We are now another weekend closer to the holidays. On the good news side, gas continues to drop, but groceries still haven't come down. I spent part of the weekend reading Children of the Jedi and watching DVDs. Saturday, we went out for a little shopping (Best Buy, Target, Gamestop, Stater Bros.) and picked up a free DVD rental from Blockbuster. We came home with munchies, the two Hellboy movies, and Jumper as our free rental. Saturday night we watched the first Hellboy and then Jumper. Hayden Christiansen (aka Anikan Skywalker) is one stiff actor (not much depth to his acting). Sunday, we went over to an old co-workers house for our annual NFL get together. Her Steelers beat my Chargers in an abismal game. We played some pool and hung around until the 2nd quarter of the Dallas-Washington game before heading home. Our tv was non-stop fire coverage all weekend as SoCal had its annual fires. Fortunately, we were not inundated with smoke like in previous years, but that could change as the winds shift.

This weekend we went out to look for a dresser to replace the "antique" that I had used as a teenager and is probably better on display rather than in use. We mapped out 20 or so garage sales being held Saturday morning in Apple Valley. Renee, being a veteran of the experience as a child(not her favorite memory), let me know when to stop and when to just roll on by. We found only one place with decent dressers, but they were already sold. Next we went to thrift and used furniture stores. After checking out all Apple Valley had to offer, I suggested we try Hesperia. (That was based on my hatred of shopping without actually buying anything.) We walked into a thrift store and found a decent, real wood, but slightly beat up dresser with a mirror. They only wanted $30, so we called it a sale and headed home. Upon arriving, Renee had recieved an e-mail from someone with a dresser and two night stands that was asking $100. Renee offered her $50 thinking she would refuse. She didn't. So Sunday, we brought home another dresser and two nightstands. Not a bad weekend. Two dressers, two nightstands = $80. The antique will go back into storage and Renee's old dresser will go back on Freecycle where we found it.

Jesse decided he no longer wanted his blue mohawk so this weekend Renee took the clippers to him. He now has a buzz cut and looks like he just reported to basic training. Funny how I never wanted my hair cut short growing up, but was told it would be cut anyway. He has the choice and chooses to have it all cut off.

As a kid growing up in Barstow, one thing you could always count on was that come the end of October it would be cold, windy, rainy or all of them combined. I remember several times getting all dressed up to go trick or treating and having it rain as we went around door to door. Did we stop because of the rain? No way! There was candy to be gotten. Then there was the weird tradition that was only in Barstow of having the Mardi Gras parade on October 31st. Why? I have no idea, that is just when it was. So trick or treating was always on the 30th. We didn't know any better, so once you moved away you found out that Mardi Gras was not at the end of October and regular places actually trick or treated on the 31st. They recently changed that tradition and now hold the parade the weekend before Halloween and let kids trick or treat on the 31st. The Mardi Gras parade was always a cold night as well as you were in the parade or along Main Street/Route 66 watching a sibling in it. Eventually they began broadcasting it on the local cable channel and that was some big deal because you could be on TV.

As I left the house this morning, the rain was falling and the clouds were rolling in right on schedule.

Another weekend gone, but we managed to get some things accomplished. Not much going on Friday night except grocery shopping. It would be nice if prices there dropped like at the pump. Saturday, we went shopping for pontoon boats...er...I mean...boots for Jesse. He now requires a size 15 and we managed to find a boot store that had some black work boots that met with his approval. From there, we went to Sonic as they opened one down by the mall here. It wasn't the same as in Kentucky, but Renee got her fix. Then we were at the mall because I wanted a new Star Wars novel, Millenium Falcon, that was released on Tuesday. We walked the mall with stops at Hot Topic and Gamestop as well as Lids before going across the freeway to Marie Calendar for some pies. Mmmmm, pie...Pecan and Pumpkin. We made one final stop at Best Buy to get the Incredible Hulk DVD before heading home. That night, you guessed it, we watched the DVD. Sunday was spent yelling at the Chargers for not playing defense and then reading my new novel. We ended the weekend watching the Bourne Ultimatum DVD. All in all a relaxing weekend.