Happy Halloween!

I just came up with my Halloween costume last night and it is an homage to my mother. When my parent's got engaged she was dressed as a ring master. My Dad was dressed as a bearded lady. I could not get a bull whip on such short notice (you would think I could have one delivered but no such luck) so I made one out of cardboard. I'm not embarrassed to say that everything else I have on is just stuff Peter and I own. For anyone who doesn't know us well, we dress up...a lot! I hope you all have a lovely Halloween!

My life is a race!

As you know from my previous post Peter and I spent some time with my folks and siblings down in Tejas and this past weekend we spent some time with Peter's kin in the suburbs. Peter's Dad, John, is a race car enthusiast and has a garage full of cars out on a raceway in Joliet. John tells me that racing cars is something old men get excited about. In my experience young men do too. I remember when I was in college a popular date to take girls out to on Friday night was a racetrack 20 miles away. I suppose that's a backwoods Texas thing but I enjoyed the drag races. Peter and I were allowed to drive a few of the cars. The country club holds an annual event called Octberfast which is what we were attending. There are a few races for the hard core enthusiast and some touring laps (not above 50 MPH) for people that don't know how to drive race cars. Peter and I were able to drive during those laps. John kept trying to make me break the rules on the straight-aways. I did get up to 75 in the Mc Laren.

The above photo is a picture of Peter and I in front of John's first race car. It is a Lancer EVO (evolution) and one of the more user friendly racers out there, or so I'm told. Those helmets in our hands were a requirement as well as full on race straps across chest and legs and even a strap that comes up between your legs. The insides of my thighs were black and blue from how tightly I was squeezing that strap.

This is me in the McLaren F1 you have to stroke this car door to get it to open, there are no handles, and it opens up like wings as you can see below. 

This last photo is Peter driving the Aston Martin DB9. Unfortunately I was not able to drive it as it was a manual. One thing I have yet to learn in this life and I doubt John would want me teaching myself on his personal Bond car. 

Photos and cars courtesy of John...Thanks!

Hopefully our life will stop moving in the fast lane so I can get more post up on the blog. 

Rough and tumble weekend in the deep south

This past weekend Peter and I visited my family in East Texas, where the Mitt Romney signs are plentiful and the light beer flows like milk and honey.

We had a fantastic time with my parents and both my younger brother and sister made it into town as well as my older sister with husband and baby in tow. She's pregnant again with baby number two, a boy, and here is a photo of Coraline telling how it's gonna be when the baby comes.

Peter is in the background discussing how much he enjoys shooting guns. As you can see below we had some target practice on Saturday morning and it was Peter's first time to shoot a gun. He was quite good I must admit. It must be all that Big Buck Hunter.

Saturday evening was wrapped up with a visit to the carnival in Nacogdoches with my little sister and her roommates. I didn't realize how much I don't enjoy carnival rides anymore. I guess it's part of getting older. I'm scared that the cars are going to fly off their hinges and my cut rate insurance will put me in the poor house and make it impossible for me to ever afford buying a home. These things never would have occurred to me 10 or even 5 years ago. Saturday afternoon before the death trap scene we had a little jam session on the porch. 

As you can see Coraline has taken up the groupie position she intends to spend most of her twenties in. Drink in hand front row of the show. She's definitely born into the right family for music lovin'!  We even got in a visit with my Grandpa Bill and Grandma Geneva on Sunday night before we left town at 4am Monday morning. This coming weekend we will be spending some time with Peter's family, in the suburbs, I don't think they let you shoot guns out there but I'm sure we will have a great time.

Another Successful Marathon

Sunday Peter and I spectated for my third year in a row, I believe his fifth or sixth, his brother, uncle, and mom running the marathon. All finished with excellent times. Above is a photo of all three at the start of the race.

They are the three in the middle with the crowns. From Left: Don (uncle), Bernice (mom), and Rob (brother). Why the crowns?  I hear your mind gerbils thinking. Every year we find some distinct way to stand out in the massive crowd of runners and spectators. This year we were a royal court with crowns and jester hats. Last year we had cat in the hat hats and the first year everyone wore feather boas. All these costume ideas have their flaws for the runners but as you can see Peter and I thoroughly enjoy it!

The Ratscapade

Last night Peter and I went out for a lovely dinner with Nicole and Dan at Red Lobster. Don't knock it! Red Lobster is one of my favorite restaurants. It was fun and exciting and I awoke this morning feeling less than stellar in the head but over all positive about my life and place in the world. I got to sleep in with my fantastic husband and then he even went out and bought me chocolate milk and orange juice for breakfast.

Around noon all hell broke loose. Peter was setting up to make macaroni and cheese in the kitchen and I was lounging in bed. He walked in and told me the rat was back. DAMN THE RAT!  Not only is it back but with a fierceness we had yet to witness.

Heretofore we had only seen him scurry from our spice cabinet to the hot water closet a couple of times and the once when I tried to bash his head in with a boat paddle he scurried from the kitchen underneath the bed in the guest bedroom. Mind you Peter and I have not been around the apartment much this week and the cold weather is setting in here in the windy city. I suppose the bastard thought it would be great to completely set up shop here.  He's obviously gotten very comfortable in our absence as he was out and about in the middle of the day today instead of his normal night time skulking hours.

The ill hatched plan Peter and I devised was that I would again go for the boat paddle and Peter would scare him out of the cabinet. While he was scurrying across the floor I would bash him with the paddle. I don't think I have to tell you, but I will, this technique has NOT worked in the past. However, I would fully enjoy beating this rat to death with an oar, which is probably why it's my go to plan every time we see it.

I waited patiently, oar at the ready position hoisted over my head for maximum crushing capacity and Peter opened the drawers of the cabinet. The rat scurried out, I swung mightily, and of course missed, only by a hair though. The rat scurried under our guest bed and this time I was not letting it off that easy. Peter and I took turns scooting the bed about and pulling out our camping gear piece by piece from underneath the bed while the other of us stood with oar in hand. Peter happened to be the one with the oar when the vermin made his dash for the hot water closet. Peter took three swings, to the disappointment of us both, missed all three times.

Now I was distraught. We have had poison and a trap out for weeks now and nothing. He is either a very smart rat or we were not trying hard enough. The worst part of the whole thing is that up to now we have not  seen any droppings or urine which I felt was a sure sign he was not making camp here full time. Well today we found both! To the hardware store we went and purchased $50 worth of glue and spring traps as well as more poison. Now our kitchen looks like a field of land mines. There are 5 spring traps and 4 glue traps as well as 4 different poisons. My question to you dear readers is this: Should we get a cat?

Romance and Frivolity!

This weekend Peter and I attended his brother Ian's wedding. He married a lovely girl, whom I am proud to call my sister-in-law, named Lana. If you are a regular reader of my blog you have seen photos of each of them cycling through Spain. Unfortunately over the weekend I only took photos of silliness. Behold flippancy at it's best!

As you can see the three gentlemen on the left in the top photo are dressed in what we coined as black tie pajama. The two normal looking people on the right were ready for the wedding 5 hours early...which was very impressive.

In the bottom photo you see me dressed in my footy pajamas and smelling like the jungle cat I look like. 

Bromance anyone?