Gametes In Love

Ok, fine, it’s mid-November, but better late than never?

It was our first, truly family, celebrated event as both boys actively participated, both in dressing up, trick or treating and consuming candy. G went as a cheetah (fine, really a leopard since the actual cheetah costume was nowhere to be found, but he doesn’t know, so don’t ruin it for me), and S2 went as a monkey, reclaiming G’s Halloween costume from 2 years ago.

I finagled an invitation out of A&B to ToT in their hood. A benefit to our place not doing ToT is that I don’t have to acquire candy, or stay home to distribute it. A disadvantage to the same, is that come Halloween, we are now nomads, seeking a friendly place to go. I feel uncomfortable picking a random neighborhood to ascend onto, and nowhere near ready to battle the insanity that is San Carlos’ Eucalyptus Dr that day. Thankfully, A was awesome enough to extend and invitation, so that’s where we spent our evening. We ate pizza for dinner, dressed the kids, and took off. Note to self: next year, bring our own wagon. G was insistent he HAD to ride in K&M’s, which was sad, because he was really mean about it.

The kids were pretty polite at approaching homes, knocking on doors and picking one candy. S2, decided that he should extend his “treat” definition and asked people for their decorations. Apparently his cuteness won them over, because we walked away from one home carrying a pumpkin. Yes, a real pumpkin. Not pumpkin candy, pumpkin cake, or anything else immediately edible: a real, decorative pumpkin. At least it was small 🙂

G asked to head back pretty early. I was surprised to be honest, but he was tired, it was late, and the rain came. We made good time, and I loved their little treat bags. They were the perfect size.

My major coup for the evening was convincing both children they can each only eat one candy. It succeeded. Then, somehow, the next morning, each had forgotten about the remainder, and carried on without asking for it. They STILL haven’t asked for it. I know next year, I’ll have to be beating them off with a stick, but this is nice!

Meanwhile, I am also happy to announce that I won $100 at my work’s costume contest. I didn’t win first prize, but I won enough to cover the expenses of my costume. Woot! Yes, this is freaky, but it’s an inside joke for my place of business. You see, last year, many of our projects were code named after elements and characters from the Wizard of Oz. Since Halloween is HUGE here, several of our VP’s dressed up as characters from the movie. They looked incredible. No joke. The  best, was MH who dressed as Dorothy, red slippers, dress, wig and all. And of course, he “forgot” to shave. He won first prize. So this year, I decided that I want to dress as him. I did. It was well appreciated, and while I didn’t win first place, I got second, and I made people smile all day long… except from one of our India colleagues, who avoided me all day because he “couldn’t look at me”. Ok — maybe a chick, pretending to be a dude, pretending to be a chick just didn’t do it for him. I still rocked it! Now I can burn the costume.

Yeah, that’s really not a joke. Observe:

The above was just evicted from my vehicle. I required the use of a basket, as it was impossible to carry out without the utility of a container. Included were:
– 1 sticker book
– 1 toy lizzard
– 1 harmonica
– 1 (unopened) boogie wipes container
– 1 bead. Surprised there weren’t more
– 1 toy helicopter
– 1 toddler Kleen Kanteen bottle of water
– 2 blankets
– 3 jacket
– unlisted amount of trash

and if this is where you want to add “and a Pairtridge in a Pear tree” you can shove it, because there is no room.

With all of the above it’s no wonder why my car developed a stink. I was -| |- close to having my car detailed and shampooed thoroughly on the inside.  However, a trip to Target, some UN-memorable amount of money later, and 3 types of air freshener, my car is actually now quite tolerable, thank you very much. However, if you would like to gift me a certificate to a car-wash where above mentioned shampoo can be taken care of, I will rejoice 🙂

BC (before children) my car used to be so nice, too. I wasn’t OCD about keeping the “new car smell”, but at least it was orderly, and I never had to shovel shoes, paperwork, and shoo off old French fries so that others can ride with me. Now? Yeah, perhaps it’s better I ride alone.