TRICK OR TREAT!

I remember lots of great Halloween's from my childhood but my all time favorite has to be when I dressed up as Jack Paar and my friend down the street dressed as Charlie(?), a character portrayed by Jonathan Winters. Winters would go on the Tonight show and read a letter from "home". This would evoke laughter as each of the country characters mentioned in the letter had been carefully developed by Winters.

I wrote the letter that my girlfriend would read as we tricked and treated our way around the neighborhood. The adults found the letter not just funny, but would actually belly laugh and give us extra treats. This was my last trick or treat Halloween as a kid. I was twelve and it was time for boys and parties and other types of tricks and treats!

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the written word. If I work too hard at it, it comes out forced. This is probably why I do not like to journal on my layouts...the sentimental stuff sounds just too phony to me. It sounds sappy and, well, forced. This is why journaling on my part is usually done in hidden places.

Have a great Halloween and may you have more treats than tricks!

Thank you Thomas Edison!

We have power after 5 long days and nights, voila! Let there be light! No more cooking on the grill, no more reading by flashlight or candle light (which, btw, loses it romance by day 2!). Thanks to our storm shutters, we had no damage to the interior of the house. It was hard though as we could not see outside to observe the storm's progress...we could only hear it roar and tug at us as Wilma swept through. We got tree damage from the back side of the storm but that also was minor.

I never thought I'd be so glad to hear my washer and dryer running! We were going to have to visit a laundromat if the power had not been restored last night. A crew of workers from Michigan worked all afternoon and well into the better part of the evening to make sure our stretch of the road had our power restored. There is one short part still without power but they should have it by tomorrow.

We caved and took hot showers yesterday at my sisters. Up til then our daily ritual was a quick run through "refreshingly" and increasingly cold showers or in the kitchen sink with grill warmed water. I can't wait to get into the shower today and just stand there in the warmth!

Will post a pic of e doing his epicurian thing on the grill later today. I missed my puter and communication with the world outside my doorway!

Here comes Wilma....

I woke about a half hour ago to turn off the tv which we had on all night to discover rain and wind growing in intensity. The worst is yet to come as the news is telling us that the eye, which is now 40miles wide, won't pass near us until sometime between 3am and 6am this morning. It is now 2:30am.

I am not sure how long we will have power and am wondering if I should try to get some more sleep and give up and turn on the coffee.

It is very frustrating not being able to see out. Even though the storm shutters upstairs are clear, the view is not. The corregation of the shutters makes things look strange and warps what I can see.

Our neighbors' partners live on Sanibel and run Amy's Over Easy Cafe...they arrived from Sanibel yesterday afternoon due to the mandatory evacuation on San/Cap and all the barrier islands. There were lots of neighbors out and about last night right before we closed the garage door for the night and someone behind us was having a Hurricane Wilma party.

Keep us all in your thoughts please.

Let's get this over with...

Wilma has just left the Yucatan and is heading at 3mph towards us. I think she might arrive by Friday next. I feel like we are in a holding pattern and this is driving me crazy...ok, more crazy than I am normally.

We are bringing in the last of the stuff off the front porch and then Gene will put up the final 2 panels of the shutters both front and back...that means no outside light and no outside view! I am glad we got the clear panel shutters on the upstairs guest room...when the claustrophobia sets in, I can peer out there for relief.

More scrap therepy today...at least I have my Christmas projects to work on while we wait.

Waiting for Wilma....

Waiting....waiting...waiting...

Well, here we are...still in a holding pattern due to Wilma. She is now not due in until late Monday or early Tuesday. This means we have a bit more time to decide if we are going to evacuate or not. I feel like we are not living right now, that we are hesitant to make any plans or to even consider meals past the end of each day. I am cleaning up in my workroom and trying to organize some projects to take with me if we leave or that I could work on without the puter if we stay.

I put all the "albums" I had on the desktop of Harry, our 'puter, onto cds and will take those if we go. I've stowed the albums on the very top shelf in my interior closet along with any unscrapped pics. There isn't much else I can do right now but am there will be tons to do if we decide to evac.

I feel like I am living in 'no man's land'. Waiting....waiting....waiting!

The Boys

Get Lost Wilma!

We are watching the news like addicts and trying to second guess the storm. The newscasters tell us to batten down the hatches, or something like that; friends are urging us to come stay with them and we are still waiting on the shutter guy to deliver and install the last of our storm shutters.

We have tons of water, lots of batteries and canned foods. With our cats, the Boys, we can't evac to just anywhere and I refuse to leave without them. Hopefully this one will pass like Charley before it and just 'bitch slap' us a bit instead of cold conking us!

This game of 'wait and see' is more nerve wracking than anything, I think, especially for an impatient person such as myself. Back to the news...meanwhile my honey, emeril, is cooking up the more costly meats in the freezer and my tummy is loving this....

Back Home in Paradise

Well, here I am back in front of my 'puter, Harry, trying to add something profound to this blog. Unfortunately, the java has yet to kick in and I am still travel weary.

Today's random musing:

1. People who feel they know it all, never learn anything new.

2. People with open minds often have open hearts as well.

3. I have meet some of my best friends and some of the wisest, most caring women in the world on the ckmb...I have also met some of the biggest school yard bullies.

4. I need more play time.

5. I have too much stuff and just got some more. lol

6. It is hard for most people to say, "I'm sorry. I was wrong" but it is very freeing to do so.

7. My creativity has its limits. I'll never be a "great" designer but...I am a damn good teacher.


Nothing terribly profound today....

Except : Cheers for my friends Kip, Shar and Tawyna (aka The Bench Warmers)!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Our house sitter arrived last night; we are packed and ready to go. We even took a tour of the spankin' new airport yesterday so we'd know where we were going.

I am not sure what we will find when we arrive. It looks like my honey's mom has had a stroke and is in the hospital. We should know more today as they are running a series of tests. It never rains but it pours, as my husband's brother's oldest daughter is hospitalized with unexplained seizures also in another facility.
Good thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I will miss all who read my musings but will be home very quickly...our wonderful friends are getting married in a small country church with a vinyard reception and I will be going to this for sure.

Have fun but not too much without me...

Posting from Paradise

Scrapbook Answers is a new and edgy magazine that came out not long ago complete with something none of the others offer...a cd with fonts and how tos in video in every issue. It has been long known how much I love this magazine.

Last night on the ckmb, I saw a post about my favorite new magazine and was appalled to read a response from one of the ckmbers that was not only negative (after all everyone is entitled to their own opinion) but phrased in such a way as to imply that anyone who read/liked the mag had to be a "beginner" scrapper. This kind of condescending post is typical of this person though so I don't know why I was surprised. It is one thing to share an opinion and to share information and another in how it is done. Fortunately, few paid any attention to her negativity.

We need to choose our words with care and reflect on the implication of the posts as well as the actual words themselves.
Like Kip, I am realizing how long our written words affect others.

And a side note here....

I am seriously amazed that our government has managed to send troops to Pakastan for rescue efforts faster than they did to New Orleans...will wonders never cease?

About this addiction of mine....

I am in the process of unpacking from the Orlando Expo where I taught and I need to address an increasing problem....I have too much stuff!!!!! And I found even more at this last convention. The gal in the booth across from ours reduced her stock to 40% off and I picked up the last pieces of her Wild Asparagus collection plus some blank metal plates.

Then, there was the Rusty Pickle booth, the $8.00 cardstock packs at DCWV and the brad lady's 10/1.00 bargin bins...and Teri was no help at all with her, "look here, look here" all the time...lol.

It will take me forever to unpack. I think I am going to lay it all out and take a pic like the Kipster does just to remind myself to use this stuff and not just admire it from afar! LOL

Ready for Fall...

These cool Florida mornings are such a tease. The days are still in the lower 90s but less humid and often with a nice breeze off the Gulf. We are even seeing a few days in the upper 80s which is always a good sign too.

I have been playing with my new Wishblade cutting machine. I can do lots with it but still can't get it to accept the commands to cut when I try to import from my font stash. This is something that is going to take a while to figure out. Sure hope I don't forget what I do know by the time I get home from the Orlando convention and then our trip to St. Louis.

I am really looking forward to long days of play soon. I am ending up teaching at this convention from 9 am until 5pm with only half hour take down/set up time inbetween. Someone is suppose to pick up one of the classes on Friday and Sat. and I sure hope so. Standing on concrete all that time sure takes its toll on this old gal!

Bring on Fall!