Cerebrate Good Times

Have you ever accomplished something that you had wanted to for a long time, and it's so unbelievable that you can't really process it? Maybe you finally got rid of the Christmas tree from 1987, or maybe you counted the number of licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop. For me, running a marathon occupied a significant place on my bucket list. Specifically, under the "insanely pointless" heading. But isn't that the best kind of goal? Also, like most pointless things it took far longer than it should have. I had shin splints, a stress fracture, and a bunch of other little injuries over the last five years. Not to mention my stupid brain. The psychological aspect of the running was arguably the hardest part, and a few times I psyched myself out too much. But on Saturday I finally did it. It was harder just doing it myself (it's always easier to run a race with other people), but it was my main resolution I set for this year so I wanted to do it even if I ...

I was going to write a post about how it sucks to run in the dark winter evenings, and how I can choose between being murdered on the creepy dark parkway or hit by a car in our neighborhood. But then I realized I posted something similar last winter. I was set to link back to the other post, when I noticed a spam comment on there. I tried to delete it, but accidentally deleted a real comment from a human being, and I couldn't figure out how to get it back. And it was all downhill from there. So instead, here's a picture of my cat sleeping on a stuffed gorilla. Enjoy!

Last night I went out to the garage to feed the cat before bed, and I noticed the trunk of the car was open, probably because one of the kids was playing with the remote. So I closed it and fed the cat. Oddly, though, he didn't come greet me like he usually does. I knew he was in the garage, because I'd put him out there a little earlier. I looked all around, and started to wonder if I had just put him outside. Then on a hunch, I opened the trunk, and a bolt of orange lightning flashed out. I'm glad I didn't leave him locked in there all night, to go on a ride to Sam's school in the morning. "Is the engine making a funny noise?"

Michael was telling me to submit our last   pun war   to So Much Pun. And that led to Round 2. We started off with Africa, and then… things kind of went off the rails. Seriously, I LOVE puns, and some of these make absolutely no sense. But it was Friday afternoon. Consider yourself warned. Michael: Kenya do it? Or do you not want to? Michael: You Rwanda punch in the face huh? Joel: Hey, we Congo outside any time you want. Michael: You really want Togo? Michael: Uganda lose! Joel: What’s a Malia with you? Michael: I’m gunna Steven Senegal your butt! Joel: And you’re Ghana see what happens when I get Madagascar! Joel: Oh, I've been meaning to ask you about your car. I was thinking of getting a Sudan like that. Michael: You and Somalia friends can come at me and I’ll still beat you up! Joel: In a fight I’m like a Tanzanian devil Michael: And my car? Harry Potter showed up and used his stupid Rwanda and made it fly away. Mich...

In hopes of our pumpkins not melting into gross, moldy puddles before the holiday itself, we waited until last night to carve them. Sam was very excited to really carve one himself for the first time, tempered quickly by the gooey, smelly reality that is cleaning the pumpkin out. Also, the constantly bending and breaking carving implements is a tradition. I am going to buy this for next year. Anyway, on to the results! Sam wanted to use a stencil that came with our carving kit, but it proved to be rather complicated, so he ended up designing his own scary face that I helped him implement. Behold, look on his work and despair! To even gaze upon this visage is to stare into the depths of madness. And the madness stares back. Katie had a small pumpkin given to her by her visiting teachers, and carved an appropriately cute face on it: Wh-what are you doing with that toaster oven, little pumpkin? Stay back! Back, I say! Moving on. I decided on something a little less tradit...

On Saturday Sam woke up with a severe sore throat and a fever. I decided to take him to the nearby Instacare, which was fortunate because he was diagnosed with strep throat. When I went to the pharmacy to fill his prescription, I was getting the dosage details from the pharmacist when I inadvertently created a new unit of measure: the teablespoon. And it was at that moment that I decided to join the dark side and embrace the metric system. So I burned a yardstick as an offering to the gods Meter and Liter. Then I changed the settings on various electronic devices to display temperatures in Celsius, and the conversion was complete, down to the last gram of my being.

Last night we made and decorated Halloween cookies. Let's see what we ended up with: Here we have a nice, normal pumpkin. I think Katie did that one. Then there's the evil cat with red eyes that I did, and a witch complete with nasty (licorice) hairs on her chin and her nose. I'm pretty proud of the hat with the buckle, though. Moving on. Here we have a fanged pumpkin, I guess, and a... I have no idea what that other one is. I think it's safe to say the kids were involved there, though. Here are a couple of the cookies after Allison got to them, dipping her finger in the frosting and licking it. Here is my angry ghost. He's a ghost of a star-bellied Sneetch , as if it weren't obvious. And a house that has a ghost in the window, blood oozing from under the door, and creepy eyes to let you know that to enter this house is to welcome death. And here's a bat that Sam went to town on. I like it. If it's worth doing, it's worth over...