A garden for the new year

The new year brought new projects for the yard and a need to tidy it up so I also thought it would be fitting to tidy up our blog too.  I have added a way for people to get notified about new posts - you can enter your email address to the right and you'll get emailed a copy of the new post.  I've also removed some out of date sites and added quite a bit of links, blogs, and books for gardening, chickens, and gluten-free cooking that we have found ourselves using regularly or telling others about - check them out along the right side of the page! 


We spent the long holiday weekend after the New Year gardening and tending our new chicks.  Once we felt like the girls were getting settled in, we turned to getting the garden up to snuff for their inevitable move outside.  On New Year's day, Wade and Larry trimmed some bamboo back to make room for the coop (and I'm hoping we can build something with it!), put up some green wire fencing along the neighbors fence to keep the girls from slipping through to their yard, and Mom and I weeded the yard where it was getting out of control.  We also ordered some more free mulch from our arborist and Wade started spreading that in the side and back areas of the yard that hadn't been mulched yet.  Chickens love bug-hunting in mulch, and they also love dust bathing in it, so we're trying to make the whole yard as chicken friendly as possible so they can free range when we're out there with them (we also haven't used any pesticides or herbicides in the yard since we bought the house in 2010).  Mulching the whole yard also means we don't have to waste water on grass, which has been our plan form day one - we planted natives and some edible fruit trees with the goal of it all growing in to make a lush, but grass-less yard.  For now we do have some native grasses/weeds that have grown into one section we have left that we call "the meadow" and we might leave that in its natural state for a while.  Thankfully, that's all the grass we have to mow with our little Amish-style push mower.


Right after the holiday weekend we took down our Christmas lights, only to put them back up 2 days later.  We were having frost and freeze warnings and Wade had read about people in Florida using Christmas lights to keep their fruit trees warm (the older incandescent ones, not the LED ones).  So he gave it a shot and wrapped lights around all of our fruit trees, some of our younger native trees, and ran them through the veggie beds.  It worked like a charm and we didn't lose anything!  So we kept them up for another week since we were supposed to get another cold front.  Our next door neighbor emailed to tell Wade how much she loved them and that she and her husband thought about coming over to wander through the lights with a glass of wine. :)  They did look pretty cheerful and we're thinking about getting some white lights to put up for parties since it lights up the yard nicely too.


The veggies are also loving the warmer weather and have really taken off.  We've been "harvesting" from the garden... lettuce, spinach, strawberries, kale, carrots, many different kinds of herbs (thyme, oregano, 2 kinds of basil, rosemary, sage, parsley, mint, chocolate mint) and edible flowers.  The tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, and collards look to be ready soon!  The quinoa, amaranth, onions, leeks still have a ways to go.  Our only real flops so far have been the summer squash and the radishes...  We're also hoping to get some sweet potatoes in soon to get them ready for summer.

Wade watering the long 12 foot bed in the garden.

Check out the garden's progress on our Picasa site.

Chicken Q&A

After our first week of chicken keeping, we realized we needed one more chicken.  Dottie appeared to be having a nervous breakdown for a week and to this day we still aren't sure whether she was ill or just stressed beyond belief.  We tried absolutely everything short of taking her to the vet, and after 5 nerve-racking days she finally settled in.  By that point Clemmie was quite a bit bigger than Dottie (they grow so fast!) and was beginning to bully her a lot, so we had read 3 is a better number to prevent one bird from always getting picked on.  (Although, the term "pecking order" has a new meaning for us and we can truly appreciate it now).  So a week after getting the first two we headed back to the farm to get another chick the same age as our first two (important if you want them all to get along).  This time we picked out Ruby, a little caramel colored girl with some spunk and seemingly no fear - and true to her nature, she wasted no time putting Clemmie in her place the moment we introduced her (nice to meet you large scary white bird - respect my space or I will peck you in the face again)!  It's incredible to watch how the girls each have their own distinct personality and as they grow their persona evolves too.


But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me address the common misconceptions and questions we have already gotten:


1. No, they will live outside in a coop that Wade is building, so well, yes, technically they live in the house right now in a rabbit cage we call the Chicken Palace.


2. Chickens are not that noisy because we do not have a rooster. All these little pullets (teenage female chickens) do is chirp at each other, and eventually they'll cluck and coo at each other which is not louder than normal human speech. However, they do have an alarm call if they're being attacked and frankly we want to be able to hear that.


3. Chickens aren't disgusting and stinky if you regularly clean up after them - like any other animal. Also, we only have 3, so it's manageable.


4. The coop consists of an enclosed sleeping/roosting space and nesting boxes and an outside fenced/covered pen to protect them and keep them from wandering off. (Seriously, just about everything tries to eat chickens and their eggs - dogs, raccoons, possums, foxes, weasels, rats, snakes, hawks, owls, you name it)


5. No, the coop is not an eyesore, it's on the side of the house and we are going to cute the hell out of it with a Key West style cottage theme, complete with a tin roof and fun paint job.  We've gotten inspiration from online and these two helpful books: Art of the Chicken Coop and Building Chicken Coops for Dummies.


6. The ladies will also be able to roam the yard to peck at bugs and weeds while supervised and they LOVE doing this - it's chicken behavior at it's most entertaining and natural. It's also great for them and for their eggs. Otherwise, we have a vegetarian organic whole grain/seed/legume feed we give them that we buy through a local food co-op and they'll get plenty of scraps from us and the garden (basically, if you eat it, chickens will).  Watching chickens fight over a blueberry is like watching a pee-wee football game.


7. We will be getting eggs from the ladies as early as this spring. For the next few years we'll get almost one a day from each of them. They'll start laying marble-sized eggs around 5-6 months and they'll grow from there.


8. They seem to be dumb as a box of rocks sometimes, but are HILARIOUS to watch and are hands down way more entertaining than watching TV.


9. Despite my answer in #8, they actually seem to be pretty nosy and clever when they want to be. They also seem to enjoy being held and hanging out with us. As chicks they would fall asleep in our hands or enjoy perching on our shoulder.


10. The ladies are 3 different heritage breeds (we think): Clementine (aka Clemmie) is a Ameraucana that will lay blue/green-shelled eggs, Dottie is a Sussex with brown eggs, and Ruby is a Rhode Island Red with brown eggs. It's hard to be certain until their adult plumage comes in since their chick fluff isn't always telling.


11. We have 4 chicken books (City Chicks, Raising Chickens for Dummies, Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, and Keeping Chickens) and I've been reading for the last 2 months so it's a work in progress, but keeping chickens is fairly easy and straight forward. There are also lots of online communities for back yard chicken keepers, especially this one, which are really helpful: Backyard Chickens.com


12. We got them from Martin Farm about 20 minutes north of town from the nicest lady in the whole world. If we decided we want to trade in our chickens when they stop laying she'll take them back so 4-H kids can adopt them for show pets. The underline question people really want to know is what do we do when they get to the end of their road since we're vegetarians... and all I can say for now is that we'll likely end up having these ladies mentor our next flock in a few years and they'll still serve as garden helpers long after they've stopped laying.  So we'll cross that bridge when they come to it, which could be 8-12 years from now.


13. Why? Well, if you did a little research, you would understand why we'd rather eat eggs from our own well-fed chickens that we can ensure live a healthy and happy life. We have been getting our eggs from a local farmer, but we've been on such a self-sufficiency kick with the yard, we figured chickens are the logical next step.  I also have missed having birds (had cockatiels as a kid), and chickens are useful for gardening - free fertilizer, weeding, bug control, and entertainment!


The ladies seem to be settling in nicely to their caged life, but are growing and feathering out quickly.  They're almost ready to go out into the coop and Wade has been diligently working on the coop to get it ready for them.  They have also been getting some trips outside into the sunshine when it's been nice out and despite their initial shock they have been thrilled with their new found ability to scratch in the dirt and mulch for goodies or to bathe.  I have gotten in the habit of putting them in their enclosure then sitting nearby reading my Thor comic omnibus while we ladies catch some sun.  It's a delightful way to spend the afternoon - despite the cats crying at the door to be let out to join us.


Oh yes, that is one interesting development.  Marley doesn't really know what to think of the chickens, but Hilo seems to think their "his" chickens.  He dutifully watches them, he sleeps in the room with them, and absolutely will not tolerate someone in with the chickens without him and will cry at the door to remind you of that.  He has even taken to watching them calmly like it's an interesting television program and it's pretty funny to watch it all.  He has even tried snuggling in my lap while I'm holding the chickens and he seems oblivious, if anything, maybe a little jealous?

To check out all the chicken madness, here are the pics on our Picasa site.

Birthday chicklets

Yes, that's right, we have grown the zoo again and got chickens for my birthday. :)  On my birthday morning I opened presents (many chicken-themed ones) and Wade made me breakfast. After that Mom and Larry came up and we headed up to pick out our chicks at the farm in Largo.  A cold front blew through after Christmas, so it was absolutely freezing and windy out and we were a little afraid the chicks were going to be really stressed (chicks are very susceptible to cold and wind - so much so it can kill them pretty quickly, same goes for stress).  We got a nice tour of the farm and saw more of it than we had in the past - she has geese, pigs, goats, over 400 chickens, ducks, quails, and who knows what else.  We also saw another breed of chicken that was gorgeous, so we're already starting a mental list for the next round of ladies. :)  Unfortunately, one of the types of chickens we thought we were getting were all gone (Plymouth barred rock), so we had to choose a different type.  We found a cute little yellow fluff ball that we named Clementine (Clemmie) and a little yellow and brown one striped like a chipmunk that we named Dottie.  We carefully put them into their transport box that ironically had an old "fragile: handle with care" sticker on it, and headed home.  They mostly peeped in alarm the whole way home and the temptation to snuggle them was almost irresistible since they were covered in chick fluff, and just a few little feathers.

Peeking inside the box....

Once we got them home we cranked up the heat lamp for them and closed them up in our master closet with the space heater to keep it up to the 80's in there for them (the preferred temperature until some of their feathers start coming in).  They generally seemed shell-shocked and we kept checking on them to make sure they were eating and drinking despite the 50 degree temps outside.


That night we had a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants downtown (with the world's best cava sangria), Ceviche.  Afterwards we strolled down to our favorite gelato place, Paciugo, for one of my favorite desserts in lieu of cake: 2 scoops of gelato (pistachio - the real nutty kind, not the weird mint kind, and coconut) floating in a giant mug of steaming hot cocoa and topped with hot fudge and whipped cream. Best.Dessert.Ever.


The next day we took Mom and Larry to lunch and a glass making class for their belated Christmas present.  After that we headed to Tampa for dinner and a movie with Megan and Jimmy at a full service movie theatre that serves gourmet food in the theatre and the seats are plush recliners.  We had a fantastic dinner and really enjoyed watching the new Sherlock Holmes with them.


For a belated birthday celebration the week after my birthday, Wade organized a party at the shuffleboard club when all of our friends were back in town from the holidays.  I was really touched by how many people turned out and we had so much fun that the night flew by.  Wade also made the best homemade key lime pie I have ever tasted (even drizzled with dark chocolate on top!) and it was a huge hit.  Sadly, we were having such a good time we didn't really take any pictures of the festivities.... but I did get one of a few folks playing shuffle:

Brett, Nick, Katie, and Lisa shufflin'.

You can also see more pictures of the chicks on our Picasa site.

Dreaming of a white Christmas

This year Christmas was a bit toastier than the previous years.  It was so warm in fact that the lettuce in our garden started bolting and tried to go to seed (once it does that it tastes funny, if not disgusting).  Drat.  It was in the upper 70s for Christmas, which was perfect for throwing open all the windows and enjoying the breeze.  For reference, the past few years since we left Miami, it's been downright freezing around Christmas and throughout the winter.  In fact, we were so worried this year we bought our first wool blanket for the bed and it has been miraculous on the freezing nights we've had (literally).

We spent Christmas day at our house and opened presents with the furballs.  They usually get presents first so they can entertain themselves while we open ours.  The cats, however, relish the annual paper pile.  We pile all the wrapping paper and packaging paper in a pile in the middle of the floor so they can play and hide in it.  I wouldn't be surprised if this is what they thought their actual present was. 

After presents, we packed up the kids and their new toys and headed to Mom and Larry's for lunch and presents before heading to my Aunt and Uncle's for Christmas dinner.  We had a fun night of catching up before heading back to Mom and Larry's to spend the night.  The day after Christmas was a holiday for both Wade and I, so we hung out on the island for the day with Mom and Larry.

This year was one of the first times I've taken any pictures of our decorations or our tree ornaments so I've put them up on Picasa in case you're interested in seeing how the house and tree look.

Gettin' in the Christmas spirit

December has brought another glorious month at home with no work travel!  Hooray!  Although, this morning I just finished planning my travel for January to Hawaii and DC and I am already dreading being away from home for so long.  Hawaii will be 10 days and DC will be 2, although I'm been threatened with California too... ick.  This month a lot has been happening at work, so despite the joy of being home, it's been stressful while we've been planning for what looks to be a very busy January and February.


So while we have the chance and I'm home, Wade and I have been cramming in as much Christmas flair as humanly possible...  The first weekend we put up all the decorations inside the house and all the lights outside the house, but it just didn't feel like Christmas, so we began a quest to see how many holiday events we could enjoy before we felt ready for the holiday. The first sign something was amiss - this year I had zero desire to do Christmas cards.  So we did an email instead and that was a nice change of pace.


We participated in the Jinglebell 5k Run in downtown St. Pete again this year (although we walked...) - Dustin and Katie ran, while we walked with Chris and Julie.  We enjoyed the live Christmas music and twinkle lights along the route and kept a running commentary along the way with all the interesting costumes people had.  I had a sequin Santa hat, jingle bell earrings, a jingle bell ring, neon necklaces, red sneakers, and my green fleece vest.  Wade donned his usual black "bad" Santa hat. A cold front was blowing through that evening, so it was windy and chilly and a bit rainy.  We still had fun though.  Afterwards we headed out for a late Thai food dinner with everyone.  

Dustin and Katie prepping to run while Wade and I search for our walking buddies, Chris and Julie.

The next day we headed to a Christmas concert with Mom and Larry that was two Irish singers/guitar players.  It ended up being a night of Irish pub-humor, story telling, and Christmas songs, and although it wasn't exactly what we originally expected, it turned out to be so much more and we laughed the whole night.


The following Saturday we had a little Christmas bonfire night with the crew from the Jinglebell run, Mark & Annette and their two kids, and Mike & Alison and their son.  It was a fun night by the fire making s'mores and the kids were having a blast surveying all the plants in our garden (once they were stuffed on toasted marshmallows!).


The middle of the month we also headed to the farm to check out the chick selection again to see what she would have for my birthday and how old they would be.  We'll be bringing home two little 3 week old ladies on my birthday next week - a black Plymouth Barred Rock and a brown Sussex (at least that's the plan, we'll see what happens when we get to the farm!).  When we saw them they were only about a week old and tiny little puff balls - it was almost impossible to not stuff them in my jacket pocket and bring them home right then!  But alas, we were definitely not ready and did not have the time to devote to chicks that little, so they're holding some for us until next week.


The weekend after that was Dustin and Katie's Christmas party/house warming and we stuffed ourselves on good eats and homemade egg nog.  We also had a white elephant gag gift exchange - we thought we were coming home with a Snuggie, but alas, it was stolen by Dustin and Katie, so we stole the gag gift they made from someone else: an 8x10 perky Christmas portrait of themselves that looked straight out of a Sears family portrait studio.  We laughed so hard we cried.  We managed to hold onto that one and I now eat breakfast with it every morning, giggling between every bite. :)  Well done folks, well done.


This week we topped off the Christmatizing by watching Elf with Dustin and Katie, which is hands down, my all-time favorite Christmas movie and our yearly tradition.  It seriously cannot be Christmas unless I've watched Elf.


So, we're ready for Christmas - we've done all we can do. :)  All the presents are wrapped, the cats are thoroughly thrilled with hiding under the Christmas tree, and the Christmas music is playing non-stop in the house (my current favorites are Tropical Steel Christmas by the guys who played our wedding, and Christmas With the Rat Pack).  

How could we not get in the spirit when there's this much cuteness under the tree?!

Hilo was not pleased with me invading his private time under the tree...

We also have spent the past few weeks running our own Santa's Little Sweat Shop as we're tried to get some of our hand made fused glass Christmas gifts ready in time.  Everything turned out pretty nicely, but a few things were a little late, so we know to start earlier next year and look forward to getting past our learning curve.


Hope everyone is prepared for a lovely weekend with family and friends!

Home sweet home

November brought all the things we love about living here - cooler temps for outdoor fun and house projects, festivals, and for me, it was a month of no travel and all the time in the world to revel in being home.  So November felt like a month of catch up for me to remind friends I'm still alive and catch up on their lives.  It's also been a chance to dig into some new hobbies for Wade and me.


Wade and I finally got our raised veggie beds installed in the garden - Wade finished phased one just before Halloween (pictures here), then completed phase two in early November.  We planted a bunch of veggie and herb seedlings to short cut our harvest time, but also followed up with seeds as well.  This is our first time planting down here (in Florida, our growing season is October - May), so it's all a huge experiment and we're learning a lot.  I have also checked out an absurd amount of library books on organic gardening, companion planting, and the square foot gardening method.  We don't have a lot of space, so we're trying to maximize what we do have by using intensive gardening principles for maximizing harvest in small raised beds.  In the last few months we've become a little obsessed with trying to figure out how much organic food we can get our of our "land" (our lot and a half) to feed us, but also sustain wildlife with native plants.  So far we seem to be striking a good balance, but this time of year we don't get quite enough sun, so some of our crops are struggling and we're already learning where we might rotate crops for our spring plantings.  We added two big clay pots in the driveway outback for growing and Wade just wrapped up phase 3 of the raised beds: two more 1.5'x12's along the fence, another small 3'x3' box in the garden, and a larger hexagonal box in the yard.  Wade's been quite the carpenter designing and constructing our cedar raised beds!  They're beautiful and functional and we're thrilled with them. We also finally tore out the evil bougainvillea and have replaced it with two edible moringa trees and some native wildflowers.  Next up... we're researching how we can add two pet chickens to the yard to produce eggs and keep down the bug population!  You may laugh, but it's actually more common here in St Pete than you would think.  We know 3 families who do it and really enjoy it - both for the eggs and how friendly and fun the birds are.  I've been reading up on that too and have asked Wade to build me a chicken coop for my birthday. :)

In mid-November we headed back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, but this time with Katie and Dustin.  We had a great time and mercifully it wasn't too hot and the lines weren't too long.  We rode every ride, some twice, screamed like little girls on the roller coasters, had a few butter beers, and almost threw up on a few rides.  An excellent day indeed and the perfect cure for a stressful week at work.  We wrapped up the day at Margaritaville with dinner and drinks before heading home.  And you know what?  We'll still be up for going again. :)  It's nice having Orlando only an hour away!

Mmmm.... butterbeer

Gotta love the Hogwarts castle in the background....

Apparently the red neon on a nearby Margaritaville sign threw Katie's iPhone camera for a loop and we all look sunburned!

Mom and Larry came back at the beginning of the month (we left up our Halloween decor an extra week so Mom could see them) and that also meant it's that time of year to start making the to-do list for house and yard projects!  The weekend before Thanksgiving, Mom made a run to the nursery with me to get some more plants (yay strawberries!) while the guys worked in the garden.  Afterwards we picked up Alison and headed to the Craft Art Fair downtown to check out the Floridian artists - so many pretty things... Thanksgiving Day we spent with them and Katie joined us too for another gluten-free vegetarian feast.  This year my goal was to only eat what we could get from the farmer's market, and we came pretty close, but next year I'm going to challenge us to what we can grow or what we get at the market, so we'll have to plant the garden earlier.  We did, however, harvest one lonely strawberry just before we went to bed and shared it amongst us and it was absolutely wonderful.  Over Thanksgiving weekend we added another veggie box, replaced the section of fence where the bougainvilla was (thanks for painting Larry!), and enjoyed some good local food.


Thanksgiving weekend Wade and I also started a new hobby - glass fusing at the same studio where I learned stained glass.  (It's basically cutting, designing, and melting glass together to make plates or bowls, jewelry, windchimes, vases, whatever you can imagine)  We're really enjoying it and are already starting on some projects.  It's going to be a lot of fun and we're excited to be able to make some Christmas gifts for family and friends this year!


I wrapped up the month by hosting the monthly Girls Night Out that the neighborhood women in our 3 block radius put on each month.  Since it was "freezing" that day I had everyone over for a fire in the garden with hot cocoa, sangria, s'mores, and popcorn.  It went over really well and we had a lot of fun.  We're really lucky to have such a connected and friendly network of people in our neighborhood.  Wade was a sweet heart and helped me set up in exchange for a s'more or two. :)


As I am wrapping up this post we're breaking out the Christmas decorations... :)

Where did October go?

Oh that's right... October dissolved into a series of plane flights and car trips...  fortunately there were some highlights along the way!

The first week of October I flew to New York City for about 24 hours for a meeting in Manhatten.  The afternoon I arrived, I was able to squeak in a very brief visit to the American Museum of Natural History and this time my highlight was the giant stone head from Easter Island (although I think it might have been a replica?). 

However, the dinosaurs and gemstones are always some of my favorites.  The next day after the meeting, Whitney and I hopped in a cab and headed for Penn Station - on the way we passed "The Naked Cowboy" giving the Times Square crowd a show, and a Home Depot that defied logic for me - it looked like the store front for a Neiman Marcus or something (see below)?!  

After our quick sightseeing, we caught a 3.5 hr train back to DC  - it was only the 2nd train ride I've ever taken - and it was pretty fun!  Sharing the ride with Whitney helped pass the time and it was nice to not have to deal with airport security.  Once I got to DC I worked for a couple of days before coming home Friday night.  We immediately packed up the car and the pets and drove out to the island to spend the 3 day holiday weekend relaxing at the beach house which was just lovely, but a bit rainy.  So we improvised and enjoyed the hot tub in the rain. :)

The following week I was home before hopping a 6am plane to San Jose, CA for a meeting in Santa Cruz.  I was only in Santa Cruz for 36 hours, but I got to room with Whitney again, so that made it fun.  We also had a little expedition to the Patagonia outlet in town for some shopping which was also fun and a welcome break from the meeting.  The second night I left straight from dinner for the airport and caught a red-eye back to Florida.  Thank heaven my flights were on time - I landed in the morning and as soon as Wade picked me up we tossed our bags in the car and headed to St. Augustine for Kellyn and Conrad's wedding.  Wade was kind enough to drive the whole way over so I was able to sleep the entire way.  I usually can't sleep through my flights back from CA, so I had been awake since 3:30am, and the chance to nap was a welcome one.  We got to St. Augustine in time to clean up and change and made it to the wedding rehearsal only a few minutes late.  Afterwards we had a lovely rehearsal dinner at the Lightner Museum, then headed back to the hotel to crash into a delicious king-sized bed.  The next morning we slept in a bit, then enjoyed a great breakfast at a local cafe before heading over to pick up Kellyn to take her to the salon.  Wade chauffeured us and went to check out the fort in St. Augustine while Kellyn had her hair done.  After the hair appointment, Wade and I squeaked in a quick lunch at Aunt Kate's just up the road on the river and had some wonderful Florida-style southern food before I headed back to spend time with Kellyn.   We had a fun afternoon of the ladies hanging out while Wade was able to relax before the wedding.  We had perfect weather for the beachside wedding, including wind strong enough to blow bubbles from the little wedding bubble wands (which Wade discovered) :).  To see how lovely the bride looked, you can check out our Picasa site here. After the ceremony there was a great reception at a huge beautiful beach house just across the street.  We were treated to an incredible sunset over the saltmarshes and river behind the house and it was pretty incredible.  We finally called it a night and crashed in bed before trying to repack some of our stuff which mysteriously had spread itself all over our hotel room.  Sunday morning we had another good breakfast at the nearby cafe before heading home.  Four hours later we were home and I was repacking my suitcase for another trip to DC.


Monday morning I left for DC again and was there for the week.  Work was the usual, but I was able to catch up with friends which was great.  I'm so grateful for the friends I have made in DC who treat me like family, so it really helps keep the loneliness and homesickness at bay when I travel.  I arrived home Friday night to tidy up the house and prep for our Halloween dinner on Sunday night.  We had a great group of people, good "freaky" Halloween themed food, and a lot of fun.  It was the perfect way to end all the travel since I was so thankful to be home and see our friends who I missed quite a bit.  You can check out the pictures here.


Halloween night we biked down to Mark and Annette's house that's about 13 blocks south of us.  They are in the "heart" of our neighborhood where the insanity takes place on Halloween and this year we made a point to check it out.  We hung with Mark and Annette and the kids for a while and handed out candy before venturing over to the madness.  The streets were so packed it was difficult to walk in some places - particularly in front of the one house that had a huge scaffolding and acrobats with a creepy circus theme and the occasional pyrotechnic fireball that lit up the entire street.  There were a number of other super decorated houses - Night of the Living Apps (a haunted Angry Birds house), the Mad Scientist Lab complete with blood spurting guillotine and electric chair, the morbid Curl and Die salon, the Titanic, a funeral home that fooled us, and some other generally fun spooky halloween decor.  It was a lot of fun to see people so into it and making a party atmosphere out of it.  We meant to go after our dinner party the night before, but we got done too late and went on Halloween instead.  Next year though, we'll go on the dress rehearsal night in hopes of the crowd being smaller (they do a neighborhood house decorating contest and the night before Halloween they have everyone put on their shows for judging and for folks to enjoy an extra night of fun).


Well, I hope everyone else had a great October and a spooktacular Halloween!