The Rest of the Week

So...once we got back from Toronto at 4am, we had a nice "nap" before Craig had to go to work and I had to start cooking pork.  Even though I was going to go back to bed after I got it set up, I didn't, so it was a pretty sleepy Saturday.  Carter had his last game of the season in the early afternoon, which they won.  I'm so proud of how he played this season.  Now on to travel and hopefully Modified in the spring.

From there we went to Lori's house for our family Oktoberfest.  It was fun to see Honey after a week apart, and she was happy to see me.  Not quite a jump initially, but she did hop up on my leg when I bent down to pet her.  But it was funny how when Kevin and Lori walked someone out to their car, she immediately defaulted back to me as her person.  We had a nice time with family, even though it was cold and a bit drizzly, which left us stuck mostly inside.

Tuesday was my endoscopy.  I'd booked it a while back since I hadn't had one in quite a few years, and I know my reflux has been hanging in there.  I noticed it creep up after I started my Zoloft, and even though I've been taking omeprazole, lately I've had what they call globus sensation, where it feels like you have something stuck in your throat.  It's not so much as choking sensation as it is feeling like a piece of food getting caught on a flap of skin or something.  Water doesn't really help, but liquid antacid has, so I think it's some sort of acid-induced esophageal spasm.  I'd had something like that years ago, and while this feels different, I think it's similar in cause.  But since I know two people around my age who have been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in the last few months, I wasn't about to mess around.  I had to stop eating at midnight and stop drinking after 6am, but my appointment wasn't until noon.  That made for a long morning.  I distracted myself with some work and then got ready.  It's a relatively quick procedure, but I did have to wait a while once I was back in the room.  By all accounts, they didn't see anything of concern, although I'm obviously still waiting for the pathology to come back.  But that was encouraging, at least.  Now if that issue would stop, that would be even better.  I had a very lazy rest of the day, though.  One long nap and a very chill evening, at least until I realized I only had 3,000 steps and had to get up to 6,000 because of my Walktober thing.  I hadn't missed a day yet, and I didn't want to start with just a few days left in the month.  So, I did a leisurely basement bike ride and secured my steps for the day.

I also realized late that night that my office Halloween was the following day.  I had thought about what I wanted to do, but the theme was weird and I got caught up in the Jays game and anticipating the endoscopy, and forgot to do anything about it.  I decided that I could maybe wear a black dress and run to Walmart in the morning to grab the materials to do the little Pinterest project I had been eyeballing.  I checked in the morning that what I needed was in stock, and headed out.  I got exactly what I needed (along with a couple things from home), and started working on it at my desk.  It was a little more complicated than I thought, but I got it done.  Elsewhere in the office, the committee had done their thing.  The theme was the Addams Family.  That was more complicated than the open-ended themes we'd had before (garden, under the sea), hence my hesitation on what to do.  But they did a great job.

As for me, my project was a Cousin Itt out of a Halloween bucket and lots of yarn.  I made the hat out of felt.  The sight of it cracked me up every time!

I also found some black gauze on my shopping trip and cut it up to drape on my arms and tie on my waist to extend my dress.  That made it look a bit creepier, at least.

On Thursday night I felt like I was running around like a maniac, and I had to carve our pumpkin late in the evening.  Luckily I knew what I wanted to do, and I was able to execute it pretty easily.  Appropriate, right?

Carter had been going back and forth about Halloween, and it intensified with the idea that the weather was going to be uncooperative.  We did try to go out and find a costume, but we wanted something that wasn't too expensive and would continue to fit Carter next year, as he wanted it for his Halloween concert next year (more on that in a minute), and I know he's going to grow.  We just couldn't find anything, but figured if he really wanted to go out, we could cobble something together.

In all the excitement about the Jays' game, I forgot to talk about Carter's concert the previous week.  It was a Halloween-themed concert with the 7th and 8th grade band and orchestra, as well as the high school band and orchestra, plus a couple specialty groups as well.  Everyone performed a song individually, and then they all came on stage to do one song at the end.  The songs were all sort of "creepy" themed, and the musicians could wear costumes!  I'd say at least half did, which was entertaining at times--like when the one conductor looked like Bills coach Sean McDermott, or the student in one of those inflatable t-rex costumes!  

The performances--especially the high school ones--were amazing, and when everyone was up there together (over 300 students!), it was so awesome.  It was similar to how I've felt about String Festival in the the spring with all the middle and elementary orchestras performing together.  The finale was "Thriller", and it was great!

Well, when Halloween arrived, the weather all day was awful.  Windy, rainy, and cold.  And it only got worse as the day went on.  Carter decided he didn't want to go out in that.  Since we had a little time to kill before trick-or-treaters, we decided to check out the new Boscov's store at the mall, which was on day 2 of its grand opening.  They had totally transformed the mall, essentially slicing it in two and replacing a third of the one wing with a store that went the width of what was once a hallway, center court, an anchor space, and probably close to a dozen storefronts.  I wasn't sure what to expect based on what I had seen from the outside, so it was so disorienting walking directly into a full, giant store.  It was even weirder peeking out the mall entrances (one that was extremely small) and realizing how much mall got taken over.  One side pretty much just has a Dick's, Barnes & Noble, and maybe four other spaces (plus an anchor space that houses a storage place--I don't even know if there's interior access to that one).  It was strange going to the other side that accesses the rest of the mall and seeing it essentially dead end with an anchor store entrance.  At least Auntie Anne's was saved!  And of course, Carter guilted me into getting him some since he wasn't going out that night.  But the store was cool, and we had fun doing a little Peanuts-themed scavenger hunt and getting some treats.  I actually bought Carter a pair of pants, a Christmas gift for Jacob, and some BOGO candy from their candy section.  Carter liked these guys in the toy section (as if we needed any more stuffies!).  

We also got to meet Snoopy!

We came out to an absolute monsoon of a night, which only solidified Carter's decision.  But, we did see some brave trick-or-treaters!

My mood exactly...

I was a little sad that Carter didn't go out for his sake, and it was a bit weird to not do it for the first time in 16 years(!), but I didn't want to go out in that either!  Carter said he was "redshirting", so he intends to go out next year.  We'll see, I guess.  Jacob missed his last year because he was waiting on a COVID test (back in the day where you didn't go out until you knew), and just decided not to do it the next year, so I suppose it would be oddly appropriate if this was how Carter's run ended.  The rest of the night was spent watching a disappointing Game Six, which the Jays lost to force a Game Seven.  Boo, indeed.

On Saturday morning we picked up Honey the dog for another few days since Lori and Kevin were going out of town to watch her niece play volleyball.  It was a lazy Saturday as a result--lots of cozy couch time.  But that night was stressful with Game Seven.  The Jays had the lead for most of the game, but after a handful of heartbreaking missteps and a couple extra innings, they lost.  We were SO bummed.  It really stung, especially after all the hope of Game One and all of the wonderful stories that should have come out of a Jays win, including our local Rochester native who was stellar in the playoffs and the rookie pitcher that broke all the records.  It was heartbreaking way to lose, to be so close--literally an inch in one case.  And poor Honey not only had to deal with our outbursts, but also had to nap on the couch way past her bedtime!

The rest of the weekend was a balance between lazy and productive.  Honey was with us through Monday, so I worked from home to stay with her.  At lunch time we went out for a bit in between rainstorms and she somehow managed to roll in poop.  Since it was in the backyard I'm assuming it was hers from last time, maybe from when we had her on the lead and maybe missed her going?  It was a different color than deer poop, at least.  I caught it quick but she still managed to get a bunch wedged under her collar.  I did my best to get her right in the house, rinse off the collar, and wipe her down, but apparently she still smelled like poop.  I tried, but I was not about to do a full bath, being completely inexperienced in pet bathing and in the middle of a work day.  Of course, she was not enjoying the cleanup and knew she was in trouble, so she kept trying to escape and hop on the bed or on the couch, which I obviously wanted to avoid.  It was even harder when I took the collar off because then I had nothing to grab!  She never went to those places without me, so I knew she knew she was in trouble!  Despite the smell, Carter managed to keep her happy when I went out for a couple hours to chauffeur Jacob around.  She had her second leash-twisting meeting of the day with Jack from around the corner (the feisty brother of Beethoven, who was a bit skittish last time), and while she wasn't immediately looking out the window for me when I left (I think she was still mad about the cleaning), she was looking for me when I came back.  Thankfully she got picked up before the crazy thunderstorms that night got too bad.  The first rumbles of thunder had her growling!  She was, of course, thrilled to see her people, and I was texted a picture of a wet dog shortly thereafter!

So, all's well (enough) and back to normal now.  Craig was gone for a couple days for work, we're all a bit sniffly, but it could be dog allergies, and Jacob's basketball coach got fired last week, so that's been an interesting wrinkle.  Obviously hoping whoever gets hired is a good fit.  More to come soon, but never a dull moment around here, that's for sure!