Halloween Vignettes

Picture of the Day for 10/31/2013. I decorated for Halloween for the first time in about five years.



I amused myself greatly by setting up little Halloween vignettes.

Vignette #1: The happy-go-lucky jack-o-lanterns are unaware that a scary and menacing ghost is lurking right behind them. Oh no! Run away jack-o-lanterns, run away!


Vignette #2: I inherited this cauldron full of frogs from my mother. When you press a button, the frogs start singing about how they are sooooo worried about when the witch comes back. To add to their stress, I placed a witch directly behind the frogs. Oh no! Run away frogs, run away!

Vignette #3: The skeleton in this panel seems to be saying, "Hello! Here is a bowl of jack-o-lanterns for you." It's never a good thing when a skeleton introduces you. Oh no! Run away jack-o-lanterns, run away!


And speaking of jack-o-lanterns, I carved my first one in several years. It all went wrong when the knife slipped and I accidentally cut away one of his teeth. Now he's a redneck pumpkin. Oh well. At least he's a happy redneck pumpkin.






It's always fun to see my great-nieces and nephews in their costumes. The three youngest stopped by to trick or treat and then all four showed up an hour later trying to convince me this was the first time I had seen them that evening. Tricky kids. But not too tricky for me. I was totally on to them. 

Raking Leaves

Picture of the Day for 10/30/2013. You see this tree? It drops A LOT of leaves during the fall. Which it's supposed to do given the way nature operates in a four-season climate so don't think I'm bad-mouthing the tree. It's a favorite of mine and has been since childhood when the branches were still low enough for me to climb. I was a great tree-climber in my youth. Middle-age has brought new and exciting pursuits like watching Project Runway and shopping and drinking too much Diet Coke. 


Fortunately, a neighbor of mine rallied the young men in the neighborhood to come rake up the leaves for me. There were about 20 people who showed up to help and they had everything whipped into shape in about 45 minutes. I baked them my world-famous chocolate chip cookies as a thank you. I was so delighted to get some help.

Interesting Sights in Moab, Utah

Picture of the Day for 10/29/2013. My sister Robynne and I rolled into Moab, Utah last night about 10:00 p.m. Before beginning the last 250-mile leg of our journey home today, we wanted to spend a couple of hours exploring the town. Here are the interesting sights we saw.

My niece Corinne's boyfriend, Ian! This was the oddest sighting of all! What a coincidence! We were having breakfast at this po-dunk cafe when Ian walked in with his father. They were on their way down to New Mexico for a work project. Ian kept on waving at us, but he was so out of context that it didn't compute. He finally had to say something and once I heard his voice, I recognized him. It was a nice surprise and I enjoyed getting to chat with him for a bit. 


A tiny, tiny, tiny dog in a gift shop.


The Uranium Building! It kind of seemed like something you'd see in a sci-fi movie. 

Road to Gallup - Part 3: El Rancho Hotel

Picture of the Day for 10/28/2013. After much meandering, we arrived in Gallup! Based on the recommendation of our chatty storekeeper friend, we had lunch at the historic El Rancho Hotel which, in its heyday, was home to big-name movie stars while they were filming westerns in the area. John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Errol Flynn, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, etc. The walls of the 2nd floor of the hotel are completely lined with autographed photos from the stars. This is such a fabulous place! It looks unchanged from the 1940s and 1950s. We spent a fun couple of hours eating and exploring there. 



















After lunch, we spent some time driving around the city since my nephew Rob is serving his LDS mission there and we wanted to get a feel for the place. Unfortunately, that's all we had time to do since we wanted to make Monument Valley before nightfall. Yeah, that didn't happen considering the vast distance we had to drive through the Navajo reservation. I'm afraid Monument Valley and the Four Corners will have to wait for another trip. It's too bad it didn't stay light longer since the landscape is so beautiful. At sunset we drove through a red rock canyon that had turned pink in the waning light. It was ethereal and other-worldly and wonderful.

Road to Gallup - Part 2: Route 66, Continental Divide, World's Largest Hogan

Picture of the Day for 10/28/2013. We stopped at "the" Indian Village Gift shop about 25 miles east of Gallup, New Mexico. I put "the" in quotation marks because this is actually a cluster of gift shops located at the Continental Divide along the historic Route 66. There's a lot going on at just this one location! My favorite shop in this cluster was the "world's largest hogan." The shopkeeper there was a retired cop who is helping out his elderly father who owns the complex. We spent about 1/2 hour there chatting with him about the visitors who come from all over the world (think bike-riding Scandinavians) and how he acquires the Native American jewelry and pottery for sale at the shop. He was so entertaining and charming and enthusiastic that we considered it a very happy accident that we decided to stop. 

Road to Gallup - Part 1: Petroglyph National Monument, Boca Negra Canyon

Picture of the Day for 10/28/2013. My sister Robynne and I headed west from Albuquerque to Gallup today. Our first stop along the route was the Petroglyph National Monument. There are several canyons to explore, but we chose the Boca Negra canyon supposedly because it has the easiest walking paths. Ha! You had to climb up a steep boulder field created by volcanic eruptions 200,000 years ago. It was pretty treacherous, but totally worth it (once you got past the terror) to see the petroglyphs etched into the boulders.