Happy Halloween!

Because of the rain, we had a small turn out for Trick-or-Treaters Saturday night. However, Game Boy invited some friends over for pizza, movies, and games. They opted to not go out in the rain and seemed to have a lot of fun.

A highlight of the evening was the home made ice cream.

We also carved the pumpkins before the party.

They turned out great!

The last of the chili

Well, we made it through all of the chili, finally. Here is a picture of the last bowl.

Now on to the Pumpkin Soup.

I love the color and texture of this soup.

All I have to say is...

...I love ice! Especially from a fridge where I don't have to fill trays and wait four hours for it to freeze.

*sigh*

So happy to have the fridge back in place. We had resorted a few times (having a party/making ice cream) to buying a bag of ice and dumping it in the ice thing in the freezer. Those days are GONE!

The fridge is back in place!

I just had to post this. We are so excited. And the yellow looks much better in person than in the pictures. Though I think it looks pretty dang good in the pictures, too.
Mr. Perfect is a home improvement genius.

Here's another of what we still have to finish and what the corner looked like before.

As soon as the kitchen walls are finished, we get to start on the bathroom.

Making the chili

Almost every October, my mom makes a huge batch of chili. From scratch. Dried beans, chopping onions, the whole nine years (which is a reference to Scottish kilts, just in case you care to know or even if you didn't). This year, I knew she and Dad were going to be out of town for Halloween, so there might not be any chili. I asked if I could come over to make it with her. I had a couple of days off from work, so I hauled out the 25-lbs bag of pinto beans that Pyscho Exercise Sis and Mr. Doctor Man gave us for Christmas last year and headed over.

Day #1

After a couple of hours of fun shopping for meat and peppers, we headed back to the parents' abode. Mom and I picked through the beans, selecting only those that would make the best chili. Actually, it's not that scientific. You look them over a little at a time in your hand, pick out the obviously bad ones, don't include any dirt or rocks, and that's about it. Then we put them in two pots, added water, and left them to soak overnight.

Day #2

You have to cook the beans for 3 hours after they've soaked, so I told Mom to call me once they'd been cooking for an hour so that I could get there in time to help chop the veggies and cook the meat. Mr. Perfect had requested green peppers in the chili, something we hadn't tried before. With all the peppers, onions, and tomatoes chopped, I started cooking the meat. Next, we added the onions to the meat. Then everything goes into the beans, and that cooks for another hour. I took the opportunity to vote early.

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am with the chili. The green peppers add a little freshness. It might be the best batch EVER!

Finished!

Back to Cedar City

This past weekend, Mr. Perfect and Most Happy Girl set off for the beauties of southern Utah with Crazy Writer Lady for a couple of shows at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. It was the first serious trip for her new car, Sir Henry, the Black Knight, and he made it admirably.

We saw Greater Tuna and The Adventures of Pericles. Neither were fantastic (we enjoyed the shows in the summer more), but it was a fun trip. And it was great to spend time with a good friend. It had been too long.

Here is Sir Henry in front of our hotel the morning we headed home. Yes, the Knight's Inn. Very fitting.

More roof photos

Here are some photos of the roof in a new stage: framing. As you can see, it's progressing nicely. Now, if we can just keep Dad off the roof...

 Yes, most of the work is being done at night (hence the lights). And with fall now here in full force, it gets dark about 7:00. Work, work, work. But soon it will be a beautiful new roof.

E9065F13-AAA4-AFE0-2FB9-F8D43CC3B124

Random Utah Symphony concerts

About a month ago, Psycho Exercise Sis, offered us an extra ticket to the Utah Symphony to hear Brahms (Piano Concert) and Beethoven (Symphony #6, the Pastoral -- heavenly!) because they have season tickets and Mr. Doctor Man was out of town on his annual bike race between Logan and Jackson Hole. She also said that we could probably buy another ticket at her discounted season ticket holder price and exchange the other ticket so that they were together. This we did, and an obsession was born.

We noticed that the next major concert of the season was Hilary Hahn playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concert. How could we miss that? So, once again we got tickets through Psycho Exercise Sis and away we went. Amazing!

Well, this time it was Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Now, anyone who knows me and my love of classical music will also know that Rachmaninoff is my favorite, especially of the 20th century composers. We asked if Sis and Doc were going. They weren't, but Sis offered to get us tickets, and two of Mr. Perfect's sisters came with us.

Before the concert, we met at our house for some Wasatch Pizza (highly, highly recommended), and off we went. I cannot begin to describe how truly wonderful the pianist, Conrad Tao, was. At only 16, this American-born musician plays with liquid strength and beautiful understanding of the music. If you get a chance to hear him play, go. Don't think about it. Just go.

Here we are in front of the The Olympic Tower sculpture, by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, at Abravanel Hall.

Back to exercise

I'm happy to say that I've returned to a much-needed exercise schedule. We bought an elliptical from a piano student's mom. It now lives in the garage, along with the step climber and treadmill. The odometer isn't calibrated, and I haven't been able to discover how to calibrate it, but I don't go by distance, just time. So it's no big deal, but I would like to know how fast I can do a mile on it.

(Just so you know, I don't look nearly this good on mine.)

Next up, it's back to the free weights while watching TV. It's amazing how easy it is to do squats while watching mindless drivel on the boob-tube.