Happy Halloween

Yes, we do.

Eeek.

It's been so long since I've lived in a place with actual trick-or-treaters. But this is a neighborhood, with kids and school buses and lawns and stuff like that, so I guess it's not too surprising.

Still...I haven't bought any candy yet, so I'd better hop to it.

I went and bought candy. I did it a very silly way: I went to Sav-On, which shares a plaza (and parking lot) with Party Town (or some similar type store), which sells decorations and Halloween costumes.

Packed? If there were 50% fewer cars, I'd call it packed. This was gridlock. I couldn't even drive away once I'd entered the lot. I was committed to that Sav-On.

I bought lots of candy -- all of which, surprisingly, was in Christmas-themed bags -- and headed out. When I got out in the lot and pulled out of my space, I couldn't move. I sat there and thought about what I should have gotten in the drugstore, since I was there.

Then another car pulled out a few spaces ahead of me. So I reparked (really pissing off the guy behind me) and went back in.

When I got home I started reading medical books. My TV teacher hated my ER outline, so it's back to the drawing board. Okay -- medical themed ideas that affect the show's cast emotionally. Fine. This is what I'm going to spend my weekend doing. No thesis script, just ER.

Which reminds me: I haven't watched my tape from last night yet.

I settled in the living room, the better to wait for kiddies. I prepared a bag of loose candy and waited. And waited. And waited.

Darin came home from the meeting he'd had in San Jose with Greg, our guest for the weekend. (Either that, or it was a tall trick-or-treater in a Greg costume.)

I wailed, "There haven't been any trick-or-treaters!"

Aw.

The three of us sat down and talked for a while -- it's weird to see Greg without his glasses, and he thinks so too, having never seen himself without glasses before. We watched Millenium and several other things on TV. The phone rang.

Then the trick-or-treaters started coming.

I discovered the reason that no small devils or witches had found our house before that: we didn't decorate. People in our neighborhood went hog-wild. One house we saw (when we went out for dinner) practically did a theme park in their front yard. I didn't get a pumpkin or anything. But now I know for next year.

The other reason, of course, is that we're at the top of the hill. The people at the bottom of the hill got lots of trick-or-treaters.

Brent and Therese and Harry came by with Bunchkin to clean up in our neighborhood a little. Bunchkin was dressed as Snow White and Therese as The Evil Queen. Brent, we think, was either Jack the Ripper or Mr. Hyde. Harry came as The Chauffeur.

Darin answered the door for the kiddies once, and he let them choose the candies out of the bag. The older kids took one piece, the youngest kid took a handful. Both Greg and I said, "Yeah!" Clearly Darin does not remember Halloween. I myself had been giving kids handfuls of candy all evening.

We locked the house up tight (and turned off all the front lights, so as not to lure in any trick-or-treaters unawares) and went out to dinner at the Gaucho Grill. As always, pretty good, except the service really sucked last night.

We had grand plans to go to the Universal CityWalk after dinner. Darin loves to show people the CityWalk because there is nothing like it in other places. I was a little nervous about going there on a Friday night that was also Halloween.

The point became moot after dinner: we were all so tired we decided to just go home. Greg's excuse was that he had to deal with the time difference. We went home, watched Homicide, instructed Greg not to open any doors or windows until we turned off the alarm in the morning, and went to sleep.

I just discovered my first experience with D clearances was one year ago. 6:15am! Ha!

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

3 miles. It's gotten chilly.

I bought some new long jogging shorts from Road Runner Sports. Both cheaper and more comfortable than my pretty-comfortable Nike long shorts.