I have been working at home lately, and it's so fun. Not during office hours (when I'm usually on campus), but just at night and on weekends. I can't stay away from my email, or keep from logging into ecampus (the online class system thing at school). It's been a long time since I've had a job that I liked that much. Last night, I shut my laptop lid and felt a little naughty for not finishing with all my messages and emails. I could be a workaholic, but I can totally turn it off when needed. In fact, I'm usually pretty insistent about only working when I'm "supposed to", if for no other reason than I have too much other stuff to do. But the last couple of weeks, I can't resist it.

In particular, I'm in a bunch of online classes with "teacher" access, so I get to answer questions about a particular project we're doing. It's a hoot. So many online teachers lack an internet personality, so I try really hard to be friendly and helpful. I'm learning a lot about how instructions need to be clear, and even if you think they're as clear as humanly possible, SOMEONE will get confused. I think the perfect assignment design would be dozens of pages long, complete with every possible scenario. For an assignment with any type of technology involved (for example, in the project I'm helping with, they have to save images from the internet), it would have 100 different sets of directions to cover every possible configuration of student ability and operating system.

I do get annoyed at the dumb questions. I can't fathom receiving an email as a student that says, for example, "If you complete this assignment, you will not have to complete the group assignment", and responding to ask, "So you're saying if I complete this assignment, I won't have to complete the group assignment?" Grrrr! But since this is my first time to design instructions for a project, it's fun. It will be fun to see what I come up with next semester to make things run more smoothly than they did this semester. I'm sure whatever I do will have it's own set of amusing, aggravating issues. LOL

I got to go to the CEC TED conference Friday. It's the Council for Exceptional Children Teacher Education Division. Basically, a conference for people who train special ed teachers. It was in Dallas this year. It was a great time. I hope I never get tired of those conferences, because for now, they're still exciting to me. The professors seem to enjoy them too, so there is hope! It can be hard to sit through sessions for a whole day, but I learn something at every one. Next weekend is the Adventures in Autism conference. It's more of a regional thing, and we're hosting it at UNT. I, along with a doc student, am on the list as a presenter, but I'm betting my boss will do most of it. I like her more all the time. Like I always say, my only real requirement of a person is that they're nice. The more I get to know her, the more I think she is well-intentioned and kind. She's done SO MUCH for me. On top of that, she is really stinkin' good at what she does. I'm looking forward to the autism conference, hoping to crack some more mysteries of my niece, Emma.

We had her 5th birthday party today, BTW. I'll post pics later.

Anyway, there is so much going on at work, and I'm feeling more comfortable in my job there all the time. I have more to do than I'll ever get done, but it's more exciting than frustrating. Just having a chance to TRY to get it done is a lucky thing.

Tom and I had a nice, peaceful day on the lake yesterday. We caught 4 little tiny fish on lures. They weren't having any of our shrimp and minnows.









It doesn't get much more peaceful than sunset on the lake. Even in the summer, the lake goes from madhouse to total calm.



The water was glassy and gorgeous.

And then look what I found on the back porch last night. What the HECK is that? It's some kind of monstrous beatle! UGH!

An oogey end to an otherwise picture perfect day.

Oh my goodness, NOVEMBER?!?! I haven't been on the boat all summer, and we're finally going out today. I am excited! NOVEMBER!!! Sheesh....

Here are all the pics from last weekend when we started decorating, Amanda's birthday, and then last night, Halloween. I'll start with my lovely cranberry-cherry pie, before I covered and baked it. It was delicious! Here is the recipe I used. Except, I couldn't find fresh cherries at Wal-Mart, so I used 2 cups frozen cherries and 2 cups fresh cranberries. I used refrigerated pie-crust because I am pastry challenged. Look how beautiful the filling was:

And it was the perfect consistency on the inside after I baked it. TRY this recipe. It is so good.

The guys were rigging stuff up outside, and Alex was a big help.

Here is Tom looking all svelt.

Here he is last Halloween. South Beach Diet, folks. Even men like it.

We found this hippie in our tree protesting our using it to rig up a flying bat. Oh wait, that's Clint.

The ladies (me, Amanda and Emma) sat inside carving pumpkins. Here is mine:

Here is one side of Amanda's



And the other side of Amanda's

We found this neat motion/sound activated flying thing at Party City this year and knew it needed to be part of our decor. Look out, it's gonna hug you!!!

Aaaaahhh, it got Tom! Tom likes hugging it, though...

Alex wasn't sure what to think. Sure, it looked scary, but it moved so slow.

Me and Amanda, photogenic as ever. Alex still mesmerized by the ghoul.

I caught Emma and Alex being sweet on the floor watching TV. I took a picture, walked away, and heard Emma yell, "ALEX! Get OFF me!!!" LOL

Clint and his girlfriend Marianne carved pumpkins later. Here is Clint's

And Marianne's.

Fast Forward to Halloween! Clint and Marianne arrived in style. Zombie style!

We put some little cauldrons in the yard with water and dry ice.

The ghoul is still kickin' it even in the daytime. Heading over to say hi to his buddy the cheesy stuffed pumpkin head man.

I had my own cauldron going. A crockpot full of pulled pork. Here is the recipe I used. It was/is delicious. It could've been South Beach friendly had I used a low-carb BBQ sauce. That tiny bit of cinnamon really stood out in a good way after it cooked all day. More on cinnamon later.

Greg couldn't resist taking the "motor bike" for a masked ride.

Tom in costume.

Here's the house. Pictures don't do it justice. Plus it's so much better for kids! One kid walked up and said, "Your house is always the best!" Another little girl came up with her parents, and her mom said, "Look, we made it to the door this year!" LOL But all in all, the trick-or-treating was VERY disappointing. We had about 5-6 groups all night. I had thought on a Friday more people would be trick-or-treating, but I suppose Halloween being on a Friday night, more churches and stuff did things. *sigh* Oh well, we had fun anyway.

Me and Tom, man I look tired! I had been going strong since 7am.

John wanted a costume, so there ya go.

The three stooges do Halloween, again!

Group shot of costumed folk!



Me and Amanda looking a little more photogenic than the week before. LOL

Somewhere in all of that, Natalie and Cody came by. Amanda and I went to school with Natalie in Edgewood, and Cody and Rusty (Amanda's husband) were friends in Wills Point. Well, a few weeks ago, Amanda was at Natalie's, up to no good, and Amanda accepted what they dubbed "The Cinnamon Challenge". It's simple. Ingest a spoonful of cinnamon and earn the respect of your peers. I knew how it turned out for Amanda (not well), but still we found a few goobers to try it at our shindig. So we lined em up at the sink, got the camera ready, and let em loose.

Clint and Marianne stepped up first.

Not easy! You can't do it. I promise. Try it! (With a camera handy.) I love this picture because you can see Clint's little puff of cinnamon he coughed up. haha

Meanwhile, John and Greg were outside, and we figured they could be the next targets. Unsuspecting inebriated boys. Here they are looking all confident and happy.

Hahaha!

There is cinnamon EVERYWHERE here. I love Greg's face! hahaha

Somehow, Cody disappeared when we did the group shot, so here is Rusty and Cody.



John spilled chips on the floor, and I handed Tom our kitty spritzer (to spray the cats when they're somewhere they're not supposed to be). Bad kitty, John!

And so it ended. Everyone went outside at this point except me. I was DONE. I was so tired! I curled up on the couch with a blanket, and somehow found the strength to drag myself to bed about 30 minutes later.

All in all, it was a fun night, and a nice way to ring in NOVEMBER!!! I hope our guests had fun. I think next year we might have a bigger party, since we can't count on kids to come trick-or-treating. Maybe we'll party on Friday night so everyone can have their family Halloween stuff on Saturday.

Good things about this week:

• I worked out 3 days in a row with my new workout buddy Shaneka. We kicked butt. I hope I keep it up next week!
• Things were pretty slow on the homework front.
• We started a new research project at work where we don't have to collect data, it already exists, and it's mega-longitudinal. But...(see weird things)
  
  Weird things about this week:.
  
• The project is with my boss and another professor I am really unsure about. She always drops the door on me when I'm walking behind her.
  
• On Tuesday, my big water bottle leaked all into my purse and out the bottom, all over the classroom floor.
  
• In that same class, TWICE I tried to make a point and couldn't get the words to come out. I felt like a total idiot!
  
• Later that day, I got all excited about getting a good parking spot for my night class, then this old man drove up next to me, gave me a dirty look, and drove off.
  
• The internet was down on campus for most of Tuesday.
  
• So Wednesday, I tried to work from home in case the internet was down on campus.
  
• It was down at home instead. Grrrr!
  
• I was so freakin' irritable.
  
• So I went to school and got a little work done, put my head on the desk and accidentally slept for about 45 minutes.
  
• On the clock.
  
• I will make it up next week.
  
• I got a smoothie from smoothie king at the rec center after my workout. I didn't think about checking the prices because I used to get smoothies all the time for $5 three years ago.
  
• Apparently, smoothies at smoothie king cost $7 now.
  
• And the low-carb ones taste like vomit sweetened with too much sweet-n-low.
  
• I drank it anyway. Because I paid SEVEN DOLLARS for it!
  
• Finally, I found out that Weinerschnitzel in Denton closed. I'm pretty upset that we didn't get one last weiner-fest. Oh man, hot dogs and chili cheese fries. HEAVEN.
  
  So. I'm skipping my last class of the day, and I'll be home about 3:30. I'm gonna stuff some huge pork loin chops with my famous garlic, parsley, parmasan mixture and have Tom smoke em. YUM. Then we have last minute details for tomorrow's Halloween bonanza!
  
  I need to get some Vitamin C drops, everyone at school is sick or was sick.
  
  I'll have a huge bunch of pictures later this weekend from last weekend (pumpkin carving and decorating) and this weekend's party.

Well I have all my psych homework for our group project ready to turn in, and it feels good! I can't wait to get back what we turned in last week. Hope it's a good grade...

Tomorrow is pumpkin time. Tom and I are gonna carve up 4 pumpkins. I'm pumped! haha I'm going to gut one tonight so the seeds can dry overnight before I roast them.

The rest of my weekend is looking pretty darn good! The homework for next week looks easy like Sunday mornin', so I'll get to do some pre-Halloween cleaning. And I HAVE to do laundry. Our clothes are totally out of hand. I should feature them on "clutter...exposed!" but I don't think you're ready yet.

Tom picked up some stuff for me at the store today, which was really nice. And he gave me a massage last night. I REALLY needed it. The muscles in between my shoulder blades were freakin' out. Oh...note to self...check out Zune software to see if they have any halloween music we need.

This week was busy but uneventful. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend.

Welcome to what will DEFINITELY be the longest blog ever. I'll start with today's garden pics. We have a fall garden for the first time ever this year. Here is Goku chillin' on the porch watching the birds.



The vertical rows from left to right are brussel sprouts, broccoli, then cabbage on the higher tier. They are doing pretty well! It's nice not having to water everyday. We need to mulch though...


Closer look at some rockin' cabbage. Some of our plants are getting eaten - we're going to look for a pesticide at wal-mart today.


We got some sweet basil (top right) and cilantro (bottom) in some pots, and I threw a spare broccoli plant in one too. They are all doing pretty good.


We left a couple pepper plants in the garden, and they are still putting out like crazy. Look at all these!


Tom, Clint, Reade, John, and Greg headed out to Sharkathon the weekend of October 3rd. It's a huge, land-based fishing tounament on Padre Island National Seashore. I am definitely going next year. A woman won the whole shebang this time!

Here's John - love the shirt. LOL


The beach and our kayak trailer.


Clint staying wrapped up good so he doesn't come home purple (from sunburn!) like last year.


Reade acting like he knows what he's doing.


Tom and Greg and the camp.


The guys didn't catch any good fish during the tournament, but Tom won the best raffle prize, a $2500 gift certificate to have one of these fishing stands fitted for the truck. It will have 8 rod holders, cup holders, and a place for an umbrella. One advantage of being up higher is your lines stay out of the seaweed better. We are going to pick it up the weekend after finals and staying 4 nights in Port Aransas to try it out.



Tuesday, I ditched class and went to the fair for Dr. Pepper Tuesday. I found out from my friend at school Jessica that you can get in for $3 with a Dr Pepper can on Tuesdays, and Tom and I figured saving that much was worth skipping class. Here is Tom and his favorite Egyptian thingie, Anubis. If Tom ever gets a tattoo, it will be Anubis. (We picked a beautiful day, as you can see. It only rained on us on our way in though, the rest of the day was nice!)


We revisited fried queso, one of our favorites from last year. Can you tell that one that I bit into is still a little frozen inside? Ugh!!!


Here were some cool carved pumpkins. That dude did demonstrations on the weekends, so we didn't see him.



Here is Tom's friend the fountain, which he famously ran through after many beers and a visit to the whisky tasting area at the Irish Festival this year.


Next, we tried Fried Grilled Cheese, one of this year's featured foods. We weren't thrilled with it. We expected more like Monte Cristo style. I think this was breaded with potato chips because it was SO crunchy. And it was too greasy. The pidgeons got a good bit of mine. I thought it was cute serving it with tomato soup to dip in.


Neat train setup on wooden tracks under Big Tex


Some sand guy made this King Tut themed display. It was cool! I had the urge to knock it down and play in the sand, but I'll wait til our December trip and knock down my own sandcastles.




Tom is patiently waiting for me to take a picture of the Chicken Fried Bacon so he can eat it. This won "Best Taste" at the fair this year. We liked it OK, but it was nothing to write home about.



Here is the deep fried truffle (after I bit into it). When they say "deep fried truffle", they really do mean a singular truffle. LOL We were a little surprised. But it was a tasty snack. Oh no! I didn't take a picture of the fried banana split! It was good too.


We watched the dancing dogs show, which was pretty cute. We also saw birds of the world.


We saw a cool golf cart.


The highlight of the fair was probably this, the last float in the parade, full of singing Shriners. LOL


Finally, here is a shot from the pyrotechnic show. It was pretty neat, I think I would've preferred a good ol' fireworks show though.


Let's take an intermission from the pictures. Another cool part of the fair was looking at cars because we've been considering selling GiGi for a small SUV of the Ford variety. We loved the Edge, but I'm not sure I can justify not buying the cheaper Escape. The Edge is more comfortable, but it's also more expensive and has worse gas mileage. It's like Tom said, that's why we got the Dodge truck even though the Fords were fancier. The Dodge was $10 grand cheaper, and we just couldn't justify the extra expense for a fluffier seat.

Crock Pot Monday was messed up this week because Tom's friend's birthday was that day. He originally planned to go out Monday, so we didn't have dinner at home. Instead, they went out last night. We ended up having Crock Pot Wednesday with this recipe: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-peppercorn-steak.html (I just figured out how to get the links to work again!!)
It was tasty, but I thought the Worchestershire sauce was overwhelming, and the recipe didn't, ahem, sit well with me both nights I ate it.

Did you see McCain and Obama roast each other last night? Again, you'll have to copy and paste the link, but here they are:

McCain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ql1RLDVWzY

Obama Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKv7a9Om7cs
Obama Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SkFjTCscM4

They were both pretty funny, but if the race were based on hilarity, McCain wouldn't be the underdog! He was SO good!

Finally, here is one blog segment that I have on schedule this week. Clutter...EXPOSED! *insert dramatic news music here* Today I'm featuring my mantle. Right off the bat, you'll notice a bottle of water that's been there so long I don't even remember when we put it there.


Here is a baggie full of new pics of Emma and Alex that I need to put up, and my temporary drivers license from when I had my name changed.


That's a Christmas ornament there on top of that candle - might as well leave it there until we drag the tree out again this year! Also a case for glasses, and a box of long matches for lighting the fireplace.


Who doesn't need a map of Ray Roberts State Park on their mantle? I also have Jonas Bros tickets from July up there.


Finally, dental floss and an empty envelope that used to have my NYC plane ticket from March.


*sigh* I know, I know.

Anyway, school is good, work is good but crazy, and overall, life is great for Team T&A. Have a great weekend!