Catching Up: Halloween etc.

It's been busy lately. Over the last few weeks we have successively had our washing machine go out, and replaced it with a new one and a new dryer to match; our garbage disposal die, and a major leak in the bathroom require a major repair; and the digital camera freeze up at the halloween party, necessitating a new one. These were all things that were going to need replacing, but going out when they did meant a recalibration of what was left of our stimulus payment and tax refund, and our hopes of keeping some of it in reserve was pretty much obliterated, but at least we didn't have to go into further debt for this stuff.

That has kept us busy. The last weekend before this one we did get to the Newseum for the first time, a great, five-storey museum of the history of news-gathering, truly impressive though we didn't spend much time in the six or so theaters that are running stuff all the time, or the live news studio they have there. Sarah loved the interactive stuff. Unfortunately, it is -- unlike the Smithsonian, which is free and spoils Washingtonians -- a place with fairly steep admissions, and with only individual annual memberships, no family rate.

The next day, Sunday, we felt like getting out of town a bit and went out to Warrenton, Virginia, stopping along the way at Jammin' Joe's Barbecue, which we hadn't previously found open. (BBQ served in a little trailer beside the road, with parking and an adjacent sales place for playground equipment, which gave Sarah some place to play.) Good BBQ, though they seem to also have a place in Fort Myers, FL if you follow the links on the website. We also stopped at the Old Jail Museum in Warrenton, home of the Fauquier County historical society (that's Mosby country); stopped at a local Wal-Mart to stock up on discount stuff as there are none close to us, and so on.

On Thursday Tam had a couple of medical procedures (everything was fine but since she was drugged up for them I had to take the day off to drive her), so I had both Thursday and my usual Friday off. Friday was, of course, halloween. Sarah, as already noted, was a witch this year. I attended the halloween parade at her school (stills at the Flickr site; I'll be putting a YouTube together soon). I also attended as a helper the class party, but my digital camera died during the parade so I have no video or stills of the party, where everybody ate, danced, and covered classmates in toilet paper to make mummies. This, I think, explains some odd conversation, not otherwise explained, I noted in last year's post on the halloween party.

In the evening, we went trick or treating. Despite announcing plans to do every single house in our whole subdivision, we did our usual three streets or so, and after the first street joined up with her friend Catherine from across the street and jointly tricked and treated till Sarah's two plastic pumpkins were groaning with candy. The rest of the weekend has seen extensive sugar highs despite our attempts to ration the candy.

The new camera I bought to replace the one that died is a bit higher resolution so both stills and videos should improve.

More to come.