Oh What a Night!!!

We spent the evening with Monty Python or at least part of it.  An evening with John Cleese and Eric Idle.  It was wonderful!  It started with the 2 of them in comfy chairs talking about how they met and the early years.  It was like sitting in your living room with them and listening to them chat.
Interspaced with this were some clips from some of their films and the series itself.  They then did one of their skits.  It was all hilarious.
There was an intermission and then Cleese came out and did a monologue and a bunch of jokes, he still has perfect timing.
After that Idle came out and did some of his songs.
The whole time the show was going on a lady had been "signing" the dialogue for the hearing impaired.  So when Eric started doing some of his "naughty" songs he pointed out the lady signing and it was hilarious what she was signing for some of the lyrics.
We had a couple of audience singalong including The Philosoper's Song.  The lyrics were up on the screen, but Mac and I both remembered most of the words.
They finished with a question and answer session and then Eric led us all in Always Look on the Bright Side from Life of Brian.
Given their ages, Cleese said he was 76 and Idle was 72, we didn't expect a long show, probably about an  hour and 20-30 minutes.  Wrong!  It went well over 2 hours and never dragged.
It was an absolutely perfect evening.

Fans

Another of our fans has died, we have 10 of them and this is the 2nd one to depart.  It's in our bedroom and we really like it, so it took a little while and some review reading before we ordered one.  That's the nice thing about heavy stuff you order, it gets delivered up the stairs to your door and you don't have to carry it.
Our bedroom ceiling isn't too high so putting the new one in won't be too bad.  But it won't be me helping Mac, it'll be a friend of ours.  My days of holding up heavy objects is long gone.  Gone are the days when I'd hold sheetrock on my head while Mac hammered it or I held up wooden fence panels while he worked.  I'm strictly and onlooker now.
The first fan to go out was the one in the family room and the ceiling there is quite high, 18-20 feet and the man we called to install it wanted about 5 times what we'd paid for the fan to put it in.  Our friend helped Mac and its been there for about 5 years now.
The one I worry about is in the living room, the ceiling there is even higher.  There's a burned out light on it and it'll probably stay that way for a while.

I never want ceilings this high again, 10-12 feet maybe, but no higher.

Note the cat in the box behind the fan, she's been supervising the work and is taking a short nap before donning her tool belt and heading back up the ladder to lend a paw.

Bedroom Ceiling

Family room ceiling













Livingroom Ceiling, way, way, too high

When the Neighborhood Has a Yard Sale

Spartina Grass

When the neighborhood has a yard sale it's time to get up and take off.  So instead of walking in our neighborhood we headed down to Fr. McAllister a state park down the road from us.  It's on the Ogeechhee River and has numerous inlets, spartina grass, bat houses, a campground and if you're very lucky dolphins.  It empties into the ocean a few miles down the line and is a tidal river.  Depending on whether the tide is coming in or out you can find rays, sharks, crabs and shrimp.
Well we weren't lucky today, no dolphins, though we've seen them in the past, have also seen wild pigs there.  But it was a beautiful day for walking, just wish the road and shoulders hadn't been so rocky and uneven.  My old sore foot is not very happy with me.  When we eventually got home I soaked it in my bubble tub.  It's a little happier, but I'll probably have to baby it for awhile.
After our walk we headed into town to have a late breakfast  at Denny's.  It might not be fine dining, but they alway do a good breakfast.  A few other errands to run and town was jammed, the Great (over-priced) Ogeechee Seafood Festival is going on this weekend complete with expensive parking ($10.00), over-priced entry fee, expensive (bad) beer, Millers and over-priced seafood.  Wait till the festival is over and you can get the same food about half price.  We went a few times when we first moved here, now we just avoid it.
I think I hear my couch calling, it must be near Happy Hour.  Have a good weekend.

A Bat Condo

Five on Friday

Beautiful Fall day, hope it lasts forever.  I'm joining with Amy at Love Made My Home for this week's Five on Friday,

First:  There's the corner by my front door.  Love the little scarecrow and it makes me smile when I go to the door.

Second:  It's finally cool enough to have heartier food.  Today it's speckled beans  to which I'll add pork neck bones  Just enough meat to give it flavor.

Third:  The smell of fresh baking bread, is there anything better.  I use a bread machine because it makes my life easier.  I just pour in the ingredients  and it does the rest.  I make honey wheat bread and it's so good it almost tastes like cake.

Fourth:  Miss Kitty loves Fall, all summer she lays around sleeping about 26 hours a day (yes I know there are only 24 hours in a day, but we're talking cat hours).  Then comes Fall and she's on the move.  Yesterday she took out the screen in the backdoor trying to get to a lizard, today she's considering whether she can go through glass to get to another.

Fifth:  I learned that Lima Beans, also known as Butter Beans are poisonous if eaten raw, they contain cyanide.  I knew that kidney beans (read about that in a Felix Francis book)  have to be thoroughly cooked or they can be dangerous, but I didn't know about Lima Beans.  They recommend cooking uncovered and dumping the water .  Notice mine are covered, but then they were already mostly cooked when I started them.

That's my Five, have a good weekend.

Fall

It's a beautiful Fall day here, no the leaves aren't changing color or dropping yet, probably won't till late November, but the acorns are dropping you can hear them hitting cars, houses, the occasional person. Squirrels are busy hiding them everywhere.
 Mac is busy cleaning up the pool for winter, putting up the deck chairs and umbrella, and trimming back my clematis and the Rose of Sharon, both got very leggy this year. Still loads of butterflies flying around, they're mainly interested in the Lantana.  The Ginger Lilies that Mac transplanted earlier are all in bloom and smell like heaven.
Me, well I'm covered in Tacky Glue, paint, thread and other crafty things, I'm just about done with my 12 Days of Christmas gifts.  I should be able to wrap them up this weekend and hopefully they'll be wending their way to Northumberland, UK long before Christmas.
Then it's time for me to join Mac in the yard and get it cleaned up, probably need to mow one more time before we put the lawn mower away for the year.  And woe betide any weed I meet up with.

Ginger Lilies are very invasive and soon take over any area they're in, so we dig them up and start over again.

When I went out to see if Mac was through one of his armored divisions came up to see if I'd brought food for them.  A couple of them started eating mushrooms, hope it doesn't make them silly.

Getting Closer to Halloween

Mac decorated the outside of our house yesterday and I've been enjoying what some of the neighbors have been putting up so I thought I'd share.

Neighbor around the corner.

This one and the next one are the same house.

Our house.

A spider was inspired by Mac's work and put this next to his web.

Monday Doings

Monday or the day after sports overload.  We watched baseball playoffs, football (I hate you Denver Broncos), the President's Cup and then Mythbusters to learn about U-2 planes.
Today it's housework, ironing (hear the groans) and working on my 12 Days of Christmas projects.
Last week we ordered an Amazon Firestick so we could start streaming movies and I changed our Netflix account to 1 disc and the rest streaming.  This morning we hooked it all up.  Except for me typing in the wrong access code for our router it was so easy.
I've had Amazon Prime forever, but we've never streamed movies, which I could have on my computer or my Amazon Fire Tablet, but I hate small screens so I've never bothered.  Now we're going to give it a go and see if we like it.
If we can get enough of the programing we actually like I'm really going to cut back on our satellite service.
I hear my crochet needles calling me so I'd better go.

Five on Friday

I'm joining in with Amy at Love Made My Home, and others, for Five on Friday.  This will be a quickie because we have to hitch up the horses and head into town to go to the General Store, also known as the military commissary, and do that most dreaded thing, grocery shopping.

Our daughter lives in Japan and finds it rather strange that the Japanese have adopted Halloween and you see signs of it everywhere beginning in September.  It's mostly a grown-up holiday, but who knows, can Trick or Treating be far behind?

The Owls Have It

Not Quite Sure Where This one's From, But it Looks Good

That's my Five and a bit more.

Tuesday

It's Tuesday and I haven't blogged since Friday.  It's not that I don't have anything to say, I always have something to say, just ask anyone who knows me.  But life keeps rearing it's head and dragging me elsewhere.
First we had to drive into Savannah to go for our TSA interview so we'll have any easier time going through security when we fly.  And of course that was the day the heavens opened up and we had to drive through a monsoon on the freeway.  Not a drop fell at our house, but the highways were awash.
Then I was rushing to finish my autumn afghan throw before autumn was over, and YEAH, it's done complete with a black border.  When my daughter saw it on Skype she said it looked like the candy corn you get at Halloween.  It's not huge, but it's long enough to cover me at Happy Hour when I nap---at our age that's what we call Happy Hour, a nap.  It's on the back of my incredibly ugly couch, but that will be taken care of next month, I just know that Salvation Army needs my couch.
As soon as I finished the afghan I started on Christmas projects.  I'm taking part in the Twelve Days of Christmas exchange at Jo's (Through the Keyhole) wonderful blog, so I needed to get busy crafting.
Today it was time for my B-12 shot, in fact it was pass time, should have had it last Friday.  So we hitched up the horses, headed into town, got my shot, got Mac a haircut---he hates getting them, all those years of Army barbers has made him into a long hair fan--then some grocery shopping and a stop at the Dollar Store for Halloween decorations.
And of course there have been our morning walks, my aerobics and cleaning a house that refuses to stay clean.  But that's life.

Thought I'd share a little painting Mac did just for the fun of it, isn't he adorable.

Five on Friday

How did it get to be Friday already!  I'm joining in with Amy at Love Made My Home and others for this week's Five on Friday.

This week the colors of autumn are starting to show up, at least on my front steps and door.  Love the color of the chrysanthemums.  The bear, well he  said he had nothing better to do than hang around the door.

Next is a glass pumpkin Mac gave me for Christmas last year.  Great shape and color.

This week I've been reading, as always.  The first is The Company by Robert Littell, a really interesting story about the CIA, covering about 50 years of the Cold War.  The second is The Black Dog  by Stephan Booth, a murder mystery set in the Yorkshire area, it's the first of a series.  I'd seen it recommended by several people and I'm enjoying it, I like police procedurals.  And last I'm reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, a book on faith, it's told by an elderly minister writing for his young son, a truly beautiful book.

We watched an old favorite this week Lost in Austen it never fails to make us laugh.

And last, but not least it was 66º when we got up this morning and I wore jeans on our morning walk, that's the first time I've had long pants on since probably April.  So truly, autumn must be on its way.

That's my 5, use the button and check out all the others who are doing 5 on Friday.