I never fully understood how difficult it was to type, with a dog in your lap.  I mean, the girls tried to tell me, but it didn’t truly sink in until I had to do it myself.  It’s very challenging.  (And yet warm and cozy too.)

Yes, Max is here.  Again.

  On November 20th, 1960, in Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, my mother and father got married.  She was 19 (and wow you should have seen that dress), and he was 22 (with actual hair, on all parts of his head, quite a bit of it too).  I was born ten months later.  Quickly followed by my brother, and then my sister.  Has it been blissfully awesome?  Ha!  Not hardly.  But he worked out-of-town a lot, so that seemed to help.     She was recently diagnosed with colitis, and it hasn’t been pleasant around the old homestead.  But he’s being patient, and going out to the barn a lot, so they get by… as they have done, for nearly 50 years now.  Congratulations to you both, we love you tons.

Whit- I was on 13th twice yesterday.  Once parked across from Antrican because I was consulting with Wulff about my newest tattoo, and later at 13 and Mill dropping off my newest adopted kid.  His name is Josh, and he’s one of my pool instructors.  Now he is also one of my kiosk employees too.  You should have waved, or left a note under the wiper blade or something.  I love seeing you around town!

  I haven’t followed this in the press lately, but for years there was a movement towards avoiding the hideous commercialism of the holidays (any holiday, your choice).  They were calling the day after Thanksgiving “Buy Nothing Day” -for obvious reasons (as opposed to what retailers call it: “Black Friday”).  I have honored this for a very long time now, even though I am required to work on that day, it doesn’t say anything about manning a booth.  I would like to encourage any and all to investigate this idea and help with the boycott.  The original name for holidays was Holy Day.  I don’t belive that the way our system is now running is very respectful of that.  What ever Holy Day you choose to observe, one set on a calendar, or one of your own personally significant making, please enjoy it.  And don’t buy a ton of crap you don’t need.  Especially don’t fall in to the pit of consumerism that is all around us.

   Yes, Empress, I have been neglectful, but I am trying harder now.

    Special thanks to Cousin Dan Dan for watching out for our health, and for providing interesting links on exactly that topic.  Sorry you don’t like bells though, I don’t mind them, except for those annoying ones you mentioned.  Those, I can’t stand.

  I feel as though I have neglected this blog lately.  We had a dark moon on Monday and I didn’t even mention it.  The problem was, we also set up and opened the holiday kiosk all freaking day.  Way busy, so the lunar report was left out.  Spending far too much time at the mall right now but it’s only temporary.  Seasonal jobs are like that.

The big news of the day though (other than J.D. being The Solstice Saviour) was that Hanny met Al Gore!  They shared cheese!  First Gloria, now Al.  This radio gig is definitely the place to see and meet important folks.

  I have said this here before, the calendar and the stores are my enemy as we near “the holidays” (like this term means so damn much to anyone, really).  We don’t celebrate Christmas, haven’t for many a decade now, although we do look forward to (sort of, in our own Scroogey way) our Solstice/Yule time.  This year it’s looking extremely Grinch-like.  And not even my fault!  (Which, apparently, it usually is.  No one is to blame.)  How does one manage five adults, and their respective job schedules, down to a single night of gathering?  For 2009 it appears as though we don’t.  Huge deep sigh.

   Most normal people, who have reached my advanced age, have purchased a bed by this point.  I have never claimed, nor attempted, to be normal.  But now I have bought, at least, a mattress.  We had to replace the other one in the “guest” room (where The Hurricane stays when she’s home, where The Empress lounges when she’s hanging out here, where Daniel and the dogs nap, where I lay out big quilt projects).  It was nearly a day-long event, and quite an adventure (because we turn everything into an adventure, we were the inventors of Fake-cations).  We even got a frame to put the box springs in, so the entire set-up isn’t even on the floor.  It just feels so adult and everything. 

And our happy, healing  thoughts are with Tracy tomorrow, she is having surgery, on her left hand.  Good luck!

   My baby, our bonus and unexpected Gift Child has apparently inherited her father’s obscure talent for pumpkin carving.  SHE made the Kitty!  NOT her father.  I stand corrected.  All credit should now be directed towards Empress, and her awesome skills.  Sorry I don’t have other pictures of the ones Dan did, but if you go to the PumkinMaster’s website, his look just like that.  (Seriously.)  Except for the custom ones he’s done over the years.

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.