Candy and Cat Sweaters

Halloween time around here was busy.  We trickortreated with friends not far from here and came home with the following:

Ned- 8.5lbs of candy, the grim reaper
Ian - 8 lbs of candy, the grim reaper
Ellen - 8lbs of candy, glam witch

We have a whole lot of candy, coincidentally the kids had dentist appointments last night.  I am still trying to recover from a root canowwww!  I may have to go back in, it is feeling only incrementally better. 

The rest of the post is somewhat miscellaneous that starts with a cat sweater.  Teri's enormous cat has a nervous disorder and is licking off her fur.  Since they live in AK and the pet sweater selection is slim, I told her I would look around here.  Last week at PetSmart I was browsing the dog sweaters, now this is not my kind of aisle.  I think dog sweaters, dog's in sweaters, owners who buy sweaters and dog sweater designers are ridiculous, what a waste of money.  I am in the aisle with surprising to me, a lot of other shoppers.  I kept saying excuse me to this woman standing in the middle of the aisle and she wouldn't move.  I tried to go around her and bumped her foot.  She turns around and starts glaring at me, she then starts doing mad sign language.  Why am I the only person to have a mad, silent altercation with a deaf woman in the dog sweater aisle?  Big dogs rule!  p.s. no dog sweater for a cat was purchased.

We had a stray dog escapade Sunday into Monday.  It all ended well, but the cats haven't entirely recovered.  We found a beagle mix in the yard with a shock collar, she had obviously run through it.  She went trickortreating with us.  She was very sweet, but I was glad when we found her owner.  She (no lie, I have 3 witnesses) could jump straight up onto the counter.  It was amazing and also impossible to corral her anywhere.  She had quite a howl as well.  We discovered on her inside leg a MDSPCA #, so we returned her. 

Ellen and I have spent quite a bit of time together completing her stream study.  I did not do it for her, but kept her on task.  We had a number of setbacks, but it has been emailed to her teacher.    She had a sentence that read, "I saw lots of squirrels and squirrels are stupid."  Observation and research does not come naturally to her.  I don't even want to think about what the next project will be.

The first of November is turkey time.  I had the turkey on the table for two minutes before the kitten started chewing on it.   Christmas decorations might be tricky this year.  This is a tradition my 90 year old neighbor started for us 9 years ago.  The kids were so happy to see it. 

I voted today and once again witnessed the "old lady phenomena", let me know if this is unique to my area.  The polling center has a huge line and these old ladies walk to the front of the line and announce "I can't sit down." They would just walk up and cut in front of the first person, even if that person was talking to the poll official.  They failed to notice that no one was sitting down, we were all "standing" in line.   People around me were cracking jokes about it.  I was bummed, because the Girl Scouts had run out of Thin Mints. 

Teri and I made a quilt for my new nephew.  Now new means he was born in July, we are only 6 months behind.  I say we but really mean me.  Teri and I sent it back and forth, I've had it since Sept.  After I completed it, it sat on the dining room table for 2 weeks and then sat in my car for another 2 weeks.  It is really cute and finally on the way!

I want to close with a thank you to October, I am ahead on the oil budget.  The mild weather was greatly appreciated, today it has been quite cold in the house.

I also want to thank whatever stars aligned this evening and no one has homework!!  One great phrase, "Mom, I have no homework!"  Too bad we are racing out the door to lacrosse.

Thursday I head to Houston for the quilt show - whoohoo!  Pictures and post to follow!