Monkey girls

Picture-heavy post with no yarn, and lots of kid pix. Consider yourself warned.

Last year we took Devil trick or treating on Halloween with our neighbors, who also have two small girls approximately the same age as Devil and Boo. Devil and her buddy A rode in the wagon, while A's sister slept comfortably in a stroller (being all of 2 months old at the time, she was not particularly interested in, nor impressed by, Halloween). The girls were a bit underwhelmed by the whole process (why are we going for a walk in the dark?), but the highlights of the night included:

1) Devil and A absentmindedly chewing on their candy without taking the wrappers off, and the realizing that there was chocolate in there! A actually ate an entire Hershey's Kiss with the foil still on. (The foil was rescued before it could be swallowed).

2) Some wonderful soul leaving a cooler outside their front door with a sign saying "Parents Trick or Treat". It was full of beer. Budweiser, but beer nonetheless. Porpoise was quite peeved at being pregnant and therefore the only parental figure not imbibing.

This year, we did it right. There was Devil-assisted costume production,

That sweater is the one I mentioned at the end of this post

Jack o' lantern carving (Boo was more interested in eating newspaper),

and finally, Devil and Boo were properly outfitted to head off to daycare in their matching monkey suits.

They had lots of fun trick-or-treating at Daddy's office.

Big spider!

Last night we headed out with A and T (princess and leopard respectively), and raked in the loot. No more were these girls content to sit in the wagon and be wheeled around. Oh no. "Mama, let's go to that house!", "Mama, let's get more candy!", "Mama, can you open this lollypop for me pleeeeeeease!" Unfortunately, the parental treats were not in evidence, but we got supplied at A and T's house and set off to wander the neighborhood for hours. Or so it seemed...

And at the end of the night, there were lollypops.

Uh oh

Notice: due to the impending arrival of All Hallow's Eve, and the fact that knitting and fiber play have pushed out vital costume construction activities, all fiber-related projects are hereby banned until such time as A) Porpoise has completed one (1) blue monkey costume and one (1) matching purple monkey costume (thankfully in a smaller size), or B) it's Halloween and my kids trick-or-treat nekkid.

Which, given the fact that we are in The South, is maybe not such a bad idea.

PS - Thanks Red Sox!

Congratulations IPCC and Al!

How cool is this? Ok, I'll grant you that "An Inconvenient Truth" may not, on the surface, have an immediate connection to global peace, but...isn't it in the best interests of the planet to try and address the issue of climate change? I certainly think so.

Not that this will make any difference on the (non-)actions of the current administration, but it does make me smile. You can certainly argue about whether or not global warming is influenced by our actions, but the bottom line is that it does seem to be heating up around here, and, like it or not, the consequences of that warming are going to be catastrophic. Particularly if we spend a lot of time bickering about who's fault it is, or whether or not it's true, or whatever semantic bullshit politicians and lobbyists come up with to try and get out of addressing the issue. I'm too cynical to think that anything is going to change anytime soon, but this does give me a little bit of hope. We'll see I guess.

And just in case anyone is worried about the alleged knitting and spinning content of this here blog, I'm planning on this being a double post Fiber Friday, so stay tuned.

Gourdess bless the folks in retail

I'm sure everyone and their mother has already visited this site, but it is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

I am thanking my lucky stars that I managed to get through high school and college (and grad school for that matter) without having to spend more then a summer asking the nutters "Can I help you with anything sir?"

Go Sox!

I am nothing if not a desultory fan of most major league sports, but I'm always happy to jump on any post-season Beantown bandwagon that comes to town. Unfortunately, our lovely basic cable package doesn't include coverage of the playoffs, but I'll be thinking good thoughts for the boys tonight. And if Papi does well, I'll bust out his shirt in celebration tomorrow. Go Bosox!