Halloween Shopping

Home Depot were stocking the shelves with Halloween stuff yesterday. Great stuff to buy before everything on the shelves gets destroyed by delighted children who can't resist yanking it out of boxes or pulling on cables. The skeletons were a disappointment - Target had much better skeletons last year. The outdoor lighting looks great.
I went there with Karen and Christian and we were all jolly exploring new products on the shelves.
Target has only begun to clear shelves to make room for Halloween but they have only put out a little candy so far. The candy includes some rather realistic gummy eyeball ice cube trays.

All of this was done after MonsterMustDie called in some service providers to look at the non-functioning AC at Casa WereMonster. They determined 1. the filters had not been changed since he bought the house and were completely clogged. 2. the capacitor was kaput. Service call and parts cost $210, which I paid for. The fan is working again and two new filters are in the central unit. All is well again with what is probably a temporary fix. Our AC/Heating is a dinosaur that was already past its projected lifespan when we started living here.

Native plants

Can anyone identify this plant that showed up in our backyard in North Carolina?  There are 3 of them, between 30"-37" tall.

Eclipse Day

We left Georgia early this morning and drove to Pomeria, just outside Columbia,  South Carolina to experience the eclipse with Philip Clark and John Shealy at their house in the country.  The guys had their glasses ready and we're hosting a small gathering of friends.

The drive up to SC was easy but there was a lot of traffic on the way home afterwards.  It's been a busy weekend. 

A day in Atlanta

Spending most of today waiting in the car while MonsterMustDie shops for antiques.  I've had enough walking b around looking at dead people's stuff. At least we made it to a liquor store to get a few things we can't get in NC like proper maraschino cherries and bitters,  as well as cheaper booze.

We had lunch at Farm Burger, where the waiter dropped my salad dressing on the floor, causing it to splatter all of its contents on my shoulder bag, foot, jeans and T-shirt. Now, I have to wear the remnants the rest of today.

Update: We went to Junkman's Daughter for me to buy two new shirts for myself to wear to dinner. I wiped off as much of the dressing as I could from my bag and pants with paper towels and soda water. 

Dinner was great. I got over my unfortunate event earlier in the day. We met our favorite Soogs at Shoya Izakaya Japanese pub where I had good sushi and sake and sake. Then, we went next door for desert at Kula, a more family-style restaurant with food coming to the table on conveyers after orders were made from a tabletop touch screen. Everyone ordered ice-cream or frozen mochi. Lots of lively conversation as we all tried to catch up with each other. 

Working late

MonsterMustDie is still at work installing European lights at the Mill. I'm calling it a night now. Somehow,  he always manages to get into some kind of insane project just before we go on a long road trip. :(