It was time to get ready for Thanksgiving. I spent the entire weekend before the big day shopping for food! And Birthday gifts for Scott. Both events were quickly arriving. Before hitting all the stores, I took some time out to enjoy some of my birthday funds from Grandma and Grandpa Seitz. For the past several years I have attended the Basket Bingo event sponsored by Mt Hebron High School as a fund raiser for their  After Prom event. My neighbor friend Gloria accompanied me. We had something to celebrate for Gloria-she found another nurse manager position at a local out patient surgery clinic. Thank goodness. We had a wonderful time but sadly did not win a thing-not even a door prize! But I did drag Scott along as a volunteer to earn  hours for his NHS requirements. So Thanks Mom and Dad S for a great Bday gift!

I also managed to take Pickachu in to the vet for her 17 year old check up. She needed a rabies shot(although she never goes outside). However, you never know. We did have a fox in the garage! And I spotted a mouse on our back deck! The wild life is trying to move in!  Picka is still taking medication for her pancreatitis, and she has lost more weight so her fur started to clump. She weighs 6 lbs. The vet tech was able to shave off some large clumps of fur since I could not brush or trim them off myself. So Picka looks better and I think feels better, even though she did not enjoy her vet experience. And she let the vet know it!

I also attended a Boy Scout meeting for retraining on Merit Badge counseling. Scott has one more year of scouts. He has been trying to do the summary report for his Eagle project. Boy Scouts sure require a lot of paperwork! And no rest for the weary as he dove right into his classwork again for the second semester. He did bring home a pretty good report card, and was even chosen for Student of the Month! Congrats Scott. However, we did decide that he needed some extra help with his Honors Math class, so his new tutor started working with him here at the house. Shaun is a math professor from Towson U and also teaches at our local Community College. I think he will be a great help for the upcoming SAT and ACT as well as the next few years of calculus,  especially if we try to get it done before Scott heads off to college.

We all decided we could use a break though and Tom picked up a few tickets to the Saturday night Hershey Bear Hockey game. After Scott got off work, we picked him up along with our good friend John D and drove up to Hershey PA. The day had started off beautifully, warm and sunny. We were walking around in our short sleeve shirts in the morning. By nightfall we were driving through snow and sleet in PA. A huge front came through with a strong wind that blew all the rest of the beautiful fall leaves off the trees. Tom was very happy since he raked all the leaves off our lawn into the street and they all blew away! (Except for the large pile that ended up in our driveway). So now I have less leaves to rake. (as long as another strong wind doesn't blow them all back our way!). We hope  they ended up in some neighbor's yard that could afford to hire a landscape company to pick up all the leaves for them.

So we really enjoyed the hockey game(even though our Hershey Bears lost in overtime). They were playing the number 1 rated IHL team in the league from Wilkes-Barre, PA. So far our favorite teams just keep losing(except for an occasional good win like the Ravens over the Steelers!) And at least our drive home was a lot less snowy.

On Sunday, I picked up my mom in the afternoon as soon as Scott got off work and brought her over for dinner and a movie. We started watching Paddington Bear which was actually quite cute, but Mom decided it was time to head home before we finished.  Since it gets so dark early in the evening, she thinks it is much later and gets worried that no one will be up to let her back in since they lock the front door around 8pm. So we'll have to try and finish watching it on Thanksgiving.

Mom B got an early start on Thanksgiving dinner when she attended the Howard County Senior Holiday luncheon. Each year the Sr Center puts on a huge Thanksgiving luncheon complete with entertainment and small gifts for all the Seniors in Howard County. Usually several hundred people show up. She gets a ride from Neighbor Ride volunteers. This week, the Director that helped found the Ride program 12 years ago picked Mom up. Colleen took time to get a few photos with Mom B and enjoyed chatting about her  school teacher days. We are grateful for the wonderful resources and people that support the programs here in Maryland.

I celebrated my Birthday weekend with a cold! Not a lot of fun, but I still managed to enjoy my special day with the family. I started the celebration with dinner out on Saturday night in downtown Baltimore. We were headed to the Harbor to drop Scott off on a Boy Scout outing. The boys had the opportunity to sleep over on one of our historical ships, The Constellation. The 100+ year old sailing ship was active in the Navy during the Civil War and into WWI and WWII. The boys slept in hammocks down below. Therefore I passed on the experience, although I have enjoyed spending the night with Scott on various other ships in the harbor. Scott reports the experience  felt like a sleepover  in a museum.  But he says his favorite overnight was sleeping on the huge WW transport ship, The Brown also in the Harbor. I enjoyed that outing as well, especially since I had my own cabin that was heated! And the ship really was huge-lots to see.

After dropping Scott off Saturday evening, Tom and I headed to Morton's Steak House for dinner. We had a gift card to use, so we took advantage of the opportunity. I especially loved my Birthday photo and my chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream smoking with dry ice. And dinner was phenomenal too! I was just glad I could taste it through my cold. My Birthday celebration continued on Sunday, my actual Birthday. We had an early pick up time for Scott Sunday morning. After loading him and his gear into the car, we stopped into a new, local restaurant for brunch. I found the Iron Rooster online in a newly developed portion of the city along the harbor. The area continues to grow and develop, especially around the upcoming new headquarters for Under Armour. We were very impressed with the food at the small restaurant. They are known for breakfast all day and chicken and waffles. Scott tried the burger on waffles, Tom opted for the breakfast burrito and I stuck with Eggs Benedict on biscuits with chicken tenders. I must say it was quite tasty. We then headed over to the movie theater to catch Dr Strange. I was not really excited about seeing this super hero film, but it turns out I really liked it. And it was an excuse to bring home a big bucket of popcorn! We then stopped into Costco to pick up a big chocolate birthday cake, grabbed some chinese food and my mom and enjoyed dinner at our house with cake and presents afterwards along with Sunday night football. Overall a very enjoyable Birthday! And I am just glad I could still walk last week after the 6 mile hike across the Bay Bridge the weekend before.

Scott had a little break from school work after finishing up his first semester. He had two days off at the end of the term, however he had to work on Monday. And Tuesday was election day. What an interesting day that turned out to be. I was up late that night watching the election results, and so were most of our neighbors and coworkers. Even the students. It was certainly interesting and I know we were all very surprised to see Trump take the presidency(and all very tired the next day). Tom and I had voted early with no real problem. Allison put in an absentee ballot. I tried to take my mom out to early voting on the last day and there was a 1.5 hr wait. Forget it. I decided to try and take her to vote on election day and we were able to walk right in-no waiting. I think she enjoyed the experience and the quick outing with me on a Tuesday night. Although she already had a busy day  as I sent her off to Bob Evans for a luncheon with the Sr Center. Even mom was surprised to hear that Trump won. Who knew.

Scott was also busy putting on a Video Game Club fundraiser on Friday night before heading to work. He decided to use the hours towards his volunteer time for the National Honor Society. He has to complete 24 hrs of volunteer work this year to stay in the program, along with keeping up his GPA. So far his two favorite classes are his Engineering programs. He is busy learning about circuit boards and working on the Robotics program. And they are making sandwich cutters in the 3D printers. Thank goodness for engineers!

Allison has transitioned from her Field Hockey program to Ultimate Frisbee. She finished off her Field Hockey season with a small get together at a local bar after spending the day on an outing to Yorktown Virginia. Her roommate was on a historic Field Trip and invited Allison along to a visit to the new pre Revolutionary War museum. We have visited the area before since it is near Jamestown, Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. The girls report the museum is still in development, but they enjoyed their beautiful day out on the James River, having lunch at a local Tavern. The girls then spent the rest of their weekend at Towson University playing Ultimate Frisbee games. They slept over at one of the team players houses and went out to dinner. We opted to skip the visit to the Frisbee games even though Allison was in town. It was a bit too chilly to sit out and watch frisbee, especially with colds. Sounds like the team had lots of support however from other dedicated parents who brought lots of food for the girls.

Cannot believe we are in November already! Scott was off school on Halloween Monday and busy wrapping up his first semester with lots of tests and projects for the rest of the week. He attended Boy Scouts on Weds night to assist with an Open House event. His group was busy reviewing Knots with Cub Scouts. The Boy Scout Troops always host Open Houses to attract bridging Cub Scouts to join. They usually host a number of activity stations such as pitching tents, knots, dutch oven cooking, a craft and a game. This year the Troop added dart blowing to their list of activities!  Scott was also busy on the weekend with his work schedule, but he took time off to attend a Hershey Hockey Game with Tom and Allison.

I invited Allison home for the weekend. She had just finished her midterms and had a little break. We decided to travel down to Uof Maryland to watch the Women's Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament. Games were scheduled on Friday afternoon, so Allison was free with no classes that day. She drove from Salisbury and met me at Bobby Flays at College Park for a hamburger lunch before the games. We had a great lunch and then drove 1 car onto campus to the Field Hockey tourney. We arrived just as Uof Michigan took the field against Penn State. What an exciting game and a beautiful day to sit out in the very warm sun. We actually were getting sun burned! Good thing we wore short sleeve shirts. I had my MSU shirt and Allison was in her Salisbury Field Hockey shirt. There were lots of Michigan fans present, but unfortunately their tailgate party was a sad one as they lost to Penn State in the last few minutes of the game 1-0. Allison and I really enjoyed watching the girls play and Allison picked up a Big 10 Field Hockey tshirt on the way out. We decided not to wait for the next game which started around 4pm. The following Final games were scheduled for Sunday, but we had other plans so did not make that day. Turns out Penn State won the entire Tournament. We decided to head out Friday afternoon to try and miss some of the evening rush hour traffic back home. Scott was on his way to work, and Allison and I were headed out again to the monthly Bunco neighborhood event Friday evening. We packed up some appetizers and headed over to our neighbor's house. I always enjoy chatting with the neighbor girls-catching up on their activities and even doing a bit of networking. I was trying to hook up my neighbor Gloria, the nurse manager. Again she is out of a job when her new workplace decided not to give her the salary they originally promised and she quit. We were speaking to one of the guests, a local physician with a private practice to see if she had any job connections. Always good to ask. And the ladies enjoyed catching up with Allison and all of her activities. Most of us have kids in college, so it is nice to get their perspective on campus life, education and job hunting.  I was also busy shopping for a tutor for Scott's Honors math class. Scott was doing well until the last two big exams given right before the end of the semester that pulled his grade down. We tried to schedule a high school tutor for him right before the final test, but had difficulty with reliability on the two students selected for him. And my neighbor that teaches math at the local colleges did not feel comfortable getting involved with someone she knows too well. I tried to recruit her at the Bunco party.  So we will keep looking. Anyway, Allison and I also enjoyed our Bunco game, especially since I won!

I really needed a pick me up. I was not having much luck lately. Did you ever have one of those weeks where everything goes wrong? Over the last few weeks our Keurig coffee maker died, so Tom picked up a brand new one that also died. It looked like a coffee maker graveyard in the kitchen. We finally got one working again, (I need my coffee in the morning!) My dryer was acting up-I cleaned out the air ducts just in case and it is working again(thank goodness). My car alarms were going off-low air in the tires, noisy air filters, front power seat not working, interior lights not working. Fortunately turns out nothing serious or expensive. Even Allison had issues with her car-low air in the tire, and I found a nick in her front window that Tom was able to fix. Our trip to Uof Maryland was interesting. We got stuck on a parking curb with Allison's low riding car, we got stuck with a parking ticket at the Tournament and had to stop into the Campus Police station to fight it(worth the fight since it is $175!). Fortunately they dropped it down to $15.00. And it is not fun driving around the Uof Maryland campus.  I also left my credit card at Bobby Flays. The girl that took our order forgot to give it back to me when we were talking about parking on campus! So I had to drop into the bank on Saturday to pick up a new card. Annoying. At least the weekend turned out well after all.

Scott, Tom and Allison headed off on Saturday evening to see a Hershey Hockey game. They had club seats and all enjoyed the Bears winning game. I decided to hang back. I thought I needed the rest since I had an early morning on Sunday. I decided to participate in the 10K walk/run across our Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I have always wanted to walk across the Mackinac bridge but never had the opportunity. I was so surprised to hear my best buddy, Laura from Michigan recently walked the Mackinac Bridge. Great minds think alike. I decided before my next Bday that I would walk across the bridge. I joined a few fellow therapists and we headed out early Sunday morning to the Navy Stadium in Annapolis. We were shuttled over to the Northrop Grumman facility on the western side of the bridge where we were separated into large groups or waves. Since we arrived early we headed out before our scheduled time. The walk was 6 miles and my feet were pretty tired by the time we crossed the finish line. We got an amazing medal, our tshirts and some free snacks(sadly no free beer or food). We made the crossing in 2 hrs. A few of the other therapists actually ran across the bridge and then got stuck on the bus ride back for 2 hrs. The rest of us took a quick ride back across the bridge and stopped into the Macaroni Grill for lunch. We were starving! I couldn't talk Allison into trying the walk, but she can always sign up before her 53rd Bday! I am done.

Happy Halloween! We have been celebrating the entire month of October. Scott decided to invite a few friends over for a small party on Friday night. He just had a few friends over which made it easy to entertain. Scott  set up scary movies outside with our projector and they also played video games outside on the big screen. Beforehand we spent lots of time decorating inside and out. The weather was pleasant on Halloween weekend, but we set up our bonfire in the driveway just in case it cooled off in the evening. I bought the kids lots of Halloween snacks and treats, including the fixins for s'mores. The problem was, the kids did not want to spend time around the campfire when they could be playing games or watching movies. Next year we will have to  move the screen over to the garage door so you can watch movies and enjoy a bonfire at the same time!

 Scott was also invited to a Halloween Party on Saturday night and they enjoyed a bonfire while playing games and singing songs. Before the bonfire though, the hostess planned a Murder Mystery game for the whole group. They had to search for clues in the woods behind the house, and then solve a mystery. Plus they all dressed up in costumes and they served dinner to all the kids. They had a great time. And Scott enjoyed another opportunity to dress up as Dr Who. He also wore his costume to the Boy Scout meeting the week before, and dressed as Dr Who for the Homecoming week. He and Tom have discovered the wonders of the BBC Dr Who show and usually watch a recorded session before heading out to school early in the morning. He also got to wear part of his costume to work at the roller blade rink. However, the rink was a bit slow over the Halloween weekend. I think everyone was out enjoying the beautiful weather.

I  decided to have the neighbors over for a dinner party. We skipped the whole Halloween theme party this year and went with an Ocktoberfest theme instead. Its just that there were not as many guests available this year. Most of our neighbors were out of town, so it was a small group. Still more people than showed up at our house for a Walking Dead premiere. That was a Sunday night, so it made it difficult for people to drop in. I had to sit and watch the terrible premier of my favorite show all by myself(one of the main characters was killed and it wasn't pretty). So I invited neighbors over for pork and brats with homemade sauerkraut for dinner. And apple pie for dessert! Before the party I picked up my mom and left her at the beauty salon to get her hair done while I ran a few more errands before heading to our house for dinner. She seemed to enjoy the meal and the company and so did the rest of the guests.

On Halloween Monday the kids were out of school. Scott had to work at the roller blade rink which meant Tom and I had to take turns dropping off and picking up from work. He decided to spend his evening passing out candy and playing video games online with his friends.  When he got home from work we were busy setting up for the trick or treaters(turning on lights and setting up scary music and carving his pumpkin). It made for an entertaining Halloween experience. As one trick or treater reported "I Love Your Stuff!". And it seemed to work. We had 150-200 kids at our house! We kept count by passing out large candy bars we bought on sale at Costco. Kids usually came in large groups-10-12 kids at a time. We kept busy running to the door from 6-830pm that night. And since it was so nice outside, I decided to dress Cookie up in her Hot Dog costume and take her for a walk around the neighborhood to check out all the costumes and decorations. Cookie just loves being out with all the kids, and they all have to stop and pet "The Hot Dog"! I also stopped in for a drink with our neighbors. They put out a 6 foot, sound activated Frankenstein on their front porch that moved his arms and his eyes and bolts lit up. Very cool. They dressed their dog in a Taco suit! It was funny to see a Hot Dog and Taco running around the house. We didn't have a lot of leftover candy, but my co workers are always happy to help us finish up the leftovers.

Allison also had a chance to celebrate Halloween at school. She and her roommates carved pumpkins and made pumpkin cookies. She then convinced her boyfriend Tyler to visit and she and her roommate double dated to a Haunted House. Allison is actually the only one who really enjoys the experience. We introduced her to a Boy Scout run event in Delaware when she started college. The Cemetery House takes you over to an old abandoned house via Hay Ride. You walk through the fields, an old bus and then make your way through several out buildings until you walk through the main house. Lots of scary people in masks, lights, smoke and noise which can be very annoying, scary and fun. The group got the whole experience! During the day they enjoyed an outing to the local Salisbury Zoo for a round of Pokemon Go. Looks like they had a wonderful fall weekend.

So Allison was disappointed that she did not get to visit HallowScream at Busch Gardens. Tom was off work last Friday, so he offered to drive back to Salisbury and pick up Allison and head down to Busch Gardens so she could experience the Haunted Mazes. They arrived late in the afternoon, but had plenty of time to get dinner(more pumpkin cheesecake) and go on a few rides. It was quite rainy on Friday which helped thin out the crowds in the park. At least they were able to get in this time! And they had plenty of time to visit all 7 scary mazes before the park closed. They did have to pick up dry clothes though since it rained quite a bit while they were standing in line and they got soaked. But they both had a great time. Scott was a bit jealous, but he had to go to school and work. So did I.

I switched my day off work to help out another therapist with her schedule. So I took Monday off. Which made for a nice 4 day weekend. I did my usual Friday stuff(on Monday) -errands and swim class, but then I headed over to my mom's place to participate in a painting class with her. We had a great time spending a few hours painting a Georgia OKeefe Fall Landscape. I did not know Georgia O did landscapes. Apparently in her early years. I sat with my Happy Hour glass of wine and painted with Mom. It was a great afternoon.

Mom Bozyk's Masterpiece

But I had to get going since Scott had his NHS Induction Ceremony that evening. We decided not to drag mom along since the ceremony can run a bit long. There are several 100 kids that get into the National Honor Society(that is good). The kids need good grades and have to be very involved in extra curricular activities like sports, clubs, church and scouts. And Scott was at the end of the presentation since it went alphabetically. I was just surprised they did not mention his Scouting info, or Robotics since they mentioned it with most other kids. They did announce that he was the President of the Video Game club though. When Allison was inducted they had the kids light candles. Allison came close to be being burned as the kids held their candles while being squished on the stage. They opted out of candles this time. We celebrated afterwards with Sonic milkshakes. Now Scott has to keep track of his volunteer hours which is mandatory for the NHS as well as keep up his grades. He certainly has been working hard at his school work, volunteer work and his boy scouts.

Same with Allison. She just finished her midterms(very successfully) and she is already looking at registering for classes next semester. Not to mention registering for graduation next Spring! Where does the time go. She also wrapped up her Field Hockey season with a few wins. The team opted out of the season tournaments. It always lands on Halloween weekend and the girls had other plans. Looks like they had a rough ending though-their opposing team lost the goalie when a baseball hit her in the head at the field! Their game was scheduled next to the baseball field apparently, and while the visiting team was waiting to start playing, a stray ball hit their goalie in the head! Allison filled in as goalie for the opposing team for the first game, and then the other team played without a goalie during the second game. What a crazy way to end the season. Although the whole season had been a bit off. But she loves it. And now she can concentrate on playing Ultimate Frisbee.

Tom and Allison spent Friday night in Williamsburg and headed back to Salisbury Saturday in the morning. Tom got home Saturday night in time for us to throw on some warm MSU clothes and head over to the University of Maryland to catch the MSU/Uof Maryland game. I asked Tom to take me to the first game of Maryland's Big Ten debut two years ago and had a great time. This time, Tom opted to get tickets up on the 3rd tier to see more of the field. So I felt like we were out of the MSU Fan Zone, but maybe that was a good thing since MSU lost to Maryland! The MSU players are huge, but the little Maryland Terrapins ran circles around the MSU defense. And MSU just did not have a quarterback-every pass was dropped or intercepted. At least Maryland is a good host. There was big discussion about both teams on the bus ride back to the train station.  And since we live in Maryland, it always seems like a Win-Win situation no matter who wins the game for us.We are happy to see Uof Maryland doing well. Kevin Plank, President of Under Armour is busy investing in the school and adding a Sports Medicine program at the University. Half of the campus was tore up with new buildings. They also want to do more studies on the effects of concussions on sports players(ie visiting Field Hockey goalie at Salisbury). Kevin Plank graduated from Uof Maryland and decided to come up with more comfortable sports clothing during his student days at Uof Maryland while playing on the football team. He thought the cotton tshirts did nothing for him while sweating on the field, so he looked for a synthetic material. Hence, Under Armour was born and they are busy expanding here in Baltimore, currently building a big complex downtown in the Harbor. Lately our sports teams have not been doing well, from MSU to the Ravens to the Orioles who did not make it to the World Series. We had another cold football night game watching MSU lose but we kept warm with lots of hot chocolate(although they started selling alcohol at the college stadiums to try and cut down the binge tailgate parties). It was a bit too chilly for beer.  Hopefully we will have a better Hockey season!

Hope Matt Draper, Stacey's husband enjoyed his Birthday celebration this past week!

Uof Maryland Football Field
Uof Maryland vs MSU

Scott at NHS Induction Ceremony