Yikes!

Shapeshifterbelly sent me an item that had appeared on Facebook:

I did a bit of googling and found better pictures of the spooky event:

Known as The Tufty Terror, this poor squirrel managed to get his head stuck in a Halloween decoration in Fareham, Hants, England.

Thank you, Shapeshifter.

Happy ever after?

Mrsgunka sent me this Halloween themed joke:

Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got to know each other so well, they decided to get married.

One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom.

The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress.

The groom broom was handsome and suave in his tuxedo.

The bridesmaids brooms looked lovely.

The wedding was fantastic.

After the wedding, at the wedding dinner, the bride broom leaned over and said to the groom broom, 'I think I am going to have a little whisk broom!'

'IMPOSSIBLE !' said the groom broom.

'We haven't even swept together!'

Thank you, MrsG.

[I'm aware that some readers are unable to visit the blog, as they have this horrendous hurricane Sandy on their minds, not to mention the strong possibility of being without power. Please stay safe.]

Halloween treats

I haven't tried to make these "attractive" treats, but they look perfect for Halloween!

Ingredients
2 packs (3 oz) Raspberry jello
1 pkg unflavored gelatin (for extra firmness)
3/4 cup whipping cream
15 drops green food coloring
3 cups boiling water
100 flexible straws (or enough to fill your container)
Tall container (1 quart or 1 liter carton of milk)

Directions
1) Combine gelatin in bowl and add boiling water.

2) Let it cool to lukewarm and then add the whipping cream and the 15 drops of food coloring.

3) Gather your straws (don't forget to flex them out) and put them in the container. It's important that the straws have a tight fit so the jello stays in the straws. For this reason, a 1 liter carton may be better; you will probably get longer worms since there is a tighter fit. If you have a bigger container, a rubber band around the straws is helpful. Or you could just add more straws to fill the container.

4) Add the gelatin mixture to the straw-filled container and let it set until firm.

5) There are multiple ways you can remove the worms from the straws. You can roll a rolling pin over the straws and squeeze them out or you can hold the straws over warm water. The worms will slip right out.

Perceptions

Back to the normal schedule

Mrsgunka sent me some funny cartoons:

Thank you, MrsG.

Au revoir to the vixens

The day started with very early with a trip to the airport, where we said goodbye to Irishgirl...

We came back in good time to offer TW and CC a bite to eat. As you can see, even the weather was sad to see them go:

(Please click for large picture)

After lunch, we took them to catch the train to Paris.

Pirouette is already missing TW, who always shared some tasty morsels and gave her some wonderful ear massages. I don't have a photo of the hotel cat, but I'm sure he'll also miss TW greatly!

We're going to miss (I can't do it!) Irishgirl's infectious giggling, CC's ab fab impersonations, dah-ling, and TW's Ibegotohell warmth and kindness. They're all fabulous!

The house is definitely too quiet after four days of much laughter and a good dose of very healthy, rejuvenating silliness. We're really going to miss the girls. Peter asked me to thank them for making him feel like an honorary vixen.

Please come back soon!

...and the vixens fall down

We went to Salon-la-Tour today, where the remains of a castle keep still look quite impressive:

Later on, the vixens tried to go upstairs and this was the result:

It's slightly out of focus, which makes me suspect that even the photographer was plastered...

Austin's generosity shows...

Hen party update

Peter is enjoying the hen party immensely. I thought he was going to do himself an injury last night he was laughing so much! He drove TW and Irishgirl back to the hotel at 2:30am and left them propping each other up in the car park, giggling uncontrollably. But they found their way to the room, eventually. Peter had visions of going to pick them up this morning and finding them on the exact same spot, still giggling...

We had a picnic in the garden today. The weather was very nice, but it started turning chilly so we came inside to resume the drinking in the warm kitchen (thanks for the wine, Austin... your money is going a fecking long way!).

I have to start cooking soon, so this is just a short post to keep the conversation going.

Life is good!

Traffic diversion

Today's post is somewhere else... Irishgirl is busy writing about today's exploits, so I'm not going to repeat everything here. This is where we went today:

Now, back to drinking wine. Thanks, Austin.

Paris! And some deep France

CC and Tumbleweed have just arrived here. Irishgirl arrived earlier and we had a lovely day together. Now everybody is having some wine (courtesy of our friend Austin), laughing and exchanging stories.

Here's a photo of an iconic Parisian sight CC took this morning.

PS - Dinner is Boeuf Bourguignon...

We like parrots...

Intriguing photos

Peek-a-boo

Bon voyage

Hey Tumbleweed, this is for you, in anticipation of the start of your trip tomorrow.



Perhaps you could help rescue these poor guys:



I hope you leave your cats in good company...

Beautiful bubbles

Hanging out with friends

View_From_Here sent me some photos of friends hanging out together (I added some extra pictures), which show how social interactions have "evolved" in our modern times...

Thank you, View.

At home

Outdoors

At the diner

Having a cup of coffee

Sharing a meal

At the museum

At the movies

Watching a game

Having fun at the beach

Going for a drive

On a date

Trompe l'oeil

Trompe l'oeil is French for "deceive the eye."

When I first saw the photo below, I saw a picture of creeping, pretty blue flowers on a tree trunk.

Please click on the image and perhaps you'll be as surprised as I was!

In vino veritas

Grammy97 sent me a bunch of "inspirationals" that go very well with a recurring theme here on the blog.

Thank you, Grammy.

These pictures reminded me of the birthday cards I made for Tumbleweed: