Weekend

 The Igor Family's Pumpkins

It has been a nice weekend here - the fall weather is beautiful!

Halloween at school on Friday was... tolerable. I've experienced worse, though having my most challenging little boy toss a full, fortunately-closed carton of milk at some older kids and thus REALLY pissing off the head custodian did NOT add to the joy of the day. I'll post some pictures later - not of the milk projectile, but rather, of cute kids in costumes.

Being that Friday was the last business day of the month, it was also payday. That afternoon/evening we took GrandmaT out on a little adventure, beginning with Red Robin for dinner where we all ate entirely too much. We were planning to go to a movie, but as it was rather early, had some time to fill beforehand. First we hit up Albertsons where we scored 10 bags of assorted baking chips (semi-sweet and milk chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch) for a mere $1.50/bag - an excellent deal. We purchased some other sale items, including two MASSIVE bags of Halloween candy. The irony is that we don't actually turn the light on for trick-or-treaters, as it stresses the dogs out, among other reasons. But we have candy for Niece and Nephew and the cute family across the street, and most importantly, FOR MR. MAMIE. He keeps marveling at the "perfect combo" of Heath, KitKat, Reese's cups, Almond Joy, Hershey bars, and Whoppers. After Albertsons there was still some time before the movie, so we went to Barnsie (of course) where Mr. Mamie polished off a gift card a lovely friend sent us by buying a THRILLING tome on HTML-5 (from which he reads tidbits aloud approximately every 5 minutes). GrandmaT and I both picked up some light reading for cash. I guess I should mention that I had used slightly over half the gift card the day before on... yes, books for the classroom. Touche.

Finally it was time to go to the movie, which was Red starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren. Hilarious! Definitely worth a couple hours and a few bucks. GrandmaT had seen the ads and expressed interest, so we thought it would be fun to take her. She liked it, though her first comment was that it was "awfully damn loud!" Too true! But that's an ongoing issue at that particular cinema.

Saturday it was time to bite the bullet and do a MAJOR shop. We've been eating down our pantry and freezers for the last couple months, so we had to hit up the Village grocery store, Costco, and The Walmartz. Add in haircuts for both of us, new wiper blades for both vehicles, and a fairly icky lunch at Del Taco and it's no wonder we came home exhausted, nauseated, and about $500 poorer. Sigh.

We did have a really nice evening though. Where we live Halloween activities took place on Saturday. GrandmaT went over to the Igors' to make Halloween Casserole (still gotta post that recipe!) and man the front door while Mrs. Igor took Niece and Nephew to "trunk or treat" events at the Village grocery store and the local church.  They then hit up our neighborhood and their own for some door-to-door action. Meanwhile, Mr. Mamie and I enjoyed a nice evening at home eating a Costco take-and-bake pizza (and Halloween candy) and watching streaming Netflix - first Lady Jane, one of my favorites, and then The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.   I really wanted to see the Swedish scenery and hear the Swedish language, and was not disappointed in this regard. I did have to explain a lot to Mr. Mamie in terms of back-story and that seemingly-random events will connect to things in future books. Once he resigned himself to the subtitles, he got into the mystery. We didn't actually quite finish, as sugar-comas overtook us. Perhaps tonight.

Sunday has been pleasant. Did our Maverik run for morning caffeine and newspapers, then pondered how to accommodate Mr. Mamie's desire to have chili for dinner (yes, deviating from menu plan!) when the enormous quantities of ground beast and ground gobble purchased at Costco yesterday are already in the freezer. However, the 5 pounds of stew meat was still in the fridge, as the butchers at Costco apparently think we have mouths the size of a T-Rex, and the stew chunks needed to be cut down to human size. So, we came up with a chunky beef chili and the house currently smells fabulous! Can't wait to eat it.

Amazingly, I created another recipe today as well: Peanut Butter-Oatmeal-Chip Bars.   Usually I am a follower of recipes, not a creator of them. I am really happy with both my efforts today!

And now I must stop procrastinating and return to lesson planning.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)