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...and the Phillies may well win the World Series. Again. And the resulting victory celebration will make it nearly impossible for me to get to work. Again.

... and my neighbor down the street has pulled out all the stops in decorating his home and yard. (Yes, there's even more stuff up now than there was when I commented on his decorating efforts in my last blog entry.) He has orange lights on all the bushes. He has orange witch ghosts and white tulle ghosts on the trees. The trees also feature what looks from a distance like scraps of Dalmatian fur but on closer inspection turn out to be small fabric ghosts, with bats printed on them in black. There is a Halloween tree in the front window, with orange lights and little skeletons and pumpkins.

...and it will probably be cancelled due to rain, at this rate. Today, we had a little moat in front of our front door. It didn't last, but in light of the areas of the local roads that were under several inches of water, it was troubling.

I used to like Halloween; it was one of my favorite holidays when I was a kid. But this year, all I can think is, "Meh. I'll be relieved when it's over."

EDIT: I forgot to mention the purple witch hats on the ghosts. Particularly the little ghosts with bats printed on their sheets.

The last home on my street is occupied by a very house-proud man and his family. They're so house-proud that they decorate for every major, and some minor, holidays.

This year, he put lighted hearts in his windows, and red and pink and white lights around his windows and on his bushes, for Valentine's Day. On closer inspection, I noticed that there is still a "Christmas tree" in the front window, lighted with red and pink and white for Cupid's favorite day.

Late last week, he took down the Valentine's Day lights. He put up green and white ones instead, and put neon shamrocks in the windows. And the tree? Yup, you've guessed it, it's now a St. Patrick's Day tree. Probably he'll hang eggs on it for Easter--as he did on the outside shrubbery, last year.

Now, all I can think of is this; whatever is he going to do between Easter and the end of May?

I've spent the entire weekend driving around the area, seeing friends and doing fun things.

Saturday morning, a friend of Eric's, David Wheeler, stopped by. We took him to brunch at our favorite place, Chester County Book and Music Company, which is a huge independant book store near us that also includes a good, breakfast-all-day restaurant called the Magnolia Grill and a large CD/DVD shop under one roof. Our brunch took about three hours, during which time he told us all about some of his current projects relating to enhancing computer security.

After brunch, we telephoned another old friend of ours, John Desmond, who is in the process of moving out of his apartment, and invited him over for dinner, gaming, and collecting boxes. He left around 11 P.M. Unfortunately, his car's transmission started to die after he got about a mile or so from our home, so he telephoned us and we retrieved him from where he was stranded with his car and brought him back to our house to spend the night.

Sunday morning, I followed John while he drove his ailing car at a snail's pace to the garage of my favorite auto mechanic, Jay Larkin of Larkin Automotive Service in Paoli. Leaving the car in Jay's capable hands, I took John to the train station, and then headed with Eric back to Chester County Book & Music Company for another long brunch. After brunch, we headed to Eric's mother's new home in West Chester for a family dinner outside in her small, but pleasantly jungle-like backyard. We dined like kings on grilled trout, pulled pork sandwiches, carrot slaw and tabooli, among other things, washed down with home-brewed mint tea and lemonade, and followed by homemade carrot cake for dessert. (Eric's mother is, and always has been, a wonderful cook.)

After the dinner party broke up, we telephoned shakati, who happened to be home alone, and volunteered to watch a DVD with him. We chose Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow which, among its various failings of plot logic and acting, has the peculiar property of being set in 1799 but costumed as though it were set in the 1760s or 1770s. (Yes, I notice such things.)

Today, we had another brunch, at...you guessed it...and then drove to Lancaster County to visit dedrell. We ended up driving from dedrell's house to Strasburg and riding the famous Strasburg Railroad, a restored historic steam engine train which has had a theme park built around it. There is a Railroad Museum across the street, but we had to settle for the theme park because the museum was about to close by the time we got there. We chose to ride, and dine, in the train's dining car. With its stained glass windows, ceiling fans, and cherry wood paneling, I felt as though I should be wearing a sweeping skirt and high-collared blouse as they did in the 1890s. Unfortunately, the food consisted entirely of mediocre modern sandwiches that didn't justify the $9-$15 "entree" price, which was charged separately from the $11.75 train ticket. Yes, I know, all hallmarks of the classic Tourist Trap, but we had fun anyway.

On the drive home from Lancaster County, Eric did a radio interview for a station in Ecuador. After we'd checked our respective email queues, I made a few phone calls and learned that a local steakhouse chain, Charlie Brown's, was still serving, so we headed over for a late, light dinner. We arrived to find the parking lot full of people in lawn chairs, watching a huge fireworks display that was plainly visible over the trees from somewhere west of Route 202. So we sat in the grass and joined the crowd for about 20 minutes until an impressive barrage ended the display.

Now we're home, and I'm wishing I had a good excuse to avoid work tomorrow. :-)