Barking Mad

Of This One Thing I am Sure...

...Gaby loves Autumn and the bounty it brings almost as much as her mommy does!

 

 

  

I have discovered that there is NO END to the number of times a 3 year old will jump into a pile of leaves!  The joy that is derived from this simple act is seemingly endless, and so are the giggles as she lands into a pile of red, brown, orange and gold leaves.  Gaby turns the dried leaves over in her hands and then with glee, scrunches them between her fingertips and watches as the pieces of the broken leaf drift back down onto the pile from whence it came. 

Here we go again! It's important to get a running start...

 

 

 

All of this running and jumping and cavorting with leaves is enough to make one think she might be part woodland elf!

 

Of course, all this leaf-pile jumping comes with a few drawbacks...

 

 

Pine needles and leaves in the hair can be a mighty annoying thing when you're 3!

 

Alas, a leaf or two intertwined with her curls doesn't deter her for long.  Before you know it, she's back at it again!

  

 

Even her big brother Matt can't resist her pleas to, "Come jump wiff me Matty, come on, it's FUN!"

  

No matter how dirty she gets and how many pine needles I end up pulling out of her hair at bath time, the sheer joy she gets from this beloved New England pastime is worth it! 

How much does this child love Autumn?  I think her smile says it all!

 

  If things are quieter than normal around the asylum it's because we are out enjoying the beautiful colors of this time of year and for that enjoyment, Autumn exacts a price...raking all those leaves! Not only is that a huge chore this time of year but while some people have massive spring cleaning sprees, we are having a massive Autumn overhaul!  

Amidst all the raking and cleaning, we're also dealing with Meaghan's departure for boot camp looming near by.   In the next 25 days we're going to be celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas and Halloween with our girl!  To say it's going to be busy is an understatement of epic proportions.

25 days...

 

When Sisters Bond

Leave it to my two girls, despite being separated by 16 years, to find common ground in none other than...their hair!

Most of you recognize Gaby with these wild curls...

Here's what happens when the 3 year old decides she wants to hang out with her 19 year old sister. 

Curls, meet flat iron...







And this is what happens when I told her that this little bonding session was NOT going to include make-up! 

Her trademark scowl!

It wasn't even 30 minutes later in nearly 70% humidity that her hair was every bit as curly as it has been before the flat iron even hit her hair.  And for that I'm grateful.  She looks entirely too grown-up with straight hair.

Just Jump!

Forbidden fruit is always the best kind, especially when it's shared between friends and siblings.

This "forbidden fruit" came in the guise of a trampoline belonging to our next door neighbour, a neighbour I might add who's home is about to be foreclosed on and the property is now vacant.

Yes, I know, this is technically trespassing but as the kids were told a while back they could use the trampoline anytime they wanted, we took a little liberty and hoped the invite extended to circumstances like foreclosure.  Megawatt wants to offer to buy the trampoline.   I'm not too sure how I feel about that.

The Little Imp was not altogether too sure about the trampoline.  In my eyes, this is a good thing.  An ounce of warniness equals no trips to the ER to treat broken bones!



Despite her unease, she managed to catch a tiny bit of air...



...and then a little more with big sister's help!

Shhhhh, don't tell anyone, but I am so tempted to go over there and bounce on it myself.  But with my luck, one of two things would happen; I'd fall ass over teakettle and break something or the realtor who is listing the house will show up with someone wanting to look at it and there I'd be, the rotund lady from next door, making a jackass out of herself on the trampoline.  I might not have gotten caught soaking my boobs in the lobster pot, but mark my words, my luck is only going to hold out for so long!   I'd love to appear in the local paper...but would like it to be for my writing or photography and not in the police blotter under the headline, "Local Woman Booked on Trespassing Charges After Being Caught Jumping on Neighbours Trampoline."

Just the same...that annoying little voice inside my head is whispering, "Go on now, just jump!"

Weekends at the Asylum

This is the little placard that hangs in my kitchen above my stove.   Well, it will until I get off my ass and get the microwave and rack ordered that's supposed to go above the stove.  And then I'll have to figure out another place for it, which, with my limited brain capacity, won't be easy. And because I haven't yet scheduled the electrician to come in and wire for it, it's going to be put off even more, because hey, I'm a procrastinator like that.

I digress.

The little placard is significant because it's symbolic of how things roll around here now that Megawatt is home from college as are her friends.  Of course, this weekend was steeped in even more excitement due to Megawatt swearing into the USAF on Friday morning.  It goes without saying that Friday night, several of her friends hit the asylum for dinner...spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.  The Mt. Dew flowed freely as did the laughs.

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the video they were watching was this one.  It never fails to amuse me, even if it is a tad cruel.

All the You Tubage was followed by much mirth and merriment (Good Lord, where do I come up with this stuff? I think I just suffered a time-warp in which I went back to Dicken's London!), around the table. 

Megawatt proudly showing off her USAF t-shirt.

I need to note a few things about Friday evening.   Megawatt regaled everyone with her "MEP's Interrogation" tale no less than 42 times.  Honestly though, it never got old.  It was amusing to me because it was the Marine's who did the interrogations and exams.   I was afraid she was either going to laugh at them during her MEP's or yell back at them.  She did laugh a couple of times but thankfully the USAF still wants her.

Before dinner I was trying to reach the sea salt in one of the higher cupboards and making some general moans and groans of discontent about other stuff falling on my head whilst trying to reach the salt.  In rushes Megawatt and proclaims, "It's OK Mom!  I'm in the Air Force now, I'll save you!"  To which I replied, "The citizens of our proud country can sleep well at night knowing you're on the job, saving your mom from being beaned by a box of cornstarch. I myself feel so much better."

The next time Megawatt bitches at me when I ask her to take the garbage out, I'm going to tell her, "Suck it up maggot!  You're in the Air Force now!" 

Maybe later on today or tomorrow I can get her to do a guest post about her entire MEP's experience.  I can't retell it quite as "colourfully" as she can.  In other words, she uses a lot of expletives but despite that, it's still quite funny.

Saturday I fooled around with my camera, begging it to give me a good reason not to switch sides and start batting for Canon.  After looking at the images I shot, of our lilacs in bloom and a couple of orange azaleas (I think they're azaleas.  This is the first year they've bloomed since we bought the house two years ago.), I'm even more undecided than ever.  In my eyes, the photos aren't as clear and crisp as they should be...not like they were when the camera was brand new anyhow.  But I'm glad I took the pictures anyhow because in the course of shooting the lilac bush and azalea, I realized that neither plant looks very healthy and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't produce blooms next year.

Considering my complete ineptitude when it comes to gardening, I'm reconsidering planting a bunch of hydrangeas.  Um yeah, I'm pretty worried that next year they'll be dead.  Perhaps I should just stick with the artificial ones that adorn my kitchen and front room?

Sunday was another dinner attended by Megawatt's friends.  For me it was bittersweet because we held it in honour of Michael Tecak who leaves on Wednesday as his Naval unit is deploying to the middle east.  He and Megawatt used to date and I still adore him.   I put together a huge Taco Bar for the kids and because Tecak loves strawberries, I made my mom's version of Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.

The guest of honour arrives...90 minutes late and drenched from playing a round of golf IN THE RAIN!

Dig in!





Oops!  Forgot to chop the tomatoes.  Oh well, I hate the nasty things anyhow!





Dessert!

Good luck Michael.  Take care of yourself over there...be safe, be well, and know that we're thinking about you and are so grateful for your service to our country!   We're going to miss you!

Distracted

Big things are afoot at the Barking Mad Asylum, with one inmate in particular.  We've kept this pretty hush-hush for several reasons which I can go into, I hope, tomorrow once it's all said and done.  If you are family (um, hello Mommily) and know of which I speak, please don't mention it in the comments.  What I will say though is that tomorrow is an extremely momentous day for one inmate here at the asylum and whilst I have so many mixed feelings about this, I can't wait to share the news.

If all that didn't already have me befuddled enough, I'm sitting on the fence trying to decide about switching from my Sony DSLR to a Canon camera.  I have been on the fence about this for more than a year now and at one point was even caught flirting with Nikon.  I know this is pretty boring stuff to you, but I'm at a point with my photography where it's "Shit or get off the pot."  Pardon the offensive nature of that last sentence but it's completely apropos for where I am right now.  I'm not getting the kind of results I want from the Sony and I need to make a move.  I have considered moving up to their a900 but for what the body alone costs, I could get a comparable Canon with the lenses as well.  Don't get me wrong...I have loved being able to take some wonderful shots with Sony's first venture into the Prosumer DSLR line (which, technically speaking, was Minolta/Konika, as Sony bought them), but I want more speed, better quality and a higher level of support than I'm currently getting from Sony.

The thing about my photography?  I'm just not sure I'm good enough to warrant getting another camera.  Add to that, I don't Photoshop the hell out of everything.  I want what comes out of my camera to be genuine and beautiful.  I don't believe in embellishing photographs.  I know there's potential for a huge debate that could lead to argument in that sentence, but that is my opinion. I do believe in cleaning images up, but if the sky in the photo you took was not as cerulean blue as you want it/think it should be, I feel there's an element of dishonesty in Photoshopping it to appear as blue as you imagined it was.  Again, that's just my opinion. 

I'm at odds with this entire camera thing because I don't want to buy a new camera hoping that the problem with my photos is the camera itself and not the person behind it.  You can't buy talent...ya know?

Having said all that; I do love photography.  I love the sense of pride I get from uploading something I captured and having it come up as brightly and vividly as I remembered seeing it. I've been flattered to have photos from my Portland Headlight series be displayed at a local gallery - talk about a huge ego boost!  I love capturing the expressions of the Little Imp or Megawatt and her friends.  Live moments from life, forever held in time.  Unlike writing, which I don't have to work at and which is something that has been effortless almost my entire life, I do have to work at taking pictures.  I have to know my camera and the settings and then deal with all of those variables.  Every once in a while, the little knowledge of those things that I do possess, will come into play and the stars align and I get a shot I'm absolutely in love with. 

So what do I do next, amidst all the confusion over whether or not I actually have any talent behind the lens?  I slam you all with more photographs from Memorial Day out at Pemequid Beach.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and I'm grateful that despite a lack of talent behind the lens, for the gorgeous subjects I was blessed with, in front of it.

Notwithstanding how annoyed these two luvlies get with me being forever attached to my camera, you have to admit, they make perfect subjects...even when they aren't very cooperative! 

Of course, every once in a blue moon I can get them both to look my direction and smile!

We dragged Zach B., with us out there and I got him to smile for a few shots as well...

 

Well OK, maybe I should have made the above "smiles", singular!

 

Leave it to Megawatt and Zach to horse around.  I am never at a loss for things to shoot, with Megawatt and her friends in lens range...

Rock dancing? Um, yeah...leave it to Megawatt!

 

It was, after all, Memorial Day...

 

 

Oops!

 

 

 

In addition to the wildlife of the teenage variety, I was able to catch some of the "pesky and irritating" assortment as well!  Of course, the hubby, who this mosquito happened to land upon, was not thrilled with me wanting him to stand absolutely still so I could get a shot of the ugly little bastard!

 

The hubby would have preferred I stick to capturing this kind of wildlife...

 

 

...or even this kind, on the half-shell!

 

 

Yuck!  Sorry, but I don't like clams, dead or alive.

Of course, my favourite kind of wildlife is the home-grown kind! Running wild, hair flying everywhere, and smiling from ear to ear!

 

The Inmates Have Taken Over the Asylum

Champion Chowder...or, as the inmates are from New England, "Chowdah."

This is Megawatt and Paul coming at you live from the asylum. We just wanted to take this opportunity to share with you, the lovely readers, our delicious invention that is Champion Chowdah.

• Grill three onions and four potatoes (kick one potato into hallway for mom to find...see image below)
• Boil grilled veggies for approximately seven minutes 
• Throw in 10 pieces of already cooked bacon
• A whole stick of butter
• A decent amount pepper WITH whole pepper corns,
• A lot of Oregano
• Enough salt to cancel out the pepper
• Two cups of 1% milk,
• Three bags of three different cheeses
• And a dash of Mountain Dew.

Those are the makings of what we like to call Champion Chowdah. Oh yeah, none of this can be made on a kitchen stove, you have to *pioneer it like a champ…that’s why it’s called Champion Chowdah.

*That means you either have to cook it on your grill/BBQ or over a roaring bonfire if that's what it takes.

 ***Disclaimer***: If you are ready to gain 10 pounds of pure muscle instantly, Champion Chowdah is not for you. Also if you don’t want your ass to explode I highly recommend you NOT digest any Champion Chowdah. Basically if you’re not a champ/have no desire to become a champ, this is not for you.

Now I’m sure you’re asking yourselves, “How did these kids come up with something like that?”  To be honest we’re not sure…All we can tell you is to leave two 19 year olds home alone with a barbecue and I’m sure they’ll come up with a nice little treat of their own.

Megawatt and I thought we would share this life changing experience with you from two perspectives, the head chef (Megawatt) and the spectator/facilitator (Paul).  The spectator job was harder than it sounds. I had to make sure no harm befell the house…or us, as a result of harm befalling the house.  Megawatt's mom would have busted an entire can of "harm" on us had anything happened to her house, or her kitchen, which is why *pioneering the chowdah was important!

The head chef, me Megawatt, was out on a lovely day, sitting in a lawn chair looking at the BBQ. I mean it was a beautiful day so I decided I would pioneer the hell out of some onions. I then got the brilliant idea to boil them on the side burner. Then I remembered that onion soup was better out of a Lipton soup packet. I thought for a moment and looked at Paul and the idea came to my mind, potato soup! I grilled away because I needed to prove to Paul, the male figure here, that I, a woman, can grill. What better way to do it than with potatoes?

 

 I realized then that we had a great invention. Champion Chowdah.  After putting a stick of butter in the pot, Paul told me he would no longer “eat the effing onion soup”. Oh but he eventually did. He was a champion! I proceeded to add the rest of my ingredients in and let it bubble away on the grill. 

I dished up Paul, my mom, and me a huge bowl of chowdah each. My mom didn’t like it at all and I think there might even have been some gagging on her part, but Paul and I ate it and are therefore complete champions. My mom? Not so much.

There were only two things that came to mind for me, Paul the spectator, during the creation of this lovely dish. “I fucking HATE onions!” and “seriously Meg? A whole stick of butter?”

 

Paul trying to choke down some chowdah...

To conclude this post, we'd just like to say that the Champion Chowdah did not taste as good as it smelled.

Megawatt and Paul

Post Script: A Mother's Observations

Oh.My.God. 

So this is what they get up to when I'm not around. 

I walk into the house after a doctor's appointment to find a lone potato in the hallway (see above photo) and both kids out on the back deck (Paul is here so much that we are claiming him as a dependent on next years taxes...not that I mind or anything!), cooking a pot of "something" on the side burner of the grill.  Megawatt notices the perplexed expression on my face and says, "Oh hey mom!  We're cooking some chowdah out here and we're totally pioneering the shit out of it!"  To which I reply, "Yeah well, you know, we have a stove, electricity, hot and cold running water INSIDE the house?" 

Megawatt brushed off my questions and continued in her attempt to prove to Paul that Girls Can Grill.

Long story short...I give them both 5 stars for the effort and a big fat 0 for taste.  The only way I can describe it is to tell you that the potatoes were dreadfully undercooked and that the onions overpowered EVERYTHING.  Well OK, the taste of bonfire smoke overwhelmed everything, because that's exactly what their concoction tasted like...a bonfire!

Oddly enough, feeling the need to one-up each other again, the two of them set out to out "push up" the other. 

Geronimo coached each kiddo along...well OK, he annoyed the crap out of them, batting at their heads and trying to grab a nose here or there.

 

 

My arms hurt just watching all of this...

 

Resting afterward, Paul telling Megawatt that he was sure he out pushed her by 2...

 

I have no clue how many push ups each of them actually ended up doing.  I had dry heaves just watching them try to one-up each other.

A word to Paul and Megawatt...next time use one of the damn cookbooks!

What to Do? Oh What to Do?

I have a dilemma.

You want pictures of the new kitchen colour AND (greedy bunch aren't you?) pictures of the paint in my hair.  But I just got done uploading more wonderful snow pictures and some seriously cute Little Imp pics.

Now I know, once you've seen a snowy landscape, you've seen all snowy landscapes.  Once you've seen blurry pics of snow during a blizzard, you've seen all blurry pics of snow during a blizzard.  And finally, once you've seen pics of a blog author...

...getting ready to go for a walk in the aforementioned blizzard ...

...with her eldest daughter...

...well then I guess you've seen it all! 

Oh but wait m'dears!  Just wait a doggone minute!

Have you ever seen a picture of a blog author and her daughter after a walk in a blizzard, after the blog author has face-planted in 3+ FEET of snow?

On second thought you probably don't really want to see that picture, now do you?

No, you'd much rather see a less humorous look at what happens when your humble blog hostess lets three college freshman, one of whom she gave birth to, paint her kitchen.

Are you sure you're ready for this?  I mean, I have been an awful tease about it.  I'm sure you're just bubbling with enthusiasm over finally seeing the long awaited new colour, which I am in love with.

Ready?

Set?

Here we go!

 

 

Before much of the madness ensued.  Aren't they just adorable?  Yeah, you just keep tellin' yourself that.  Just wait till you have teenagers of your own!

 

Zack, willing to scale the fridge to paint above the cupboards...

 

 

What's a little paint amongst friends?

 

 

 

As I stood there and watched them, I was thankful I wasn't going to be attempting to get paint out of my hair later that night and into the next morning...

 

 

 

So, remember what I said about being thankful I didn't have to spend hours getting paint out of my hair?  I never ever should have opened my big fat mouth!

 

For those of you who are on Facebook and have me added, you are already aware that I stayed up long into the night with a bottle of olive oil and conditioner and a fine-toothed comb getting that bitch of  a paint job out of my hair.  

So, what do you think of the new colour?

I love it.  I really really do!  I'm not so fond of the name...La Fonda Plaza, but I am just going to refer to it as Dark Sage from here on out. We finally decided on the granite counter tops we're going to have put in.  Now, I wish I was making up the name of the colour but I'm not.  It's a really dark green with faint gold veining and darker black flecks and it's called...are ya ready for this?  Uba Tuba.

I couldn't make that up if I tried.

I'm anxious to see how it's all going to look once it's done.  I don't know when that's going to be though. The countertops are gifted to us, as is the new undermount sink and plumbing hardware, so we're at the mercy of someone else's timescale.  All we know is that it's likely to be before this coming summer. 

We're in the midst of painting all the cabinets and trim white and trying to decide just how light we want to go with the wood flooring.  Flooring and countertops aren't something we can do over 4 times until I'm happy with it.  So we need to get it right the first time around.

I have to be honest about the painting thing...it sucks.  I'm never ever DIY'ing a huge painting project again.  I think we half-assed a lot of it. The kids did a good job, don't get me wrong.  But things like the trim - we should have been more careful with it because at this point it's going to take numerous coats of primer to cover up the green splatters before we can start doing the trim properly.  And whilst we're getting new windows, there is an awful lot of green paint on the sills.  So once our budget loosens up a little I'm going to get some quotes from interior painters when it comes to the rest of the house, which is being repainted as well.  The wonderful thing about that is I won't be the one cussing up a blue streak whilst trying to get paint out of my hair!  Of course I won't have any comic photographic momentos of the occasion, but I think I can live with that.

I guess because you've been so patient whilst I've blathered on about painting, I'll show you the face-plant pictures.

Seriously, I think I need to re-learn how to walk sometimes.  All I was doing was putting one foot in front of the other (Oh God, now that song is going to get stuck in my head...you know the one I'm talking about!) and then blam!  Right into all that freakin' snow!

Here I am, rockin' the snow-blasted Eskimo look!

 

 

If I really had my stuff together, I'd have had a contest to see if you guys could have made out the makes of our cars under all that snow...

 

This is What Happens When You Break Curfew In Our House...

I should probably start out by saying that up until recently I've let Meg slide the two other times she's busted curfew.   I've been not thrilled, but didn't come down too hard. 

Well this past weekend was Homecoming and Saturday night was the dance.  She spent the night at Katie's house and she was to be back at a set time Sunday afternoon.  12PM.  Not a minute later.  So, at 12:20PM Sunday afternoon, after I'd spent a few minutes texting her asking her where her teenage toush was, I get a phone call telling me she's still at Katie's and she just woke up.  Buzzzzz, WRONG ANSWER!  What she should have said - about the only thing that could have prevented her from getting into trouble was along the lines of;  "Mom, we were driving along and we hit this little old man crossing the street and we're sitting here, crying our little teenage eyes out and that's why I'm late..."

But no, that's not what happened.   About an hour and twenty minutes after that phone call Meg and Katie walk in and Katie is holding something behind her back and Meg has something in her hands that looks remarkably like a card.  Well what do you know, it IS a card and a huge boquette of flowers with the words "KISS MOMMY'S BOOTY" written all over them!  Well it wasn't literally written on the posies, but you get what I mean.   

The girls said the flowers and card were because I helped them so much with homecoming stuff, and how great I was to the kids who came over that night, but rather, what I heard was; "blah blah blah....yeah we suck....blah blah blah, there is no excuse for being this late, blah blah blabbedy blah, we REALLY suck and should be grounded until we reach retirement age......"

Well, I had to get creative, ya know?  Oh sure, I could have grounded her, but believe me, not only would that NOT have been any fun for her, I would have gone mad putting up with a grounded teenagers attitude.   So instead, I put my few brain cells to use and came up with a great punishment that prevented me from having to deal with the attitude and left her too tired to give any attitude!

This is New England.  What does New England have in abundance this time of year?  No, I didn't make her go and dive the icy Atlantic depths for lobster....I did something better! Much better!

It's fall in Maine and all those pretty trees must, at some point, divest themselves of thier foliage and who better to rake them out of our yard than a teenager?

Here she is Sunday afternoon when it was still nice out and hadn't rained yet....

Look at all those leaves.  There are so many that you can't even see the walkway up to the front door.

Today, the leaves weren't quite so crisp and easy to rake. Nope it had rained last night and things were heavy, squishy and stuck together and generally not so much fun!  But darned if she didn't get to work and do an awesome job! 

Wow, we have a front walkway again!

I know a certain almost-two-year-old who is gonna love all those piles of leaves!

And look at the all the leaves yet to fall....each and every one of them has Meg's name written on it...

So I walk around to the back garden to check on her and she's not looking too happy about all the leaves back there...

Then she walks up to me and bemoans the state of her hands.  She said they were covered in blisters.  Do you see any blisters? 

Alas, my dear darling daughter, your hard work was not all for nought! 

Yes friends, I have more pictures to post...especially those of homecoming, but it's nearing the witching hour and this witch (hush up out there, those of you nasties replacing the "w" with a "b") to be in bed.  I'm seriously going cross-eyed just trying to keep up.   I have tons of other pics to post, especially of the Adventures of Griffy, the Aquacat!

You'll just have to stay tuned to see what that's all about!

I Forgot One!

Couldn't go to bed without posting this one.  Among the many great things about having a big sister is someone to share a smoothie with...

Meg, the Mathematician

Well, not really. 

But at least she's having a whole lot of fun with her study-buddy, Matt.  He's a nice kid, but I tell ya, hearing him trying to drill intergers and other related concepts into her head makes me want to stab myself in the eye.  At least they are having fun with it.

I can't recall what I said to get them laughing so hard, but Meg is now promising to kill me. 

She's kinda cheesy, but I love her!

Matt is a sweet kid and even picked her up from work last night (for which I am so grateful, it meant I didn't have to drag my big butt out at 11:30PM and get her myself.) and they went bowling for a little while and came back here and watched a movie.   

Meg seems to be adjusting well to life here in Maine.  Her first month has been filled with some ups and downs, normal of course when you consider that she's moved 3000 miles and 3 time zones.   She decided to join the cross country team at school and aside from it really kicking her butt, she loves it.  She seems to enjoy most of her classes too, which is good because they are not the easiest ones out there.  We loaded her up in order to prepare for college next year.   Hence the reason Matt is here...helping her with her calculus.  Well that and if you ask me, I think he's pretty taken with Meg, and I kinda think the feeling is mutual.  But we'll see.  She has so much ahead of her and she just got out of a pretty serious dating relationship.  I just want her to have fun and focus on school.

She also went to her first Mt. AHS football game yesterday.  I dunno why it was on a Saturday afternoon, but it was.  I guess, to hear her and the other kids talk about it, the team pretty much sucks.   They had to call the game at half-time anyhow due to heat and several players needing an ambulance as a result of heat stroke.  I think that was the merciful thing to do seeing as how we were down 34-7. 

Aside from Meg's study antics that's pretty much it.  We've had a mostly boring weekend due to the suffocating heat and humidity.  Mother Nature took pity on us today and it never got over 63F (whereas yesterday it was 95F and 90% humidity) and it's been raining a lot.   The trees are already starting to turn which is oddly early.    Our folliage up in this part of New England doesn't typically tend to go ablaze until late September or early October.  But for some reason all of the trees are starting to turn.  Who knows, maybe I might get a few good shots.

That about does it for now.  I'm trying to keep out of Meg's way but yet not too far away, I mean they are teenagers afterall.