Not really, it was just the waiting room of the tire place/mechanic’s shop.  For over three hours!!!  Tragedy piled upon tragedy.  I missed my old lady swimmy/exercisey class completely, the car has to spend the night (must go back again tomorrow), it got dark by the time Dan arrived to rescue me.  This will go down in history as one of my NOT favorite days.  Oh, and The Hurricane was bit my a neighbor’s dog.  Let’s say this week is over and we can start a new one now.

  I think when we retire (okay, him- since I can’t seem to ever have a real job) we are going to live somewhere that has tons of Trick Or Treaters.  We do get a nice variety here, but never more than one bowl’s worth of candy (and I give generously).  A great selection this year though, very small and adorable to quite mature and elegant.  They always comment on Daniel’s wonderful pumpkins, his carvings are nearly famous now.  My favorite story of the evening though is about one small kitty.  (Her father explained this all to me after she chose her goodies.)  They had been out with friends in the University neighborhood and were heading home, driving past our house (they live around the corner), when she screamed from the back seat, “stop there!  They have a kitty punkin!”  Yes, this year Empress chose a design that was very clever, with a cat face.  (She has told us for years that she has “kitty vision” and can spot cats from practically miles away.)  Well this little girl, dressed as a kitty, spotted that Cat O’ Lantern, and she made her Daddy pull over, park, and walk her up the orange and purple Halloween path to my front door.  I asked her how old she was, she said four, so I had her count out four treats. 

Happy Witches New Year to all, and a Peaceful Samhain.

  This is the sound in our house tonight: Scooter, Leave It!  Max, it’s okay… Axel, knock it off!!!

Yes we have three dogs, of varying sizes, training, colors, and personalities.  All free roaming, mostly amongst the guts of pumpkins and newspapers strewn around the family room floor.  For a while there, all three were sitting so closely it appeared to be a dog and pumpkin quilt.  We are Max sitting, to save Empress gas, and time, and because we will eventually be fabulous grandparents.  It’s good practice.  All we are missing is Indie.  And a kennel license.

  That’s what my father used to tell me.  He also used to say, “if you had a brain you’d take it out and play with it.”  Okay, not USED to say, still says….  whatever.

So I forgot to make a grand and personally touching announcement, so sue me.

Yesterday, the 27th, was Daniel’s 49th birthday!  Yipee!  We have had one of our two festive dinners already.  He received a beautiful and thoughtful gift from The Hurricane: a harmonica.  I gave him the same thing he gave me: nothing.  Oh wait, this is what he says he gave me for my birthday last month, “much love and NOT a divorce.”  There, we’re even.

Seriously, I did wish him warmest regards of the day, all along the entire 24 hour period, continuously.  I can’t say anything else about it, he knows……

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, witches and witchlings, we must move past this ridiculous photograph!  It was fun, even funny, but I am so done.  No, we are not doing t-shirts, don’t care J.D. if there is a great place to order them.  It’s all just silly beyond all reason.  No coffee mugs, not billboards.  Other things are going on.  Like how Daylight Savings Time got all moved around and screwed up.  The damn VCR/DVD player switched over automatically last night.  I have toggled that thing to manual so many times now I’ve lost count, and yet, it refuses to listen to me (much like my family who keep trying to put my face on products).  From what I have been able to find in my tedious research (all twelve minutes of it), the new Fall Back day is actually Halloween night.  As The Son remarked yesterday, not a good time for bartenders.  But that’s where it is now.  And the Full Moon will be on November the 2nd at 11:14 a.m.  So see, there are other matters around that could be worth discussing.  We must move on.

    Some people pamper and spoil their pets.  We would all like to be those people if we could afford it.  Instead, we do the right thing, we take good care of them, love them, and treat them as part of the family.  Okay, and sometimes we dress them up.  But not too much.

    Nearly everyone we know has a dog, or several.  (Yes some have cats too, but being a bad witch and a cat-hater, I have nothing to say about them.)  Today I found out that one of our closest dog friends, Yoda the Pug, has a ruptured disc.  (His pal, Baron the Boxer,  who “lacks all sense of personal space” may have, inadvertently in his ongoing enthusiasm for everything from company on the drive way to birds over head, stepped on him.)  He is on medication and cannot walk on the hard floors around the Anderson Family Home, so now we wanders, in his drunken-like gait, from rug island to rug island around the house.  Earlier this summer, he was accidently run over by Dad Anderson.  It was a horrid and panic-ridden moment.  But, thankfully, he was alright.  Not too badly banged up.  I remember when Daughter Anderson was saving her pesos to go and pick up the Baby Yoda.  He is now nearing a decade in people years (someone else needs to do the math for true age on that one) and just had his teeth cleaned.  Mother Anderson thinks maybe all that build-up on his canines and bicuspids was actually what was holding him together all this time.  (We have had cars like that.)  Because, as she said today, he really is not aging as gracefully as some who have gone before him. 

     We hope he hangs in there, snorts and snuffles himself back to good health and grungy teeth.  So that we can all enjoy him, or in my case, avoid him, for many more years to come.

  Daniel drove up to see Hanny and visit with his big sis.  It was a grand adventure, saw Jimi Hendrix’s address book, and a wee VW that looked frighteningly like my own.  They got heat in the apartment (way to go  J.Adam) and rode the mono-rail (yes you can sort of see the window, but only if you know exactly where you are looking and can’t really tell if anyone is naked inside).  Had a fine meal with cousins and played at the dog park.  He came home today in time to watch football.   The dogs missed him very much. 

Everyone happy now? Feel free to laugh hysterically.