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Pretend I'm writing this Wednesday night.
I did a last-minute costume this morning. Went to Walgreen's to drop off my film from the weekend, and prowled the aisles: if they have one Viking helmet, no matter how rotten, I'll take it. Two blonde braids (that much is factory installed) and I'm set. But... no helmet. OK... vampire teeth and an ugly wig. Some fake blood and black makeup for show. The teeth were a total lose, but the wig and the black makeup were apparently shockingly successful. People at work had trouble just holding a conversation with me. :-)
My boss's boss did quite the double-take when he first saw me. I asked him if his 18-month-old was going trick-or-treating, and insisted that he had to come to my house. (His family moved to within a block of me, about a month ago.) He said he would. Several hours later, still in the office, seeing me again was enough to make him forget why he came over to my hallway. :-) Guess I did a good job with the face!
Code freeze was today. I REFUSED to let it keep me from coming home to give out candy. Yeah!! And things went smoothly despite the fact I took a few hours off in the evening. So there.
Decorated the house - bats, spiders, ghosts, a jack-o-lantern, Chris's light-beam with a witch shape in it, and my semi-portable stereo with weird sounds going out the window. I love decorating!! Chris had a good time with the sound effects. He sat in the room with the stereo, spying trick-or-treaters on their way up and pushing the track number for "Wellllllcommmmmme bwa ha ha haaaaa".
And then we had soooooooo few trick-or-treaters it was depressing. I heard from one neighbor that "everyone's at the mall". I suppose that's perceived as safer (although why a mall is seen as safer than the families you live next door to is a mystery to me; I thought businesses == evil, or something). Ah well.
We had so much candy we instituted a new rule: close your eyes, reach your hand into the bowl, and whatever you can grab with one hand you can keep. :-/ The littler kids, young enough to be accompanied by parents, LOVED this rule. They'd come away with two or three objects and they'd feel like kings.
I did get to see my boss's boss's son. What a cutie. He knew the routine about candy, but didn't bother to unwrap it before chewing on it. Then he'd hand it to Daddy or try to put it in Daddy's mouth. He came in and spied my cat, my biggest mellowest pillow-cat, sprawled on the floor. Mistaking her for a stuffed animal, he went and plunked his hand on her, and he was quite startled when she got up and walked away. He chased her. She walked away. Finally I put her on my lap and told him to be nice to the nice kitty, and he gave her a big ol' hug and was perfectly satisfied. And the cat was fine with all of it. I love having a mellow cat handy for moments like that. :-)
Back in at work for less than five minutes, just to check that the automated script did the right thing. It did. Perfect. Outttaaa here! :-)
I did a last-minute costume this morning. Went to Walgreen's to drop off my film from the weekend, and prowled the aisles: if they have one Viking helmet, no matter how rotten, I'll take it. Two blonde braids (that much is factory installed) and I'm set. But... no helmet. OK... vampire teeth and an ugly wig. Some fake blood and black makeup for show. The teeth were a total lose, but the wig and the black makeup were apparently shockingly successful. People at work had trouble just holding a conversation with me. :-)
My boss's boss did quite the double-take when he first saw me. I asked him if his 18-month-old was going trick-or-treating, and insisted that he had to come to my house. (His family moved to within a block of me, about a month ago.) He said he would. Several hours later, still in the office, seeing me again was enough to make him forget why he came over to my hallway. :-) Guess I did a good job with the face!
Code freeze was today. I REFUSED to let it keep me from coming home to give out candy. Yeah!! And things went smoothly despite the fact I took a few hours off in the evening. So there.
Decorated the house - bats, spiders, ghosts, a jack-o-lantern, Chris's light-beam with a witch shape in it, and my semi-portable stereo with weird sounds going out the window. I love decorating!! Chris had a good time with the sound effects. He sat in the room with the stereo, spying trick-or-treaters on their way up and pushing the track number for "Wellllllcommmmmme bwa ha ha haaaaa".
And then we had soooooooo few trick-or-treaters it was depressing. I heard from one neighbor that "everyone's at the mall". I suppose that's perceived as safer (although why a mall is seen as safer than the families you live next door to is a mystery to me; I thought businesses == evil, or something). Ah well.
We had so much candy we instituted a new rule: close your eyes, reach your hand into the bowl, and whatever you can grab with one hand you can keep. :-/ The littler kids, young enough to be accompanied by parents, LOVED this rule. They'd come away with two or three objects and they'd feel like kings.
I did get to see my boss's boss's son. What a cutie. He knew the routine about candy, but didn't bother to unwrap it before chewing on it. Then he'd hand it to Daddy or try to put it in Daddy's mouth. He came in and spied my cat, my biggest mellowest pillow-cat, sprawled on the floor. Mistaking her for a stuffed animal, he went and plunked his hand on her, and he was quite startled when she got up and walked away. He chased her. She walked away. Finally I put her on my lap and told him to be nice to the nice kitty, and he gave her a big ol' hug and was perfectly satisfied. And the cat was fine with all of it. I love having a mellow cat handy for moments like that. :-)
Back in at work for less than five minutes, just to check that the automated script did the right thing. It did. Perfect. Outttaaa here! :-)
no subject
That is a wonderful rule. You're smart. :)
no subject
A couple of the older kids were wary: they thought I was going to scare them when they closed their eyes, or something. But once I reassured them, they were amused and went for it. :-)
what kids like
We had tons of kids, but it might be our neighborhood. It's an old, working-class neighborhood, with families who've been here 10 years or generations. The folks across the street are a grandma, a daughter, and the daughter's two kids, and grandma grew up in the house.
One family who visited us last night live right up the street now, but owned this house a couple of years ago, sold it to our landlord.
It's kinda cool.
On the other hand, it's one of the whitest neighborhoods I've seen in the bay area, which is kinda weird, considering all the years I spent in Oakland and Berkeley.
Re: what kids like
Our neighborhood matches the description of yours. My next-door neighbors are three generations, too, and at least the middle generation grew up in that house. (Grew up visiting "my" houses's swimming pool, too, and I'm glad to say that tradition is continuing!) And yeah - it's very very white. :-/
Eyeballs. Too cool!