Thursday, November 01, 2007

What A Concept

That today is the first day of November is a hard concept to grasp. November? Already?!? School just started yesterday and I still have my summer clothes out. But it is November - three weeks from today it will be Thanksgiving.

The semester is more than half over, and I seem to be doing pretty well. I finished researching and writing the study guide for my Honors Project, and I'm holding A's for grades right now.

Football season is half over, and right now Team Moose Mutt leads the fantasy league by one game. This weekend I have to play the guy who has both Tom Brady and LaDanian Tomlinson on his team. How this guy isn't in first place is beyond me. He must have had some negative defense points somewhere. (BTW - is that how you spell LaDanian?)

Carl and I did manage to go to Scream Acres last Saturday. It scared the you-know-what out of me - I missed a whole bunch of stuff the first time I went through because I spent most of my time looking at Hannah. This time I screamed about as much as she did, but when Carl wasn't laughing his head off he was being as protective as he could. After Scream Acres we went to Collins Pub. Every small town in Iowa has at least one bar, and for Atkins Collins Pub is it. They make great cheeseburgers, but we weren't hungry. We did drink (a little, Mom, nothing overboard) and I got to do karaoke for the first time. It was kind of fun, actually, and Carl said I had the best voice in the place. Yeah, like Carl is going to be subjective.

Yesterday for Halloween Mary went as a genie. I bought her a costume from Oriental Trading, then I bought her a tank top to wear under the costume to cover her bare middle. It was cold last night!! Anyway. Hannah (who didn't dress up this year) took Mary around the neighborhood while Carl and I set up for trick-or-treaters. I did what I usually do: I put out a big basket full of hackey sacks, set up a lawn chair in the garage, and tethered Judah to the bumper of my truck so he could be out in the garage with me. He has a Halloween bandana that I make him wear, and this year I taped a sign to the table that said "Beware of Cerberus". Kids asked me what that meant, so along with their toy they got a brief lecture on Greek mythology. One kid was impressed: "Wow, a kickball and we learned something, too!" is what he said to his Dad when he left. Lots of kids petted Judah, and he performed tricks for some of the kids (which means he got plenty of treats). One mom told me that her kids insist on coming to our house because they know they'll get a toy instead of candy. That made me feel good.

After Hannah and Mary got back from trick or treating Carl took them to the Atkins Community Club Halloween party. I think they had fun although Mary was mad that she didn't win the costume contest. Oh, well. I was told the winners were two brothers who were dressed as Legos.

I guess that means they know how to put it all together!!