep), and the white shade makes it very bright.

Also replaced our drinking glasses.

Decorating

Not that Russ would ever go for it, but I thought this was a neat (and cheap) idea. You could even shorten the drawers so they'd fit in a narrow space like a hallway. The NY Times article was very interesting, along with the other photos. (Thanks Kathleen!)

Loved This Article

I read the sweetest article in this past Sunday's Washington Post Magazine. It was by Gene Weingarten, but not his usual column. What a sad sweet tribute. Makes me think about Mosby and Molly being in their dotage. I took Molly in to the vet last Friday. We saw Dr. Schrader. I never get to see him, and I'm reminded why we like that practice so much. He thought Molly's ear (where Mosby nipped her) would heal just fine, if notched, looked her all over, wasn't too upset by being the recipient of one of Molly's special smiles when he had to poke her a bit. He declares her fit, if a couple of pounds heavy (that got him another special smile). Her ears (on the inside) have been problematic for years. Very itchy, and she's generally itchy all over. He said her inner ears are malformed-- too narrow, and with any inflammation (like now) the opening is even smaller. Too small for standard ointments. So we're on an antibiotic and a steroid to reduce the inflammation. She's like a new dog. I'm surprised her brains aren't scrambled after all the years of head-shaking. She also got her nails trimmed. I hear the technicians had to muzzle her for that. Too many special smiles. I'll have to see if I can capture one on my camera for posterity.