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