*Sigh.*

That is all.

The Vacation

Here are some lovely shots of our vacation. We pretty much broke even, or maybe came out a little ahead, which was very nice -- our rooms were freeeeeeee -- but everything was pricey!
The Mojave desert at dusk

Check out the carpeting of our hotel

In the hotel lobby area

Even the public loos are posh here - marble and solid brass throughout
We had good food, great weather, lots of fun.

Presents

You all know how I love presents, and I received a surprise one Wednesday night before my husband's class at church.
The 10-year old daughter of some members gave me a lovely gift bag with a heart-shaped tag, on which was written, "Because... We Think You're Special" - I didn't want to open the gift in front of everyone, especially since one of the women actually did say, "Why do you get a gift? I didn't get one." Bah. What is wrong with people? I just said, "I'm the pastor's wife," and left it at that.
On the drive home, I opened the bag and inside were 2 bottles of nail polish. Now, unless you know me, that might seem odd - but I am a fiend for nail polish, so it was such a thoughtful gift.

Breadsticks and (insert something clever here)

I ran across a breadstick recipe that seemed really easy - and it was - and they tasted great (!), but they look like bloody fingers! See for yourself:
They were seriously very easy: pizza dough, red peppers, romano, rosemary, chives....

I have to figure out how to take pictures that don't brighten things so much, as they weren't this bright in real life.

Viva..............

So we are taking a mini-vacation later this week. While it is not something we would normally do because of $$$ (Read: lack thereof), we got 3 nights of comp'd rooms at a resort hotel whose name is shared by my brother. I am sure our room won't be the most lavish, but even the small rooms here are supposed to be quite posh, as the hotel bills itself as the only resort of its class in the world to have been awarded the Mobil A 5 star, AAA 5 Diamond and the Michelin 5 Red Pavilions. So I expect it'll be pretty fun, even though we won't be seeing any Cirque shows nor Barry Manilow, who is still performing (!), but I've already looked up free things to do/see while we're there, some of which look to be interesting. I also plan to stay away from the (in)famous buffets, which are supposed to be nothing these days but tourist traps.

Politics

You think national politics are evil? They've got nothing on church ones.

Everyday is Halloween

With apologies to Ministry, every day isn't, but yesterday was! We had plans to just stay home, hang out and pass out candy to the kiddies who came by. I had bought 2 bags of candy to start, but since this neighborhood is usually fairly active on Halloween, I went back and bought several more bags. I think one bag may have even done it - we only had about 25 kids come by.
My friend in Napa had NONE show up. Weird, eh?
I had bought a couple little decorations, but forgot to get photos of them: some bloody hand thick window decals for the glass on the screen door and an orange gauze-draped pumpkin lantern which I hung near the front door, where the hummingbird feeder used to be.
Since we all know how much I like theme dinners, here's what we had last night - we had butternut and bell pepper soup, italian breadsticks, apple slices with ricotta-gorgonzola dip (recipe courtesy Rachael Ray) and oatmeal pumpkin cookies for dessert, which were as good this time as when I made them a couple weeks ago.

We had thought about going to a haunted house, but since it's raining, we decided to forego that, and B suggested going to a movie this afternoon. I found that Clovis has a cheap theater (yea!), so we went to see "The Dark Knight" for $3 apiece. We will definitely be visiting again. Weird, though - the restroom is a single - isn't that odd for an entire theatre? Maybe the upstairs set is larger??? We both enjoyed the film and getting out - and B tells me that some yahoo drew parallels to this film with W and his cronies regarding the War on Terror. Please.