Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice. The official start of winter. Bleah. And we even got our first 'real' snowfall of the year last night. Nothing outlandish, but enough to plow and shovel (and for the towns to put salt down). I shouldn't complain; we've had great snow-free weather for much longer than usual. But it still doesn't mean I gotta like it!

One thing about today that I do like, though...it's also the shortest day of the year. From here on out, the days start getting longer again. And that means that as of tomorrow, the sun will begin it's inexorable return trip northward. And we, who enjoy its warmth (and the clear roads that come with it), cannot wait to embrace it's golden rays once again.

Last Miles for 2010?

The temps were hovering around the low 20's yesterday morning when I rolled the bike out. The weather had been calling for a major snowstorm hitting us Sunday night. I hadn't really been paying attention to the forecasts...but that changed when they started using the term "feet" to describe how much we were going to get. Feet? Oh man, that's not good...

Only one thing to do; get some miles on before the crapola hits the fan!! Let's Ride!!

Here's a shot of the temp guage on the bike as I rolled it out of the garage...

The guage itself actually started dropping a bit, once I got moving. Rolling through the center of town, the main bank's temp display read a balmy 23 degrees. Frikkin' Awesome! :-D

I put a number of miles on and I was having fun. I especially enjoyed the odd looks from people as I rode by. One guy in particular took one look at me, pulled his jacket tighter about himself, and shouted to me "You're making me cold!!!" Ha! Love it!

So of course I figured I should get someone else out here to share in the fun. Texting with Zig, he replied that he was doing laundry. Laundry? Laundry can wait, there's snow on the way. Let's ride! He couldn't deny that logic and said ok. With that, I was back on the road, and rocketing to his house...

Chrissy even geared up and joined us. We were soon on our way, hitting some side roads, easing through some corners here and there, and generally enjoying the day. We pulled up at a bar...er...restaurant for some grub, watched some football, and then made plans with other buds to meet up for the 4 o'clock games, followed by the PATS!!

The Picadilly Pub in Mansfield wound up being our chosen destination, and we soon had 10 individuals of questionable character, all lined up and having fun. A few beers, some popcorn thrown into each other's beers, and an occasional strangling now and then. Good times!

I kept wandering out to the parking lot to see how the storm was progressing, but there was nothing to be found. Checking the weather, it seems we'd dodged another bullet; the storm was going to miss us to the south. And while we were still possibly going to see a little bit of white stuff, the weather geeks had called off the alerts and the state was closing down the emergency shelters.

Back inside, the Pats eked out another close victory, but it was a victory none-the-less. Next week? The dreaded Bills from Buffalo! They've been looking good lately, should be a good game (and of course, King and I will have a beer riding on the outcome).

Another day full of Miles and Smiles. I like these days.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Catharsis

Took the bike out for a putt this morning. The temp guage was hovering around the 20-something mark but I'd bundled up and was looking forward to rolling out. Without asking for anything in return, the bike offers me a clear head and a welcome chance to reflect on things. I've got great friends all around, (plus new/interesting friends from last night!), there are road trips to warmer climes in the making, and on top of all this, I've got two wheels below, a (mostly) clear sky above, and an open road in front. There really isn't much that's better than this.

And with that realization, life is good once again.

Send Good Thoughts

Kevin goes into Tufts tomorrow (Wednesday) @ 9am, and expects to be there for a few days. Send him some good thoughts.

4 Years

Ride Free, Russ. Hopefully Rosie is keeping you good company, too.

Full Bellies find a Pot Belly

On Saturday, the temps had soared into the 60’s. Clear skies were above, and beaming sunshine all around. The texts had already been coming in; bikes were being fired up and miles were gonna be logged. Yet sadly, I stood in my yard with many chores laid out before me. I’d sworn an oath to myself earlier in the week that I would ignore the siren song of the road and would remain focused on the tasks at hand. It was difficult, especially given the roaring sounds of pipes flying up and down my street all day long, but I’m happy to report that I was resolute, and succeeded in accomplishing my goals.

Once nighttime had arrived and the tools were all put away, it was time to party! Ok, well not so much ‘party’, as just ‘gather’; to discuss our plans for Sunday’s ride. For you see; Sunday was forecast to be much chillier, but we were undaunted by this. We had set an auspicious goal for ourselves; we were riding to NH for breakfast. (What the? But it gets colder the further north you ride!!) Yes, this is true, and was one of the reasons necessitating a discussion. How did things turn out? Let’s find out…

The gathering spot was Zig’s back yard around a bit of a fire. Some folks who were not going to join us in our undertaking, still had the gall to attend this planning shindig of ours - Mike, I’m looking at you! (just kidding, but you shoulda made it!), but for those that were going, it wound up being a simple plan. Checking the weather, there were to be clouds and colder temps moving in as the day progressed, resulting in the warmest temps being forecast to fall early noon-ish, rather than later in the afternoon. Given that it should take us about 90 minutes to get there, we’d depart from my driveway @ 10. That would give us ample time to arrive, eat, and be headed back south, all while maximizing the temperatures. We all agreed it was a grand plan, and with that, it was off to our respective homesteads to get some sleep before our assault on the frozen roadways.

The next morning found me up early…much too early (stupid brain – can’t sleep before a ride!), but the good news is that it allowed me to get the wood stove roaring. In short order, the living room was soon experiencing its own little heat wave in anticipation of the frosty riders soon to appear.

While waiting for said riders, I figured a bit of preparation was in order. Our breakfast destination was a place called Parker’s Maple Barn, in Mason, NH. They boldly mention on their website that they do not have a license to serve alcohol, but you are more than welcome to bring your own. Well then, that sounds like a mighty fine invitation! And something that has always appealed to me on a frosty morning is a nice hot chocolate that has been enhanced with a bit of schnapps. So, with that in mind, it was time to pull out the trusty pocket flask and stock up for the event.
Additionally, and also in light of the expected chill, I pulled out some handy dandy hand warmers. Yep, we’d have things covered for certain!
Matt was the first to arrive, followed shortly by Zig and Chrissy. But wait; there was another attendee this morning; Mr. Sun! And he'd brought warmer temps than had been expected! In fact, Matt checked the temps again and noted that things had warmed up 10 degrees in a little over an hour. How sweet it is! (I still packed the hand warmers but they weren’t needed at all.)

We hit the road a bit after 10am and were soon hammering up 495. Traffic was light, but moving quickly, and we found ourselves enjoying a solid pace within the relative safety of the middle lane. We only had one missed turn (stupid highway numbers – I was looking for Rte 13 but got cornfused and took Rte 113 for a few miles until I realized my error). A quick back-track, a few more miles until we found our correct path once again, and we were back in business.

Now Matt had commented earlier that he didn’t have a flask to bring along for this trip, and as it turned out, Zig didn’t, either. But Providence provided for us, for when we pulled into a NH State Liquor store…

… they wound up having a tobacco store next door that carried flasks. Sweet! A quick trip inside and the lack of flasks was soon remedied.

Here’s something you don’t always see; the tobacco shop had a cigar room in the back. This thing was sweet! Recliners (which were facing a large flat-screen TV on the wall behind me), a poker table, and, off to the right (out of sight in this pic) was an enormous, walk-in humidor!

Anyway, a short visit to the liquor store for additional supplements (vanilla schnapps for Matt, and Bailey’s for Zig), and we were back outside. Zig opted to fill his flask at this time and we were certain that he would spill the Bailey’s all over the place as he tried to pour the thick fluid into the tiny opening, but he managed it without much product loss at all. We all agreed it was indeed an impressive feat, particularly given his many claims of being hungover from the evening before. After this, it was back to the road. A few short miles later found us pulling into the Parker’s parking lot.
We pulled up and off to the side, claiming some real estate within full view of the windows to park our rides.
Now our proximity to the windows is important to point out, for when Matt was filling his flask, he had a full bank of spectators who were enjoying the show from inside. No pressure, Man, no pressure! Sure the flask has a tiny opening, but you can do it – don’t spill!
(I’m happy to report that he also managed the task with minor product loss – these guys are pros!).

I walked in and put our name into the queue and was informed the “wait” was about 45 minutes. Zoinks! Ok, let’s check out the area while we’re waiting. I see they have a gift shop next door. (My conspiracy mindset kicks into full gear. Hmmm, a gift shop next door…could it be that this plays a part of why the “wait” is so long?? I wonder…) Ok, let’s check out the gift shop. Yep; it’s a gift shop, replete with all the kitsch you expect to find in a gift shop. Ok, back outside it is. How much longer, now? Well, the gift shop visit knocked off a whopping 4 minutes, so that leaves us…yes; quite a while, still.

Checking out the area, we found one tree that was adorned with various ‘distance to’ signs on them…

…and a second tree adorned with various terms of greeting…
Sadly, this was about all that was available for entertainment for hungry patrons left waiting outside. So, we passed the time by sitting on the cedar swingsets.

Zig and Chrissy…
…and Matt. Matt was deeply entrenched within his inner musings (IE: his phone) and looked a bit perturbed at being interrupted when I called out his name so that he would look up…
…yet once we were inside and had our hot chocolates (and flasks) in front of us, all moods were significantly improved!

A quick line-up of the offenders.
Food! The price for their signature breakfast was kinda steep, but the amount of food that showed up was quite impressive. (Being the fatty that I am, I’d already eaten half of my eggs and some of my home fries before it occurred to me to snap a pic.)
As we were emptying our plates, we bantered our next destination about. Where should we go? What else was going on today? When we realized our options were limited, we all agreed on where it was that we should next park our tires. (Where did we wind up? I’ll get there, I’ll get there…)

When our bellies were full, it was time to gather ourselves up and head back outside. Just as we were departing, a group of folks sat down at a table behind us and let me tell you; they had the whole “you can bring your own alcohol” thing down to a science! Out came an enormous container of red liquid (what could it be?), huge plastic cups, baggies of ice, baggies of celery stalks, baggies of olives, baggies of lemon slices, straws, napkins…what is going on here? Bloody Mary’s! Nice! They soon had themselves set up in grand fashion, and when they saw our looks of admiration, laughed and nodded in a knowing manner (they’d seen our flasks as they were walking by).

Soon we were easing our trusty machines along the same beautiful wooded roadways that we’d travelled not too long ago on our way to the maple barn. On our way in, I’d spotted a cool mini lighthouse set up on the side of a lake we’d passed. I wanted to snap a pic of it on our way out and did just that as we shot past. Unfortunately, it didn’t come out well. I’m not sure if you can even make out that there is a lighthouse in this pic, but I assure you there is one.

About an hour and a half later, we pulled into our next stop. Can you tell where this is? (Those of you who have been following our exploits of late might recognize the parking lot.) And there were other bikes there to greet us this time! Yes, it’s our favorite stomping grounds – the Pot Belly Pub! (And that means that we’d inadvertently squeezed another PBP run into this season!)
Just as we were setting our kickstands, the Mayor came walking out to the lot. Once again, he had many things to take care of and would not be gracing us with his presence inside. We were glad to have caught him so that we could say our hello’s, and we all wished each other good things, and agreed that with any luck, we might have some more decent weather still in store for a little while.

Inside, we said our hellos to the faces we've come to know, and then made a quick request of Bartender Chris for some of the (in)famous ducks. A snapped pic on the phone, and with that; a text was sent to Danno, to bust on him for missing today’s run.
The Pats weren’t playing until 8 that night, so we contented ourselves with watching both the Giants, and the Jets, and hoped they would both lose. We went 50-50 on that, as the Giants got pounded but the Jets eked out a lucky win in the waning minutes of OT. Damn.

At one point, we began to feel a bit of a vibration in the floorboards – what gives? A look out the window and sure enough; a train was coming along the tracks behind the bar. Huh, I didn’t even know those tracks were still active. That would make for a cool picture; the train gong by the bikes. Oh well, I realized that by the time I could dig out my camera and get outside, it’d already be past. Maybe some other time.

And that was when Matt came back inside from his smoke break - and guess who had been in the right place at the right time? Sweet!
After a bit of time, the darkness was beginning to really settle in so we broke for Chickie Flynn’s, much closer to home. Matt was hungry again (fat bast…er…I mean; poor guy) so appetizers and entrees were ordered all around. I’d planned on just having one beer and heading home, but then found out that these guys have a buddy who’s shipping out to Afghanistan in January, and he was going to swing by and say hello. I stuck around so I could buy him a beer (we wound up buying him a few), talk to him about his assignment, and wish him good luck. With any luck, we’ll see Jim back home safely.

Before we knew it, it was 8 o’clock and that meant the Pats were about to kick off! We settled up the tab, bundled up our bodies, and broke for our respective abodes. Back at home, I settled into the comfortable recliner as usual and enjoyed the show as the Pats manhandled the Steelers.

And now it’s Monday, once again…

Here’s hoping everyone was able to get some miles on this past weekend. We’ve got some messy stuff coming in this week, but the long-range shows chilly temps, but no precipitation, for the weekend. Maybe…just maybe…we might be able to get some riding in. But where to go?

I heard about this place in northern Maine that has a fantastic breakfast buffet…

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Thank A Vet!!

Saw something (potentially) disturbing on the news yesterday; the gravesite of PFC Nicholas Cournoyer was vandalized, and some items that friends and family members had left over the years had been taken. I'm hoping the items were taken by someone who was very close to Nicholas and took the things because they miss him so much, and that the items will be returned shortly.

Why the note about PFC Nicholas Cournoyer? Because he was one of the first funerals I attended as a member of the Patriot Guard. This was back in May of 2006. On one hand, it seems like such a long time ago, on the other, it seems like it wasn't that long at all. In fact, I still remember in one of the eulogies that his friends used to call him "Cournoyer the Destroyer". As big and strong as he was in life, a goddamn IED added his name to the list of those who have given the greatest sacrifice possible.

But I digress, as usual. Today is Veteran's Day. I mounted the flags onto the bike last night for the ride in today. (Still gotta get the back of the bike fixed before the big flags can fly again.)

When I got to work, I found that someone had printed off some "Thank a Veteran today!" signs and had put them up. Nice!

I imagine everyone has a friend or relative that is fighting (or has fought) for our freedoms. I'd love to get into the whole debate about the politicians eroding our rights more and more, but this isn't the time. Today we thank and remember those who have sacrificed for us.

Thank You!!

Final (??) Pot Belly Run of the Season

The invites had been sent and the plan was in place. Even though Matt, Bill and I had done the "final" PBP run a couple of weekends ago, word leaked out about how much fun we'd had and the decision was made that yet another run was in order.

This of course meant that beers had to be purchased and chilled. I guess if there's anything good about winter; you don't need ice when the temps are in the 30's. Just fill the cooler and leave the cover open overnight. Voila; chilled beers.
Of course, the bad part about low temps is that you don't know who else has the fortitude to go riding with you. Here, the beers are ready and Snoopy is waiting. Will anyone else show up?
Rally time was set at 11:00. At 10:50 my phone beeps with an incoming text. Uh-oh...let's see who the first person bailing out is going to be... Picking up the phone, I see the text is from Danno. But instead of it being a "Danno Out!" text, he's saying that "we're" on our way. Sweet, that means there's more than one! And no sooner had I put the phone down than Carl came pulling into the driveway. And then Matt, and then Danno and Chris M - we got 5 participants!!

We pounded a couple of roadies and then made with the gearing up. Kickstands were raised around 11:30 or so, and we were off!

Pulling into the PBP, we were surprised that the parking lot was devoid of any other bikes. What kind of welcome is this? A biker bar with no bikes? It's a good thing we came along to set things right!
Inside, we were greeted with a rather empty PBP, but that just meant we got our pick of bar stools. Bartender Chris was slinging the drinks and the Mayor was quick to do the greetings, as usual. There were about 10 of us at the bar and we were talking about this, that, and the other thing. Conversation ended up focusing on different bars we've all been to and one common name popped up; the old Anvil, in Wrentham. I told my story about walking in one night just in time to see a patron smash something into the (guy) bartender's face, only to then have the bartender come over the bar and lay out the patron with one punch. The guy landed right at my feet - sweet! Dinner and a show! LOL The Mayor then relayed a story about a buddy of his that had been barred from the Anvil for life. Seems he'd thrown the owner through the front window (Yeah, I guess that would earn you banishment.) The Mayor then points to the PBP's front wall and says "You'll notice we only have one window. And, it's pretty small." I replied that technically, you could still put someone through it, but you'd have to really mean it because it would take you a while, and you'd have to really work at it. We pondered this for a second and then moved on to other topics.

A bit later, The Mayor surprised us by saying he had to leave, to take care of a bunch of things. We assured him that he was leaving the bar in good hands. He gave us one of "those" looks and said "I'm not sure I'd call them "good" hands", so we amended our statement to "Well, you're leaving the bar in 'hands', how's that?"

From there, it as time to focus on football! Yeah, football! There was the usual pre-game coverage about different players and we started talking about how big the players have become over the years. There was one in particular (I don't remember now who it was) and we were joking about him having manly hands, really big, strong fingers. And that's when Chris tossed out what was to be this day's best line; "Shaking hands with him would be like shaking hands with a bunch of bananas." (Ha, that one's making the blog!)

Anyway, it was game time and we were hungry. Matt had scoped out the offerings and they were doing a special on wings; 25 cents each. Sweet - we'll take 80 of them! (They were a little taken aback by this, and weren't even sure they had 80 on hand. Fortunately, they did, and we were in wing heaven!) Thanks Matt!

We had 4 different flavors going, on four plates stacked high. I should have snapped a pic when they first showed up, but didn't think to until they were about half gone. That's right; these plates are only about half full compared to what they looked like when they arrived. Mmmmm!!!
Now, remember the little skeletons this place was using as markers (for owed drinks) the last time we were here? Well Halloween is over, so they're back to their usual markers; little tiny ducks. Why ducks, when everything else in this place is pig-related? Who knows, but the ducks were pretty funny. This is the first one that showed up (Carl was falling behind).
Another round, and Carl was still behind (judging by how I felt this morning, I think he was actually the smart one...). Anyway, another round, another duck.
We were making friends with other folk around us and whenever someone else got a duck, I had to get a pic of them. These things were pretty cool! And, it turns out, they did have some pigs, too...
They keep these things inside an empty pitcher behind the bar. See the pitcher next to it? It's got candy in it, and they use those as markers, too. Good thing they just gave us the ducks. If they'd started giving us candy, I probably would have eaten it.
Danno was setting a pretty furious pace with the beers, and before long, Carl had a third duck in front of him. I think they were making fun of him at this point, because it was a very pretty duck, with a little tiara and everything.
Now I was minding my own business and wading through the wings as best I could when suddenly Bartender Chris puts a duck down in front of me. What the...? Is this a joke? No?!?! I've really fallen behind!?!? Say it isn't so!! Nope, it was true. I'd earned a duck!
With some quick thinking...er...drinking, I managed to get caught up once again and get rid of the duck. But no sooner had I traded it in, than Danno was lining up another round. Damn! And now it's getting personal; this time I got a pretty little tiara'd duck of my own.
I'm happy to say that I wasn't the only one having difficulty matching Danno's pace, and before long, we had started a little happy family of ducks and pigs.
Just before halftime (and already things were looking pretty dismal for the Pats), Danno starts chanting “Here we go Bruins, here we go!” And then he goes and plays a song off the jukebox, at top volume. I asked why he did that because now we can’t hear the game and he just does his Danno smile-and-shrug, looks at me and says “but it’s a GREAT song!”. I guess you can’t argue with that, and it was a great song (VH’s “And the cradle will rock”.)

Ka-Bang and Judy showed up and joined in the fun we were all having - in fact, the bar had pretty much filled to capacity at this point, and we were making friends left and right.

You can see how the rest of the afternoon went. But we needed the liquid distraction because our football team was getting their asses handed to them. It was an ugly, ugly game and that, combined with the waning daylight outside, caused us to wrap things up and hit the road before regulation time had expired. (We did manage to take care of all the outstanding markers, though.)

Back outside in the parking lot and still no other bikes except ours!
Danno was reaping the rewards of his feverish pace and had some difficulty with donning his chaps. Which of course made for a Kodak moment. (As soon as he saw the camera come out, he knew what was in store.)
Matt stepped up to the plate and, never one to shy away from an opportunity to touch another man's leg, soon got things going again.
From here, Chris M and Carl broke off and made for their respective homesteads. One of Matt's friends (Linda) was kind enough to show us a different route to get home (but afterward, we agreed our usual route was preferable). Anyway, we'd agreed to meet Mike (oh yeah; Mike had shown up about halfway through the game) at the Red Rooster. Instead of following us, he went a different way, and this turned out to be a snag. See, when Danno, Matt and myself got into Wrentham, Danno called for a pit stop at the Wrentham Legion. Ok, so we pulled in, got a roadie and visited the men's room.

I had to take a pic of this thing - when is the last time you saw one of these, and in the bathroom, to boot? This must be for the gentleman who simply can't not-smoke for 3 minutes to take a leak?

So anyway, back to the story. We were enjoying the roadie when I hear my phone ring. It's Mike. Crap, we forgot about Mike! He's at the Rooster and wondering if we're gonna make it there. Yep, just let us kill these beers and we'll be on our way. He says ok, no worries, he's going to head home. Ok, sorry about the mixup Mate, we'll catch you again soon.

When we left the Legion, Danno made for home, leaving it at just Matt and I. Finally arriving at the Rooster, we bump into some friends of Matt, and they’re doing Irish car bombs. So of course we decided that it would be a great idea for us to jump into the festivities as well. (What's better than Irish car bombs on Sunday night when you have to be at work in 12 hours??)

We hung there for a short spell then decided to hit one more spot to grab a bite, so we rolled up the highway to Applebees. The service was so-so but the popcorn was flowing, along with more frosties, and, we even got to take home some special glasses, made just for doing shot/beer drinks. Put your shot in the middle, pour your beer around the outside, then drink! As you tip the glass, the shot mixes with the beer and wheeee!
The day had been long and it was getting late so we decided to wrap things up. Outside, we found the storm that had been hovering in the distance all day, was making it’s arrival, and was blessing us with hail. Hail! No matter, we’ve got the gear, we’ve got the bikes, we’re good to go. (Good to go home!)

Another awesome and successful day was had by all. Today had been billed as the “last Pot Belly Pub run of the season”, and we’d squeezed a hell of a good time out of it.

‘Course, this coming Sunday’s weather forecast is calling for sunny and 55 degrees…Hmmm…

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Death of Iron Man

Last week's dry run/test was successful; I'd placed the canoe half that wasn't used for my costume, out to the street to see if the trash guys would take it. They did. So that meant this week saw Iron Man out at the end of my driveway, awaiting the arrival of said trash detail. I even placed it facing outwards so that anyone that drove by (and my neighbors, now that I think about it) could see it and wonder what the hell that weird Magraw guy is up to this time.
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I probably should have taken a pic, but didn't. Oh well, you've seen the costume pics, you can probably picture it sitting out by the street. Anyway, to make a long story short (too late!), Iron Man was gone when I got home last night.
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You think maybe he took off on his own, to go fight crime??
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Nah, me either.

INN-spect-SHUN!!

It's that time of year again; time when the long range forecasts have the weather folk mentioning the "S" word (snow). It's not due in our area for a little while still, but it has made appearances just over the MA border. And that means I need to have the Jeep ready to go.

But, this means I need to get it inspected, and despite all the work that'd been done on it recently, it still wasn't going to pass with a directional lens that looked like this...
Fortuantely, when I bought this thng a couple years ago, the guy I bought it off of had a spare directional lens to go with it. And whaddya know - it was for left side, too! Nice! Too bad the mounting tabs were broken. Hmmm...well, I'll just have to come up with a workaround...

It's the trusty Dremel to the rescue again! Using a cutting disk, I separated the old lens from the old housing...
...and cleaned it of all remaining black plastic. Turning to the housing that was still mounted on the Jeep, I cleaned that up as well, then applied a bead of caulking...
A few shims of scrap wood to hold things in place as I drove to the inspection place (Seeing as how I'd waited until yesterday to fix this, and the sticker had expired on Sunday, I didn't have time to let it cure overnight.)

Would the shims hold it in place, or would it rattle off, only to be shattered as my tires ran it over? Time would tell...

.

Sweet!!

Legal, for one more year!!

Now if only that snow will hold off...

Halloweekend!

It was another successful Halloween at Ed and Sue's last night, but before we get to that, let's back up a bit. Friday night, I hunted down an empty can, a roll of TP, and the remainder of the kerosene from last year's flaming pumpkin experiment. There wasn't a lot left! Would it be enough? Time would tell.

I dumped the kerosene into the can and dropped the TP in. There wasn't enough kerosene to cover the roll of TP so I figured I'd leave it overnight and check the next day. If it hadn't soaked it all up, I'd flip the roll over. (As it turned out, it did soak it all up.)
Now switching gears; I'd been kicking around the idea of making a certain something for a while. What was I going to make? Well, here are the ingredients...

I had to sterilize those jars but before I broke out the bleach, I remembered that I had some sanitizer left over from when I'd brewed the saki...

All cleaned, sanitized, and drying...

Hmmm...coffee grounds? What am I up to?

Water, sugar and the coffee grounds, all boiled up and now simmering... (I need to make this stuff more often - it made the house smell great!)

2 hours later, those contents from the pan were mixed in with a 1/2 cup of Vanilla, + a half gallon of 100-proof vodka. Kahlua, anyone??

All bottled up and ready. (I had a 6th bottle, but it didn't quite fill to the top, so I left it out of this pic.) Now I just need to store these in a cool place for at least a month and they'll be ready to go...

And now back to Halloween! Arriving at Ed & Sue's, I unloaded the trappings of a fire-pumpkin. Borrowing a knife, I made short work of the stencil and soon had a ferocious face set to go. However, I then thought that some horns on top would be a good idea...too bad they came out looking like cute little ears... The stupid thing looks like a happy easter bunny now!! (Not to worry; once I set it on fire, all semblance of 'cuteness' was gone!)

Sue broke out the costume implements and handed me a blue wig. Whaddya think, is this a good look for me? Ed had done himself up as a rasta...er...football player. Yeah that's it; a football player.

Each year, they add another scary pumpkin to their mix. I liked the latest member of their family!

Of course, I had to take the obligatory pic of Ed's bike in the barn, illuminated by the blue light.

When I came out of the barn, I found Ed rockin' out to the tunes on his iPod. He was living the rock-star dream! (Wait, why am I grabbinig the fog machine? What could I possibly be up to???)

I figured no rock-star dream was complete without some special effects...

The Trick 'r Treater turnout was much lower than previous years (but that may have had something to do with the Patriots kicking Brett Farve's ass on TV!!). We filled the void with cold frosties, plenty of laughs and even a handful (or five) of candy. When the evening had worn on a while and the kids had stopped coming by, it was time to pack up and head for home.

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Overall, another successful Halloween thanks once again to Ed and Sue - thanks guys! Here's hoping that everyone else out there had a safe, fun and spooky evening!

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Happy All Hallow's Eve!