After Halloween and possible changes~~~~

Hello My Darklings,


My little Halloween Party was a nice success, we managed to raised $300 to send to the disaster relief fund for the people who suffered and survived Hurricane Sandy.



A few of my friends brought over more finger food, and yes, Doyle was right with the extra goodies that my friends brought, we have more than enough goodies that I purchased to serve as dinner and lunch for the next few days.



In spite of the threat of rain in our area I did have quiet a number of little trick and treaters, some of them barely 6 or 7 months old dressed as pumpkins or teddy bears, excellent costumes to keep them warm. Most of the children were any where from 2 or 2½ to 10 or 11 years old, not too many of the older ones, although my neighbors daughter is 13 and she still loves to go trick or treating, she came home early did her homework (I just can’t believe that teachers would hand out homework on Halloween), got dressed in her costume as “Queen of the Night” with artificial black roses and all.



She came by about 8 p.m. with her Mom and Dad in tow and I gave her a hefty amount of candy, my house was the last one for them to visit so I invited them in for food and drinks (nothing intoxicating for their daughter I can assure you).



I told them that I was going to show “Poltergeist” in about an hour and she pleaded with them to watch it. So they stayed with a promise by her that even if she was tired the next day she would get up to go to school.



Their daughter Miranda and they had never been inside my Great Aunt’s house, but had been watching all the work being done and curiosity got the better of them, so leaving Doyle to do Host duties I took them on a tour of the place, explaining some of the work to be done and what had been done.



Of course it was then that I realized that Doyle with his own sense of perverse humor, had put up signs in various areas of the house with beautifully Gothic style signs, he labeled the kitchen as the “Crematorium,” my basement laundry room area as the “dungeon,” the area where I keep my wines as “The Cemetery”, the master bed room as the “Morgue,”(trust me Darklings for a Morgue it can get lively) the guest bathroom (and I found out later the Master bedroom bathroom) as the “Laboratory”, at the library he put up “Cabinet of Curiosities” (which I found quite right), the living room was the “Asylum”, and the dinning room as the “Torture Chamber”, the closet where I keep some of our coats and my guests can hang their coats had a sign that said “Witches Broom Parking”, where he found these signs I have no idea but I felt they were just right and decided that I would leave them up after Halloween.



Of course my neighbors were a bit puzzled but thought that it was all in good fun, until I mentioned that I was going to keep the signs up, I had so much fun enjoying the looks they gave, much like the looks that people give when they walk into the Addams Family house, Doyle didn’t label all the rooms but we’ll get around to that.



Miranda thought it would be fun to live in a house like mine and I said she needed to save up her money and get a well paying job because it does require serious up keep. She saw the full length portrait of my Great-Aunt and was in awe, I remember that same feeling when I first met my Great-Aunt in person for the first time.



Most of my trick or treaters came by between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and it did do some misty drizzle, on and off, and then by 8:30 the rain came down in earnest. I was glad that I had the werewolf on the porch instead of in the yard; it prevented its electronics from getting damaged.



By 11 p.m. after the movie was over it was time for my guests to go home, yes Thursday was a work day, but I was glad that I had taken that day off, it gave me a chance to go to Spirit to get some 50 percent off on some goodies and then I stopped by another favorite store of mine called Gaslight Emporium, they offer the most delicious treats and seasonal gifts, but I just had to purchase these display apothecary bottles that said “Hemlock”, “Belladonna” and “Arsenic”. There were other bottles that offered “Spider Web Essence”, “Tail of Rat”, “Black Spider Oil”, “Skull Powder”, and a tin that said “Spider eggs”. I understand that these display bottles and such can be found on line, or one can make one’s own with graphics and one’s own computer.



And a lovely sign that said “Welcome to the Haunted House---enter at your own risk” in beautiful elegant lettering. I’m going to put that next to the door bell.



Then I came home to do the final clean up, washing and re-arranging. Friday and Saturday I had to put in long, long days to catch up with my work and at least on Saturday we could set the clocks back one hour so that we are in harmony with the rising and setting of the Sun, which means that darkness will fall sooner, which is fine for me.



But when I came home on Saturday, I had a bit of a surprise from Doyle, it was going on 7 p.m. and I took BART and bus home glad that everything had been caught up and that dinner was going to be either heated in the oven or microwaved, when I saw this delivery truck in front of my house, I thought that it might have been for one of the neighbors, considering that the foreclosed house had recently been bought, but no it was for my home.



I went in and found Doyle in the kitchen with the delivery men setting up a brand new but 1950’s retro looking refrigerator in the kitchen in place were the old one was, I asked Doyle where was the old one and he said in the Pantry Room (aka “The Columbarium”) next to the freezer and not to worry none of the food had spoiled.



I said nothing and just watched as they got it in place and plugged it in; Doyle tipped them for their efforts in moving the old one and moving in the new one.



I asked him what this was about; I said I loved the retro look of it, it reminded me of the old Frigidaire that use to be in my Parents home, but this new one is frost free and an energy saver, just like the old one that had been moved into the pantry room.



Doyle told me that he saw how I was trying to put refrigerated items in the old refrigerator, and yes granted it was the smallest possible one that my Great Aunt had bought since she was only shopping and cooking for herself since she no longer was giving parties and the other one had stopped working. I had been planning on getting a larger model and I loved the retro look it went well with the 1950’s O’Keefe and Merritt stove and I was going to put the old one into the pantry to hold extra items that had a long refrigeration life, like soft drinks, beer, International delight Pumpkin spice creamer and anything for parties. And even though I had the freezer for frozen items it didn’t work very well for those things one had to keep cold but not frozen, like Jello in the shape of a brain.



Doyle wanted to surprise me and he did!!! He said that with my Sister moving in that it would also be good to have extra space for any specialty foods that she liked, which was right because I was not aware of her food preferences.



So Doyle fixed dinner while I got comfortable and we relaxed eating dinner in the kitchen.



That is when Doyle brought up something that I had only been toying with, hiring a cleaning service on a regular basis. He made some very good points about that, I mean personal things like washing our own clothes (Doyle prefers to do his own), and sheets and towels I certainly can do, and washing our own dishes and pots and pans, but he said given the overall size of the house it made sense to have a cleaning service come in once a week to clean and then all I’d have to do is just some touch ups here and there.



I really like the idea but I was concerned about security, he said he could “vet them” out. And my real jewelry I could keep in the safe, he also said that once I have the back garden and front yard designed the way I want I should consider a hiring a gardener to mow the lawn and trim back the bougainvillea, my retired friend Fred who loves to garden but doesn’t have space for one can come out and work in the yard with the plantings and I could pay him for his work.



I have to say his ideas did have merit and was on the lines of what I was thinking about and I could afford it given my income from my job and the income from the trust my Great Aunt had set up. It was just a question of re-budgeting the finances, considering that most of my credit cards are nearly paid off and I did save up money for the wine trip I took earlier this year. Doyle said he would contribute to it since he also “made his own messes.” So I told him to go ahead and look into it.



Doyle remembered some of my unhappy dealings with previous “boy friends” and suggested that we draw up an agreement, anything that he bought for the house would be given as a gift to me and he would not dispute it, and also what we felt would be fair on other items such as food, utilities and such. I told him that I felt comfortable with our arrangement and knew he’d never be like some of those “men” that appear on “Judge Judy”. But Doyle is a stickler for what is right and proper, so I agreed to the idea.



There was one other thing Doyle brought up, he said he was moving out of his old apartment and moving his files and such into a studio apartment for when he needs time and space when he’s working on a case and needs to be totally focused on it. He told me where and I was delighted because it was in a building less than a block away, he said that by shrinking down his space he could claim most of it for his at home office for tax purposes, and the rent was far cheaper than where he was before and he had a place to park his car instead of on the street or in my driveway. Considering that he spends most of his time at my place it made sense for him to have his “man cave” closer, considering that his old place was several miles away.



All in all very good news.



So with this Sunday with everything shifted to standard time, I have a lot to think about, especially as the nights grow darker and colder sooner. And many changes going to happen.



Later Darklings

Happy Halloween 2012~~~~~

Happy Halloween Darklings,

I'm taking a short coffee break here at home,  and finishing putting up the last of the outside decorations.

I'm hoping that it will hold off raining long enough for our young trick or treaters to get lots of treats.

I'm having a few friends over tonight for various munchies and to watch a spooky movie or two, depending on how late they wish to stay.  But I know they will want to stay and watch the first movie  "Poltergeist",  I have two choices for the 2nd movie either the upgraded version of "The Exorcist" or "Amityville Horror"  I think we'll have to cast a vote on the 2nd one.

The one thing I like about my Kitchen and pantry is it's large, and I have two ovens to heat and bake things, as well as a large microwave,  so having done a run to Costco yesterday afternoon and also raiding Nob Hill Foods and Safeway, I have lots of goodies to serve   as well as several bottles of Vampire Wine,  Everyone is coming in costume but I told them to make sure the costumes are something they can be comfortable in.

One of my friends is here now baking "Black Velvet" Cake,  she does a wonderful job, so once the cake is cooled and decorated and safely under it's glass cake dish, she is going home to take care of somethings and then I'll see her later at the party.

Last night Doyle gave me an early Halloween present.   Yes Darklings you can give presents on Halloween if you like.  One was a tiny "hurdy-gurdy" music box and when you crank it it plays "Grim, Grinning, Ghosts" the theme from Disney's Haunted Mansion.  I'm going to take that with me to work on Friday

The other is the Betty Crocker Halloween Cookbook!!!  I love both of his gifts and with the cookbook I can add more Halloween recipes.   Lovely things that I can make all year round.

Doyle, being practical, said that anything that is not heated and eaten we can have for dinner for the next 4 or 5 days, maybe, but my friends can be a very hungry group.

I look forward to Halloween every year, the only thing that can make it a little disappointing is if it rains,  of course back East it must be very sad for a lot of young people because of the Hurricane Sandy,  my friends and I are going to take up a donation to send to one of the agencies that will be assisting those that have been displaced by the storm, we're not sure yet which one but one of my other friends is looking into it.

And you my Darklings can do the same,  if you are going to have a party tonight, set aside a "Cauldron" to take donations to aid those who need help from the storm, look up a legitimate agency, like the Red Cross and see what you can do.   It will be a wonderful Treat for those that received a horrible Trick from the Storm.

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween.

Later Darklings

Gothic Charm School, Sisters and Pimps~~~~~

Dear Darklings,


I’m sure some of you have come across this book and the attendant web site, but if you haven’t then I certainly recommend it, especially for all you lovely Baby Bats.

Alright for the very few that aren’t aware of this site it’s called “Gothic Charm School” and the Mistress of Ceremonies and well known Lady of Manners is Mistress Jillian Venters.

She wrote the book “Gothic Charm School: An essential guide for Goths and those who love them” I believe you can still purchase it at Amazon.com.

For Halloween etiquette check out this page www.gothic-charm-school.com/charm/?p=21 for the rules for Halloween, so very important my Darklings, so very important.

Now if the above link doesn't work I'll post the web site on my links page.

But a book like this can help young Baby Bats to begin to negotiate the Goth life and can help parents understand some of the difficulties that young people are going through and parents cannot say they didn’t go through it, they did but back then there were other stresses, other pressures.


I’d have to say that I was lucky in many respects, having positive support and re-enforcement from my family, but once in a while my Mother or Granny would come up with a “zinger” about something, and their remark would catch me completely off guard but also remind me how really “with it” they were.



Prime example----a number of years ago when my Mother was still alive, we went the City, I think we were hunting for a wedding present and finally decided it would be easier to get a gift certificate for the future couple at a nearby store where they were registered, trust me Darklings, so much easier than trying to guess if they have a toaster or not.



As we sat on a bench to rest in old Union Square park surrounded by so many wonderful stores to give a shopaholic an overload, and come to a final decision, Mother looked up and saw a young man dressed in a dark blue shirt and tan jeans that had a red patch right were the zipper goes, Mother turned to me and asked “Is that a stain or is he advertising?”



I have to admit her remark did catch me off guard but I did take a look and said to her “It’s not a stain,” and she replied very straight faced “Well he doesn’t have much to advertise either”. When she said that I whooped with laughter and did my best to get it under control, but it was hard Darklings, trust me it was hard.



When we got home I had to share this with my younger sister, and we both were rolling around in laughter, sweet but straight laced Mother making a remark like that, of course Dad had to ask why we were laughing so much and we told him, he looked at us and also began to laugh but he got himself under control very quickly and said “You have to be careful with Mother, she can be ‘deadly’”. When our younger brother came home from playing with his friends, he couldn’t understand why we looked so silly and shrugged it off as “girl stuff”, and went into the Kitchen looking for something to eat.



Which brings me to my sister, brief bio on her, I adore her, her verve and nerve, she married soon after she graduated from college and worked part time, had two lovely children now adults, one child is married with one child her own and another on the way, the other is engaged. But my sister did divorce when she found out that her husband of 15 years was cheating on her--- with another man--- so they had a quiet divorce and set things up so the children would not be a financial burden, and surprisingly are still friends at the insistence of her ex-husbands’ boy friend. When the children were grown enough for her to work full time she found a job that is the best of many world, something she enjoys doing and gets paid for it and travels a fair amount.



My sister called me Monday evening, I’m glad and relieved that she is safe from the storm on the East Coast and we had a wonderful talk, she’ll be coming into the area from just before Thanksgiving to just after New Years, usually she looks for a very short term rental or one of those Hotels for business visitors, but she asked me if I didn’t mind putting her up for the 6 weeks or so that she’d be here.



I asked her why was she switching from her usual pattern and she replied that one of the places she’d stay at is undergoing extensive renovation, one other had increased its rates, but she’d heard from colleagues that the service was not up to par, and at one other place that she stayed at she felt unsafe as the neighborhood had changed quiet a bit. There were others but she just didn’t have the time to check them out.



I told her she could stay with me and we’d agreed that she’d pay me the increase difference in the utilities usage and also for any food should she eat at home, this is something that I know she would do anyway, because she’d write it off as a business expense and other arrangements, since she knew that I had a very crazy schedule especially around the holidays. And I felt it would be good to see her when we could between her assignments while she was here.



As a matter of fact I suggested to her that it might be good for her to use my home as her home base of operations from now on, since I had plenty of bed rooms, that way she didn’t have to worry about putting things into storage or finding a short term rental all the time. One of the bedrooms that I have is empty and she can set up her “housekeeping” there.



She liked the idea and said we could work the details out when she arrives; I’ve noticed with her over the last few years that she had become more and more Goth in outlook as well, cultivating the darker side and darker nature of life, perhaps its her work, but I do know that when she learned I had inherited our Great Aunt’s house she was thrilled beyond belief.



During our phone conversation she reminded me of the time we spent over at Grandma’s house when our family home was being fumigated for termites and that motel that was next door to Granny’s.



Oh that was an uproarious adventure.



I had just started college taking a summer class and my sister just completed her 2nd year of high school, our brother was in the 8th grade and looking forward to starting high school the next year. Dad had gone into the basement one day because of a hot water heater problem and noticed sawdust, and not the kind from sawing wood. Upon closer inspection by a professional it was pronounced that we had been invaded by termites, and on one side of the house it was bad.



The only way to get rid of them was to “tent” the house and do a serious fumigation, what a nightmare that was, every spare minute that we had when not doing homework was spent in moving things out and over to grandma’s, as much clothing as possible, towels, bedding, food and personal toiletries, boxes of things. We were glad that my sister and brother just started their Summer break and I was only taking one college course for the Summer.



What could not be moved was going to be washed so we were to be evicted until at such time it was safe to return.



It was for almost a month, so for us children we were camping on the floor of the living room, my doing homework on the dinning room table and Mother keeping peace so our brother would not pester us as younger brothers like to do. There were times he could be such an annoyance. But in a way my sister and I enjoyed it, it was sort of a long term “sleep-over”, we only wished we didn’t have annoying little brother around, how many times he came close to being drowned in Grandma’s ornamental fish pond he’ll never know. My sister and I would think of “fiendish” ways to get rid of him, which we never carried out, but it was fun thinking about it.



It was sort of seeing “Wednesday Addams” with her brother “Pugsley” just before she was going to pull the lever on the electric chair, but never carried out, it was a scene that we both could relate to.



Next door to Grandma’s house was a motel, it had off street parking as well as parking under the building, so instead of it being a 2 story building it pushed it up to being 3 story, the only saving grace was the fact that there was also a parking lot that was wide enough to have a lot of space between the motel and the house, but it could be an annoyance.



During the month we were there a pimp in his fancy convertible pimp-mobile would drop off several of his “girls” then after a few hours would come by, pull into the parking lot and honk the horn of his car so they’d come out either at 11 p.m. or Midnight, it was getting very annoying.



It being a Saturday night my Sister, Mother, Granny and I were doing our “beauty routine”, our hair was up in pink sponge rollers so we could sleep on them, our faces covered in beauty masks to tighten up our pores, the masks were made of a blue mud like substance slowly drying on our faces, painting our nails and dressed in our night gowns. I remember I was dressed in a dark blue filmy baby doll night gown with a short filmy matching robe. We were having fun while Dad and my brother stayed out of the way, Friday and Saturday were the two evenings my brother could stay up late and they were watching “Creature Features” that night.



We were upstairs in Granny’s bedroom, her windows overlooked the roof to her laundry room, and we could have an excellent view of her back yard and the parking lot to the motel. As a matter of fact more than once we’d climb out of those windows to pick the fruit off of the apple tree that grew on the other side of her house, but we had to be careful because the roof on the laundry room sloped slightly downward.



And that evening, once again the Pimp in his pimp-mobile showed up and started honking his horn, after dealing with this for several weeks and I knew Granny had been dealing with it for months, I grabbed Grandpa’s old double barrel shot gun that Granny had mounted on a rack on the wall in the hall, the shotgun didn’t work any more as the firing pins were very worn down.



Here was I just mad as hell about this annoyance, in my dark blue baby doll night gown and robe, wearing pink sponge rollers in my hair, a blue mud pack on my face and pink fuzzy-wuzzy slippers on my feet (I had not done my pedicure yet).



I went to the windows climbed out and slowly walked on the roof to the edge that overlooked the parking lot, I could hear Mother saying to me “What are you going to do?” and my sister saying “Be careful.”



I could see very clearly the pimp and his car with the convertible rag top down so you could clearly see them in the car; two of his girls were getting in with the third lagging behind.



I yelled out “Get your Ass and your cheap girl’s asses out of here and don’t come back!! Otherwise I’m gonna put a extra hole in Your Ass!!!”, I shouldered the non-working shot-gun to my shoulder as if I knew how to use it and the Pimp and his girls looked up and they all screamed at what must have been the sight from hell with a shot-gun.



The pimp gunned his car back wards and hit a concrete pole doing some serious back end damage, his third girl was running to the car losing her high heeled platform shoes and yelling at him “Don’ leave me!!!” she jumped in the back seat of the convertible head first and as the pimp spun his car around and hit the front end of his car on the same pole, her legs were waggling in the air and one could see she was not wearing any underwear, the car left rubber tire tread marks on the road as he took off with the girls ducking down fearful that I might shoot at them. (which I couldn’t shoot anyway)



The temporary tenants of the motel and the motel manager came out and saw what was causing the commotion. I heard some laughter as they took in the scene.



After the pimp and his girls took off down the road, I carefully went back to the windows and climbed back in while Dad and my brother came running up the stairs to see what had started the ruckus and saw me calmly putting the old shotgun back on the rack in the hall. Mother and Granny explained to Dad what I had done while my sister was laughing so hard she fell backwards onto Granny’s bed.



Dad looked at me, then at the shot gun, looked at me again, then back to the shot gun, finally he turned to me and said “I think that Pimp was more afraid of what you looked like instead of the shotgun.” And he and my brother who was laughing and saying “wait till I tell my buddies about you!” went back down stairs to finish “Creature Features.”



At first I was puzzled by Dad’s calm remark until I took a look in the mirror and saw what Jeff Foxworthy calls “The Creature From the Cold Cream Lagoon”, and found myself laughing along with everyone else.



That Pimp and his girls never did come back.



There were some other adventures which I’ll tell about another time.



Later Darklings

S.F. Giants and trashing the City~~~~

Well Darklings,

If any of you are baseball fans then you know that the San Francisco Giants won the world series---and I say 'good for them'.   But do the alleged fans have to trash the City?  The aftermath of them tearing a car apart (which is being alluded to a drug called "Bath Salts")  and burning a Muni Bus is to put it bluntly---Stupid!!

I guess for the criminal element any excuse to cause mayhem and destruction. 

While I was watching this activity on the news I was wondering why couldn't the police and fire department get a helicopter to do a massive water pick up and drop all that water on them, it would put out the bonfires and get everyone very, very wet and chilled. 

Nothing like calming people down with a serious dose of very cold sea water.  

Alright Darklings, I'm being mean, but I really like that thought.  And yes it's mean but better than willful destruction.

And it did make it harder for me to get to work on Monday, but fortunately BART was not too seriously affected,  I had to forgo using the Ferry to get to work early...Oh well.

I've been following the "Frankenstorm" on the East Coast and have been in touch with friends there, they are safe, but some damage to their home.   I was worried for my sister who is back East for her job, but she called me and said she's fine, and found the power of the storm thrilling and frightening at the same time.

Well I can understand that we both loved Thunderstorms and would sit out on the back porch to watch for lighting, rare here in our area but not uncommon.  I remember one evening I had to work late and there was a thunderstorm but no rain in our area,  I looked up and was amazed at how the lighting would arc back up into the clouds and how it illuminated the clouds,  so beautiful in its frightening way.

I continuously love flash drives and while I have a short morning break, I'm going to post my next blog.  I've been here at work since 6 a.m. so I can get home early,  I'm taking tomorrow and the next day off but I'll have to put in a long day on Friday and Saturday---Oh well, when one wants fun, one has to pay for it.

Later Darklings

Returned from the Ghost Confrence~~~

Oh Darklings,

I and Doyle had so much fun at the Conference at Columbia State Park, the weather was beautiful, the speakers were interesting.  Our stay was very comfortable, food was good.  Christopher Allen Poe the great-great Grand nephew of Edgar Allen Poe is a very interesting person and was the dinner guest speaker.

The investigations very fascinating,  I hope I've captured some EVP.   Doyle and I made new friends there, although I'm not big on UFO's or Bigfoot but as they say there are a lot of strange things out there.

And such a perfect way to extend the Halloween season,  as we understand it they are planning to do it again at the same location next year, so I hope all goes well and we can attend again.

We stayed around until a little after noon grabbing a final bite to eat in Sonora before heading home, in many way's I hated leaving the area, but Doyle said we can always plan on taking trips back there,  especially again next October.

Belladonna was a good little girl in her carry all---but we had to keep her crated in our room while we were on the night investigations.   I did ask the managers the next day if there had been any complaints about any sounds coming from her but there wasn't---she was as good as gold.  But glad to be home in familiar surroundings.

Doyle said for us to not bother to make dinner at home, he's going to order our stand by---take out Chinese. 

I've found that several of you have asked for more in depth questions about "What is Goth?"  although I've done a page on that it seems I may need to write a 'part 2' on this question.   Which is very hard as being Goth is hard to define, a Goth just doesn't want to be dissected and analyzed, a Goth simply is...which makes it harder to define.

Doing a follow up will take some time Darklings but I can tell you this, being Goth is an outlook, a way of looking at the world and it encompasses a huge stratum of people who feel that they are on the outside of ordinary conventionality.   But they can see the beauty in darkness and in the extraordinary---I guess I'll have to go at it from a more historical point of view,  because it really can't be pinned down to one point.

So I guess I'll have to do another page on it----please be on the watch for it.

Now Darklings, I must go and take a nap, after all Ghost Hunting can take it out of a person.

Later Darklings

Jury Duty avoided---and traveling again~~~

Well Darklings I’ve escaped from an unbearable situation----JURY DUTY.

Do not mistake my relief about this as a desire to never serve on a Jury; I feel that it is everyone’s duty to endure this interruption in one’s life.

But frankly it could not have come at a worse time, and I won’t go into details.  And it make it worse it was going to be a civil case of someone being rear-ended by a car and claiming psychological pain and suffering.

How can one measure something that is so subjective?? 

I was brought up to “Hope for the Best, Expect the worst and Deal with what comes.”

If the injury is physical, which can be seen in an X-Ray or MRI then I’d feel better about it.  Soft tissue injury of course is something hard to determine, but to say that the trauma about being rear-ended has caused emotional trauma to one’s psyche----Please Darklings, give me a break!!!

I have been rear-ended at least twice, not happy about it, but with the exchange of insurance information at least satisfied.  Another time I was rear-ended and the person who hit me was not the owner, and gave false information.  But I made sure I wrote down the license plate number and tracked down the owner who had allowed his friend to drive the car.  To Small Claims court I took them to and I won.

But did I suffer emotional psychic trauma???  No, I was more mad as Hell than anything.

And I told them that---well of course I was excused, they didn’t want someone with that sort of idea in their head, which I was happy about, because the traffic on the freeway to get to the court house  and home was horrible both days and I knew was going to get worse.  Why it has to be at a court house that’s nearly 20 miles away I’ll never know, I called and asked if I could be assigned to a court house that was closer, I knew of two of them, “Sorry” they say “No change of assignments”.   How RUDE!!!

Now if this was a criminal case, it would have been more interesting, but still being forced to travel to a court house that’s 20 miles away and only being paid .34 cents per mile one way does not match the true cost of gasoline usage.  Of course if I had been picked, I would have figured out a way to get there without using my car, and see if I could “car pool” it home.

Alright My Darklings, my rant is over---but still a Criminal Case would have been far more interesting, but emotionally demanding.

But now I’m free for another year.

Halloween is only 5 days away!!!  And they are predicting Rain!!!  Pooh!!!  I hope not!

Anyway Doyle is putting our luggage and Belladonna’s things into his car (he’s driving), Belladonna is dressed in her doggie sweater and we will be leaving in a few minutes to go to the paranormal conference at Columbia State Park, no special expectations, but it should be interesting and beautiful this time of year.

And for now until Thanksgiving nothing special will be happening, I think, but you never know what might “pop-up”. 

Later Darklings

Chilly weather is coming~~~

Oh Darklings,

There is a serious winter chill in the air today,  I had to get out my heavier sweater and get my heavier coat out for tomorrow.

Doyle and I made it back to the Library Booksale and we still found some wonderful titles, I even found the latest biography of Lizzie Borden---she of the little jingle "Lizzie Borden took an ax, gave her Mother 40 whacks and when she saw what she had done she gave her Father 41".

Well the number of whacks of an ax could be disputed but the fact that a murder did occur in board daylight while people were around is one of those Gothic mysteries that I just had to add to my Library.

Doyle was having fun looking for James Patterson and found several titles he had not read, so well worth going back.

Of course we had to do the mundane things like grocery shopping, and I found several new tombstones to add to my front display.

While at the store I came across a wine called "Chocolat Rouge" or wine with a chocolate flavor, the price wasn't bad, so I bought a bottle.  Doyle is skeptical about it so we decided that it is a dessert wine,  I had a chance this evening to read a couple of reviews and they seem fairly positive, but our tasting it will tell us but most likely not until later.

I have a policy of never drinking wine on Sunday evenings, because I feel I need a clear head, now during the week a small amount early in the evening is fine, because I can plan on when I'm going to drink it but never on Sunday.

With the chilly weather after we returned from the sale and shopping I had to put on my grubbies and vacuumed out the heater vents with Doyles' help, and put on the filters for the central heating system, I was glad I had them tested a few weeks ago and all are working fine, and venting properly.  Now I'm exhausted but Doyle is taking pity on me and has gone for Chinese, so I'm relaxing a bit and then I'll hop into the shower to get the dust off of me.

Well Elder/Elderly Goths can't look glamorous all the time Darklings.

But as I put that Lizzie Borden book on my Library shelf I was thinking about other books that would cover such topics to add to my library,  it would make perfect sense for an Elder/Elderly Goth to have something like that as part of their cabinet of curiosities.  Oh I cannot think straight this evening, I must be tired.

Later Darklings