FALLLLLLLLLL!!!

I love Fall! 

It's definitely Fall around here.  The trees are looking pretty bare (most of their leaves are in our yard, in fact), the smell of wood fires and decaying foliage is strong in the crisp air, and the windows are shut tight.  BEST. TIME. OF. THE. YEAR. 

This morning I got up around 10 and went for a long walk.  On my loop back to the house, I saw a vine with some berries attached to it dangling from a low tree limb.  I thought, "my, that would look just precious strung around the bowl on my dining room table!"  So I pulled, and pulled, and eventually got most of the vine, which I then had to carry with my all the way back home.  It was worth it, because it looks so rustic and awesome.

On my way to a nice, warm shower, I picked up the Comet cleanser and some rags.  I scrubbed that shower nice and clean (it badly needed that) and now I almost want to take a bath in there.  But not quite--I could not get the bottom clean, no matter how hard I scrubbed.  My next step is to caulk every nook and cranny, because I'm tired of dark, icky things creeping out of the seams in the plastic.

After my shower, I did some minor cleaning around the house (vacuuming, dusting, lighting candles.....that counts!), and then I put up some white sheer IKEA curtains I'd bought a month ago.  I wanted to just brighten up the room, and add a little something softer to the windows.  I think it came out nicely!  Now I am going to have some lunch, and take a nap.  I have Monday off, so I'm trying to get everything done around the house before then so I can actually enjoy the time off. :)

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See that awesome red splotch in the lower right corner with hydrangea coming out of it?  That's an authentic, vintage Dansk pitcher that I got for an extremely low price on eBay, and I LOVE IT.  Here's what they look like (and ignore the prices on that page--I didn't pay anything near that for mine!).

Fog on my way to work the other day.  Spooooooky!

Flyers v. Toronto Maple Leafs = WIN!

THE FLYERS WON!  5-2.  

Goal scorers: Blair Betts, Mike Richards (the cap'n!), Scott Hartnell, Ville Leino, and DANNY BRIERE!  WOOO!!!  Took lots of pictures tonight, although due to the traffic trying to get into the Phillies game (#6 of their series against the San Francisco Giants), we arrived too late to see most of the practice--which is my favorite part because I can get close-ups.  Anyway, a fantastic game, and not one of our regularly-scheduled ones either.  We're going again next Saturday so we have to dress up, but I'm not sure as what yet.  I have several wigs, but nothing that looks like a costume.

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PICTURES!

More geocaching & birthdays.

Yesterday was my birthday, and It. Was. Awesome.  Abby and Ben came to see the house for the first time (we moved in almost a year ago!), and loved it.  I had made some more pumpkin cookies before they came over, and they ate half of them before we left to go find another geocache.  It was another cache located in Hibernia County Park, which is where Jeff & I found our first one.  This was kind of outside the park, and we walked a mile to get there because we didn't know there was parking right next to it, but it was worth it.  After walking down a beautiful, leaf-covered trail surrounded by trees and Brandywine Creek on one side, we stopped to check our GPSs and read the clue: "if you don't see it, TRI again."  Well, obviously that wasn't a typo, and we were still trying to figure out how much farther we had to go when Ben said, "'tri'...like three tree trunks maybe?"  We all looked up and to our left, and right there was a tree with three trunks.  Can you believe that?  Without realizing it, we had stopped right where we needed to be!  We found the cache, left our names and a trinket (a temporary rose tattoo), and then, because it was getting dark, we turned around and headed back to our cars.

We then Chili's for dinner, which was very nice.  Against my strict instructions not to do it, Abby and Ben somehow gave our waiter "the sign" and I ended up being sung to.  EMBARASSING!  But I'm glad they did it.  Abby got me an awesome set of porcelain measuring cups that are red with a stitch pattern around the outside (I badly needed those!), an amazing "winter berry" candle, and a bad of Starbuck's Cinnamon Coffee.  I haven't tried it yet, but I know it's going to be delicious--especially with caramel apple creamer.

Today it's beautiful again--cool, windy, sunny.  I'm going back to the trail at Hibernia while there's more light out, so I can get a bunch of photos.  Here are a few from yesterday!

Jeff playing with the new candle.

 This young man, named Cody, had left what looks like his senior portrait in the cache.  Weird?

Geochaching n00bs.

Today Jeff and I went geocaching for the first time.  We spent an hour and a half searching for the right trail at a local county park, and finally ended up in the right direction.  However, the GPS on my phone kind of stinks so it was skipping around a lot.  As we were heading back to the trail we'd left to search for this particular cache, I noticed that the GPS was saying we were closer than we'd been all day, so I stopped to look around again and low and behold...there it was!  An old, cracked Tupperware container beneath a rock.  Hot damn, I'd found it!  We dug through the contents for a while (small things people had left, like trinkets, candy, rocks, coins, etc.), signed the paper log that had somehow stayed dry, and then went to Sonic for lunch.  Not a bad way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon!

Here are a few photos I took along the way:

Jeff leads the way.

Jeff with the log--we actually found it!

We saw this guy on our way back to the car--it's a groundhog!

How to NOT treat your co-workers.

A lesson in common human decency.

There is a really good soup and sandwich shop near where I work, and I decided to get lunch there today.  As I was looking at the daily menu online, a friend came over and noticed what I was looking at.  She then asked very nicely if I would mind getting something for her if I was going, and I said "sure!"  I was about to place our order when my boss - let's call her "Rachel" - suddenly appears behind me (she thinks she's a ninja, and never makes her presence known right away--she waits for me to realize she's there and then acknowledge her).  She says that she heard us talking about getting lunch from this restaurant, and then proceeds to tell me that she is going to put in an order with me to add to the two I already have.  For a split second, I wonder why on Earth she didn't consider asking me first, but then she tells me to scroll up so she can see the rest of the menu on my screen and I forget to even mutter an objection.  I get the order together for her without the barest of complaints.  I drive to the shopping center where the restaurant is located and spend 5 whole minutes trying to navigate the crowded parking lot to get a spot.  I go in to the restaurant, and wait 10 more minutes until someone acknowledges me and asks my name so they can get my food.  Then I mistakenly try to pay separately for everything, but the snooty kid behind the counter tells me in a "you'd be ruining my day" tone of voice that she would "have to delete everything and start completely over" if I did that, so I quickly give up and say I'll just put it all on my card.  After almost getting run over in the parking lot trying to walk back to my car, I arrive back at work and quickly sort out all of the food.  Rachel had given me a $5 bill and her food came to less than $4, so I head to her office to see what she wants me to do about change (as I never have cash on me).  She is in a casual conversation with two co-workers, but they all stop talking when I walk in and Rachel just looks at me as if just by standing there I'm making her day 100% worse.  I pause, say I'm sorry for interrupting, and explain the situation.  After giving me another exasperated look and rolling her eyes, Rachel says, "I don't know, just keep the $5!"  Now, I am an honest person, and I also like to get change back when I give someone too much money for something.  Apparently Rachel doesn't share that sentiment.  I put her food in her office and glance back out, where one of the co-workers is giving me a sympathetic look out of Rachel's view - it's that noticeable that Rachel is being a bitch about this whole thing.  I start to walk back to my desk, and as I pass Rachel she's shaking her head and rolling her eyes again - a clear sign that I've ruined her entire day by going to get food that she didn't even ask me first to get for her.  Clearly, it was really stupid of me to assume she'd want change back.  On my way out of Rachel's office, one of my co-workers calls after me that I could get change out of the snack food box we keep in the kitchen, which is a great idea--and she says it without making me feel like I've ruined her life, which for me is a bonus, since I'm not mean to other people for no reason.  I do what she suggested, take $4, and return the $1 change to Rachel, who barely mutters a "thanks."  

So kids, I guess the moral of the story is: don't do anything for people like Rachel, because they are horrible human beings.  The end.