So it was raining for several days into last weekend. It just wouldn't stop raining. It rained so much that Allison's University flooded. They actually had to delay classes due to the amount of water on campus. The eastern shore is quite flat with some rivers and bays in the area that also overflow. Turns out the local zoo lost a few Alpacas from the flooding as their pen was near the small river running through the park. How sad. Allison made it to all her classes since they were at night and most of the water had started to recede. Their Field Hockey games were cancelled on the weekend though since the playing field was still too flooded.

I was happy to have some rain for my new grass seed. It came up very nicely. But we could not finish the yardwork. Tom managed to mow the backyard in between rain showers, but that was about it. I needed to start planting the fall flowers. Our neighbor managed to schedule the tree cutting crew to come in and top one of the Tulip trees in our backyard before all the rain. It actually looks pretty good. He also cut off a bunch of low branches on his white pine trees bordering our lot. It looks weird to have our backyard opened up so much with the missing branches.  I probably should have spent more time putting up the Halloween decorations. Scott got a head start and placed a zombie in our cherry tree out front. He also put our skeleton in the front window, and Tom ordered a projector for the upstairs window. It flashes images of ghosts and hands on a white screen placed in the window. . Very cool. The neighbors are already asking when are the decorations going up.

I did manage to get the laundry and dishes done. But Scott and I took some time out on Saturday morning to visit the Fall Festival at our church. They used to run a festival and it has been years since they repeated the event. So this was the 2nd go around. They had a lot of fun activities, but had to move the whole thing inside because of the rain. We stopped into the enormous yard sale in the school gym. I picked up some items for work, as well as a few craft items for the holidays. One of Scott's classmates had her own booth and sells homemade bars of soap.  They had craft and food booths, kids games and scarecrow making, pumpkin painting, a silent raffle and basket raffles, entertainment and lots of food. Scott and I brought home some bratwurst with all the fixins. It was a lot of fun. I then spent the afternoon running errands until it was time to take Scott to work.

Scott spent most of his weekend at work including Friday night, Sat night and Sunday afternoon. The rink is back on it's busy schedule. We did spend some time Friday evening running over to a local nursery to inquire about donations for his upcoming Eagle project. We were pleasantly surprised to hear the manager tell us the nursery owner supports Boy Scouts and he gave Scott $30 in donations and 20% off anything else we needed. Awesome!  Scott has been so busy with classwork as well as his Video Game Club, Video Club and now Robotics. They had a parent's meeting and plan on participating in the upcoming Homecoming parade. So Scott and I both attended the meeting.  Scott was busy working with his teammates on redesigning last year's robot to allow it to toss candy into the crowds along the parade route. We had to skip his Boy Scout Court of Honor, but we just can't do everything. (although we do try!).

Tom was off to Chicago for a few days last week as well. I spent an evening at the dentist office. They had a wine/cheese presentation on dental implants with free consults. I thought I would take advantage of the program to see if our insurance would cover the procedure, as well as getting the dentist to look at my chipped crown since I could not get into our other dentist office(Tom and I have different dental plans from work, so we use both). Still waiting for the price quote. I think I was the youngest one there and the last one out the door-guess my mouth was not as exciting.

On Sunday morning I was up early for our annual Brain Injury 5K run/walk at a local college campus. Our rehab department got involved in the Brain Injury Association of Maryland when we started taking in brain injured patients from our large, local rehab hospital. The patients usually need an extended amount of time to recuperate(if at all), and there are not many facilities that can manage their care. So I spent the morning out for a walk around UMBC and then headed home to take Cookie for a walk(she was banned from the walk 2 yrs ago). Guess they were worried dogs would get in the way, especially with some post brain injury participants struggling along the route. So when I got home I took Cookie for a walk. When we returned, we headed into the garage, but Cookie took off as we went through the door. I saw her jump on some animal right in our garage. I figured it was a neighborhood cat, but it was a fox! I pulled Cookie away and ran to the front door. Our neighborhood has a large number of fox, and we often see them out during the day. It has been all the talk of our neighborhood website this year(Foxnado)! And with more construction, they have less places to go. People worry about them having rabies, including me. I did not want Cookie or myself to get bit. Scott let us in the house and we poked our noses into the garage to see if he had gone. Of course Cookie snuck out between our legs and started running around the garage and the driveway looking for that sneaky fox. I don't mind seeing the foxes running around the neighborhood, but not my garage! That was an exciting morning!  We spent the evening having Mom B over for dinner. I put a roast in the oven and after picking up Mom from her apt, we picked up Scott from work. I have been busy spending my free time going through all of Mom and Dad's recent paperwork looking for any further information for their 2015 taxes. Their accountant in Michigan has not yet finished their taxes, and recently asked me to put together further info including medical expenses and Soc. Security income. A tedious job but I managed to collect all the necessary paperwork and send it off. Next year I think I am switching mom to a local accountant here in Maryland. I was also busy taking an online test for Boy Scouts for reinstatement as a merit badge counselor and volunteer(it just never quits!).