Photos Galore!

What a crazy week! So much going on. And so that you can enjoy the pictures, I will try to keep my words to a minimum. But first, let me give some background.

Wednesday, my oil change was super-speedy. I got home at almost my regular time (it was about 4:15). The Hubs was already home, bu I decided to go for a run. The weather was beautiful, and there was no reason not to (but it really wasn't that easy to make the decision). And, I was bold enough to try running somewhere besides the park. I headed out on my north loop, which is just over 3 miles. It has hills, which I'm not used to (due to my rest lately), but I gave myself permission to walk as much as needed, and to just enjoy being outside.

It was fun to run along, crunching through the leaves on the sidewalks. There were tons of cars driving by, which is also kind of fun (it wasn't always that way) but I was a bit self-conscious of going slower than usual. I did have to walk up the hill (which was part of my July 4th 5k), but I was okay with that. I ended up going about 3.25 miles, and I felt really good for getting it done.

Before I go too far, here are the pictures of the patio that I promised. Here is the before (remember the "giant" hole in my backyard?). And here is the After. The Hubs filled in the dirt around the sides yesterday. I think it looks great! Next weekend is when we'll be moving the hot tub, although we don't have the electrical work done, so it won't be hooked up for a bit. But when it is, you're all invited for a blogger hot tub party!! LOL.
Thursday was PayDay at work, so it was crazy as usual. Then after work I headed to the Hubs' office to help his sister study. She decided to go back to grad school, and will be taking the GRE soon, so I'm helping her with the math portion (wannabe tutor that I am). And once we got that out of the way, we headed to her place to get ready for the murder mystery party at her brother's house (the Hubs came, too). Here is a picture of us in our get-up. You can't really tell that much, but there are better pictures below.
The theme of the party was a Jack the Ripper/Sherlock Holmes sort of thing, and we had to figure out who the murderer was. Here are a couple of friends of my BIL (the host), who rented their costumes. Don't you love it? They're reading the "news bulletin/instructions". Here's a picture of me holding the "bulletin". Frankly, I think the most ghastly thing was my make-up, but it had to be exaggerated for dramatic purposes (right?).
When we went outside to start the investigation, this is what we saw. The Hubs brother designed, built and painted this scenery, which he then mounted on top of his garage (so that it would look like a British backdrop- I told you he goes all out!).
This is another one of the Hubs brothers, who was playing the part of the drunken landlord of the woman who was murdered. He kind of looks insane in this picture! LOL.
This was at the murder scene. That's my BIL, who was the lead detective on the case, and was walking us through the scenario so that we could figure out the clues. That's the victim's bed, covered with blood. We had to interview the people in the area, including the landlord, and a man who was handing out playbills on the street (the Hubs' other brother, who was in the driveway when we walked up). Supposedly, the victim wasn't feeling well and had called for a doctor, but no medical facilities had any record of the call- and there was a fake beard found in her apartment!
We found out that the murdered woman worked for the newspaper, and wrote reviews for plays, and she had received a mysterious envelope with an invitation to a current play. So we went to talk to the guy handing out the playbills, and he freaked out and pulled a knife on the detective, who pulled his gun and shot the guy. Duh, duh, dunnn. So it turned out that the "Jack the Ripper" character was the guy handing out the playbills. Here is a picture of the Hubs two brothers- the bad guy, and the good guy. (the "bad guy" is the artist who painted the portrait of us, just in case you care)
After we figured out the murderer, we could go back inside for treats. Even though we had already eaten dinner, this is what I was faced with. Talk about temptation!! That's worse than all the candy in the world. Plus there was carrot soup, and apple cider. That's chocolate fondue in the crockpot in the back. Oy!
Here is a picture of me with my SIL, and 2 of her friends (my SIL is next to me). You can see my costume a bit better.
Here's a picture of most of us together, in front of the backdrop. Back row: the Hubs, me, BIL, friend, friend, SIL. Front row: SIL (she was dressed as a bobby), nephew, BIL and other BIL.
Here's me and the Hubs out for a leisurely stroll, and we ran into a bit of danger. Aaaaahh!!
It was a great party, and I had a ton of fun, but I was out way too late for a weeknight. Friday at work I didn't even dress up. I just wore jeans and a bright orange t-shirt with rhinestones in the shape of bats, and lettering that says "Gone Batty" (give me a break, I bought it on clearance last year- ha ha!). That night we ended up going to the haunted house with my BIL (the "crazy landlord") and his wife. We paid $3 extra each to participate in the "bloodfest", which meant that we had to sign a waiver, and they gave us a poncho, because the characters could touch us, and get liquids and blood on us. It was a spooky experience, but the best haunted house I've been to. And, even with the ponchos, we still had (fake) blood all over us. Here's a picture of the Hubs' arm. Luckily it washed out of our pants (I wasn't so sure at first).
Yesterday, I was able to get out for a run again. I ran my 4-mile loop, and it was a little tough, and it was pretty warm, but it was good just to be out running. That makes 3 runs this week- holy cow! I almost feel like a runner again. Here are a couple of pictures of the color in the neighborhood. I was hoping to get back up on the trails in the mountains behind our house, but I haven't yet. So these will have to do.

Yesterday my football team (barely) won again, at New Mexico, so we're 9-0!! But we're still #10 in the national standings. And I think the Indian Summer is finally over- but it was so nice while it lasted!!!! In fact, it got up to 77 degrees on Thursday, which tied the record high. We did get a bit of rain Friday night, and it rained last night and today. This is what the weather for the week will look like. That blue 44 on Wednesday means 10 degrees or more below normal temperatures. But at least our football game isn't until Thursday. We play TCU, who is currently first in our conference (we're both undefeated against conference teams, but TCU hasn't had a bye week yet), and they're ranked #11 in the country, right after us at #10, so it should be a pretty crazy game. Aaaand, it's a "blackout", which I guess means the fans will be wearing all black (instead of red), and the players might have black uniforms, too (they've been kind of vague about the whole thing, but they're hyping it up quite a bit). The Hubs and I are even thinking about painting our faces all black (oooh, spooky). So of course I'll take pictures.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, and a fabulous weekend. Good luck coming out of your sugar comas. I'm proud to say that I haven't had a single piece of Halloween candy (but of course I indulged in other things, such as the party grub Thursday, pizza for dinner Friday, and part of the Hubs hot fudge shake yesterday, and some of the leftovers today). And the scale shows it, too, since I'm only down 0.2 lbs to make it an even 136. Drat!! Hopefully everyone else in Viv's challenge got sunk by the candy. I know I'm going to do great this next week, though.