Update on us

Let's see. I lost my Friday-night-ace-in-the-hole childcare opportunity when the local gym shortened their Parents Night Out from 6-11 to 6-10:30. Having depended on this, I was left high & dry with a Friday night game that I just had to bow out of. (Dang it.) The other Friday night games, I'll arrange a sleepover at a friend's house or a late-night babysitter.

I did get to last Tuesday's game, though, and it was a great game. I realized that I finally feel like I am doing things in the games; when I first started in Red, I would go out for a shift on the ice and come back thinking that not only did I never touch the puck, I didn't really do anything. Yay! Now to take more shots. And do even better on getting on and off the ice at a good moment and quickly. And pay attention (dammit!) for penalty periods (I really screwed up on one of those).

But things are really going well. I'm still walking G to school just about every single morning, and walking to pick him up most days, too. I am loving that time together, no distractions, just the two of us. He is getting his homework all done, most days, at Y-Kids, so I have nothing to worry about in the evenings except getting him fed and getting him to bed, and usually something fun in between. Tonight, we're having made-at-home pizza with TJ's pizza dough and sauce. We'll do the same as last time: pineapple, cut-up meatballs, and red bell pepper. (Hey, just give it a try.)

Saturday-before-last, our church had its annual Hometown Halloween party. It's a very cool, fun time, with dinner and entertainment. It's our church's biggest fundraiser of the year, and the gal who ran it convinced me to knit things for the auction. I ended up knitting a shawl in a soft nylon tape yarn (as opposed to tapeworms, you know you were thinking it, A.T.) in autumn colors, and a scarf in a rainbow ribbon with silky gold trim. They both were bid on several times, which was certainly good for my ego! G was Harry Potter this year, and I spray-painted his hair black, drew a lightning bolt on his forehead, and made him pipe-cleaner glasses. He found a perfect twig for a wand, wore a white dress shirt and black sweatpants with white socks and black dress shoes, and threw on a cape we'd been given by a friend, with silver moons and stars on it. The Haunted House this year was "Haunted Hogwarts Castle," with the youth group playing most of the parts. G asked if he could be the Harry Potter for it, and the youth group leader kindly agreed. He was given lines that he practiced... but when the time came, he was speaking so softly that I was the only one who knew he was even talking! He did look cute, though, and all the kids got to make a "love potion" that they then drank (water with a little of that water-bottle-flavorer powder in it), and then their parents said how much they loved them suddenly! (folks were very good to pass on to the parents that they should be effusive afterwards) It really was lots of fun.

I had talked to parents of his friends before the event, encouraging them to come, and although most said, yes, definitely, they'd be interested, none actually came in the end. One friend was interested, but his mom had a dinner date that night. Initially, he was going to go with his mother, but then he changed his mind: I invited him to go with us sans his mom, and he agreed. G's other good friend is Chinese, and there are sometimes language barriers: I had thought they would come, but on Friday, she said, nope, they weren't. I offered to take just W with us, and she happily agreed.

So there I was, walking to our church with rubber skeleton mask on (a Pirate of the Carribbean), Spiderman, Army Guy, and Harry Potter in tow. It was actually pretty fun!

The kids got tired about 8:30 or 9 and we made a quick exit. I didn't find out later that I'd won a tea basket I'd bid on, and it turned out to be great. That reminds me; I still need to try the blackberry/honey mixture that came with it.

G slept in my bed that night and when he woke up, he looked like a chimney sweep: the temporary hair color came off all over his face, neck, hands, pillowcase, and sheets. Good thing I was planning to change them that day anyway. When he again became HP on Halloween, I insisted he go right into the bath and wash that night. Thankfully, I saw that the stuff washes out very well with regular shampoo. I should have taken a picture of the tub, though. Yoiks.

We continue to enjoy our Wii system, with Wii Sports and now with a loaned copy of the SpongeBob game (which is bizarre but at least doable, although I have to pitch in periodically for G on some moves--and other moves, he is better than me at). We've also borrowed some games from our video store, which is great for trying them out before I buy one for Christmas. Sonic? Way too hard. Neither of us could get past the 4th screen. We'll see how Mario Party 8 is. The ad on Nintendo's site is a scream.

I still miss my Maddy girl every single day. It is so odd to get up and have the house still be silent. She got up slower as the days went on, but she always stirred when I woke up. Damn.

Let's see, house, dog, kid, work... Oh! Holidays. We'll be going up to my mom's for Thanksgiving this year. She offered to fly us up. Usually, she drives out to Portland (2.5 hrs one way) to pick us up, and then we are restricted to one car the entire time. This time, I Pricelined a rental car for the entire weekend. Then I thought, "What if she was really looking forward to coming out to pick us up?" and she emailed, saying she was so glad she didn't have to drive out to get us, as it was such a tiring drive and she'd done it twice in the past couple of weeks. Score! Then we can also get around on our own as we need to, like to visit the kitschy funny store I loved as a kid that G also loves, and Mom would rather have a root canal than visit. I'm really looking forward to the visit, and then (sigh) I can bury Maddy's ashes near where Max's are buried.

For Christmas, we'll be staying home this year. I had planned to stay home, then G wanted to visit his cousins in OR, but it turns out they'll be in Mexico with their dad anyway. So we'll have Christmas at home and I'll be able to go to Christmas-eve services at our church for only the second time ever. We'll do day trips to do fun things, like visit SF or go skiing or maybe Monterey. Now I have to put together a list of all those things we haven't done because it's too far, etc. I think it'll be great fun!