Joyeux Halloween

We hung our skeleton guy in the tree, put our skull candles out, turned on all the lights in the house, and waited for the trick-or-treaters to come. They did not. Our neighbor finally came by with her son and his friend. She informed us that kids will not knock unless it is 100% clear you want them too. She noticed that our porch light did not have a light bulb, so she got her ladder and a light bulb and fixed that problem. She also told us to stand outside. This all helped a bit. However, many families were still passing us by - despite my attempts to wave them down. Then we noticed that a neighbor across the street had a string of blue lights on her porch. So, I ran to the basement and got some Christmas lights. This worked! We probably had between 50 and 75 kids come by. This experience was very different than anywhere I have lived before, where, if you didn't want kids to come by or if you ran out of candy, you had to turn off every light in the house and hide in the basement.

New Hiding Place

Our bathtub has an odd wall built on on side of it. Little Bit recently discovered that it is great fun to hide on it, in between the shower curtains.

It Snowed!

Earlier this week, we were shocked when it started snowing .... yes, before Halloween. We were even more shocked to find that it had snowed the week before when we were in Illinois. So, I guess it is official ... winter has begun!

Popeye's Birthplace

We made a side-trip and saw K's Grandma and cousin Andrea. On the way back, we came through Chester, IL. Every once and a while, a magical thing happens in small town America. In this case, Elize Segar was born in Chester in 1894. He would later create Popeye, and change Chester's identify.


The fun all starts at the Elzie C. Segar Memorial Park, where a six-foot, 900 lb. bronze statue of Popeye welcomes you to Chester.


As you enter Chester, there are so many things to see and do.





And, on ocassion, you see non-Popeye attractions ... for example, an attractive, not so intelligent woman being all cute in front of the local GOP headquarters. Odd, really.


If you are interested in seeing more of Chester in film, check out:

- In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- The Fugitive (1993)
- Hoop Dreams (1994)
- Poor White Trash (2000)

Trip Home

Two weeks ago, we spent a long weekend at my parents for our nephew's 11th birthday. My brother and his family were also there. It was such a wonderful weekend.

We got to see Zaylie, who is now three months old!


K and Taylor made jack-o-lanterns. We also went on a haunted hayride and hike.


Best of all, we got to celebrate Taylor's birthday.


We also, played a lot of games - pool, bumper pool, risk, wii (monster truck racing), and carcassonne.