Now We Know How the Maytag Repairman Feels

It's Halloween!

Whoopie.

Having moved to the neighborhood earlier this year we asked our neighbors how many kids we could expect for Halloween. We wanted to make sure we had a credible supply of treats as the last thing we need right now in our lives are any tricks.

Landlord Judy told me that the numbers had dwindled in recent history but that we could expect 20. Her husband added that a neighboring farmer would most likely ride as a Headless Horseman.

We looked forward to the night as none of the other homes we've had were in a quaint neighborhood. We bought a pumpkin and Heir II carved it. We bought a second, mini-pumpkin with the idea that Gnigel would hold it in his lap. Unfortunately, Gnivel has been eating to much of late and there wasn't room for both the pumpkin and his stomach.

He did the next best thing. He made the pumpkin a football and here he is kicking the orange-skin around the yard.

Of course, Halloween this year fell on a Friday. We were competing with the local high school's football team. Except the game was two hours away and our team has won only one game all year.

I was ready to call it a night at 7:30 pm with nary a creature stirring.

SisIggy downloaded the camera and I started cropping the photos. I was about to turn off the outdoor lights when I saw a car pull into the driveway with a mom and two little girls.

They each got a piece of candy and allowed me to take their picture so I could prove we did get someone to stop by.

The festivities are over now. The lights have been turned off and this blog is almost finished.

Sis handed me a Reece's Cup and said "I cooked".

The Heirs (Frugal Man on the left; Ninja Joe, below) are still out with their significant others passing out treats
(at least that's what they said they were
doing) in their girlfriend's neighborhoods).

That gives me a few hours to hide the rest of the stash before they come home hungry.



And if I can't find a hiding place, I won't have any dessert.

Roanoke College or Bust

If you've been reading SisIggy's blog by now you know that Heir II had decided Roanoke College will be his home for the next four years. And if this is the first you're hearing about it, pull up a chair and see why.

The heir had already been accepted via early admission and had even been given a substantial financial aid package for the school. But with college expenses expected to be almost $40,000 the first year we told him that unless he was able to get a full ride, we wouldn't be able to help.

He had applied site unseen. RC had an open house last Saturday and with the help of the grandparents, we drove to Salem Saturday to check out the campus. The pre-dawn trip was very rainy and we arrived just in time for Heir II to visit one-on-one with a computer science professor who did a little personal recruitment.

We also attended a financial aid session that was tops (Lord knows we need financial aid) and then it was time for brunch.

I had expected watercress sandwiches and tea with maybe a few cookies sprinkled in.

What we got was a weekend brunch in the school's dining hall that was heaven.

Real scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy and even omelets. Fresh fruit, a salad bar and the best compote I have ever eaten. And to hear our tour guide and even a Roanoke recruiter tell us the weekend food was sub-par to the rest of the week.

"Lobster Newburg, shrimp, prime rib and even Leg of Lamb with mint jelly," both told us. "Our chef's are graduates of the Culinery Institute of America. How many schools can say that?"

Yet Heir II wasn't sold on that alone. He was really impressed with the bank of cold cereal he saw once we entered the facility.

"I'm coming here," he said. "If nothing else, I'll be the new mascot."

She's Going to Big Lick U!

Heir 2 may not have made a final decision on a college choice yet but his dear mother has. And it only took SisIggy about two minutes to decide she was going to Big Lick U next fall. Heck, she may even enroll Monday so she'll have enough time to settle in before her first class Wednesday afternoon...

Hey Darks, the Uno Dough Is Here

This blog references one of the first I ever posted. As you may recall, the Darks invited us for a day in the city recently and was highlighted by a rude staff at a Uno Chicago Bar and Grill.

Once we got home and slept on it, Sis and I were still pissed and posted an email to corporate as a way to vent some steam.

We never figured we'd get a reply much less a phone call. Yet less than a day later Kacey, a senior hospitality rep called, and offered sincere apologies and a $40 voucher.


The vouchers came in the mail today along with a nice letter from Kacey. I'm sorry the correspondence wasn't as legible as I'd like but when I yield a camera anything is possible (or is that impossible).

Anyway' Kacey says in part: "Enclosed please find $40 in vouchers that can be used at any of our restaurants nationwide. Please share then with your brother in law and extend our sincere apologies to him and his wife."

So Dark, I have done the first part of Kacey's request. And together, the four of us can do the second part (as long as it isn't in DC).

Finally, since I know the suits at Uno reads this blog (how else would they know the name SisIggy, Dirtman and Dark Garden when they called last week), I want them to let Kacey know we got the vouchers and how thankful we are that corporate America still has a heart.

Wxxxxxg Out For a Bag of Food

What we in Dirty-Linguini Land will do for a paltry bag of dog food.

Lest all the Linguini lovers out there rile off at, or for that matter, on me, Sis wasn't the only whore in this photo with Mel the Border Collie, to the left. Yours truly was also one this afternoon, working for our friend Frank at his local kennel.

As many of you know a bag of kibble isn't as inexpensive as it once was. That, and our bank account is even thinner.

Fortunately, there are friends still out there like Frank. We put in four man-hours bathing (1) and brushing out (5) of Frank's famous doggies in lieu of actually paying cash for the food.

If things get any tighter, I might start eating the kibble myself.

Note to all. Sis wasn't too pleased with the title but for the life of me, I couldn't come up with a better word. Let it be said Sis is not a wxxxx now or ever.

Won't Bruce Be Proud of Me?

Work has been really slow lately so I have had to come up with new uses for seldom-used tools.

Here, I took my six-inch hand auger, which is used to excavate borings for the old-fashioned water percolation studies, and made it into a receptacle to hold the bird feeders we brought from another life.

Believe it or not, it worked.

We had a chickadee alight on the the feeder on the right within 20 minutes of installation. It was tentative at first but quickly came back for morsels.

I also moved our birdbath next to it so the site is a one-stop smorgasbord.

In less than a day it had alerted the birding community and we can now look out the window anytime during the day to see the birds eating away.

We'll need more seed within the month and will visit Wild Bird Unlimited for a re-stocking. I'm sure owner Bruce Johnson will be waiting with open arms.

Good Flick

W.

Sis and I went to see Oliver Stone’s moving depicting the life and times of George W. yesterday for my birthday. We went to the matinee so as to save money and didn’t get anything from the concessionaire so to save even more.

I really enjoyed the movie, especially the actors portrayal of the characters they brought to the screen.

Josh Brolin had the President down pat as did Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney and I don’t think H.W. could have done himself any better than James Cromwell did.

Karl Rove was a tough character for Toby Jones but he did an admirable job even though Philip Seymour Hoffman would have looked more like the GOP kingmaker. I suspect Hoffman was too much for even the foreign producers’ budget

.

It seems writer Stanley Weiser gleaned and obtained every quote W and Laura Bush ever stated and inserted them into the movie and for better or worse, it made the movie that much better.

The only drawback to the movie wasn’t about the movie.

Carmike Cinema, the monopoly chain in our neck of the woods decided a movie 2 hours and 11 minutes long needed 27 minutes of trailers in addition to the 20-plus minutes of “entertainment news” prior to the actual beginning. I was tired of sitting on the broken-down seats before the opening credits.

I’ll be glad when the purportedly new theater opens in our fair city soon.

Back to the movie, IMDB says it’s a biography, a comedy and a drama. And it was – depending on whether you’re an English major or a history buff (like me) or a Democrat or a Republican.

Sis may have the right take on it, when she said as we were leaving that Stone showed that Bush was “like we all suspected he was though we really hoped he wasn’t”.