Autumn Days: Around the Town

All pictures taken at the Nature Trail last Wednesday.

Our new tree is still alive!! I'm surprised the leaves are still green. I think they are supposed to turn yellow.
Our backyard is deep with fallen leaves.

Amie, your long distance Autumn.

Autumn Days: Around the House

Per Amie's request, Autumn decorations around the house.

This glass canister started out with real gourds. Since they didn't get any air they rotted in a week. I found these fake gourds at Joann's and loved them. If you didn't know, darn now you do, you would never know they aren't the real thing.

The mantle. I still need to stop at the antique store and purchase a third. Remember the decorating rule of odd numbers? I know Leigh Leigh agrees with me on this rule.

I brought this table runner home with me from a shopping trip in CA. Even the picnic baskets are getting into the Autumn spirit. This box was my paternal grandfathers. I change up the decorations for each season.

College Visit Part 4 of 4

While I was off having a wonderful time with my sister-in-laws, nephews & niece, Mick was the weekend family caregiver. He was prepared for being house bound for the weekend and came prepared. We left home with 1,500 pieces of wood and 200 pieces of Plexiglas. When we arrived home he unloaded 200 wood boxes.

According to his Dad, Mick spent 14 hours over the weekend hammering 2,600 nails and screwing in 400 screws.

Each box has an open Plexiglas front.

Oh, I bet you can't wait to see the finished project? Lucky me, I'll be off again this weekend. I'll be watching Kelsey row in Head of The Charles in Boston. Mick will spend his weekend at home installing the 200 boxes & then filling them up. May you have a great Saturday & Sunday!

College Visit Part 3 of 4

Amy & Sean joined us on Saturday afternoon for the concert & dinner afterwards.

As you can tell from the posts the campus was beautiful.

Sean loved the model train display. I remember the days when trains were Eric's favorite pass time. The display is actual scenes from the area and the trains are named after the local lines.
I remember when Eric's favorite pass time was hockey, actually it wasn't that long ago. I took a few minutes with Sean after he took his shots. I told him just two buildings down from where we were standing is a beautiful ice rink, that many other colleges have rinks, that hockey was the best sport there is and he needs to play hockey. I hope he remembers our conversation. I also told him to tell his Dad of our little talk & never mention it to his Mom.

Oh! The good old hockey game! it's the best game you can name! And the best game you can name,is the good old hockey game!

I wonder if Sean likes to sing?

College Visit Part 2 of 4

What are the chances that two cousins that grew up living 1,300 miles from each other are now in the same city attending different colleges? I didn't get a picture of Dan with Z, I did get one of Dan with his Mom. A tree near Dan's apartment. Need to get in some fall foliage for Amie.
Dan's apartment building. Not really within walking distance to school but he does bike to class. Wait until he gets a taste of a NY winter. He says he is excited for it. He doesn't watch TV but he uses this TV to play video games. Look at the laptop on the bottom left, you can see how big this TV is. We decided that this piece of furniture is a shoe holder. He uses it to hold all his game controllers. If it were in Eric's apartment it could be a wine rack. Amie would use it as it's true purpose, shoes!
I can not believe, I really can not believe, that I was able to talk Mau into having her picture taken. The two care givers of the family. A title that no family wishes to ever need to use. Sunday before with left for home, a game of speed Scrabble.

Family care givers need to forget their responsibilities and act silly every now & then. Can you guess who's idea this was & who I had to convince to be the second to get under the table?

Looking forward to seeing Dan & Z again at our house for Thanksgiving.

College Visit Part 1 of 4

This is it what it looked like outside the car window on Friday as we left town. The leaves were at their peak.

It was a beautiful weekend in Rochester. Although, the leaves were not at peak, but pretty close. I never knew the campus was referred to as Brick City. Z's dorm and an excited Mom on her way. I remember those trips.
Some of our group. Amy & Sean joined us for the concert & dinner afterwards. Z in his uniform just before the concert.
The music was wonderful and I especially liked the acapello groups that sang. Something you don't get to see or hear very often.

Mickey participated in a "Make a Hat" event. She was concentrating so hard she didn't even realize I took her picture.

So cute and I always love an event that involves crafting!

Following the Stock Market

This is what we had to resort to yesterday after the stock market closed. Our neighbor came over and he toasted "our recession." I added in "our global recession."

It's actually quite sad & scary. I've been hopeful the last couple weeks on the market. Now I've got the feeling things won't turn around until '09. Good thing about this weekend is our office is closed for the Columbus Day holiday, wish the Stock Market was closed Monday. We could all use a break!