Another Halloween, that is.  I guess we’ll be inundated with Christmas stuff, at the stores, now.  Thank God we don’t have TV.  1) We aren’t subject to those damn political ads, and 2) No toy and Christmas commercials.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Jesus and I think he’s the righteous son of the Big L-to-the-O-to-the-RD, but I really hate the commercialization of the holiday.   But, let’s get back to the subject at hand.  HALLOWEEN a/k/a The Day of Candy and Dress Up.

The truck was worked on this morning and I had it back in my possession a little after lunch. It only set me back $90.00 for the rear brake line, and $55.00 for the towing.  Not bad considering we could have been DEAD!   I digress; we went to Kroger, got a frozen pizza for the kids, picked up some last minute 50% off Halloween items (including an adorable Pumpkin costume for Davey), and two pumpkins.

We got home and while the pizza baked I carved one pumpkin.  That’s as far as I got, and the kids were okay with that.   Then we got ready.  Olivia needed her face painted skeleton-like for her “dead Guinevere” costume, and Mikey needed his face dirtied up for his zombie look.  We couldn’t find Benny’s pants for his folk dance costume, so we improvised and used some old gi pants of Mikey’s.  I got Davey suited in his adorable pumpkin costume, took some pics of the troop, and off we went to Mo’s house.

It was quite a night.  Her neighborhood is quite hilly, but the neighbors made up for it.  All nice people, and I noticed many differences between trick-or-treating in the north and trick-or-treating in the south.

• In the north no one sits outside to give out candy.  It’s too butt-effin’ cold, don’t'cha know.
• In the south everyone sits outside to give out candy.  They even go so far as to congregate with a fire pit, and beaucoup de food!  Everyone is invited to eat.  Lu-lu (Mo’s daughter) managed to get a piece of pizza that later Davey stole.  Well, he didn’t steal it.  The crust was set on his stroller tray and he claimed it.  His tray, his crust.  Fair is fair.
• In the north you rarely see people driving their trick-or-treaters around.
• In the south you see people driving their trick-or-treaters around wayyyy toooo much.   We even chanted “Park and Ride” to one group of teens riding in the back of a flat-bed.
• In the north it’s usually so cold that you must put layers on under the costume.  There’s even the rare occasion that a winter coat must be donned.
• In the south you can wear a short sleeve tee when you hit the pavement.  Seriously.

When we got back to Mo’s I let the kids eat one treat and off we took for home.  Davey, who was a trooper the whole night, pitched a fit 3/4 of the way home.  Baby would just not give up and sleep.  Poor thing.  He finally zonked out, and I haven’t heard a peep from him.

All-in-all, the day was pretty good.  I enjoyed the change this year as this was our first year trick-or-treating down here.  I missed doing our thing in NY, though.

I did tell the kids that we aren’t going anywhere tomorrow.  Save Kroger because, of course, I forgot to buy formula while we were there this afternoon.  It must’ve been the 50% off Halloween stuff that had me mesmerized.

Stay tuned for my Thursday Thirteen.  I’ll be showcasing “13 pictures from Halloween 2007″.

W O R D L E S S W E D N E S D A Y

This was taken last year, during Fire Prevention Week!
Have a plan and practice it.

NFPA Website

Even a bad day needs a self portrait.
Straight from the camera phone.  If only you could read my mind, it’s saying, “THIS DAY BLOWS!”