Chapter 32: Like Chelsea, I Have No Good Title Today

I decided to give you all a break and didn't blog last week. The resulting punishment is that you get twice as much this week!

Last weekend our friends Tim and Mollie, (a.k.a. Carissa's best friend Eileen's parents) had a sand bagging party. They live RIGHT on the bank of the Green River here in Auburn. So we, along with lots of their other friends, came armed with shovels and made quick work of the huge pile of sand in their driveway. When we were finished, we all trouped down the street to help out their neighbor that also had a huge pile of sand but no party. We got all the sand in the bags and left them with startled looks on their faces and we headed back to Tim and Mollies with our shovels over our shoulders. As usual, Mollie throws a heck of a party and there was tons of food, VERY good home-brewed beer and laughter.

Here's a pic of Roo with the freshly installed sandbags at the back of the house and one of the side of the house showing the rest of the bags at the ready.

This weekend started with our usual Fall Leaf Roundup. We all used to dread fall because it would take the entire family several weekends to battle the entrenched leaves. With our free labor off to college, something had to be done. Bob had been eyeballing the Cyclone Rake for years so I finally asked for it for my birthday. How could he say "no" when it was my birthday request?

It now turns this...

...into this in just a few hours. No whining. No dragging of tarps overloaded with wet leaves, no allergy attacks, no compensatory trips to the bookstore when leaf season was over.

It also has on-board vacuum attachments so Bob can vacuum out the flower beds and porches.

The next event was Tracy's Halloween party. It's a huge annual event and it literally puts Martha Stewart to shame! The hours and hours that woman must spend getting ready are incalculable. Every inch of her house is decorated and there are tons of homemade--not a bite of Costco--food. Homemade candy to rival See's, baklava, cheescakes, brittles. All are extravagantly decorated. These are crummy phone pics but you get the idea.

And to finish off the weekend, we went to Gig Harbor to watch Scott play his bagpipes at their church. This was followed by an excellent lunch at Scott & JoAnn's house. Kudos to Scott for "teaching an old dog new tricks!"