Bingo! What you have are commonly called Horsehair Worms. The story is they got that name because they were often found around horse troughs. Superstitious people thought a hair could morph magically into a worm. Wiki has a good explanation of the rather interesting life cycle. They are parasites on insects and are not harmful to mammals or your plants. I agree they are gross looking. Here is a link that might be useful: Horsehair worms

jaimie_mt, what a wonderful time you are going to have with your friends! My BIL used to go all out decorating the outside of his house and incorporating inter-active scary things! The kids would be scared to death but always wanted to see the inside of the house (which, by the way, was normal!) So he'd hang a sheet to block the view inside his house where all his family and friends would be having a party and taking our turns playing grim reaper and ghosts out in the yard. Some people thought he was nuts, but in the end, he created some wonderful memories that we still laugh about to this day. Hope your party is wonderful as well. Prosperity66, I'm so sorry that you lost your job. But it's great that you can still go ahead with your party. As far as I'm concerned pot luck is the best! My friends always look forward to a pot luck; we get to know what each persons specialty is and it is sometimes fun to try out a new recipe too! Less stress for the host, you'll be busy enough decorating and getting ready. Have you planned a costume yet?

Great job, it looks really nice! All of it ;) The fabric on the chair, may I ask where you found it? I have an old chair that I want to refinish and put new fabric on, and for the room I want to use it in that fabric would be ideal ;)

Thanks everyone. I'm really happy with how it turned out. We did the back deck in a similar style and colors, but we didn't put as much work into it since eventually we are taking it down and adding a sun-room there. Marilyn - those lattice panels are removable if we need to get under the deck. I built the frames with corner brackets to hold them together, and attached the lattice to the frames and not directly to the deck. I pounded in 2x4 with pointed ends about 18" into the ground where the ends and dividers would be so they are hidden from view, then screwed the tops in, and the bottoms only at the end and the divider. If I need to get under there, I only have to take out about 6-8 screws and the whole panel comes out. I do my work under the deck, and screw the panel back into place. In about 2 weeks we start pulling down the ugly faux wood paneling that is covering the crumbling plaster walls in the livingroom, removing the plaster, and putting up sheet rock. The house isn't historically significant and so not worth trying to save the badly deteriorated plaster. I'm not looking forward to the dust, but I am looking forward to the finish results.