Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ~Stanley Horowitz

I bought Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man Without a Country for my father-in-law for his birthday. (It was really Dan’s suggestion, he’s the huge Vonnegut fan.) I was leaning towards a book I heard about on NPR yesterday morning, James Geary’s The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism. Because I’d like to read it too, so -- I will buy it for my father-in-law for Christmas and then borrow it.

*************************

We had about twenty trick-or-treaters, even if you count the gang o’ teenagers who showed up dressed cleverly as…teenagers who are way too old to trick-or-treat! What is wrong with them? The only ones who annoy me more are the moms with babies in strollers who are trick-or-treating “for the baby.” (Granted, in my neighborhood, one person can fall into both of these categories.) Dan brought home vanilla Charleston chews and Junior Mints to give out. I ate about a dozen Charleston Chews in the first half hour because we got no t-o-t’ers till around 6:15 or so. Yuck. Gross. And they do not go well with Bacardi-and-Coke. At the end of the night I was giving away handfuls of the things so they would not sit around and tempt me to eat their mediocre little fake-chocolate selves. We bought candy for around a hundred kids; we had about seventy last year. This year, as mentioned- maybe twenty. Because of the Steelers game? The weather was gorgeous, so that’s the only thing I can think of, is that parents stayed home to watch football. We did not even break into the Junior Mints – and I adore those. So they will got to work with Dan tomorrow so I do not eat all of them.

My boys got enough candy to make them happy but not so much as to make me rip my hair out in frustration. We even let them each eat some last night. Ooohhh, we’re slipping as parents! Jude was an adorable Dalmatian, and Si made a cute Peter Pan. But the winner was Mimi as Tinkerbelle. I made that thing look downright cute. Now Jude is asking for a wig for the doll – long and light brown, please. I wonder if that can be done. I should call a doll hospital and find out. Although she might look even freakier then (if such a thing is possible).

****************************

I am really enjoying Poppy Z. Brite’s Liquor. Who recommended this to Gina? Thank you! It reads like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential (a book I love) crossed with John Kennedy Toole’s New-Orleans-based classic, Confederacy of Dunces, which I enjoyed well enough, although Ignatius is one of the most obnoxious protagonists I’ve encountered. I think Liquor is dedicated to Toole…

******************************

Snippets:

I have been singing “Que Sera, Sera” to the boys lately, I was tired of all my other songs. So I broke out that (Doris Day’s version, probably I was inspired by The Thing About Jane Spring), and “Shanghai Breezes” by John Denver. Also “Sweet Baby James” (of course) and “Hackensack” by Fountains of Wayne. And Perry Como’s “For the Good Times” which my mom used to sing to me, only we always called it “the warm and tender body song.” At any rate, Si just asked me to sing the “hurrah, hurrah” song. I clearly need to work on my enunciation while singing bedtime lullabies.

I purchased a digital camera, and I am so excited. So I will regale you all with random pics of my boys and whatever else catches my fancy. As if I am not meandering enough…I’ll read the manual tonight and get right on that. I ordered it from Staples yesterday and it came via courier today. And S&H was free. How’s that for service?

Have you tried Reese’s Take Five bars? My little brother told me about them, and I filched a couple from Jude’s trick-or-treat bag. God, they’re good, and this is coming from someone who generally doesn’t eat regular candy bars anymore (if it doesn’t have weird spices in it, I am not interested ; )) However, I do adore chocolate-covered pretzels, and that’s what these taste like, but with a hint of peanut butter. Remember how I said I was skinny-like and all now? I can tell it isn’t going to last very long…

Although I went out for a nice long walk both yesterday and today, toting James-monster on my chest in the Snugli. I am trying to soak in all the gorgeous, crisp, clear fall weather before our typical grey, godforsaken winter kicks in.