The Construction Continues

Matt has moved on to the other half of the basement now. I am so proud of him. Somehow he squeezes in time while he works full time and is taking two college courses at the same time. We had to tear down the ceiling in the tiled room and one and half walls (which were stucco - yuck!) Matt raised the duct to give a little more headroom as well. He's also working on making the unfinished laundry room into two rooms: one unfinished tool room in the back and one finished laundry room in the front. It's really coming along considering the little time Matt actually gets to spend working down there.

Pumptoberfest '09

The second annual Pumptoberfest was a success. Pumptoberfest came around as a complete and total accident. Last year, Matt and I planned on attending Pumpkinfest in Keene, NH. We had planned to meet up with my AmeriCorps friends, Kate and Kelly, in Keene. Bad weather kept us home and we ended up setting up a tent in the back yard and having our own "Pumptoberfest". We went to the farm down the street and bought some pumpkins, set up the tent next to a roaring campfire, carved pumpkins, had a few drinks, roasted pumpkin seeds, and had a nice, relaxing night.

Since last year's Pumptoberfest was such a nice time, we decided to repeat it this year, adding in some other traditions to make a real day of it. Kate wasn't able to join us from Long Island this time, but Kelly made it up with her boyfriend Ashley. The plans were to hit up Connors Farm in Danvers. There we would pick apples, choose some pumpkins, and run the corn maize before coming back to our house to carve pumpkins and have a few drinks. The farm started out simple enough with only five of us, no apples on the trees, a few too many pumpkins, and a fantastic corn maize.

In the apple-less orchard

Kel, Ashley, Mariel, Matt, & I in the Corn Maize

We came back to the house to carve some pumpkins out in the backyard.

I made this really cool haunted tree.

Somehow, this simple get-together of a few people sporadically turned into a party. A few other people showed up, and in the end.. well, I think the last time I stayed up until 4am had to have been sometime in college, but I can't even remember doing it then. Pumptoberfest lasted into the wee hours of the morning with some really great company, Guitar Hero, foosball, lasagna, apple crisp, pumpkin seeds, and plenty of drinks. What started out as a simple get-together sort of turned into a bit of a bash, but it was wonderfully fun & I'm already excited for Pumptoberfest '10. Maybe I'll get tee-shirts made up!:-p

Matt & Joe... with all those empty bottles of tonic water....

Foosball
The love of my life<3>

Welcome Fall!

Fall is here! As much as I love the warm weather and the summer cook-outs, I love fall, too. I think it's because there's so much to do during this time of year and it flies by. There's apple-picking and pumpkin carving and corn maizes and little children in costumes... Traditions and families... There's beautiful foliage, comfort foods like apple crisp, and the holidays right around the corner. As soon as I could, I dragged Matt into the attic with me to pull down decorations. So exciting!

Damon with my pirate Scooby Doo

Our Bay Window