I've decided to post even when I don't have pictures.

So, I decided that I need to write some posts in the form of public journaling for my own entertainment and possibly yours. It's not that I don't have enough to do or that I don't have any pictures to post. It's just that I like writing, even if it's really about nothing very significant, and the fact that I have to make it semi-public makes me pay more attention to what I say. It's the whole rhetorical triangle at work in my writing.

Yes, I taught AP classes for one too many years.

I really should be winding down, washing my face, brushing teeth...the whole bedtime routine, but I went to book club tonight and my mind is way too active to do any of that. And the fact that I am now engaging in a process that is just as, if not more, stimulating than discussing a book I just read means that I probably won't go to bed for a good hour.

Does warm milk really work as a sedative? Maybe some Chamomile tea... Wait. I am allowed an occasional muscle relaxer since I was in a car accident a few weeks ago. (A product of a red-light runner who rammed the back quarter panel of the 4Runner as I was leaving the Phoenix Zoo parking lot. She spun us about 180 degrees in the middle of the intersection. Not a fun day.)

But back to taking drugs to help me sleep. I need to clarify that I do not support recreational drug use in any form. But the occasional muscle relaxer for my already aching neck and lower back and my zip-zooming brain is acceptable in my circle.

My circle pretty much consists of me, by the way.

I don't think "zip-zooming" even remotely qualifies as a word.

Maybe I am tired.

Halloween '08

Halloween never seems to end at our house. Amelia will not let me discard our jack-o-lanterns even though their faces are wilting, nearly caving in on themselves. Dylan has been running around today in bunny ears and big shoes, with "tatoo" sleeves that he created himself with an blue ink pen. And Amelia's after school attire consisted of a dragon costume we found at Old Navy on super-fabulous discount.

Here's a summary of our Halloween escapades:

The final product of our (well, mostly Evan's) pumpkin carving efforts the eve of Halloween.

Amelia and Dylan did help by...

being grossed out at the pumpkin innards...

making cymbals out of the pumpkin tops...

smiling so much your eyes have no room on your face to stay open...

and just being darn cute.

Amelia played the role of "tiger" in the Kindergarten costume parade at school.

After school that day, she felt that it was important to take pictures by the jack-o-lanterns with Dylan since he fell asleep before actually seeing them finished the night before.

Dylan was pensive, or apathetic. You choose.

Amelia was elated.

That evening at the trunk or treat, Amelia was quick to find some buds:

And then we each took turns posing for the camera.

Dylan was a ninja. He figured out the trick or treat thing rather quickly. Moving from trunk to trunk silently holding out his little "punkin" bag for "nandy", and then jumping and squealing in delight as his bag became heavier and heavier.

Evan and I looked totally ridiculous in our Malibu Barbie and Ken costumes, complete with Mattel tags and bad hair. It took people a minute to even recognize Evan.

It was totally the hair, dude.

I wore giant fake eyelashes for the first and probably last time in my life. And my pink shoes were cutting into my feet by the end of the night.

Seriously, how does Barbie do it?

Here's a latent "boo!" to you.