All Dressed Up and No Place to Go!

It's not just for Halloween...


We dress our cats up for all occasions!


And, one of them happens to be scary ALL the time...

Happy Halloween!

Happy "Not Halloween!"

In Vicksburg, we are being forced to celebrate Halloween a day early because, Lord knows, it can't be on the same day as high school football! On Washington Street, however, the ghosts and goblins came out even earlier. It was like a sea of little princesses and Indiana Joneses (yep, they were fighting to keep up with one another). We ran into the cutest ones as we shoveled Smarties into pumpkin heads and plastic bags as quickly as we could (Olivia's mom, who was in town for the weekend, had to make a run for more candy halfway through!).


May, in disguise as Dorothy, picked up one of the better Indiana Joneses (her friend, Hayden).


Ellen won third place in the costume contest. How can you resist this grumpy little witch?!

Even though this is how they were decked out this past weekend, tonight's Trick-or-Treat is all about Star Trek, according to May. She said she will be some character we've never heard of.

Cookin' with Style

After many long hours creating and perfecting images for H.C. Porter merchandise, our order from Cafepress finally came in earlier this week. We donned some of the new wares (a special T-shirt and a not-so-perfect apron) while we prepared tacos last night.
It brought a whole new meaning to "bringing our work home."


These items and more are available here.

Making the Grade

After combining the points she earned from answering 3 bonus questions correctly, Lauchlin scored a 99 on Olivia's Chapter 3 test tonight.

Livin' Like Lucy

She's a Super Mom...

A Super Sister...

And, A Super Survivor!


Happy Birthday, Lucy!

All A'board!'

Lauchlin was recently named to the board of directors for Main Street, the organization charged with promoting downtown Vicksburg. Here is the story in The Vicksburg Post. It was strange to see her name in the paper — as her former editor said, "down in the gray as opposed to the big and bold."
It's the first time she's served on a board, and the first time her name has even been on a ballot since Lance Bass campaigned for her to be class favorite in ninth grade (an election she lost).
Now that she has been elected to a three-year term on the Main Street board, we'll have to put in some extra calls for Sir Dance-a-Lot. He will perform on "Dancing With the Stars" again Monday. We're hoping for a good week — like this one...

A Lot Of Oysters, But No Pearl

...at least we hope not!

Lauchlin scored us some vouchers for Ameristar's new restaurant, Pearl's Oyster Bar, and, since Olivia's mom is visiting tonight, we're going to scope out the joint tonight. Any recommendations?

Stuck in Our Heads...

Last Sunday, we did NOTHING but watch TV and movies. Olivia watched "The Onion Movie" twice and can't stop thinking about this one clip whenever she sits down to do some "work" on the computer at school.

Baby Fever!

This weekend was all about the babies as we celebrated the upcoming birth of Baby Linares No. 2 (we, along with the rest of the baby shower crew, are pulling for his name to be Gabriel). Big sister, Victoria Linares, was in tow as her mom, Cortney, opened gifts. Victoria is the cutest, sweetest baby next to Lauchlin's three nieces. Sarah Gray's baby, Peyton, also attended the shower, which only added an extra layer of baby fever for most of us not-yet moms. Having Lauchlin's 5-year-old niece, May, help hand out presents and pick up gift wrap was proof that, after the baby grows up, you can put them to work. And, as she pointed out several times, "Don't I have great manners?!"
The shower was great thanks to the food provided by Lauchlin's mom and all the help we received from Lucy, Katherine and Emily! Below is a slideshow from the day's festivities. Some of the shots are blurry, because Lauchlin didn't realize until later that her camera was set on manual focus. But, through the blur, you can still see how cute Victoria is chasing the blue balloons! Please excuse the random shots that somehow made their way onto the slideshow. Most of them are of Victoria early this summer, as well as some shots of May and Ellen and a couple of Ned and Mary Beth in the pool. We're still figuring out how to use Flickr.

A Sin of Omission

Neither one of us could remember how many times this garment had been worn or laundered when Olivia found this tag the other day.

A Hot Mess

Domestic bliss can be achieved. With the help of our friend, Katie's, Hoover Steam Vac, we rid the ottoman in the back den of cat hair and dirt this weekend. We also cleaned our "cat" room and master bath floors. Pouring dirt down the drain was a true moment of zen.

A Cushy Job

Olivia finally got around to making new cushions for the teak chairs on our porch. After Clementine assisted all day by biting and clawing at the fabric with pins in it, Mojo became the guinea cat.

Game On!

Friday night we received a surprise invitation to have dinner with friends Rob and Todd and Sandy and Liz at Suite 303 of The Ware House...

We took Apples to Apples in hopes of sparking that old game night flame. Before Sandy beat the pants off everyone, we enjoyed three of the five planned courses (everyone was too full by the end of the third to move on to fried ice cream and pears with goat cheese). The artichokes, butternut squash soup and cornish game hens did the job. And I found having game hens on game night was quite appropriate. We didn't have a camera, but here's an idea of how good our food was...

The camera was truly missed when Rob started a dance party in The Lounge.
Sometimes you just can't have your "desert" and eat it too!

Snail Mail

Olivia's mom sent some things to Maria, the grand baby, about six weeks ago. She has sent some items previously that have been returned, so we were happy when we received this image (per iphone) with Maria wearing the dress & shoes, and sleeping with her new bear that she got her.

Misery Loves Company

Last week, while Olivia was at the gym (no, really, she was), Lauchlin's beloved ipod suddenly stopped playing during the song "Stay You," by Wood. Usually when this occurs, it means that someone hit the "pause" button; however, that time, this image popped up.



Apple's advice: When you see this icon, smile briefly, then cry. Your ipod needs to be repaired. Check out a similar situation with mac products on National Street here.

In Our Custody

With complete support (and even packing assistance) Lauchlin's mom handed over the Waterford crystal. Now that we have a place to house them safely, they have come home to live with their intended owner. It could take a lifetime to finish off the collection. Until then, we'll have to figure out which three guests we'll invite over each time we have a dinner party. We have only five goblets and five sherry glasses. In addition to that, we have only one wine glass and two champagne-type glasses. But, they are all beautiful and sparkling in the new china cabinet. I won't spoil the in-person experience for anyone. For now, here is a close-up of a goblet.

We really don't feel privileged enough to have stuff this fancy! So, we drank beer out of them the other night to break-in not only the glasses, but also ourselves.

Back to College?

And, 50 years later, we happened to be attending a "Back to College" party!
We are heading to Oxford this weekend for Ole Miss' homecoming, but it won't be nearly as reminiscent of college as last Saturday in Jackson. We had to pull out Lauchlin's old college T-shirts to attend our friend Elizabeth's college-themed birthday party (beer pong, Jello shots, you get the idea?). College shirts were the official dress code for the event. It was pretty surprising how those shirts can date a person.

The Gin is no longer open, Law of Nature is no longer a band and how DID she get that Kappa Sig shirt?! In the end, she opted for an old sorority shirt that literally means she was at a date party exactly a decade ago. Olivia donned a Sewanee party weekend shirt for good measure. Too bad there weren't any old KA pledge shirts hanging around to wear in honor of Lauchlin's father. We did think about taking the KA paddle, but then that could have been a bad scene! Needless to say, we were big fans of the dress code. We might could live without the Jello shots next time, though!

There Goes the Neighborhood...

Last weekend "21" had more significance than Black Jack in Vegas. Lauchlin's cousin, Anne, was there celebrating her 21st (can you hear the gasps) birthday. We didn't get to celebrate with her in the City of Lights, but we will be in Oxford this weekend to give her a toast. Not only does this birthday make Anne legal, it officially makes everyone who remembers her in diapers doing the crawfish dance O-L-D!
Here are some more innocent times...

Cheers, Annie Pannie!