Did I mention she has a pink tail?

Here is the Halloween kitty, right before she collected 286 pieces of candy. Notice she has a bag and a container? You have to like a girl that plans ahead. But with all that candy she ended up with only two cherry Laffy Taffys, my favorite right behind Klondike bars and chips.

And one hysterical Halloween moment: A local media celeb lives on our street. We ran into him and his family about three houses in. Carly looks at him and says, "You look just like ***." He just smiled and said, "Yep, that's my costume tonight." A little later, she stops and says, "Don't you think they pay him enough to live somewhere else?" I am still laughing. But remind me to have a conversation with her about how smart people live below their means.

If you see a flying monkey, you know I'm toast

A giant Ash tree sits just outside the window of my home office. Most days it's a beautiful testament to nature, although it sometimes blocks my view of the hood. Which you might call spying, but I call knowing your neighbors.

But that tree is scaring me today. It looks cold, wet and windblown, and frankly a little pissed. The kick-ass wind is bending those branches this way and that - mostly toward me. I even heard it whisper, "Watch out missy. I know you're in there."

And that leaves me with a dilemma. Where do I go to escape this Wizard of Oz-ness with its flying pumpkin and ghost? You might need to check on me later. And if I'm not around, don't go near the tree.

How to lose a sale in one easy step

So I'm in Dillard's today - in handbags, mind you - when a salesclerk asked if I'd like to see their newest "control" product.

Ummmmm . . . don't think so. She obviously hadn't read about my near death experience. And why the hell was she asking me that anyway? I wasn't even in that department for crying out loud.

Stickers and lollipops for me

You're going to be so proud of me, bloggy friends.

I got a flu shot today. Voluntarily. I know, I was such a big girl.

I know some of you might be thinking, "What's her boo hoo?" Let me tell you. When I was a kid I was in the hospital for about a week. Had a severe case of strep that left a mass over my windpipe. Treatment? A shot every four hours in my leg, alternating between right and left. It went on and on and on. While I appreciate being able to breathe, the end result included a huge phobia. Needles, hospitals, doctors . . . you name it, I avoid it.

But I got the flu twice last year. Once so badly it felt as if I had been hit by a truck, which promptly backed up and did it again. No exaggeration.

So I took a chance, motivated by the free shot and the fact that no one wanted to take my blood pressure. It better work.

Get your coat and gloves ready

What would you do? Pay $745 for heat or go without?

You knew I was going to say a bad word. And I did. More than one.

Wanted: One aerial photo

One of the windows and the heater in Scott's car haven't worked correctly in a long time. So we finally decided to get them fixed. Don't know the cost yet, but the sorrowful look the man at the counter gave me tells me I'm going to gasp and say bad words. (On a side note, the repair shop is named Woody's. How could you not take your business there? Much cooler than Mr. Fix It or Joe's Repair Shop.)
But this post really isn't about getting the car fixed. It's about the trek Riley would walk daily unless I pay for bus service or drive him myself. Remember this post?
Woody's is about half a mile (roughly) from Riley's school. So after I dropped off the car this morning I walked home. Wanted to see how long it would take. 33 minutes door to door. Had I started at Riley's school, it would have been another 7 to 10 minutes. So say about 40 minutes.
When I got home I called the transportation company to find out why the house across the street (which is closer to the school than ours) qualifies for free busing and ours doesn't. The houses behind mine all qualify as well. According to their "highly accurate" GPS, which is the final determination of who rides free and who doesn't, our house measures in at 1.99 miles. The other house - which is closer to the school both to the north and the west - comes in at 2.01 miles. No review, no exception. (By the way, neither of these houses qualified last year.)
What ever happened to common sense? I guess if the "highly accurate" GPS says it's so, it must be. Too bad for me. Just another thing to be aggrevated about.

Nobody can eat just one

Carly just asked me to watch her chips. Watch? Eat? I agree, same thing. Chips are right behind Klondike bars on my food chain. She should know better.

This and that

I am mesmerized today by the live coverage of the Chilean miners being rescued. 1 - because they actually survived their entrapment and 2 - because technology makes it possible to know moment by moment what is happening. That's both good and bad. But it is a far cry from how things were when I was a journalism student back in the day.

Speaking of back in the day, one of the things I enjoy about having kids in school is the excuse to read all the books from my childhood that I loved. Last night I read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. Technically, I ordered it from Scholastic for Carly, but it was really for me. And I loved it just as much this time. Couldn't put it down.

I'm not sure what I'm reading next. Maybe back to the Little House or Trixie Belden series or a book on mythology. I also want to read Queen Bees and Wannabees, which talks about peer pressure among girls, or Rick Springfield's new biography. A friend texted me today during carpool to tell me he was going to be on The View this morning. And the boys are all, "Rick Springfield? Who's that?" Sigh . . .

Finally, here's a picture from our recent trek to the pumpkin patch. An attractive bunch. That's probably why I'm never in any of these pictures. Remember this? I sometimes wonder if the kids will remember I was ever there. But maybe it's better if they don't!

A little scare for Halloween

I'm surprised my face doesn't have permanent scarring from these weighty monsters. Back then, plastic lenses weren't an option. And it's the only time I've ever looked at life through rose-colored glasses.

Me at seven

My mom gave me some old photos today. I was really cute before I hit the teenage years with the bad hair, bad teeth and really big glasses. I don't think I'll be showing you those.

Dinner with a side of yuck

It's a football Saturday, so that means Carly and I are on our own. We decided to eat an early dinner at the restaurant of her choice. Tonight it was Carlos, so I thought I got lucky. She only has two favorites, and the other one is McDonalds. Not that I'm against a cheeseburger and fries occasionally, but the older I get the worse it is when I eat that stuff later in the day.

So there we were about 4:30, having a quiet dinner in a mostly empty restaurant when in comes this party of four with this guy who . . . well, let's just say he was a doozy. Loud and obnoxious from the git go. Seated right behind us. When he started to talk about how he and his wife/girlfriend were connected below the waist, it was time to go.

I don't get people like that. Family restaurant, five children nearby, didn't appear to be drunk, just stupid and crude. I could hear his dinner companions telling him to quiet down. Which he didn't do, of course. Obnoxious people never do. I wonder what makes people act that way. Did he not ever learn any better? Was he born with a jerky personality? Is he just an attention seeker? And why would anybody want to hang out with someone like that?

Yuck.