Apple Scrapple

Apparently Father Fall won the fight against Mother Nature who seemed intent on keeping us spoiled by warm temperatures. The weather actually matches the calendar page now so there's no more denying the arrival of fall.

We didn't go for our regular Fri night dinner at the Miltonian. Rick & Nick were out of town, and Stephan & Wayne had invited us to their house for a happy hour. Wayne had made a bunch of holiday wreaths and floral centerpieces and had them out for folks to see and purchase if they felt so inclined. We enjoyed a drink and a nibble to eat, but only stayed for about an hour. We came home, ate pizza and Spouse flipped around between various crappy TV programs while I watched a Netflix DVD called 'Crutch', which I enjoyed.

Spouse made breakfast for us on Sat morning and then we putzed around the house until almost noon. Stephan & Wayne met us here at 12:30 and we headed to Bridgeville for the 14th annual Apple Scrapple Festival. It was wonderfully sunny, cool, and a little breezy; perfect festival weather. On our way to Bridgeville we stopped at a gas station where I accidentally backed into the gas pump, breaking the nozzle off the handle, and breaking the tail light on Spouse's CRV. How embarrassing. The owner of the station was not present but I talked to him on the phone. He called me back today to thank me for being honest about having broken the nozzle. Since the station was not open, I could very easily have gotten back in the car and driven away. The off-duty mechanic working on his own vehicle inside the garage did not see what happened. I had to interrupt his work to inquire about who to speak to about the pump. The owner said the nozzle will cost about $180. to replace. I told him to have it done and mail me the invoice, and I'd pay for it. He again expressed his gratitude for my honesty.

The Apple Scrapple Festival was a much bigger deal that we'd thought. Bridgeville is a very small town so we assumed the festival would be small and easily completed within an hour. Au contraire! Nearly the entire town was roped off for the festival, which consisted of live entertainment on a stage, lots of food vendors (including scrapple, of course), arts and crafts booths, products and services booths, booths selling apples, canned veggies and fruit, pickles, relish, and a rather impressive selection of classic and antique cars to peruse. We were shocked at home many people the festival attracted. Afterward we had an early dinner at Jimmy's Grill, where we ate quite possibly the best fried chicken in DE, if not the entire country.

We barely had time to feed and walk Jordan once we got home before we had to hop back in the car and go to Paul & Steve's for Movie Night. Paul & Steve converted their dining room (which they never used) into a full-fledged movie theatre, complete with a projection system, huge wall-sized screen, velvet drapes, authentic movie theatre candy counter and popcorn maker! These guys took the theme and really went with it, so watching movies with them is even better than going to the actual cinema. We watched "Victim", a 1960 British film about the blackmailing of gay men when simply being homosexual was against the law, based on a true story. It was really good.

Sun morning we slept in until 9:30, then watched "The Barefoot Contessa" and "Nigella Express" as we ate our sesame bagels and drank our blueberry flavored coffee. Unable to postpone it any longer, we started doing our 'serious' housecleaning. Spouse had suggested early in the week that we do a 'serious' housecleaning that coming weekend, and by Sun at noon we knew we'd have to get started. Surprisingly it didn't take as long as we thought, and Spouse abbreviated his portion a bit, deciding to mop the kitchen floor "another day".

Again it was bright and sunny, cool, and slightly breezy so we agreed to meet Rick & Nick at the beach at 2:30. We brought sweatshirts since its often cooler on the beach than at home, but the warmth of the sun kept us from needing to put them on. There was hardly anyone there, and the water was quite calm. Rick & Nick brought their new Sheltie puppy Zack with them. He really enjoyed the beach. We really enjoyed being able to just sit and talk with our friends on the beach for 2 hours, knowing there will very few if any more days like this until spring.

When we got home I showered and then made dinner. We had tacos and Mexican rice. Spouse watched '60 Minutes' and I watched a Netflix DVD called "Unconditional Love". Despite the star-studded cast which included Kathy Bates, the uber-yummy Rupert Everett, Vanessa Redgrave, Dan Akroyd, and Johnathan Pryce, the film was rather disappointing. The 1st half was good and engaging. I really felt for the lead character played by Kathy Bates, whose husband leaves her and whose favorite pop star dies. But the 2nd half just seemed to turn silly and insipid, falling short of even being campy. I really wanted to like this film but it just wasn't worth liking.

We both went to bed at 10:30, but were awakened several times throughout the night and early morning by our darling dog Jordan. We think she has allergies because there are times like last night where she will 'cough' for 15-20 seconds, loud enough to wake us up. Sometimes she does it during waking hours, which is far less irritating than last night when she woke us up no less than 6 times. Spouse took her into a guest bedroom and closed the door, but sometime later she began to whimper and scratch on the door, so he let her out of the guest room and back into our room. This happened 3 times. I don't fault Jordan for keeping us up all night, I fault Spouse. He should have made her stay in the guest bedroom after she'd woken us up twice. This morning when the alarm went off I felt as if I'd just taken a series of 15 minute cat naps.

Pet concern update: Pouncer and Jordan are both eating and pooping normally again. Just thought you'd want to know.

Now, I'm off to my work out.

Drag Queen name of the day: Lily Pewshun