Happy Halloween!!

Mike was in charge of Halloween this year and I knew that he would certainly make it interesting. He found Tig & Pooh on Ebay and I made Piglet from a plain pig costume I got at Petsmart. Because we are so cool, we were a pretty big hit at Maribeth's Halloween Party (Margot Tennenbaum picture above). I think was the first time in my adult Halloween career that I didn't wear some version of animal ears, a tail, and all black clothing. We also lucked out because it was about 40 degrees outside that night so we were actually more comfortable outside while most of the girls dressed in "Girl World" costumes (Mean Girls reference) were shivering.

As usual, Milly was the hit of the party and we were just the side show.
To get in the Pooh spirit, I've been perusing some "Poohisms".  I found one that I think I need to remember in relation to that sometimes obstinate Tigger:
"If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient, it may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear." 

Today is the big trick-or-treating day for our street with over a thousand kids expected to come through. We're not going to be as ambitious as we were last year with the candy giving, but we definitely plan on people watching later.

Happy Halloween and as far as American consumers are concerned, welcome to the Holiday Season!

Wine Tasting

This weekend my friend/college roommate Kathryn came to visit me from Atlanta.  She was attending a friend's wedding in Williamsburg and stayed with me.

Our whirlwind Saturday began with a wine tasting get together put on my the Junior League at New Kent Winery.  I probably wouldn't have normally ventured out to this event (since it's a whopping 20 mile drive from Richmond and all), but it is about half way between Richmond and Williamsburg so it was perfect for us.

I had (sadly) only been to one wine tasting before, which was during our graduation week at Sweet Briar.  This vineyard is newly open (2008) and is part of a large development in the country of New Kent County.   The grounds and buildings were really beautiful and took me back to my Sweet Briar days, and the rural beauty that Virginia is so famous for.

A lovely mid-western couple who were randomly also there wine tasting were kind enough to take some pictures of us in between talking about the Ohio State game and how much they loved merlots.  

After we ate lunch out on the porch we headed on to a great afternoon in Williamsburg.  

Perfect fall weekend and we were so happy to get to see Kathryn for a few days! 

Quick! Play Possum!

I had just taken Milly on her after dinner "poop walk" and unfortunately, I must always pick it up because we are in the city.
Unfortunately, Monument Ave neglects to put trash cans anywhere NEAR or along their street, making it necessary for us to carry Milly's precious gifts up two flights of stairs and out unto the back staircase that leads to the most SKETCH-TASTIC alleyway ever known to man where we (aka Mike) must go every so often to take out the trash.  (This works out well for me because I'm not "allowed" to set foot in said alley way for fear of being attacked by the homeless men that frequent our vicinity-darnnn I really like taking the trash out too.)

We have a bag that we collect said poops in, where we allow them to "ferment", much like a fine wine, for a few weeks before we add them to the trash on said "trash trips". As much as I'd LIKE to take on this job, Mike usually does this because he is always the one taking the trash (remember, it's for safety).  We're pretty sure the neighbors that we share a staircase with really appreciate this process, but we don't really have any other options.

Moving on....it was a crisp Autumn evening tonight, just around dusk, when I open the back door to deposit poop bag. Who do I have greet me but THIS LIL CREEPER:

Yeah! I was about 6 inches away from an opposum!! (Wikipedia states that the spelling is interchangeable, but I want my mom to know I know that correct way).

I freaked out and slammed the door and peered through the blinds at it. It just looked at me. Naturally, my immediate next thought after my safety was documenting it.  I couldn't get a picture through the window, so as it creeped down the steps (this has been a good minute at this point-he was going nowhere fast) I opened the door just a bit and snapped a quick picture.  I risked my life for the purposes of this blog.  That's dedication.

Since I'm a little rusty on my marsupials/garbage creatures, I quickly googled to make sure I was referring to the right animal.

Here are a few fun facts on possums I learned from Wikipedia:

-The first ones were found in Virginia in 1610 (naturally)

-"Playing Possum" is something that their body does involuntarily when they since danger and involves them pretending to look dead and emitting bad smells. They can do this for hours.

-They used to be a popular meat option, and many recipes called for them in The Joy of Cooking.

-Luckily, they are 8x less likely to have rabies than a dog. I'm not really sure how this fact is true, but I'm not going to doubt you Wikipedia, though so many do.  I believe in you.


I had obviously seen these little guys before, but never so up close! It was like being at the zoo. A really really cheap zoo where they put creatures they can find around their house and place them in captivity for profit.
 At least I kept him from getting into our secret stash! He'll probably be back tonight. He didn't seem too scared of humans. He is probably a pet of some homeless guy that lives somewhere around here.

I'm pretty sure that I felt a lot more like "playing possum" that he did. Another craaazzzyyy day in the adventures of Milly.

MOOCH!!

This post name stems from Mike's new nickname for Milly.  It can only be written in all caps because it can only be exclaimed in an excited, loud tone.  

Tonight, Milly laid in this position in my lap while watching TV. It started out as a typical tum-rub, but she totally zonked out for 20 minutes in this position before waking up and looking at me like "hey, why did you stop rubbing my tummy?"

I love my Mill.

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