Wow! Six days without a blog post?

I'm really falling down on the job, aren't I????

I can only plead: (1) too much gardening work over the weekend to get the perennials cut down; (2) too much time spent finishing Miss Amelia's ballgown (where were those damn mice with the sewing needles when I needed them?); and (3) illness.

As to number 1, your dad and I spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday cutting down the backyard gardens, and got through the whole thing. Thank God! 28 enormous paper bags of vegetation stacked at the end of the driveway for the poor compost truck driver to pick up on Tuesday morning -- he must love us.....

With regards to number 2, may I direct your attention to Miss Amelia's Blogspot, so as to show off the last photographs of the ballgown and the hoop skirt? If I do say so myself, the dress turned out marvelously! Had to tussle a bit with the Rigilene in the hoops of the underskirt (it kept wanting to twist sinuously, rather than lying in a nice circular hoop, making the underskirt look more like a figure 8 than a circle!), but it all worked out in the end. Joyce had a box in her attic that was big enough to fit the dress without having to fold anything, so with the help of a big bag of styrofoam peanuts, the ensemble arrived in Connecticut yesterday without incident. Only a whopping $30 postage bill to remind me....Jennifer promises to take you out for a good lunch or a fabulous shopping trip over Thanksgiving.

And as for number 3, well, I seem to have been attacked by a weird virus running through my office. No overt symptoms like a fever or runny nose -- no, this particular virus strikes with a splitting headache that Advil doesn't touch, and brings with it a sense of dizziness and a queasy stomach. Plus a huge sense of fatigue. Feels like I've got a really nasty champagne-induced hangover, without ever having had the fun part! This has been going on since Saturday night, and I'm getting a bit annoyed with it. Unfortunately, I think your dad now has it; he was complaining of a headache this morning before he went off to the MN Orchestra rehearsal :-(

We all had a good chuckle over your "WTF it's snowing here!" text message yesterday morning, but I'm sure that you didn't think it was quite as amusing as we did. I checked the Davis Center webcam this morning, and noted that there wasn't any visible snow on the ground, so hopefully that flurry was just a fluke, and you'll have another month of fall before the winter really starts in the VT.

I've got an assignment for you: we need to find a birthday present for your dad. And he needs clothes badly. Grandma and Grandpa are sending him a couple new dress shirts, to replace some of his old, stained white ones. Lydia and I think we're going to drop some $$$ at the Gap and Old Navy to replenish his sweatshirt stock, but I'm wondering if you could do me a favor and drop by the Davis Center/Bookstore to see if there isn't a nice UVM sweatshirt without a hood that your dad would like (he's definitely NOT a hoodie person). I'm going to make him some flannel and fleece lounging pants as well - at the price of natural gas this fall, I can't be turning up the thermostat to 70 degrees to accommodate his penchant for running around in shorts and flip flops all winter long! He's going to have to put some clothes on, darn it!

We had to cave in and turn on the furnace for a couple hours last night - yesterday was so cold and damp that the house was truly uncomfortable. Temperature inside had fallen to 62 degrees, so we capitulated. But only for a couple hours, enough to boost the temp to 69 degrees and dry out the air a bit.

Hope you're keeping well and warm, and continuing to have a marvelous time. I'll be thinking about you!

Love,
Mom