You may recognize this pair--recently removed from the debris, I mean the treasures, I unearthed in my archeological dig. I made them a few years ago for Tech Guy who has long been a fan of frogs. Mr. Gadget and I are storing his little collection here at Ma and Pa's Self-Storage.
There's at least two tons more of his stuff in the attic. It's amazing the ceiling hasn't caved in. Mr. G has been threatening to go up there soon to have a little look around, but of course I worry about escaping bats. Maybe he should just wait till Hell freezes over, I mean at least till we have a little snow on the ground.
So you've probably already noticed that Mrs. Frog (she may be a significant other for all I know) has a couple of rather glaring medical issues. Somehow she's lost an eye and a leg. And there's also that unsightly glue residue.
I should probably take her to a veterinary hospital--preferably one with a good herpetologist on staff. Maybe I should take that large rubber frog along too, since he's obviously had a tongue meltdown.
During his college days, Tech Guy had a real frog--an Argentinian tree frog I believe is what he called it. He named it Ray.
But there were dorm issues and so he gave Ray away to his girlfriend's father who had amphibious expertise, or so he'd been told. Soon afterwards Ray passed on, and within weeks the relationship bit the dust too.
Now TG has a turtle. For his birthday Big City Girl, who always wracks her brain for brotherly gift ideas, gave him some sort of a chip (I'm sure it was an easy present to wrap) that could be glued on the turtle's shell to enable the owner to track his movements. Now, no matter where TG is, he can sign on to a computer, or punch in codes on his cell phone, and see where exactly his turtle is. If he'd just give me a call, I'd be happy to tell him and save him the bother. He's going to be in one of three places: the living room, the bedroom or the bathroom. I can only hope BCG gave him one of those little pooper scoopers too......
Halloween was mostly a handmade affair when TG and BCG were growing up. Here's a trick-or-treat bag I made for TG out of an old sheet. I embroidered lots of scary things on it. I discovered it during my dig, and was saddened not to find at least one measly Tootsie Roll in its further reaches.
I made most of the kid costumes over the years. One of my favorites was Rambo. I purchased a pattern for a muscle shirt and was lucky enough to find some $1 a yard stretchy knit in a flesh color. The shirt had a round neck and long sleeves, and it was fully lined. I stitched around the front in such a way that when I made little slits in the lining I could stuff it to create the look of a really buff guy with big muscles. I believe this technique is called trapunto. TG wore it with camo pants and a bandana around his forehead. I think that's when the trouble started.....
Another year BCG dressed up as a panda in a black and white jumpsuit. It just so happened that her very talented and crafty grandpa was visiting about that time, and he helped her construct a large paper mache panda head.....with curly eyelashes and red lipstick.
Then the two of them got older and outgrew their appreciation for mom-made costumes. It was really ok, since mom had outgrown her enthusiasm for doing such things. But there was a time in junior high school when TG decided he wanted to be Static Cling Man. He wore jeans and an old t-shirt--to which I pinned a few socks and some dryer sheets. Then I glued on lots of dryer lint. I didn't have to dig too deep for that..heh...heh...
So Mr. Gadget and I will have a quiet evening at home. He seems fine with my idea for store-bought chicken for dinner, since we'll be jumping up and down to answer the door for the little trick-or-treaters. Last year we had three. Maybe we'll have half a dozen this year. It will be a taxing evening, I'm sure. By the way, that bathroom window bat took off for parts unknown. It's that unknown part that makes me a little anxious....what with this being Halloween and all.
I'll be wearing my special Halloween pin tonight. Maybe I should just leave it on indefinitely......
Maybe I should have looked deeper in the stack for some snowmen.
I'm guessing she'd just had a little run-in with her dad....
It's a checkbook issued by the MomBank. I had decided long ago it might be a fun and creative way to teach TG and BCG about fiscal responsibility.
They each had a check register for recording debits and credits, and....
a book of checks for making withdrawals. Unlike most banks, the MomBank did not have a drive-thru window, an ATM machine, or a means of obtaining a loan. There was no over-draft protection either, and no online banking. The Mombank was an old-fashioned kind of bank. Unfortunately it went out of business, even though it did have a couple of great things going for it. The checks were really cute, and you couldn't beat the customer service.....
This guy arrived at the house on Saturday, just ahead of Big City Girl, and took up a position on the outside of the upstairs bathroom window. Now, if we could just attract a few more....and an orb or two....we'll be all set for the little trick-or-treaters....
I'm not sure which way BCG leans when it comes to politics, but I have a hunch she doesn't hobnob with the elephants. The instruction book had limited options. I was casting my vote for the alligator.
Here's BCG on the right with her best friend, Jen. The two of them like nothing more than to sit at my kitchen table and partake of homemade goodies. This time it was chicken barley soup, BBQ beef sandwiches and Snickers brownies. And neither one of them is shy about asking for a doggie bag. 
Then, after I've finished it, I'm going to ask my hairdresser if she can do me a do like this one:
.....orbs. Could it be the spirits celebrating my good deed? Or could it be my mother-in-law and her five sisters cackling all at once, as they were wont to do, about how many months it's been since I dusted?
If I had known then what I know now, I never would have immersed myself in the world of wallpaper. The closest Mr. Gadget and I ever came to divorce was when we wallpapered our downstairs bathroom. It's been up there almost 25 years because.....neither of us wanted to speak of it again.
Now here's a novel idea. When I serve a salad with dinner, Mr. G and I usually eat it after the main course. And since I suffer from elder memory syndrome, I often forget to retrieve it from the fridge. Mr. G has been known to gently remind me by saying something like, "I see croutons on the table," or "Where the H#%!* is the salad?" No....just kidding about that last remark. Mr. G is nothing if not kind. So I made a little reminder sign. Just a 3 x 5 card folded in half. So easy. So simple. So effective. I bought the giant economy pack.
And remember Sister Mary Bodacious? The ladies at the senior shop sold her today, along with one of my witches. One woman purchased both dolls. She said Sister Mary reminded her of her aunt, and the witch reminded her of her mother. So I guess we all know who's not getting an invite to Thanksgiving dinner......
It was during our trek through the town's old cemetery and the haunted museum that we learned about orbs--balls of light that some would have you believe are the spirits of departed ones.
Here's a real bright orb just under the window. Now, I'm not saying I believe this or anything. I'm just relaying information from the ghost-tour lady and the images my camera recorded that evening. 
Can you see the one up at the top of the attic window?
Here's looking toward the dining area and the back deck.
Here's my new treehouse. Nice big windows. Lots of trees.
The new kitchen. The new gourmet kitchen. Can you tell?
And here's Mr. Gadget's office. Yep. Orbs. He thinks he's gonna be alone in there...heh...heh...
Here's a sock I'm knitting with some hand-dyed yarn that 
Here are some crocheted granny squares I'm assembling into a small afghan. 
I hope Mr. Gadget realized what he was doing last week when he sold his leaf blower..... 
I hope he's not expecting me to rake.....
....because I'm planning to sit here on the porch with my pumpkin and wait for room service. This time of year makes a gal yearn for an Irish coffee....
Just the other day, as we were having lunch, we noticed a big dumpster being delivered to a neighbor's driveway. Sorry about the dark pictures. I must be discreet. 
There's another neighbor I like to call "The Outdoorsman." He likes to hunt. He's had a deer hanging from his tree for two or three hunting seasons. I've thought it strange, though, that no odor has been detected, nor have any buzzards been circling. I finally figured out (doing the V-8 head tap)....it's a life-sized deer target. At which he shoots arrows with a bow. So far he's had good aim....
Don't worry. It was just our old piano. But I probably had you runnin' for the tissues, didn't I? It's all in the interest of downsizing.
Tech Guy took piano lessons for many years, and is a rather accomplished player. But he doesn't live here anymore, and you know these young kids today. They'd rather have one of those fancy digital keyboards. Well, unless they happen to be on a cruise ship. Once, on a family cruise, TG found all the pianos onboard and managed to play them all. He is not shy.
Look at these guys, would ya? They're riding up into the truck with the piano. You gotta respect a hydraulic lift like that.
So what's the deal with produce? Is this for the benefit of the grocery store checker who doesn't know a plum from a peach? I happen to like eating plums in their entirety, so this forces me to remove the sticker and then, more than likely, find a sharp knife to cut off the glue residue. Maybe I'll include this little annoyance in my letter to the governor--the one I plan to write about the flagrant abuse of the no-cell-phones-while-driving law.
It didn't turn out to be quite the piece of cake I'd planned on though. The two layers of fabric at the top (one a facing) was just too thick to get an embroidery needle through without a pair of plyers.....which would have then made it a Mr. Gadget project...heh...heh.... So I ended up ripping out some stitching to open out the facing. When I was finished with the embroidery, I stitched it back up with matching thread. This actually worked quite well to hide the backside of my embroidery stitches, so it does now look neat and tidy. And don't you just hate when that easy-erase marker won't disappear? Or disappears, and then reappears? Maybe I'll speak to the governor about that too.....
We've just barely scratched the surface of the Mesozoic Era. It's just a matter of time before we reach the Paleozoic, and maybe even the Proterozoic......