Halloween Night
3:41 p.m. - 2012-10-31


I finished the coral sweater today by sewing on the buttons. Also finished the aqua lace sweater last week, and I really like it. Also put dark gray thread on the machine and sewed the popped seam in WSP's pants leg. Still have to alter M's pants, but since that involves some seam ripping, I am not interested in it yet.

Tonight is Halloween, and the bowl of candy is ready to go, except that the level of candy keeps going down mysteriously, so I hope there will be enough for tonight.

I have been trying some new recipes to keep myself interested in cooking. First I tried a new peanut butter cookie recipe except that I subbed in almond butter I had to use up and added some almond extract. They turned out very well. I tried a new bread recipe in the bread maker but I froze the loaf so don't really know yet how it turned out. I used one of my new cookbooks to make a lentil/bean tortilla soup which was very good. This is a record for me for using a cookbook I got at the book sale within two weeks of buying it. I also made some veggie burgers that I liked a lot, so I can use them for grab-and-go lunches. Tonight I am going to be lazier, though, and just make chili mac.

I have been meaning to change my primary care physician for awhile now but kept putting it off because I like him a lot as a person even though I had sort of lost confidence in him as my doctor. This is a rare incidence of procrastination paying off, because I got a letter in the mail telling me he was retiring (though he is fairly young) and that I had to choose another doctor. I quickly signed up with the spouse's doctor who luckily was available. He thinks highly of her, and she seems to be quite thorough. Plus, she does not have an accent that makes her hard to understand. This can be a big drawback when you are trying to manage your health and the doctor is giving you instructions you can't quite catch.

The J's (my brother and his wife) got back from Washington, D.C., where Mr. J was supposed to attend a conference. They went a few days early for sightseeing, but when they went to sign in at the conference on Sunday, they found out that the conference had been canceled due to the approaching hurricane. Instead of waiting to leave on Tuesday as planned, they went right to the airport and booked a flight home. This turned out to be a smart move since they were able to fly out on Sunday ahead of the storm and missed all the flight delays and cancellations. I was talking to Mrs. J at church this morning, and she said the airports were full of frantic people trying to book alternate flights. She said the fall color back East was very pretty, but I bet it is all blown away now.

In the last week I had two social occasions (not my forte) that I was not looking forward to and ended up having lots of fun at both. One was helping my MIL clean out her old abode since she is moving to a really nice new place, and my SIL and I had a great time chatting and cleaning and making arrangements. Then I had to go with the spouse to the dedication of a recital hall at Cabrillo College down near Santa Cruz. I thought it would be a little boring, but I had a great time. There was a concert with performances by college kids and a children's choir, and we were stunned by their talent. After that, there was a reception with lovely nibbles in a beautiful setting with nice people to chat with. Maybe I am not quite the socially inept doofus I used to be. I need better clothes, though. Better shoes that don't hurt, definitely.

We are heading into the second week of having our yard and street dug up by the city because they are doing something about sewer line connectors (?). My hopes for this project are that they do not puncture my gas line, that they do not kill my fruit tree, and that they do kill the annoying acacia tree saplings. I also hope no trick-or-treaters fall into the large pit or impale themselves on the warning flags.