Halloween 2011

Yup, this post is VERY late. But sometimes you just have to wait until pictures finally come your way.

Our Halloween was ruined by that freak snow storm we had and there was no trick or treating. Soooooo with a little improvising Kaylee was able to trick or treat from door to door right inside her fathers house. Cool idea, eh?
And I'm going to toot my own horn a bit here and point out that the princess costume Kaylee is wearing is the same costume I made for her mother at her age....about 20 yrs ago. I had no idea it would ever be used again but it feels good to see it one more time. :)

FunnyBone Comedy Club

When the people we shared a table with said they were there to see Biff I had no idea what they were talking about. Tom Wilson played Biff in the movie Back to the Future. But it was so long ago and frankly never a favorite movie of mine so I had very little memory of it at all. (Sorry Tom!) But I did remember that Michael J Fox was in that movie and this guy certainly wasn't him. So in a way I was a clean slate for a comedian that is probably very tired of hearing all the questions that come with having been in a well known movie. In fact he actually wrote a song about all those questions which had us all roaring with laughter.

For me (one of the clueless ones) his opening skit was enough to endear him to me. He came out playing the guitar (very talented) and making 'eyes' at the ladies in the audience...trying to give the 'come hither' look convincingly without saying a word...and then snubbing them for not taking him up on it. For the first 10 mins it was all music and no talking. When he finally decided to speak, the poor man discovered a ping pong ball in his mouth that he rocketed out into the audience! The convincing look of horror on his face was fantastic!

He sings, he plays the guitar and he's one of the best comedians I've seen in person. I loved his show! Oh yeah...and he's quite tall when standing next to him and very accommodating with the picture taking. I felt like a tiny little thing next to him...can't complain about that! lol

Powder Hollow Park

Every time I go to Powder Hollow Park I feel like I get to know the place just a little bit more. This time the kayak lovers were out in force. This surprised me because the water is still very cold.







There are so many pieces of the foundation from what I'm assuming must be the old mill. I actually became so curious about all these monuments to times gone by that I looked it up on line. I knew it was some kind of a mill and that's all I knew.


This is a piece of old rusted heavy duty chain that I came across. I don't know why but I wanted to take that home with me....wanted it real bad....but I left it there.





And of course there is no better companion for any hike than Kaylee. She is such a sweet little girl and she absolutely loved everything we saw that day. I kept hearing 'that's awesome Gramma!' and 'this is the best day!'...which made me very happy.

Pods

Since we've had a few really great days this week I've taken to wandering around the grounds at work to soak up some sunshine. While in the back parking lot I discovered some very odd and interesting pods that I've never seen before so I scooped some up for Kaylee to take to school for show and tell.


A couple of days later I was in the front courtyard and discovered some totally different looking pods...obviously from a different type of tree but every bit as interesting as the first pods I found. I took some of them home for Kaylee too.


Curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the pods on the internet to see if they had a name. Everything I found kept directing me to the Sycamore tree. However...I didn't think it was possible for two totally different pods to be made by the same tree. Well the closest I can figure is the term Sycamore is used in reference to a 'family' of related trees. And these trees all have similar characteristics but are not the exact same tree....therefore they are in the same family.




These are examples of the pods I found. The pictures I took of the actual ones weren't nearly as nice so I decided to use these.

Out With Kaylee

Not to worry... despite the photo of Kaylee holding a wine glass, she certainly wasn't drinking. That would be silly....after all she was the designated driver!! lol

Foggy Night

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

An empty stage is what you see above here. And unfortunately an empty stage is actually preferable to the play I watched.

We were at the the Little Theatre of Manchester. The play was called Laughter on the 23rd Floor but there just wasn't much laughter anywhere around this play. There were a couple of chuckles here and there but no gut busting, knee slapping, face reddening, can't catch your breath laughing was going on that night. In short the play kind of stunk. In fact when it started the room was packed and by intermission the room had emptied behind me quite noticeably. The hefty couple in the row in front of me ditched it and just about ran for the door when the lights went up for intermission. The woman even said (rather more loudly than was necessary) That's it...I'm done...I gave it a chance and it stinks! Then she turned and kind of glared at me after she said it....almost as if she suspected that I had control over the laugh factor here and were holding out on her.

We meandered downstairs for cookies and whatever beverage might be available. I was temped to buy a glass of wine (or a gallon of it) to take the edge off the boredom of watching this play or to at least dull the expectation of fun. I was also sorely disappointed that we paid a higher fee to obtain seats in the first 6 rows and were allowed into the theater earlier than the 'commoners'. Well the joke turned out to be on us because this is the second time I've been to this theater to watch a comedy that wasn't funny. I'm afraid I won't be doing it a third time.