El Gaucho evening

Janette, Laurie, Kathleen, Carolyn and me at El Gaucho Steakhouse

Sunday evening I met the Newman college gang at El Gaucho Steakhouse for an evening of good food, good drink and even better conversation. We welcomed newcomer (and K-State alum) Carolyn and she passed all initiation rites. We started with a pitcher of sangria which was an excellent choice. There was no serenade by our waiter this time, but we had fun anyway. Nothing really earth-shattering to report because what happens on our Sunday nights stays there.

I had the fried steak entree smothered in ham, mozzarella and some sort of red sauce. It was good, but I thought there was too much red sauce and it overpowered the dish. My favorite thing (besides the sangria) was the to-die-for bread we were served. It comes with a couple of things to spread on it, including a tomato, onion and olive oil concoction that was quite tasty and very soft butter with parsley. But I LOVED the parsley spread (from what I remember it had parsley, garlic and olive oil at least) that accompanied it. It was probably my favorite part of the meal.

Ladies, as always, it was a pleasure to be in your company.

The leaves are a-fallin'

Well, it must officially be fall. The leaves have been coming off the trees pretty briskly for a couple of days. My back yard has a blanket of leaves. Though I'm dreading the annual leaf pick-up activity, it is quite beautiful. Especially on my street. I live on a street with a median and in the median is a row of what I believe are Chinese pistache trees. This time of year those trees are the epitome of fall color. Here are a few shots I've taken over the last two weeks. This first one is of the trees in front of my house.

Looking west down the street from the end of my driveway:Taken yesterday morning looking east down the street:
Those trees are one of the best things about living on this street, which is quite busy. Looking out at them makes it all seem worthwhile.

Apostrophe etiquette

If you've been reading my blog religiously (and, really, who wouldn't), you know that I have a pet peeve about punctuation and grammar. I am, by no means, an expert. But, seriously, things have gotten very out of hand in this world.

Yesterday, my friend Denise devoted her column in the Wichitalk section of our newspaper (the one she and I both work for) to the blogs of some others who post pictures of apostrophe horrors among other things. See, it's not just me!

Check a couple of them out for yourselves:
http://apostrophism.com
http://www.apostropheabuse.com/

Dinner date with Caden

Saturday afternoon about five o'clock I got a call from my oldest nephew, Andrew. He said that he and his wife, Rachel, were in town for a visit with her aunt and uncle. Did I want to meet them for dinner at Granite City? Heck yes! I quickly changed clothes and flew across town to meet them. Caden, their son and my great-nephew in case you've been sleeping through previous posts, was awake when I got to the table. Rachel handed him over and we had some quality giggle time before he got too sleepy. I can't help but laugh when babies or toddlers laugh. Their laughter comes from deep inside and they aren't too self-conscious to just let it rip. It's one of the best sounds ever (right up there with a steady rain falling on the ground and birds chirping in the trees). Caden squealed and giggled with me and at me before he drifted off to sleep. I marveled with Rachel and Andrew about how amazing it is that even at 3 months old, he already has mannerisms and idiosyncracies that mirror theirs. I was so caught up in his giggling that I forgot to snap any pictures. And by the time I thought of it he was awake again and ready to eat his dinner. So, here's a file photo of him to refresh your memories:

That's his Daddy holding him in this picture taken a little over a month ago. Let's have a date again soon, OK?

Success

Friday's flurry of handyman activity paid off. I have a toilet in my half-bath that doesn't wobble (very important) and the bathtub plumbing is now leak-free. Hooray!

After the plumbing issues were resolved (mid-afternoon), Handy Jeff moved on to a lunch break and buying electrical supplies at my local Sutherlands store (which he hates, by the way). He had to get up in my attic amid all the insulation (I'm just glad I didn't have to do it) and run new wiring for the ceiling fan (I opted to have a double switch -- one for the fan and one for the light) and he had to run all new wiring for the exhaust fan in the bathroom. He finished up around 10:30 Friday evening. That's 11.25 hours of billable time. Holy cow!

After my Mom found out how much it cost, she asked me, "Do you think you could offer him sex next time instead of paying him money?" I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING. Good question, Mom. I'll check into it for the future. As my friend, Lori, commented in the earlier post about this, it would be good to find out just how "handy" he can be! At least he knows the way to my bedroom already...

Home on a Friday

Why am I at home on a Friday? Well, this is why:
The toilet in my half bath tried to escape today. No, not really. I hired a guy named Jeff (I call him Handy Jeff) to come and work on a couple of plumbing issues, install an exhaust fan in my full bath and a ceiling fan in my bedroom. So far he's pulled the toilet, shut off the water and left for an hour to go get "supplies", which I suspect is code for lunch. During said hour I really had to pee and I haven't admitted to him yet that I went ahead and did my business, just couldn't flush it. Maybe I'll let him find out by accident. No, I won't. I'm really nicer than that. Actually, he did come back just a few minutes ago with a bag of stuff that looks very plumby (I know, not a real word). Jeff is really a very nice guy otherwise I wouldn't give him access to my home. His background check was clean. Just kidding! I'll keep you posted on the progress of things, because I know you're dying to know.

Halloween story

Wednesday evening I went over to my friend Laurie's house for pizza and Halloween festivities. Her neighborhood is much more overrun with kiddies than mine is and, therefore, much more exciting. Some other friends with kids came over, too. We ate pizza and the kids could barely contain their excitement before trick-or-treating.

Joseph and Vincent in their cowboy finery:
Mom Nancy and Libby, the ladybug:While they went out trick-or-treating, I stayed behind and handed out candy. The next day at work most of my co-workers said they didn't get many kids. That's because they were all in Laurie's neighborhood. Altogether, she went through two big bowls of candy and the kids probably would have kept coming if she'd had more.

This year I was a bit of a scrooge and bought pencils and noisemakers for the kids I know. I shunned the candy because if I buy it, I just eat it. And my chins don't need any more girth. Pepe was kind enough to point out that he would have egged my house if I had given him a pencil when he was a kid. I ignored him.

Now, here's the real Halloween story:
I got home from the festivities about 8:15 and was settled down in my recliner watching some television when my doorbell rang. I thought it might be my neighbors and their two kids (ages 10 and 8, I think) because they usually come over each year. My light wasn't on and I figured it was someone I knew. Silly me. I looked out first, saw movement, flipped on the light and then opened the door. There stood a 13-year-old (I'm guessing) alone on my porch. I'd never seen him before in my life. He was dressed up, I'll give him that. He said "Trick or treat" and I looked at him blankly. Did I mention that MY LIGHT HAD BEEN OFF. To the left I saw that there was some candy in a cellophane bag on the ledge by my door. I picked it up, looked at it and asked him, "Was this there already when you rang the bell?" He said it was. I saw that the card was made and signed by my neighbors (she does scrapbooking) and that I'd been "Boo'd". I looked at the kid, said I didn't have any candy (which I clearly DID because I was holding the bag in my hand) and that my light was out for that reason. I said, "Sorry" and closed the door. Then I waited a beat and turned out the light. Cruel? Perhaps. But I honestly had no other candy in my house and I wasn't going to re-gift immediately the candy my neighbors had left for me. What kind of neighbor would I be if I didn't at least eat a few pieces of the candy they gave me? And really, there's only about five pieces in there anyway. The whole rule about the porch lights is ignored by so many people these days and I felt it important to teach a lesson, I guess.

But I checked the front of the house to see if I'd been egged before leaving for work Thursday morning. Luckily, there was no sign of yolk.