Trunk or Treat Highlights

The church I've been attending really puts a lot of emphasis on children and their families, so one month ago our church started planning a "trunk or treat" alternative Halloween party for kids. We were asked to decorate the trunks or back of our vehicles. As you can see I'm dressed very warm....it was cool, cloudy and breezy today.

How do you like my artwork & puppets?

I particularly liked this vehicle's trunk display!

We used the church's parking lot for our trunk or treat event today. I just wish it would have been a much warmer day.

Momma bee keeper and her little baby bee.

Our outdoor kids party went from 4-6 pm, and then we moved indoors for cookie decorating, door prizes and then a movie on the big screen. The local theater donated lots of buttery popcorn, plus we had endless amounts of donated candy. From what I could see, the children had lots of fun going from game to game and earning lots of candy. I was pooped however. I worked from 12:30 pm - 8:15 pm. This was a great community outreach event for children, even if it was a lot of work.

Blustery

Courtesy of flickr.com

The rain finally stop, but the winds kicked up and blew leaves around all day. Big wind gusts kept everyone walking fast and heads covered. Walking to the Post Office was like walking in a wind tunnel.

A quiet day at work, which was well appreciated since it was Friday. Confiscated all the animal puppets from the library before I left work. I'll be helping out tomorrow at a "Trunk or Treat" church event, which is meant to be an alternative event for Halloween & trick or treating. I'm planning on decorating the back area of my Ford Escape with animal puppets and a backdrop of trees, water and grass. I just hope I can put this all together to look half way decent. I'm not good at decorating for kids stuff. (Pak Art I need your help). I'll be sure to post tomorrow and show you what I came up with. Tomorrow will be a long day....yikes!

Bug Lover!

Annabelle....What a Feisty Girl

Have you ever heard of a cat infatuated with bugs? Any little bug that crawls, flies or hops, Annabelle is right there to catch it and quickly eat it. If she thinks she sees bugs when they really aren't there, she'll still sit for the longest time and stare at the ceiling because she thinks she sees a bug. Does that mean she has a problem or is she just a bug lover?

It rained ALL day today so I was glad to be working indoors. When I got home after 8 pm tonight it was still drizzling with a good breeze blowing. No freezing temperatures tonight, so the rain is still liquid and not snow. I hope this trend last for awhile!

Sunset @ Wausau

Lake Wausau, WI (near Rib Mtn.) Courtesy Flickr.com

I couldn't help but post this beautiful sunset picture near Rib Mtn. near Wausau Wisconsin. My twin sister lives in Wausau, not too far from the river/lake. Near Wausau is a great place to mountain bike, the recreational area is called Nine Mile Forest. During the winter season the trails are used for cross country skiing, and during the summer the trails are great for mountain biking. During our mountain bike racing days in the late 90's, we spent several summers racing the WORS series and we always had a race at Nine Mile Forest. The course consisted of flat trails, hills, tree roots and rocks.....a nice variation to keep you interested. Yup, that was back in the day!!!

Long

Seemed like a long day today at work. I enjoyed the solar heating of the sun. It actually felt warm at work....indoor temp reached 64 degrees. Bike man came into work today to try and help me with some computer maintance. Like always computer maintance takes more time than planned.

After work I rushed over to the fitness center to teach a quick 45 minute spin class. Driving home tonight the bright pink sky was beautiful, kind of looked like a painting. Didn't have my camera with me so I missed a perfect sunset.

Cold Temperatures Builds Character

Back to spinning class tonight at the fitness center. Haven't taught a class in one week. It felt good to get the heart pumping and the body temp heated. Maybe I should be teaching my spinning class in the early morning since we still have no heat at my workplace. At least my body would be like a furnace on arrival at work. Hey, maybe I wouldn't mind when the thermostat is reading 49 degrees! There is hope faithful blog readers.....the heating/cooling guy showed up today to start installing the new furnace. The whole process is very involved so it looks like we won't have functional heat until later next week. After 4 weeks of no heat, I think I can wait another 2 weeks. Like I said before, only in a small town.

Espresso

On Thursday night, bike man and I decided to stop at the Fox Valley mall since we had some time to waste before going back to our hotel room. We discovered a William Sonoma store near the mall entrance, so we headed straight for one of our favorite cooking stores.



So what did we discover? This particular Krups espresso machine was on sale.....more than half off the original price! After walking around the mall for about one hour, we decided to go back to WS and buy the machine.

This machine is completely automatic. Not only does it make espresso, but it will brew a long or short cup of regular coffee.

Ok, this is so easy. Start by adding either regular beans or espresso beans. The machine will automatically grind your beans each time you make a cup of java. You can't get any fresher than that, right?



Just place your cup in place and start pushing buttons as you read the menu.

I made an Americano this afternoon....two espresso shots with about 2.5 oz of hot water and then top it off with half & half cream. In my picture you can see a small crema on top, but if you make just plain espresso or black coffee you'll have much more on top....crema is the brown foam that forms when you brew a shot of espresso.

Can't wait to try a cup of a hot chocolate using the steamer, or maybe a mocha!