My best day of school EVER was the day after Halloween in fourth grade because I was the only kid in my class that didn't have to go on the field trip to the Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park. My mom thought it was ridiculous to make eight year olds meet at 5 in the morning to go on a 4-hour bus ride the morning after Halloween...so she wouldn't sign the permission slip. It was awesome. It was a major win as a kid. I was so happy. It was just me and the student teacher in classroom and it was pretty much recess all day. And she got us McDonald's for lunch. It was great. Today's not that good, but things are going alright. I'm helping Bill by putting address labels on, like, a million envelopes that are being sent out to Weber people next week from all over. He's paying me a "munchy run" for every 100 I do. I think that's totally fair. He tried?tried?to low-ball me and negotiate for it to be 1 run for every 150 envelopes, but I told him he could pack that garbage in the car and take it to the dump because mama didn't raise no fool :. I know he's just gonna get Ben to go get my (Oreo) DQ blizzards anyway, so what should he care? He calls it "delegating". I call it "passing the buck." But either way I'm bloated on blizzards and I'm loving every second of it. Plus, they're "no lick" envelopes. Easy-peezy. So that's what I'm doing. I got 350 under my belt already today, so I'm cruising. There's candy all over this house. Pregnancy is a legitimate excuse, right? Right? Well, since I didn't hear anyone say no, I guess I'll have one more "Take 5". (Have you guys had one of these things, yet? Good lord. Get one. Now. I had thought the candy bar people had pretty much run out of ideas, but no. They had one more in them: combine all the ideas they've had before and put them into one candy bar. Genius.)

So all the kids had fun last night. Sarah and Ben too cool for trick or treating these days, but everyone else got into the groove. Teenie went as "Hannah Montana" and would snap to it when someone asked her to sing for her candy. Poor thing, she doesn't have a voice. I put little cowboy suits on Aaron and Lester and wheeled them around in the radio flyer wagon. Raymond went as a fireman (he carried a stuffed Dalmation and everything)?but Wayne was the cutest (if I had to just pick one.) The boy wanted?and I couldn't have made this up if I tried?he wanted to be a grilled cheese sandwich. So?that's exactly what he was. A grilled cheese sandwich. It was the best Halloween costume I've ever seen. Barb and Nicki made the whole thing from scratch for him?it was great. Seriously. The "bread" looked all golden brown and the cheese looked all oozy coming out of the sides. It was incredible. I'm gonna try to put some of the pictures up, but my camera's on it's last leg. It's been pretty terrible lately?but I'll try. Regardless, just imagine it. Wayne in a grilled cheese sandwich outfit. Ah! So cute!

We pretty much just did the neighborhood thing, trick or treating-wise. Pam (turbogirl, you asked how she was treating us) made all this fudge for everyone so that she got my vote for best homemade treats. (She's been fine, by the way. Pretty much a "don't ask, don't tell" type situation. Not in a bad way. In a respectful way.) But there was a lot goings on around town, too. I've never been much of a hauntedhouse person. I get scared but it's a cheap scared because I know something's gonna pop out from around the corner and so my waiting for it is scarier than the actual popping out? especially if it's something lame like some 16 year old kid holding an axe or whatever. There was this thing in West Haven that claimed to be "13 acres of haunted trails". Acres!!! 13 acres. Now that sounds scary. Trails. Trails are scary. Trails at night are really scary. Add a 16 year old with a chainsaw into that equation and I'm genuinely frightened. But? we didn't go. The other thing I read about that kinda sounded cool was some kind of dance recital of "Thriller" at Kinsbury Hall. I don't know. I'm always game for a live performance of "Thriller". My cabin did a version at camp one time because our counselor was a big fan and knew all the moves so we did it for "Talent Night". We won third, I think. The winners did some dorky camp-version of "Wheel of Fortune". We were pretty bummed. Anyway, I would have liked to see what they came up with at this thing last night. Maybe I'll try out for it next year? I can do that shuffle into overhead clap move really well.

Anywho. The Roman thing? I don't mean to dodge and I'm not being cagey, but there just isn't much to talk about. I could tell you what's in the paper, but? then again, so could anyone. Bill really wants us to stay clear of all of it and I'm pretty much all for that decision even though I don't wear a sandwich board all day that says so. It just seems easier to stay out of it. So much drama if we get involved. Obviously, like I said last time, it's been hardest on Nicki. But she seems to be doing alright. She follows the details the closest (they're picking jurors this week), but I think she's actually doing OK. She didn't bad mouth Halloween as much as she normally does. That's a good sign, I think. Or a positive side effect, at the very least. She's talking about maybe getting a part time job, too, so that's interesting. We'll see if that ever pans out, but? at least she's not holing herself up cutting out newspaper clippings all day long. Who knows, though?

Gonna run. Got me some more labels to smack on these envelopes. Hope you guys are having a good day today. Talk to you soon.

Margie