Photos of the Night

Somewhere I read to leave your setup in place until the night after, so you can take pictures.  For those of us (like me) who are up to the last minute placing or rearranging props, this is a mental sigh of relief.  There was no rain today, only a strong breeze, so it was easy to go out and relight all the candles and pumpkins and take some photos. 

Here are some daylight photos and their night counterparts:

And some of my favorite pictures:

(Y'all were right--this garnered the most goosebumps from visitors!)

(A reluctant Tandi)

ER (spoiler alert!)

I began watching ER when it first came on--way back in 1994. In fact, I even saw the 2-hr pilot before the pilot episode. About 2 years earlier, there was a 2-hr made-for-TV movie pilot for ER that not many people knew about. I remember hoping they'd make it into a TV show--and eventually, they did.

I was a die-hard ER fan. Anyone who knew me knew I would not answer the phone between 8:55 and 10pm on Thursday nights--and sometimes 10:05pm if I had to utilize Kleenexes. At the time I worked 11-7, so I'd be bathed, dressed, lunch packed and ready for work by 8:45pm so I could sit and watch ER. Most times DD would join me, and my best friend and I would sometimes call each other after it was over and rehash the show. To this day, I never hear the song "Blackbird" by the Beatles without thinking of Susan's sister giving birth to little Susie, or see Kellie Martin without having to consciously remember her name is not Lucy Knight. Oh, and when I hear that Hawaiian guy's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" I still get teary-eyed, remembering the scene between Mark Green and his daughter. It was not helpful for J-Man to remind me he was just a character in a TV show. In fact, J-Man learned not to say that to me. Ever again.

Then they sent Abby to medical school because she was too smart to be a nurse. That p_____d me off big time. So I quit watching. Besides, all the good ones had left, in my opinion (except Kerry--and I had a love/hate relationship with her anyway). Yes, I know Sherry Stringfield came back, but I never really understood why her character left or where she went, and it never seemed the same.

But when I heard this was to be the last season, and that last Thurs. night was to be the last episode ever, I couldn't help it; I had to watch. Or, rather, I had to have J-Man record it for me, because I didn't know in time to schedule myself off. There was a short period of panic when I found out the actual finale was 2 hours instead of one, but the faithful DVR caught it all.

So Saturday night I sat me down and watched as the pre-finale episode with clips from the past took me down Memory Lane. And then I watched the finale, with a box of Kleenexes at my side, just like in the old days. And I recognized Rachel Green before they spoke her name.

Full circle. The show came full circle, and the ending was just right, even though Michael Crichton wasn't there to oversee the script. Good job, folks.

I might just have to start watching the reruns on TNT again, to see what I missed, because in spite of everything, I don't think I was really ready for it to be over.