End-Of-The-Year Blur.

Last I knew, it was September.

It was still decent weather when we headed north to do the siding on the west wall. We started off with good weather; then things took a turn for the worse. It rained. A lot. Working in the rain is not fun. Working on scaffolding in the rain is just awful. I spent hours at a time up, while Eric worked on the ground, handing things up to me. I did not want to be climbing around. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, since the rain was at least coming from the east and I was mostly sheltered by the soffit at the west end. At some point, we set up lights and worked well into the night, simply because it wasn't raining. It did clear off the very last day, just in time to finish up the peak and take the scaffolding down. Best of all; it looks great. I am so glad to be done with this phase. The kitchen is next!


It had been a really weird summer. It never got hot and we had no hot nights. Consequently, everything grew and bloomed on a weird timetable. Things that should have sprang up took forever. Everything bloomed late. So much so, that a passion flower that I'd started in March only managed a couple of blooms just before frost. Actually, that was true of many things. I wish I knew what type of sunflower this was. It was planted by gophers from seed that was presumably stolen from the feeders. The blooms have the look of a Tarahumara, but it was a more compact poly-headed type. It was absolutely lovely. But, like many things I grew this year, it was blooming at the first frost and did not have a chance to go to seed.


This fall, a flock of sandhill cranes congregated in a corn field down the road for a couple of weeks before they headed south. Some mornings, they were hanging out with wild turkeys. I was surprised by how late they were here. They stayed after the first couple of frosts. Perhaps they were as confused by the weather as my flowers were.


Thanksgiving saw a full-on gathering of the Hallett clan. Eric and I decided to inflict this bizarre aperitief and the last bottle of Uncle Al's wine vintage 1984, on everyone. Frankly, the aperitief was a little more palatable. The wine was well past it's prime and was bizarrely sweet with a vinegar finish. The aperitief was almost sweet up front, with a dry bitter aftertaste that I think was reminiscent of oranges and grapefruit peel. It was weirdly addictive. I think I could get into this aperitief thing. Having lived through the beverages, we had the classic turkey, with sweet potato casserole and the omnipresent green bean casserole.


This is the fabulous sign for Bob's Bait, somewhere in the Brookfield, WI area. It reminds me of the Fish Building Supply sign that I was so obsessed with as a kid. It had stood in the center of the Beltline on / off ramps at highway 14 in Middleton.

In other random news:

I encountered this oxymoron on a bulletin board.

Also, I work with smart asses. It is one of the absolutely best things about my job.

I wonder what possesses people. I came upon this super genius on the highway. Since I was alone in the car, I couldn't really get photos that tell the whole story. When I passed this gem, I could see that the 2x4s were resting on his shoulder and he had his arm around them, holding them! Better yet, I could see that there was room, if he had let them drop down behind the gate, to clear the roof inside. Better your car than his headliner, I guess.


I got two turntables and my mommy's home! Amazingly, this was gifted to us by a DJ friend who went for the digital upgrade and didn't want them any more. They are hooked up to the computer and I have been ripping vinyl like crazy. I ripped the Soundtrack to Atomic Cafe the other day. I can't even tell you how happy this makes me.


Eric and I participated in two holiday cookie swaps this year. I ran one at work for the third year and Eric started a new one at Metro Screen Print / Don Carter Lanes. Both were very successful and resulted in mass cookie baking campaigns. This years offerings were a pecan orange crescent and a very fudgy cookie that I created by accident when I overheated the butter and melted the chocolate chips. It was a truly awesome mistake that resulted in a little chewy chocolate bomb with chocolate drizzle and a toasted pecan on top.

Christmas Eve day saw us baking more cookies and prepping food for Xmas dinner and an Xmas Eve party. However, an ice storm was raging outside and after the power flickered off and on about twenty times, it finally went out just before two in the afternoon. Consequently, the turkey and scalloped corn got pushed off onto a brother and the sweet potato casserole went to the party to be baked there. Her convection oven kicks my lame oven's tush and it came out with a beautifully crunchy praline topping. Ron did great with the turkey and corn, too. As it turned out, the power came back on at 3:00am, but why risk it? We were one of thousands of households between Rockford and Chicago that were without electricity.


So, New Year's Eve, Eric and I stayed in and watched Atom Age Vampire. As bad as that was; it was actually better than our first pick: Death Proof, which was just unwatchable. I couldn't even make it to the 2nd killing. Seriously. I've never been a Tarantino fan, but, I can usually make it through his stuff and find a few things to not hate about it. Kurt Russell couldn't even save this bomb. So, Atom Age Vampire, it was. It delivered predictable plot, cheesy props, bad writing and acting and was poorly overdubbed. The lab looked suspiciously like the lab in The Brain That Wouldn't Die, probably due more to the similarity of high school labs at that time than anything else. Anyway, it was somewhat funny and it was over just in time to OM, then go out and set off fireworks.


Yes, it is winter. A real winter. Cold, snow, you know. Not this mamby-pamby crap that has been happening the last few years. Personally, I like it. How can you enjoy hot cocoa if you never get cold? Eric is certainly enjoying having some heat in his new car. After the linkage in the bus whacked out and Eric drove it home in third gear in a snow storm...well, it was time. That doesn't mean the bus won't be back. It was at 250,000 and there is this goal of turning 300,000. Once it gets warm, it is likely to be on the road, again. Just for summer, though.

More photos are here.