Happy Halloween!

I hope you all have a great day! I might take myself to see "It!" But only in the day time.

For your pleasure---the Halloween decorations of my friend, Nancy E.!

Notice the pumpkin in the background? It contains Halloween "suckers" that we needlepointed years ago. I gave mine to Sandy. They're really cute.

I love that creepy hand! The black tablecloth is perfect with the spider web runner.

 I love her tablescape! There's nothing that says Halloween like spooky hands, spiders and  pumpkins!

More creepy stuff!

On Saturday, we were in Baltimore. I took a little time to visit the home of Edgar Allen Poe. I thought it was fitting--so close to Halloween. Turns out, he only lived there for two years. The house was a disappointment. There was no furniture. They didn't even know which room he stayed in. The fact that he died in Baltimore under mysterious circumstances and is buried there is the reason for the house---I guess.

And then there was this:

I took Stephanie, Mindy to the ballet last Thursday night. We've only been to one ballet and that was about 30 years ago---The Nutcracker---at Christmas time. Well, when I saw that this was happening, I thought it would be a fun thing to do right before Halloween. You know how much I adore the theater? The ballet---not so much! When we arrived, we were told that the first act would be 15 minutes followed by a 20 minute intermission. Steph asked how many acts there were. Just two. The second act would be 50 minutes long.

The first performance was "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe---which made my visit to his house a priority! Anyway, when it was over, I leaned over and said, "I guess there's a reason it's been 25 years since we've been to the ballet!" I hadn't read "The Raven" since high school--nearly 50 years ago! I barely remembered the story. I could hardly figure out what was going on. After it was over, Mindy noticed that there was a synopsis in the program. Now it made more sense! We read the synopsis for Lizzie Borden and we're glad we did. Otherwise we wouldn't have known what the heck was going on.

I'll say this, the dancers are extremely graceful and definitely muscular athletes. They pick people up and twirl them around like they are feathers. But the biggest shocker was the ballerina playing Lizzie. She took off ALL her clothes and was fully naked on stage! That's in keeping with the story that Lizzie must have committed the murders in the nude since there was no blood evidence on her clothes. They did not show the actual murders, so it wasn't gruesome. She just stripped down, grabbed the axe, disappeared a bit, re-appeared and put her clothes back on.

When it was over, people were going wild---I tell you! Just like I do about musical theater. But for us---let's just say, we don't need to see another ballet for 25 more years! Still, Mindy thanked me for always finding fun and unusual stuff for us to do.

Next up---the Polar Express after Thanksgiving. Yep, we'll be boarding a train and heading to Watertown, TN for the afternoon!