Rough Week into November

It's been one of those kind of weeks around here. Monday night, my pup Charlie passed away while he was at the vet's office. What we thought was a routine kidney infection morphed into something horrible, and poor Charlie just had to go. I miss him a heck of a lot...particularly his bounce when I'd come home at the end of a long day. He was the only dog who ever refused to not snuggle on the sofa with me, and he was a very jealous lover. It was nice to feel so desirable to somebody, even though he was a dog. He was my dog, and I love him. I was really lucky to find him...or be found by him, I think is more what actually happened. Anyway, enough sadness for one posting...

Halloween was a good night, even with sick dog woes and the usual work-week stresses. I had about 100 kids come, and all seemed to love diving into the "Cauldron of Candy". My favorite kid was Dr. Who, who got my fish fingers with custard joke. (It's a Dr. Who thing, you'd have to watch it to get it. And then you too will be a geek like me.) He was so excited, and shared his sonic screwdriver with me for a while. Pictures will come soon. They're still on my camera, which is somewhere in the mess formerly known as my house. The cats are eyeing my witch's hat trimmed with feathery festoonage, so I'd better get cleaning sometime soon--or I'll have no costume for next year. I still have 40-odd pumpkins in the yard, which hopefully someone will want for animal feed or compost or something. I'll put some in my compost heap, but I surely don't need 40 of them. Somehow I think that would throw off the mixture a tad...

This weekend, I am hoping for decent weather so I can pick up after Halloween, tidy the gardens for winter, and put out my Pilgrim People. Yes, I do decorate for Thanksgiving, that no-mans-land holiday that seems to get swallowed into Christmas. And no, I don't use a giant inflatable turkey to mark the day. Somewhere in here is likely a picture of my bad ass homemade decorations, but I'll post them again when they are up and lit. Simple and chic, that's how we roll with T-Day around here. Anyway, I am looking forward to cleaning a bit and reclaiming my yard. Potentially I may get to enjoy the decadence of sleeping in. With time change happening Saturday night, I really need to take advantage of that extra hour. If the stars align just right, maybe I will take care of rabbit butchering too--I'll post edited pics of that adventure, for all you wanna-be rabbit farmers out there. I just need to round up a nice BB gun first...