Surprise and No Halloween

On Monday Tennessee, T’s Bestie, and I drove over to surprise T-Dawg’s Mama for her 40th birthday. She was very surprised and happy to see us. Her husband was in on the surprise but apparently not very good at subterfuge. He was acting sketchy over the weekend, and she noticed. I guess it’s a good thing to be married to someone who is bad at lying to you, but it makes it hard to plan surprises!

The drive over there took a little over an hour and we took the back roads. It was such a beautiful drive as the leaves were at full peak there. Something new I learned about living here that I am not all that thrilled about–fog! It was so thick that night. It was seriously spooky, and it didn’t help that we almost ran out of gas again. That would have totally freaked me out… stranded in the fog in the dark in the back woods of Tennessee. Does anyone hear banjos?

Fortunately, it all worked out and we had a lovely evening talking, laughing, and enjoying a very good meal. I have to say I feel so lucky to have these three amazing women in my life. It was great to see Lil’ J-Dawg too. He’s such a smart boy and watching him play makes me happy. Also, we got a great idea for a Xmas present for him.

For Halloween, we decided to go dark. I don’t mean like dressing up goth or anything. I mean literally turn out every light dark. Tennessee had to work and I’m just not into hearing the dogs go nuts every time a kid stopped by and that would have made it very difficult for her to work.

I enjoyed Halloween when my son was little and if J-Dawg lived near here and wanted to trick or treat we’d have gone all out to make it the perfect Halloween experience for him. However, there aren’t many little kids in this neighborhood, which by the way, is why having the school bus stop be our driveway is just weird. Anyway, most of the kids nearby are middle-school age, who we all know are notorious for being too cool for trick or treating.

So I had a quiet night sitting in the dark playing my new addictive game on my laptop until it was late enough to turn on the lights to make my now ‘world-famous’ potato soup so that we can keep warm in these next couple of days as the temps drop down below freezing overnight. This below-freezing thing is unusual for so early in the year here or so I’m told. I must say that I had forgotten how much colder humid-cold could be.

A friend of Tennessee’s, and now I guess she’s one of mine too, is currently recovering from surgery and Tennessee is going to take her some of the soup. She really likes this recipe I’ve been using that J-Dawg’s Mama passed on to me. Who’da thunk I’d ever be making potato soup on the regular?

OMG… Where did that sentence come from? Y’all, y’all is the gateway word.

I love listening to Tennessee talk and not just because I love her.  I love her accent, though I guess technically I’m the one with the accent around here. Can I just say though that some of the things they say around here I just don’t get? Maybe I’ll start a list to post someday.

Have a great first day of November my friends.