Halloween and the first of November

While we were in Indiana last weekend, Steve and I got to visit a bit with Shiloh before she had to go to work Sunday afternoon.  She works at Door Dash which seems like it is trying to become the Amazon of food and snacks and assorted household items.

I also convinced Stratton and Alex to pose for a photo.  Don't they look thrilled to do so?  Alex has lost weight and seems much more fragile.  Sigh.

We got back to Saint Louis around noon on Monday.  Plenty of time to prepare the char-bootery board for dinner with the Southerlands before we all headed out to trick-or-treat around the Holly Hills neighborhood.  There were LOTS of trick-or-treaters and sometimes getting the treats was slow going because of the unusual Saint Louis tradition of having to tell a joke before getting a treat.  Where did that come from???  Weather was absolutely perfect.  It was a very fun evening.

Larkin was a candy fairy, Lucy a glowing stick person, Quinn was a rocket boy (the legs in jeans are fake, his legs are the flames coming out of the bottom of the rocket pack), Noah was the scientist from Alien who had the creature emerge from his chest.

Speaking of scary, this is the root of the elephant ears plant I dug up last week (they cannot tolerate frost).  It looks like an alien.  For size comparison, it is sitting in a gray basin like the ones you get from a hospital stay. Pretty huge!  And below it are the enormous leaves I trimmed off.

Here is the back of our garage in the alley.  The mums are so pretty and those are herbs in front:  oregano, thyme, and sage.

Let's see, Tuesday, November 1st, I had to be at the temple by 6:45 am for a 4-hour shift at the recommend desk.  The temple is still closed for repairs and I was a volunteer to check the recommends of the construction workers as they entered to work for the day.  Members got a colored wrist band.  Non-members got a different colored band.  The time went quickly as I had brought plenty of things to do while I sat.  After I finished, I drove to Harris-Stowe State University to check out the auditorium where our civic orchestra concert was to be held.  It was at that time that I learned that we were NOT performing at the Emerson Performance Center on the campus but at another performance hall in the main administration building!!!  What???  How did that misinformation happen????Well, the tickets were already printed and mostly distributed but I was able to tell the program printers to "hold the presses" so changes could be made.  An email had to be sent to the whole orchestra.  One of many emails I sent all week leading up to the concert Saturday night.  Programs got picked up on Friday.  Happily, they turned out beautifully (even though I spelled principal wrong) The whole week leading up to the concert was a lot of work.  And that didn't include the cello practicing I also did.  Needless to say, I am happy this concert is in my rear view mirror.  It was fun music but pretty difficult to play at the tempos the conductor took.  And, working with Harris-Stowe was challenging.  Good thing we didn't have to pay for that venue !  But, I hope we never have to play there again.  Below is me with Genie, my cello student who attended....

Steve and I managed to actually watch a movie - but it had to be done in two shifts.  We saw "Belle" which was very well done, gorgeous soundtrack, compelling story.

I will close with a couple of photos of Sarah in her snail costume which she wore at the Ogden Nature Center's "Creatures of the Night" presentation.  (yeah, we all admit that snails are not nocturnal, but she looked cute anyway)