Halloween, part III

I just finished the paint job on R2's dome. It took me all week to find the right combination of construction materials. I ended up with a plastic bowl and some silver foil paper, both from the dollar store (yay, cheap!). Put together with lots of double-stick tape, then painted. If it takes a long time to dry, I'll have to complete the chin strap tomorrow; hot glue and elastic. I'm not sure if I'll be able to attach some kind of light and/or 3-D accessories. I'm running out of time and energy, and still need a little time tomorrow to put myself together. Fortunately, I have a nearly full bottle of hairspray, so that should get done without too much swearing.

More pictures and the trick-or-treat report tomorrow. Happy Halloween!

P.S. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for clear skies, so the paint doesn't run!

Halloween, part II

Did you guess which presidential candidate I voted for, yet? If not, here's another clue:

I confess: not my idea. There's a lovely site devoted to the barack-o-lantern, with photos and free templates to download. Fun!

We all carved our pumpkins yesterday, and may yet do more. I forgot (again!) to save and roast the seeds, but we do have two uncut pumpkins awaiting us, so I'll get those ones. Since we live on a busy road with no sidewalks, I'm not expecting any trick-or-treaters; we're enjoying the lanterns on the back patio right now. We'll go to a friend's open house and canvass her neighborhood on Halloween. It's nice to have a place to duck into to warm up, grab a non-candy snack, and examine the loot before either heading home or out for round two.

This is only the second year we've taken Small Person trick-or-treating. I thought it was a bit much for her to do until she could manage it without being carried. Not to mention, it wouldn't be very fair to make her work so hard for all that sugar I wouldn't let her eat. Now we do the standard Halloween evening gluttony and ration it out until all that's left are Tootsie Rolls and SweeTarts. For some reason, the chocolate seems to disappear so quickly...

Halloween, part I

This is the beginning stage of Small Person's Halloween costume. The remainder involves some shoulder straps, a helmet/mask made of a foil roasting pan and some more blue paint. The costume was her idea, no coaching by the Young Fellow, I swear.

I'm thrilled; at last I get to dress as Princess Leia! Not bronze bikini Leia, unfortunately. Even around here it's too chilly for that. I think it would stretch even my ingenuity for the use of unusual materials. I'll stick to Episode IV Leia, since it's not much more involved than a white sheet and a belt. That's a relief, as I'm sure I'll be working until the wee hours the rest of the week getting R2 finished. More photos as we go along.

field trip!

Holy cow am I tired. When I heard that nearly half of the parents of Small Person's class had volunteered to attend the pumpkin patch field trip, I was a little surprised. Really? Wasn't that a bit too much? Nooo way! I was only assigned to look after my kid and one other and that was plenty for me. Taking into account bus transport time, the trip lasted the entire school day. That's a lot of running around after five-year-olds that have suddenly lost their sense of hearing.

I'm sure my own hearing suffered some damage on the bus ride over. I was thankful I seem to have grown out of my school-bus-induced motion sickness. And, I only had a minor headache to show for twenty minutes of hysterical excitement contained in that steel echo chamber.

The patch itself was great. Competition in this area ensures a lot of awesome patches with plenty of auxiliary activities. Besides actual pumpkin fields, there were tons of flowers, animals, corn and hay bale mazes, and the ubiquitous bouncy house. There were several other schools scheduled to attend the same day, so it was concentrated mayhem for everyone. The few families that were there on their own ran for cover as the buses pulled up.

The only downer of the day was that Small Person was stung by a bee on the ride home. Ouchie! Fortunately, we were nearly back to school by that time, and the first aid kit had one of those nice sting soothers in it. Even better, one of the moms works on an ambulance and made quick work of grabbing the necessaries from the kit. I think she should go on every field trip!

As soon as we made it home we collapsed on the couch for a nice little rest. That's code for "mom sleeps through something on PBS." Alas, we are not nearly done for the day. There is still a pumpkin to carve, and a treat to make for the school Harvest Fair cake walk. I have a feeling it's going to be something from a box with some nice orange sprinkles on top.

my civic duty

I have short arms which give me a serious handicap for taking self-portraits. So, none of my shots of me wearing my sticker came out. I had to settle for relocating my badge to my leg and, as you can see, it still doesn't look that great.

Anyhoo, voted. Done. Yay! Now I have to root around for some stamps and send it away to be counted and keep my fingers crossed that it gets counted properly. That's enough to keep me awake nights, how about you?

I always like to vote by mail. In fact, I think I've only visited a polling place once in my life. Just not convenient, you know? Voting by mail allows me to still be responsible while indulging my natural love of ease. Otherwise known as laziness. I'm even more happy to do it now that they include the sticker to flaunt.

what if everyone else jumped off a bridge?

Heh.

Also, weeniest post ever. I'm in the middle of making dinner and I've an article due tomorrow. So there! I promise I'll update ...soon-ish? I hope.

I'm still here

Obviously, the first thing to drop off the to-do list mid-semester is the blog updating. One of these days I'll follow through with all my grand organizational and time-management strategies. Until then, I'll be catching up on "Project Runway" when I should be doing any number of useful things.

I have a mid-term today, which I'm not too worried about. One thing I never have a problem with is keeping up with my course reading, and just by virtue of that and conscientious note-taking, I'm pretty sure I've got it covered. My first article is due next week! I've still a couple of interviews to do, so I'm in the stage of amassing information and sorting it appropriately. I found it surprising how easy it is to arrange to interview someone. Everyone likes to talk, apparently, and are delighted to be asked their opinions. That definitely makes it easier for me to fake my social graces, in a chatty, cocktail party way. Just wait until I have to deal with some controversial issue and ask real questions. Yeah, right. There's a reason I'm more interested in magazine writing; fluff, all the way!

The job is going well. I do manage to stay organized and tidy there, at least. Every day has a large chunk of standard stuff to do, and then some diverse and changeable projects. I really like this kind of schedule; it prevents boredom and allows more job creativity. We have a friendly, efficient office and I'm enjoying it a lot.

I'm not spending as much time in the garden, lately. Hopefully today I'll be able to get out there and muck about. The little rain that we've had made everything perk up. I'll probably take out a lot of the summer stuff today, except the tomatoes. We're still picking those every day, and loving them. We've already started eating greens; delicious! I pulled all the basil last week and made enough pesto to eat and freeze for a few meals. It's one of the few green things Small Person will eat, so I like to keep that well-stocked.

Otherwise, the house is a mess, laundry needs doing, dinner is unplanned, and I stared into the fridge for five minutes this morning awaiting lunch inspiration. You know, the usual.

garden update

I haven't done one in a while, so here we go.

We ate some tiny, mutant corn this past weekend. Despite (or, perhaps because of) its stature, it was sweet and tasty. Lemon cukes are producing several a week, perfect to make cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches for Small Person's lunch. The cherry tomatoes are wonderfully sweet and prolific, we munch them whenever we're outside. Radishes are sprouting, kale and mustard greens are ready to eat, zucchinis not too overwhelming. We have one bright orange pumpkin and several green ones of various sizes creeping along. The butternut squash is slow, though I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. Many things were just started too late to get a full harvest.

But, I have high hopes for our Fall garden. The greens are happy, I'll probably put in more, since I love them so. Carrots and beets are looking well, broccoli started, cabbages healthy. I've been relying on my folks for lots of garden advice (and veggie starts!) and, boy, have they been helpful. Stubborn, silly me, to avoid any garden work, and thus practice, until I can do it all on my own from scratch.  What the heck, it's all an experiment, right? At this point, I'm still surprised when we do harvest something; I'm not quite my own sole purveyor, yet.

I'm not spending as much time on the garden in general right now, since I started working again. Theoretically being more busy means I should be more organized to deal with it, but... Let's just say Young Fellow has been doing a lot more watering than usual the past couple of weeks.

tgif

Ah, the mantra of the working world; TGIF! I'm relieved to arrive at this happy day. I essentially doubled my activity and workload this week and it shows in my bloodshot eyes. Although, that could be the glass of wine I downed as soon as I got home. I have the night off, since Small Person left for her weekly overnight visit with the grandparents. Thank you, Baba!

Sadly, I'll most likely spend the remainder of my Friday night off finishing homework, catching up on email and reading, then going to bed early. Tomorrow is for laundry and various housekeeping chores, then hopefully a grocery trip squeezed in there somewhere. Sunday we're off to a birthday party for Her Tinyness, for which her excellent parents rented a bouncy. Oh, joy! Oh, exhaustion unrelieved! I often pack Small Person's pajamas when we go visiting for a busy day like that. I'm thinking of bringing my own this time, as well. I'm looking forward to a real day off... oh, sometime within the next decade, perhaps.

That's what I get for re-joining the ranks of the responsibly employed, I suppose.

work makes me tired

The first day of work went well. I did a variety of tasks that are familiar and anticipated, but not boring, and got along well with my boss. It looks like a good situation. I probably won't talk much about it here, though; partly paranoia, I guess, but I'd rather save this blog for fun stuff, anyway.

I am very tired today, though. That might also have to do with the assorted activities that keep piling up. My homework, research, and interviews for assignments, Small Person's bottomless kindergarten paperwork, and the other necessaries of house and garden just don't stop lately. It's all fun and interesting stuff, or at least useful, so I don't begrudge it. Okay, maybe just a little bit when I've had to repeat a request three times in a morning, every morning before school. How much longer will she need my help getting dressed?!

In other news, this Friday is picture day! I know the readership (all three of you) can't wait to see Small Person's first school portrait. Duly noted; I'll be ordering the ginormous extra huge photo package that includes some random junk with dozens of wallet-sized prints. Sorry, the 8x10 ones are saved for the grandmothers.

things that go bump

Remember that little self-congratulatory post a few days ago about how great my balance is? Of course, today I fell flat on my face; a nice comeuppance.

We went to pick up trash around Small Person's school today, and I guess an hour of stooping, bending, squatting, all to pull tiny brittle bits of deteriorating plastic out of the landscaping really got to me. It was a double-whammy of a stumbling trip. I caught myself on the edge of the pavement only to hit the parking curb and go down. Fortunately, I was able to fall safely, I was wearing gloves and jeans and didn't scrape my face. Have to keep that money-maker lookin' good! I did end up with a goose egg on my shin and a severely bruised ego. The other adults in the area politely pretended not to see as my Young Fellow scooped me up and dusted me off. We had a good laugh at my expense and went back to picking up the shocking number of discarded cigarette butts.

I start my new job tomorrow! I'd better have a medicinal glass of wine before bed to make sure I feel okay tomorrow.

Summer is officially over

I just had to dash out to rescue the clothes on the line from our first rain. Yay for the free water for the garden! Boo for running the dryer and the heater and the lights all day. I know, Kath, I'm a spoiled Californian who gets way more than my fair share of sunshine. Really, I love the rain and the weather changes. Now I'm off to hunt up my boots and umbrella. And, more importantly, those belonging to Small Person.