A Self-Professed Halloween Scrooge

I am normally up for a party or celebration of any kind; however, when it comes to Halloween, I am one of 3 people on the planet who don't enjoy it.

This is not something that came with adultness; I didn't enjoy Halloween as a child -- I didn't like masks, I didn't like "begging" for candy, and I didn't like the "tricks". The latter, I'm sure, is a result of the fact that I was the daughter of a school principal and we regularly, on Halloween, had our house "tp'd." That wet toilet paper is NOT fun to clean up.

In addition to these traumatic childhood memories of Halloween, there are other things about the holiday I don't like:

• haunted houses
  
• ghouls/ghosts (unless they look like Casper)
  
• witches (unless they look like Samantha on "Bewitched")
  
• devils
• blood
• gore
• spiders and spider webs
• fake eyeballs
  
• monsters
• vampires
• fake brains
  
• skeletons
• tombstones/caskets

And, on top of all this, I'm not crazy about the black/orange color palette -- now that I'm no longer rooting for the Wink Wildcats :-)

Having said all this: Happy Halloween!

Kitchen Planning Breaks Droughts

It's been an uninterested week at the Congers: Carl has worked and I've been abed with "the crud".

However, yesterday was an exciting day! We went to Home Depot and had our kitchen cabinets designed!

First, they keyed into their software the dimensions of our kitchen and plugged in appliances, windows, doors, etc. Then we picked our door style and finish which Doug (our designer and, evidently, cabinet-appliance guru) entered into the program. Then he started adding lower cabinets; once that was done, he added upper cabinets.

Here's how it went:
"Doug, I'd like to have those cabinets taller than the others." "Sure, that's easy."
"Doug, could I have feet on 'xyz' cabinet(s)?" "Sure, that's easy."
"Doug, could I choose a different finish on 'xyz' cabinet(s)?" "Sure, that's easy."
"Doug, could I choose a different wood for 'xyz' cabinet(s)?" "Sure, that's easy."
"Doug, I realize you've designed the entire kitchen; I'd really like to elevate the dishwasher." "Sure, that's easy."

The bottom line is that we were able to take a virtual tour of our kitchen and it is the one of our dreams! We can't wait to build it!

A Touch of Fall

FINALLY, a touch of fall! It was wonderful to wake up to a temperature under 60 degrees; it was so invigorating! Of course, accompanying the cooler temperature were high winds that blew all day long. This is not the ideal for those of us living in RVs!

I just love the fall and I hope it's here to stay. . .

Carl's 50th High School Reunion Cruise

The Monarch of the Sea

Well, we just returned from a WONDERFUL cruise with Carl's high school graduating class. We cruised on the Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Sea. There were 38 classmates on board, most of whom had spouses with them. Carl's sister Karen is married to Rick Scott, one of his classmates, and so it was special getting to see family as well as other classmates.

We began the cruise in San Pedro (LA) Monday evening and cruised to San Diego, arriving early Tuesday morning.

Our organizer and constant communicator was Marilyn Coghlan, with assistance and cheer-leading from Mike Coghlan, and Bill & Sandy Harris.

We had a great time visiting with old friends, laughing and generally carrying on like kids. The food was terrific and plentiful. There was plenty to wet the throat as well.

Augusta & Tom Parrington


Joy & Ron Surdam

Rich & Jeri Walker

The second day we glided into Avalon Bay at Santa Catalina Island to spend the day shopping, touring and sight-seeing.

The final stop before heading back to San Pedro was Ensenda, Mexico. Carl and Rick went ashore to sightsee and get some exercise, while Linda and Karen stayed aboard and relaxed playing cards.

Each night, when we would go to bed, we were met by towel sculpture. This rabbit appeared on Wednesday night. The stateroom stewards did this for all their guests.

What fun! Will we get together again? Hmmmmm, could be.

"Come on, let me take you on a sea cruise. . ."

We're flying out tomorrow to LA for Carl's 50th class reunion which will be a cruise! Tomorrow evening is the pre-cruise party and we board ship in San Pedro on Monday evening. Tuesday we'll spend the day on Catalina Island, Wednesday in San Diego, and Thursday in Ensenada, Mexico. We get back to San Pedro Friday morning and fly home Friday afternoon.

There are a number of folks we keep up with that we'll see on this trip and, what makes it even more special, is that Carl's sister and brother-in-law will be there with us. Carl and Rick were best friends in high school and roommates in college; Rick met Karen and "BAM" best friend becomes brother-in-law!

Until next time. . .

Introducing the Donkey Ear

Several years ago, at Gruene Market Days, I saw a hanging basket of a plant that completely captured my attention. As it turned out, all of those plants were sold. So, Carl and I made a point to attend the next Gruene Market Days and buy one of them. This was just before the "2007 Great Freeze In The Hill Country"; we were living in our RV and had no room to bring our plants in so, therefore, our beautiful hanging basket froze.

In March or April, Carl came in grinning like the cat who swallowed the canary and presented me with one of the wonderful plants in a hanging basket. We just love the plant and are giving them to everyone we love. Each of the "ears" produces a flower than can be cut off and replanted to produce another donkey ear plant. They are SO beautiful and SO much fun!

A Disappointing Visit

We went to our local branch bank today to find out exactly what we needed in order to apply for a construction loan. It was one of the most frustrating experiences either of us has had in a long time.

We went in looking for what we needed (Just the facts, ma'am.) But what we got was far different.

We had spoken with the president of the local branch, on a previous occasion, for an introductory meeting and an overview of what we were looking for in terms of a construction loan. On the that visit, he admitted he had been on the job for only seven days and was not up on all of the banks specific policies regarding construction loans. But he gave us some high-level indications of what we might need.

Today, he sounded as if he had not gained much more competence or knowledge than before.

We heard over an hour of "worst case scenarios" about what we might expect from our contractor and subcontractors. Nevermind that we repeatedly told him that our contractor was family (Linda's brother-in-law Maxie), and we were personally interviewing each subcontractor. He never got the point that we weren't just turning the project over to someone, but we were going to be intimately involved in every decision and were also going to be doing a lot of the work ourselves.

He spent an inordinate amount of time telling us of worst-case scenarios, mostly based upon his personal experience in building a home. This included, by the way, the issuance of over $30,000 of change orders, even though his wife grew up in the "home building industry." We tried to remind him that we were not going to contract, in advance, for a fixed-price but were going to work interactively with Maxie to create this new abode within an estimated budget. This point, however, never seemed to change his approach.

And, the main problem Carl has with him is that he never looked directly at me. . .

So, we are disappointed. This bank was recommended by friends, but in the meantime the bank changed hands and the person who handled their loan is gone. We believe that this guy's past experience was not in the home-building arena and we probably need to go elsewhere.

We're in the clear!

It's official: we have a building site on our property! Thanks to D&B Construction, the trees in the area where the house, garage, and workshop will eventually live have been chopped, mulched, and extracted. The pictures at the left (from top to bottom) depict the land before major clearing, after initial cut, and after clearing and stump removal. Just for fun, I've included a couple of other views of the property.