Halloween!

Good EVENING! Perhaps you are wondering - how can he be blogging at 8pm on this most spooky of nights? Simple - I have a two year old.

Despite talking all week about how on halloween he was going to be a "Gunk" (two year old for "Skunk"), when the rubber hit the road, the man chickened out. No costume no way. I tried. Pamela tried. Teachers tried. The Dali Lama tried, as he passed through town. Barack tried. That costume was not going on.

Perhaps as a consolation prize, his teacher did some face painting today. He had a carrot across his forehead. For the evening, we had him in a coat, and pinned a large sign to the back of the coat for all to read:

"I refused to wear my costume because I am two years old".

He got all candy crazy on two starburst and a reeses peanut butter cup, and instead of trick or treating, he stood in the yard spinning and yelling for about a half hour. I took this to be a subtle cue that me may be ready for an early bedtime. As my costume was somewhat slight (Cat ears, a tail, and a collar - bought from the "Cute Lady" part of the costume shop and put to far more pedestrian use), compared to Pamela's get up (Metro Witch, full costume and makeup), I took the duty of chilling the boy out.

I brushed his teeth and washed him up, and we played with toy airplanes for 15 minutes, did a little wrassling, and finally got into pajamas for stories and songs. He dropped of pretty soon thereafter. It was just what he needed - some quiet one on one time with dad.

Bella on the other hand, gleefully wore her rat costume at school, at home, and out trick or treating. She ran with the neighborhood kid pack (actually one of the packs - there were no fewer than three running factions this time), did two candy drop-offs and one swap-out for a pillowcase instead of a bucket.

Bella and Pamela are now at the neighborhood party, and will be until probably a bit too late. I'm turning in early myself: I've got my two-day Les Mills BodyAttack training this weekend, which will involve about 14 hours of running and jumping across two days. I'll need my rest.

Oh - work. No big news this week. Another visit to Seattle, finally got over my cold around Tuesday, after having a nice dinner with Caesar Monday in which I coughed about a pound of phlegm. But the table we were at was perfect for this - my seat actually abutted a little passageway (might have been an old entry to the restrooms that they placed a table in front of), so I was able to literally duck my head into a DIFFERENT ROOM for each cough. Didn't see Paul S since he was just on the UPWARD tick of this cold - hopefully he's well by now.

Next week, it's one night in Philly. The following week, San Fran, then Seattle again! Did I mention I made Platinum on Northwest/Delta? Yes. I'm that guy.

My next posting will be with limbs made of jelly. Wish me well.