Halloween Past

Happy Halloween! It looks like it's gonna be a rainy one for us. The weatherman says it may stop in time for trick-or-treating. If not, I guess umbrellas will have to be included in the costumes.

I don't have any little ones to dress up anymore. Mine are too old. Heaven knows, though, they can be just as scary as any ghoul out there. I bought a pumpkin, but no one carved it. I decorated the house, but I don't know if anyone, besides me, cared. All in all, Halloween past was more fun than Halloween present. Does anyone else feel that way? I guess it's just the point in life that I'm at. No little kids, no little kid fun.

Here's a glimpse of Halloweens past.

First, is Ross the football player. He was almost three months old.

Ross the skeleton in '89. My dad always liked for us to empty our trick-or-treat pumpkins out and let him pick out the candy that he liked. Then when we I had kids, I always took them over to their house and they'd do the same thing. My dad likes Almond Joys and Mounds. Not many kids like those.

Ross the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in 1990.

Ross the hunter and Cam the pumpkin in 1992. Cam was only two-and-a-half months old. And obviously not happy with the way the hunter was holding the pumpkin.

One of my very favorite Halloween pictures. This is Ross the indian and Cam the cowboy in 1993. Where Jeff used to work back then had huge Halloween parties for the kids. They could trick-or-treat all the cubicles and they'd get so much candy they wouldn't need to go anywhere else. But, of course, we always did.

Another favorite. Ross the hunter (again) and Cam the Dracula. 1994. This year began the years of buying Cam expensive costumes. The most expensive one, the Star Wars one, I couldn't find my picture.

Ross the hunter (yes, again) and Cam the fireman. 1995. Typical Ross. He still makes faces for most all the pictures I make. I always have to make at least two.

Now we skip to Halloween 2000. Ross the hunter (can you believe it?), Cam the football player, Reid the football player, Joseph the Frankenstein, Ethan the pumpkin and Alayna the Teletubby.

In 2001 Ross is finally something other than a hunter. Cam is in the Scream mask. Reid is a skeleton, Joseph is a zombie, Ethan is Blues Clues and Alayna is a ballerina.

Halloween 2002. Cam, Reid and Alayna.

2003. There is an extra kid in this picture. It's Cam's good friend, Justin.

2004. Cam and a few friends and one of the friends brother.

Great costume for Cam in 2005. He actually trick-or-treated wearing that thing! It was great.

2006. Cam was an old lady and Reid was Elvis. In this pic, Elvis is singing to the old lady. I don't' think she's gonna live through the song.

Here's the rest of the gang in 2006.

Isn't Thomas adorable?
Ethan was an amazing Dracula.


Joseph was the creepy guy from Kiss.

Halloween 2007. This was the last year Cam dressed up. As you can see from his costume here, he had already lost interest. Tear.

And here's last year. I just borrow Suz's kids to substitute for mine since hers are still little.

Can't wait to see all the pictures of the costumes. And I'll have some great ones to share with y'all tomorrow of Crystal and Suz's kids. I don't know if Joseph will dress up or not, but I know Ethan will. And Suz's kids had a party to go to last night, so they've already done the dress-up thing once. They looked UNREAL! I tell ya, Suz really missed her calling in life. She should have been a costume designer or something.

Till tomorrow, hope you get all the Reese cups, Snicker bars, Twix, Paydays, candy corn, bubble gum,Tootsie Roll pops and Smarties your trick-or-treat pumpkin can hold. And no apples or raisins, please.

Gators Eat Boogers

Excuse the crudeness of the title of today's post. That's what's on my mind right now. Georgia plays the booger-eating Florida Gators tomorrow afternoon at 3:30. I'm looking for Georgia to upset them. They're due a big win. I've got a $50 bet riding on it with Ross.

Bandit had her bath this morning. She's all ready for the big game. Or Halloween. Doesn't matter to her. Just give her her bone and she's a happy dog.



Sometimes having ADD can be a good thing. It keeps you from being grumpy for too long. You sorta forget why you were grumpy in the first place. Anyway, I got my comforter washed, gave Bandit a bath and did lots of other things that have made me feel more productive and better. (And skip this part, Jeff.) I turned the air down to 69 degrees this morning. I've turned it back to 73 now. Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and do it.

I have a job today at 1 o'clock near Perimeter Mall. And, of course, it's raining. What, we've been two days without it? It was time I guess. Anyway, I'm sure that with it being a Friday afternoon and raining, plus the day before Halloween, there won't be any traffic at all. YEAH RIGHT!!! I'll be lucky to be home in time for supper!

Guess I better scoot. I don't want to be one of the nut drivers rushing to get somewhere. Y'all have a good Friday.

Till tomorrow,

Grumpy

Warning! Do not read any further unless you want to hear musings from a very grumpy girl!What is wrong with me you may ask? Do you ever have a day that you're just in a bad mood? Nothing specific, everything in general. That's the mood I'm in today. Nothing can make me happy.

The morning started off fine. I came to my computer to send a file to my typist. The file was corrupt. It was the audio from a deposition. That is NOT good. Thank goodness I had a backup running. And thank goodness it wasn't corrupt. That's really the thing that set my mood for the day. I know everyone's job can be stressful, but I tell you, this job of mine really whips me sometimes.

I feel unproductive and I don't feel like I want to be productive. I just feel plain old grumpy. I'm not feeling like myself at all. I went to the mall after working this morning to look for a new comforter. Didn't buy a thing. In fact, I was so grumpy I wanted to spit on all the comforters I didn't like. I didn't though.

I'm tired of driving around in a dirty car. If the stupid rain would stop for more than a day or two at a time, I would take it and get it washed.

I have to go to the laundromat tonight to wash my comforter since I decided to keep it instead of buying a new one. I'm thinking if I wash it, I might like it better. The thought of sitting in the laundromat washing and drying my comforter -- it's too big for my washer -- doesn't make me in a better mood.

My garage is a disaster. The boys have got so much junk in there. And they just drop it right where they're standing. Makes me completely nuts.

I just gave Bandit a bath the other day. She already smells like a dog again. I don't like for my dog to smell like a dog. I prefer she smell like shampoo. Why won't she cooperate?

I've been having migraine headaches two or three times a week at least. Have had a bit of one since last Friday. Yesterday I took a prescription pain pill to try to get some relief. Guess what happened? I had a reaction like I sometimes do and I itched all night long. I mean ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I had no Benadryl in my house. The only thing I had was some Pamprin. I thought it had the generic of Benadryl in it, so I took two. Didn't help. So I just lay there and scratched. I finally fell asleep at 4 o'clock in the morning. Then I was awakened by an awful nightmare! Sometimes you just can't buy a break.

Called my doctor's office to get a refill on a couple of prescriptions I take every day. One is a biggie. It's to help keep my hormones in check since my surgery. It kinda helps keep my family from killing me.

Well, I had to speak to Nurse Nitwit. I tell ya, me and this lady are NEVER on the same page. She added further to my grumpiness. Why I ask you.

Came home and it was so hot in my house. At least it felt hot to me. The thermostat said 71, but I don't believe it. It was hot and stuffy. Are we having summer again? If we are, would someone please let me know so that I can get my summer clothes back out again!

On a very exciting note. Eli played in the championship last night. The team they played was undefeated and had beaten Eli twice in the regular season. But not last night. Eli's team gave them their first loss of the season. I really do hate it that somebody has to lose, but I was glad it wasn't Eli.

Look at his little face. Proud, proud, proud. Oh, and please disregard my bangs in this picture. It was rather humid outside last night.

Okay. Well, I'm taking my grumpy self to the laundromat, where I'll likely be with a bunch of other grumpy people. I mean really. Who likes to go to the laundromat?

Till tomorrow, if I'm not too grumpy to write.

A Day in Buford

Sunday afternoon I went to Buford to watch Eli play in his end-of-the-season tournament. If they lost, it would be the end of their season. If they won, then they'd play again Wednesday night for the championship.

They won! You have never seen a little boy enjoy playing baseball as much as this one does. If you know Eli, you know that he takes baseball very, very seriously. No standing around picking up bugs for this guy. He plays like he's in the big league. Every time his coach would give him some direction, he always replied back to him with an "okay". It was priceless to me to watch him play.

He got a huge hit in this picture.


After he skipped his way back to the dugout, I went to congratulate him for his hit. This is what I got.

A kiss through the fence. And a big ol' thank you for the new Thomas train I bought him. I love ruining my sisters' kids. I figure I owe it to them because they spoiled the heck out of Ross and Cam when they were still the only babies in our family.

After the game, we went to Chili's. They have the two entrees for $20 deal going. If you have the opportunity, take advantage of it. It's awesome and a ton of food. We got two deals, so it was two appetizers, four entrees and two deserts. It was more food than the six of us could eat.

I got to snuggle with Eli on the sofa until he went to sleep Sunday night. Do you even realize how much I miss having a little guy around to snuggle with? My boys come near me like I've got cooties or something. Ross is getting a little better and will give me a hug if he's in just the right mood. Cam would prefer not to. So strange because Cam used to be my snuggle bunny ALL the time. Oh, well. I'll just go to Buford and get my snuggle fix.

Didn't sleep very well while I was there. I had a very comfortable place to sleep, but starting at 5:30 and every 10 minutes after that, Jason's alarm kept going off. Every time I'd almost doze back off, that alarm would go off again. I think he must've hit the snooze button for at least an hour and a half. No kidding. Then Alayna's went off. And then Suz's. Alarms were going off all over the house and no one was getting up. Except me.

After Suz got the kids off to school and we got ready, we set out to get everything she needed to make her kids Halloween costumes. Now, if I had three kids I'd be headed to a costume store to buy their costume. Not her. She makes theirs. One year I bought Cam a Star Wars costume that had a mask that was at least $50. He wore it for a few pictures and then didn't wear it anymore. It was too hot. Ugh. Masks are such a waste of money. No one can breathe in the darn things. But Cam was the type kid that had to have every single accessory that went with his costume.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. The food there is okay, but the shopping is great! Suz found this shirt that pretty much describes us. It said, "I work the mood swing shift." True, so true.
Look at all this Georgia stuff. A lot of it was Christmas. They had some pretty and unique things. They already had their Halloween and Thanksgiving things 40 percent off! Guess they've got to make room for more Christmas.

I guess we probably left there at 11 in the morning. We didn't get back to her house until 5 o'clock in the afternoon!!!!!! I was as tired as I am after we shop the day after Thanksgiving. We got almost everything she needs for the kids' costumes. We bought everything from teeth to shoes to hair for the head and for the face! I think she may have to go out one more time for Reid. It'll be a Goodwill trip. We were just too wiped out to make it there.

I may not to get to see them on Halloween. I'll get her to send me her pictures. And Crystal's kids also. Hers always look amazing too. She never buys a costume either. Well, Joseph might swindle her out of a mask once in a while, but most of the time they've had painted faces. (Remember the talent bug skipped me.) I want to see all of your kids and grands too!

Ross and Cam won't be dressing up. Tear. Well, I guess that's not exactly true. They'll probably be in the woods in their camo, so we'll just say they dressed up as hunters. Maybe that will keep me from being sad that I don't have little ghouls anymore.

Take a look at this splendor.

Is that not gorgeous? It was a tree in Buford. Those leaves are so beautiful they hurt your eyes. I think we must be at peak with the leaves because they are so pretty everywhere. I find myself wanting to stop in the middle of the road to make a picture, which I did get Suz to do so I could get this one! There's just nothing like those colors.

Worked today and then came home and took a nap. Gotta catch up on my lost sleep from Sunday night, you know. It was a perfect day for a nap. It was a duck's perfect day.

Until we meet again. . .

I Loved Lucy

And Cindy guessed! She's a very smart cookie. The clues weren't that good, but she guessed it anyway! I've got a great prize I'll be mailing your way tomorrow.

We were Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Jeff shaved off his whiskers to be Ricky. Dyed his hair black. I promise, he didn't look a thing like himself. It was very bizarre. He's had whiskers for probably 15 years. Oh, well, they've already started to grow back.

This isn't a very good picture of him, he's squinting, but I thought it was cute anyway.

Here are Nan and Ronnie. Their costumes were great. Everyone's was. Ronnie is a homeless person stuck in a time warp. Love that mullet! Nan was a scratched up, beat up, wicked looking girl with a very demented doll hanging around her neck.

Here's Jeff and Nan with the demented doll!

Lucy, two nurses, a hippie chick and the beat-up girl with her demented doll again. The doll loved to have her picture made!

Beverly and Cecil had worked so hard getting the decorations together and they were beautiful. Honestly, like something out of a magazine.

Crystal came over about an hour and a half before we were supposed to leave to help us get ready. I'm not kidding when I say that it took every second of that time to get me ready. That darned wig was a pain. I will never dye my hair that color that's for sure.

I had bought these fake eyelashes and nearly ruined them trying to curl them. That was a mess. She painted Jeff's hair and eyebrows. Adjusted and readjusted my dress and that stupid chef's hat.

By the time we left the party, I was taking the eyelashes off in the car and threw them out the window. My head felt like it was carrying around an extra hundred pounds with that wig and hat. Plus all the hairspray and bobby pins it took to hold it all on.

I made the pumpkin cookies again. Once again, they were a smashing success. Nobody can believe I make them. Hmmm. I actually made homemade chocolate chip ones too. Only about six dozen. I was exhausted when we went to bed last night.

I'm going to Buford this afternoon to watch Eli play his last baseball game of the season. I think I'm going to spend the night up there and help Suz tomorrow get the rest of her kids' costume stuff together.

So till tomorrow, I leave you with this.

Fall in Georgia, I Love You

Yesterday was a gloriously beautiful fall day. It was warm, breezy and sunny. It was perfect. I like the cooler temps that come with fall, but it's nice to get a day now and then that feels more like early summer than fall. Yesterday was such a day.

I went out on my deck, got in a lounge chair and just listened. Do you ever do that? Just concentrate on listening to the sounds around you. I heard the wind blowing through the trees, still holding onto their leaves. Then I'd hear dozens of acorns hit the ground with a thump. Birds, squirrels, an occasional barking dog and even the train in Stockbridge. Heavenly I tell you.

It was also a great day because guess what hit my mailbox?

Yep. You guessed it. My November Southern Living magazine. I love you too! I didn't even open it when it came. I saved it for bedtime. I looked forward all evening to bedtime when I could read it from cover to cover.

I always look at my magazines from the back to the front. How weird is that? I read through this one twice. It was chocked full of good recipes, good articles and gardening tips. I marked several recipes I want to try and a couple of places I'd like to visit over the holidays.

One of the bloggers I have on my sidebar, The Pioneer Woman, was featured in November's issue. She is an amazing woman. She cooks, makes great pictures, gardens and, most impressively, homeschools her kids. Oh, and blogs about it all.

There was also an article about this.

My auntie Barbo gave me this potted plant. It's called a pythos. There was a whole article in the magazine about what an easy plant they are to keep. So ironic because when she gave it to me, I told her I was no good with houseplants. I try. Or should I say tried. This is the only one I have now. And I'm so proud to say that it's thriving!

When MaMa and PaPa Kimball died in 2003, we were all given a houseplant from the flowers sent. I felt so obligated to those plants and it really did upset me when I let them die. I felt like it was something personal against MaMa and PaPa. Crazy I know. So I just don't mess with them anymore.

Speaking of my aunt Barbo. Look at this beautiful bowl she gave me a while back. It's a certain kind of glass, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is called. Do any of you know?

Isn't it beautiful though? And it photographed so pretty. MaMa Kimball used to have drinking glasses that were made out of the same glass. I got one before she died. Brings back memories of sitting at the kitchen table with her enjoying her angel biscuits and roast. Next Wednesday will be six years since she died. Guess that's why she's on my mind this morning.

Do any of you use flavored creamer? I couldn't resist buying this at the store yesterday.

The bottle was so pretty and it just sounded so good. I tried it this morning in my coffee and I don't love it. It totally overpowers the coffee. I think it might be good with some Bailey's, but not coffee. At least not mine.

I had a winner in my Guess-My-Costume contest. I don't want to tell you who it was yet because I'm going to post some pictures of us tomorrow night and then you'll know. I found the perfect prize for the winner and I'm gonna mail it on Monday. I think she'll like it!

Not much to do today. Mostly caught up with work. I'm giving Bandit a bath and then myself one. After that I think I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble and read magazines. Maybe I'll get some inspiration for holiday decorating. Now, here's an idea. Maybe I'll read some fitness magazines and get some inspiration for exercising. Aw, who am I kidding? I did buy the Wii Fit Plus last night though. Have any of you tried it? Did you like it? I haven't opened it yet, so give me your reviews.

Till tomorrow, I hope you live, love and laugh and enjoy the heck out of your Friday!

Birthday Grand Finale & Fall Stuff

Sunday Night Supper was a wienie roast for my birthday. We got rained out the weekend before, but last Sunday was perfect. There was just enough chill to want to sit close to the fire. In fact, it was downright cold. And windy.

We had it all. We had hot dogs. We had chili. We had chips. We had marshmallows. We had smores. We had cupcakes. We had homemade banana pudding. We had popcorn. But the star of the show was. . .

Nestle Rich Milk Chocolate hot chocolate. Oh, yeah! I made it with milk and everyone loved it. I didn't even have a cup, but we made four big pans of it. There must have been something about heating it up on the campfire that made it so good. That and a few mini Hershey chocolate bars thrown in for good measure.

Every year at the campfire, the kids end up jumping on the trampoline. I don't think they got on it once over the summer, but come campfire night they can't wait to get on.

Jeff's mom and dad came up and ate with us. She brought the banana pudding. It was super yummy.

This picture pretty much sums it up. See the smoke. Yeah, that's what I spent the entire night dodging! Unsuccessfully. I do believe that the wind was blowing a hundred miles an hour. Everywhere I went, the smoke went.

Y'all know I love a fire, but I HATE smoke. I mean, I really HATE it. I feel like my skin absorbs the smell. Of course, I know it doesn't, but it seems that way. I used about half a bottle of shampoo that night and the next morning I could still smell the smoke in my hair. We even had to wash all of our clothes that we had on THAT NIGHT. I could not wait until morning to get ALL of that smell gone. OCD, yeah, I know. Poor Suz had to ride 50 minutes with herself and the kids all reeking of smoke. Bless her heart.

I brought out a pair of safety glasses thinking maybe they would help keep the smoke out of my eyes. Uh, no. Eli liked them though.

Every family must have a Candy Kid. In ours, Reid is the man. He loves sweets. It doesn't matter what it is. If it's sweet, he'll eat it. Even dark chocolate. Even coconut. Here he is roasting his marshmallow. Do y'all like roasted marshmallows? I sure do. This year I found some coconut ones and OMGosh, when you roasted them, they were yuuuuuummmmmy!

It was a lot of fun. And a lot of work. We stayed outside the entire time, but yet, it took us 45 minutes to clean the kitchen up. Go figure.

Had a job today and I took Tracy's pumpkin cookies. to share with the attorneys. We got a late start, so only two were eaten. It's kinda hard to eat cookies and take a depo at the same time. I left them with the attorney. You know, you wanna leave a good impression. Take it from me and make these cookies. They are light and fluffy and just put you in a "fallish happy place." My family really likes them too. Oh, and BTW, have one with a cup of coffee. It's heavenly.

Can you tell I'm writing this post while I'm starving? Everything I bring up seems to lead to food.

After the depo, I had some errands to run. One was to stop at Party City and get the finishing touches for Jeff's and my costume. Our friends, Beverly and Cecil, are having a Halloween party Saturday night. You may remember the pictures I posted of their beautiful yard on the 4th of July. They are having the party. I can't tell ya what I'm being, but I'll give you a clue. The first one with the correct guess will win a prize. Okay. Here it is. We all love her. That's it. That's your clue. Jeff's working from home tomorrow, so we're gonna have a dress rehearsal.

There will have to be some BIG changes to make these costumes work. We'll see. Unfortunately, the costume bug skipped me and went straight to Crystal and Suz. I'm no good at dressing up. I have no creativity. They could work on movie sets. And they've both won "Best Costume" at parties. Have you ever had the "best costume"? I haven't.

Haven't bought any Halloween candy yet. I've been looking. I love Halloween candy. Heck, I love Halloween. We have zero trick-or-treaters. Basically, if I buy the candy I'm buying it for me. I'm gonna hold out a few more days. I really do think that the month of October pretty much gives you an excused month to eat junk. Oh, but then comes November. Everyone knows that's definitely an excused month . And then December. Most assuredly, that's an excused month.

So this post has been about smoke and sweets. One of those is another clue to my costume. I hope you'll win the costume guessing contest!

Till the next time.

Oh, and one last thing. If any of you are a candy corn connoisseur, the big bags with the individual bags of Brach's candy corn are the very, very best. There are about six candy corn in each bag. That's the perfect candy corn fix for anyone. And they are waaaaayy fresher than the big bags. And only buy Brach's. The other ones are impostors. They are bad. OCD again, yeah, I know. Trust me on this one though.

Now, until next time.

The Birthday Trip

I've been trying for two days to get this post up. Blogger was mad at me yesterday and wouldn't work. Finally, this morning I was able to post.

It rained almost every minute of our trip to Blue Ridge. We got a break for a couple of hours on Thursday and we went into town to some of the neat shops. They had so many antique stores. Believe it or not, I didn't buy a thing. Well, that's not exactly true. We did get two ice cream cones that were soooooo good. At this ice cream shop, they make all of their ice cream starting with vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Then they add whatever you want in it and mix it up. Mine was apple pie. Jeff's was cookie dough. The cones were amazing. Don't you love a good, homemade waffle cone? Sometimes I scoop a big blob of the ice cream out so I can hurry and get to the cone.

Since Jeff and I are creatures of habit and routine, we had pizza Wednesday night. We found this pizza place called Blue Jeans. It seemed to me that everything in Blue Ridge was blue. It was New York-style pizza and it was delish!!!!! I must say, though, that we're used to places with more people to watch or maybe a TV. This great pizza place didn't have either. We pretty much snarfed our pizza down and went back to the cabin.

I found it hard to leave the cabin to go anywhere. It was so beautiful. We had a hot tub, an indoor fireplace and an outdoor fireplace on the porch overlooking the mountains. It was covered, so we were able to be outside even in the rain.

Thursday night I got car sick riding to the restaurant we went to for dinner. I mean, really car sick. That is one of the worst feelings. After I ate and finally got it settled, it was time to head back. That's when I got really, really, really car sick. I never threw up, but my stomach was churning and my head was spinning. When we got back I just laid on the sofa and watched college football. Other than being sick, it was absolute bliss.

Friday morning we got up and got packed. We made a stop at an apple orchard and drove home. It's only about a two-hour drive. I would love to go back.

Here are a few pictures from the trip. This is a little guest book for you to write about your stay. We were only the second people to stay in the cabin. Everything in it was brand-new. I was definitely in heaven. If you look closely at the bottom of the journal, you see three words that I love.

Everything in that cabin was wood. Nothing was painted anywhere. The walls, the ceiling, everything was wood. It was so pretty.

I would love to have the decorator who decorated this place come to my house. The attention to detail throughout really amazed me.

The master bedroom was upstairs. When you got to the top of the steps, there was a small sitting area with a futon, a flat screen TV, an Xbox and a Playstation. This was the view over the rail into the living room.

Loved this little troll looking out the bathroom window.

Cute little sign. It's a little blurry, but it says, "I love my country. It's the government that scares me." I think most of us feel that way, huh?

The master bedroom opened to a small patio. This was the view out the master bedroom. On vacation, would you rather wake up to the ocean or the mountains?

We spent a lot of time on the outdoor porch. If you look closely, in the reflection, you can see Jeff doing. . .

. . . this.

We struggled and struggled to have a good fire. The wood must not have been seasoned because it did not want to burn. After about 30 minutes of working with it, this is what we got.

Not a roaring fire by any means, but better than this.

Which is what we were able to get most of the time. The best fire he built was the night I was too car sick to go out and enjoy it. I could hardly hold my head up.

Loved the haze off the mountains.

Beach or mountains? Mountains or beach? Aren't God's creations amazing??

This is the fire I made on Thursday morning. It looks blazing, doesn't it? Don't be fooled. If you look closely in the picture, you can see the fake firewood burning underneath the real wood. As soon as the fake wood was done, so was the fire.

I'm covered up with the Snugi my mom and dad gave me for my birthday. Those commercials are so cheesy, but let me tell you, you must get one. Get a flannel one. Get a Georgia one. They're the warmest!

Earlier I mentioned that in Blue Ridge, a lot of stuff was blue. Look at this. Which came first? The truck or the house?

We had dinner here Thursday night.

As you might guess from the name of the place, it was right on the Toccoa River. It was dark, so we couldn't see it. But I had the thickest filet mignon known to mankind. Cooked to perfection, it was delicious. Jeff had shrimp. The steamed vegetables that came with our meal were almost better than the main course. Again, the ambiance was lacking. Nothing really to invite you to eat your dinner slowly and relax. So we ate and left.

We drove down the winding, curvy, hilly road back to our cabin. The way Jeff was driving around those mountains, I felt like I was on the Dahlonega Mine Train at Six Flags. Next time I will definitely take something for motion sickness.

Friday we said goodbye to our mountain hideaway, but first we had to do some housekeeping. This is what we were required to do (or else lose your deposit): 1. Clean out the wood burning fireplace and take the ashes out. (No, I'm not kidding.) 2. Take all the towels and put them in the bottom floor bathtub. 3. Take out the trash. 4. Turn the dishwasher on. Not really sure what the $60 cleaning fee was for, but I'd definitely clean the place for $60. You could easily do it in about an hour after having someone else do all that stuff.

Bye, Buckhead Hideaway.

Here is our cabin from the road going home. Tear.

And this is a picture of the cabin (or mansion) that was a little ways up the mountain from ours.

Can you even imagine how huge that must be? And how nice? It would be fun to take family or friends to a place like that for a long weekend.

I love this next picture. I'm infatuated with old homeplaces and barns. Wish I could've known the people who lived there and worked there. Maybe they were like the Waltons (my most favorite show in the whole world).

Sweet little turkeys out getting their breakfast. Hope they won't be in our local supermarket freezers in a few weeks.

Y'all, that was my trip. It was perfect. Unlike a few other times we've been to the mountains and stayed in what was advertised as a "rustic" cabin. Uh, yeah, I guess rustic means unclean. The sofa had dog hair woven into the fabric and a sock in the bed. And, no, it wasn't our sock. YUCK! Don't worry, though, we didn't stay. We got our money back and got the heck out of Dodge.

Add Blue Ridge to my list of favorites. And the Buckhead Hideaway is definitely at the top of the list!

Till tomorrow, when I'll have another picture-filled post of my birthday's grand finale. The campfire wienie roast! Cough. Cough.