Halloweekend

What a busy, fun weekend it was!

Friday night I got together with my SILs to play some poker. Unfortunately, I didn't win any money for stash enhancement but managed to have a good time and eat too much anyway. We broke up the evening fairly early because everyone seemed to be kind of tired and there was much weekend fun ahead.

Saturday I had a mother/daughter (or any adult/child combo) class to teach at the store. It was the second session of a beginning knitting class. The first class we taught them several cast on methods, and the knit stitch, and had them start a garter stitch scarf. When they came in this week almost all of them had gotten their scarves knit and so I taught them how to bind off, attach fringe, and then they learned how to purl, what stockinette looks like, how ribbing is formed, etc.

The 2 hours flew by and as soon as I was done there, I headed over to the Breeder's Cup party that we go to every year. I missed the first race, but didn't miss out on any fun. This is a huge party that some friends throw and they really go all out. Every year there is a pig roast, which in itself is reason to go :-) They always have something fun for the kids to do, like a pony ride, a moon walk bouncy thing, a hayride, etc. The kids paint pumpkins, or just have a blast running around and playing in the playhouse, or swingset, etc.

When you get to the party, you are given $80 in fake money to use to bet on the 8 races. The bookie takes your bets and after the race, the payouts are made to the winning bettors. The person who has the most money after the end of the last race is the winner of the day. There is a trophy presented to the winner, along with a bottle of wine, a Breeder's cup drinking glass, and lottery tickets. Prizes are also awared to 2nd and 3rd place. In addition to your personal trophy, there is a much bigger trophy which has the name/year of each winner engraved onto it and it is available for viewing and reminiscing each year.

There are usually about 50 or so adults at this party, and TVs are set up outside by the pig roaster, in the garage, and several locations throughout the house. Everyone is asked to bring either a side dish, appetizer or dessert, and OH MY GOSH there is always SOOOOOO much (TOOOOOO much!) food! I swear I ate about 15,000 calories that day. But it was worth it. There were so many yummy things to try!

This was the year of the Blooms when it came to the winners. My SIL Debbie won 3rd place, my newlymarried niece, Kelly, came in 2nd, and hubby Mike won first place. This is the first time either of us has won, so it was pretty exciting!

The weather was unbelieveable. 75 degrees the last weekend in October is a treat. Usually at this party we are bundled up in our winter duds and freezing anyway, not walking around in shorts and tank tops! There was a horrible wind though, and it managed to blow over the porta-potty they had gotten for the guys to use (to save on the septic system). Luckily no one was inside ;-)


Yesterday was spent getting my new washer/dryer combo installed in our closet. They were delivered on Friday, at which time my old ones were removed. Laundry started piling up and it was catch up time last night once Drew came over and helped Mike lift the dryer up on top of the washer and got it mounted up there. It looks like a freakin' laundromat in my closet now, and when I turned out the light while both were running, there were so many red lights glowing in there I thought a space ship had landed!

KNITTING CONTENT:

While Mike was working on the installation, I was knitting away on the mittens for the felted mittens class I am teaching in a couple weeks. I wanted to felt one and leave the other one unfelted to put on display in the store. They knit up pretty fast and I used Lamb's Pride in turquoise and purple held together. I love the color combo.

While I am excited to have my Duet Washer and Senseon Dryer, let me tell you I am VERY disappointed to tell you that the clog and mitten I put through 2 entire cycles for felting for my upcoming classes DID NOT FELT! Guess we'll be keeping the old washer for felting purposes. I refuse to even consider having to go to the laundromat or someone else's house to do my felting, since I plan on doing a good bit of it in the future. Dagnabbit....no agitator in the washer = no felting.

I have noticed though that there is VERY LITTLE lint in the dryer lint trap after a load is done, so I am thinking that means that the appliances are very gentle to the fabrics and the fibers are staying where they belong, in the fabric, and not being broken up, removed and deposited in the lint trap.

I have Kaitlyn's comforter going around and around (bulky items cycle) in the dryer right now. It was nice to not have to take that to the laundromat to do. The large capacity is going to be a nice thing, for sure.

Trick or Treating last night was much fun. Jake was dressed up as Ben Wallace, one of the Detroit Pistons 2004 Champions. After not cutting his hair for about 4 years, Ben wore his hair in a huge Afro style during the playoffs and one of the popular phrases was "FEAR THE 'FRO!"
Jake wore his Pistons jersey, some flannel pj pants that had basketballs on them, and a huge Afro wig. I printed up a little sign that I clipped into the hair that said

Detroit Pistons
2004 Champions
Fear The 'Fro!

What was great was that most of the moms were trick or treating with their kids, and the dads were passing out candy, and they, of course, just LOVED the costume. Some of them saw the hair coming from a long way away and would yell down the sidewalk "Is that Ben Wallace coming?". We got a big kick out of it. He was really a hit with the men LOL

Every year we have the dilemma of where to go trick or treating since we don't live in a neighborhood. This year we went to a fairly new subdivision where about 1/2 of Jake's class lives, so he got to see some of his friends while we were making the rounds. He came home with quite a bag of loot.

All said, a very fun weekend chalk full of good times, good friends, good food, etc.