Not A Metaphor

From the blackest
corner
of my room,
comes just
the faintest sigh,
a quiet exhalation.
A strange coldness
crawls over my skin
as I lay there,
the stench
of funeral flowers
encircling me.

He swore
that death
would not
ever separate
us.

Oh My Goodness! Random

My husband is a legacy Democrat. That means that his daddy was a Democrat, his grandfather was a Democrat, and so on. And because my husband is a legacy Democrat, there have been, shall we say, shenanigans when it comes to voting. I chalk it up to the Republicans here in Texas being up to no good(and when the Democrats are in charge, I imagine the same sort of trickery occurs). Twice when Larry has gone to vote, he has been turned away, for still being registered at our old house...even though we changed our address at the same time, on the same day, at the same place.  My change of address went through just fine--but I am an Independent. We shall see what happens this week, when we try for early voting.

At the last book fair, I found something...

I tried to get Zane interested, but he does not share my love of birdwatching.  At least not yet.  I am hopeful, though.  I plan on putting in some bird houses for the spring, but I will have to figure out a way to keep Zena the Warrior Cat from getting up into the trees.  Maybe some netting or something in the lower branches will freak her out and keep her feet on the ground.   

One day this month, Amazon had as their free app of the day a thing called Ghost Radar.  Intrigued, I downloaded it.  It is supposed to tell you if any 'activity' occurs in the vicinity of the phone, and it also detects words that are said, too.   I have run it a few times, in places that I 'know' are haunted, like the building where I work.  The words that are getting picked up are rather interesting, such as the name "Lincoln".  The oddest word that the Ghost Radar 'picked up', was "mill", because the street where the building is located is Mill street.  Other than that, Ghost Radar has been more novelty than anything else.  Halloween fun!

Speaking of Halloween fun...

I made this one day while I had a moment.  I know that I won't be able to wear it after this week, but I'm enjoying myself by wearing it while I can.  Those skulls look so cheerful with their little grins, which just tells me that I need to stop hitting the bead shows at the local convention center.

 

Tomorrow, Larry and Zane will go trick or treating dressed as Thor and Iron Man.  I will stay behind for the express purpose of handing out candy.  I feel that it is my duty as a homeowner to do this, plus I sort of enjoy seeing the kids walk up in their adorable little monster outfits or the cute princess costumes.  But it's a school night, so I hope that the trick or treaters trickle out by 9pm.  I know that part of the country will likely still be dealing with rain and maybe some snow from Hurricane Sandy, and I am a little sad that they will be missing out on the fun.  Perhaps there can be a postponement of the festivities for those children?  Maybe next Wednesday, when things have dried out?  Think of the candy--the children!

 

I am over visiting Stacy at Stacy Uncorked,  and she should be there, unless there's a power outage.  Which there may well be, because that is what usually happens when there's a hurricane down here.  I am not sure what happens on the East Coast.  But stop and see what's up, and send some positive thoughts her way, just in case!

Halloween: Now With More Chocolate!

Halloween is a big deal for my husband. Actually, most holidays are big deals for my husband, but Halloween is one of the biggest ever since our son came along. Larry starts planning for Halloween months in advance, looking at costumes for Zane. Although Zane's first Halloween was spent in the NICU, in the years following he's been Yoda, a pirate, and a knight in shining armor. We have kept the costumes after the holiday; Zane likes to play dress up, like any kid.

This year, my husband asked Zane what he wanted to be.

"Robin," my son replied immediately. "And you be Batman."

"You want me to be Batman?" Larry had not anticipated this response. He had planned for Zane to be a Star Wars character, so he could play Darth Vader. Larry had his heart set on being Darth Vader! But yes, indeed, Zane wanted to be Robin, and he wanted his father to join him as Batman.

This was an even bigger deal for Larry; a father-son Halloween event! Larry googled Batman and Robin costumes almost immediately. Not just any Robin costume would do; Zane wanted to be the Robin from the television show Young Justice. And the Batman could not look shabby; it had to be the RIGHT Batman. With the correct ears. When the costumes arrived, Zane's outfit, minus the plastic mask, was declared a success. Larry's outfit required that another set of Batman ears be located, and the cape was pronounced a bust because you could see through it. Many trips to Halloween stores all over town later, the outfit was complete. The Father-Son Halloween event will be a blockbuster hit! Male bonding will occur!! Candy will be shared!!

My job tonight? Staying at home and handing out the candy to trick or treaters.

No costume. No frills. No fanfare.

I'm scary enough without all that!

Halloween Thoughts

So, here I am,sitting out front, waiting for trick or treaters to show up for candy. I am by myself, and the streetlight is broken, so I am sitting here with only the light of the laptop to illuminate me. Since I am probably more scary than just about anything else our here, I'm not that worried.

My husband loves the dressing up for Halloween. Zane's first Halloween was spent in the NICU, and his second Halloween he was just over a year, so we just took pictures of him dressed as Yoda and stayed in. This year Zane actually got into the spirit and put on his costume without much of the crying and whining that happened last year. They tripped on merrily up the street, a knight in shining armor and a Nazgul, and I got candy duty. I don't mind because I like to people watch.

The first year we moved into our house, I did not anticipate the sheer number of children that would show up. After all, I had lived in an apartment for a long time. So we ran out of candy in about five minutes that first Halloween and had to turn off the porchlight in shame. I vowed that would never happen again, so sometimes we have a lot of candy left over.





We have all kinds of people trick or treating this evening, mostly young kids, of course. I don't know quite how I feel about it, but there are carloads of kids who have their parents drop them off on our street. I don't even know if they live in our subdivision. So I have to have a system for making sure that there is enough candy to last. Number one rule: If you are not in a costume, you get nothing. If you can't be bothered to dress up in the spirit of the day, no candy for you. I always have special candy for the little ones, even though I know that those babies will never see any of that candy.

The highlight{sarcasm} of the evening was the very pregnant teenager who had painted a pumpkin on her belly. I guess that she was craving sweets. Every adult in her group was smoking and as she was walking away I saw her take a drag of her boyfriend's cigarette. Geez.

My neighbors did their haunted house thing this year, judging by the screaming and crying. And the running away.

Larry left his Nazgul costume on one of the chairs out here, and one of the kids asked what it was. I told them it was all that was left of a kid who didn't say "thank you". The entire group ran away screaming.

It's Not Quite Halloween, But...

After a long day at work, we arrived home with Zane, and I get to fix dinner. Yay me. I had decided on trying a chicken parm recipe that I found, so I got started making that. The recipe called for dipping the chicken in egg and then into bread crumbs. Okay, I thought that I might be able to do that! There were three eggs in a container in the fridge. When I grabbed the container, one of the eggs started to slide out, and I tried to catch it. And I did catch the egg. Unfortunately, in my haste to catch the one egg, the other two slid out of the container. Which was kind of odd, since my thighs will silently attest that I don’t usually drop food. Damn, I thought to myself.

After getting the chicken into the oven, I was working on cleaning up the kitchen, getting some pasta on the stove, garlic bread in the oven, and Zane something to eat. Multi-tasking. Larry was in the living room, drooling over his new Aliens box set or something equally geek-ish. I was standing next to the island in the kitchen and I noticed movement on the floor. I looked down. Right next to my foot was a LARGE spider. EEEEEEEK!!

I am not afraid of spiders. I don’t like bugs/spiders/geckos in the house, but usually when I find them I catch them in a cup and toss them outside. I am not afraid of spiders, but I also didn’t expect to see one the size of a quarter right next to my bare foot in my own kitchen. I also didn’t expect to see dozens of baby spiders all over the floor next to the big spider. EEEEEEK!!!! I jumped and did what any normal, red-blooded woman would do in these situations. I hollered for my husband.

“Larry, come in here now!”

“What?” Larry called from the living room.

“It’s a big spider!” I called back.

“Itsy-bitsy spider?” Zane said from his spot at the table. He loves to hear about spiders, but they are all “itsy-bitsy” to him. Even Spiderman is “Itsy-bitsy Spiderman” right now.

“Uh, yes, Zane. It’s an itsy-bitsy spider,” I said, trying to appear calm for him, even though my heart was racing. It was a BIG spider, and while I am not afraid of spiders I was imagining that it had been about to climb onto my big toe. That gave me a roaring case of the heebie-jeebies.

“A big spider, eh?” From the tone of his voice, Larry was rolling his eyes as he walked into the kitchen. Then HE saw the spider, and while he didn’t actually jump, I could tell by the look on his face that he wanted to. Then I pointed out the baby spiders, and he was incredulous and had to see for himself.

“That’s kind of creepy,” he said. I had to agree. We both just stood there looking at the spiders, completely paralyzed with the OMG moment. Zane was still at the table where he had been eating, staring at his parents in confusion and starting to look worried.

Zena, our new kitten, jumped in to save the day. She was just ecstatic to have a new moving play toy to whack around, and she smacked that spider to the other side of the kitchen. In short order, the big spider was a deceased spider. In the meantime, Larry had recovered from his trance, and grabbed the vacuum cleaner. He vacuumed up all the little spiders.

“Should I be concerned that when I emptied the case into the trash, I couldn’t see any spiders?” he asked a couple of minutes later. I made him put the vacuum on the patio. Just in case. The thought that dozens of baby spiders might climb out of the vacuum was too frightful to contemplate for long. Crisis averted, we reassured Zane that all was well.

“It’s all right, Zane, your Mom was just scared of an itsy-bitsy spider,” Larry told him. So I smacked him with a frying pan. At least I thought about it. Because I am not afraid of spiders.