Happy Halloween! Unfortunately it’s our state’s coldest in a while. The past few have been warmer than average. One was downright balmy (sunny 70s in 2000). Today we’ll be lucky if it stays above freezing for trick or treating. Not that we’re going out. I spent a portion of last evening preparing the porch and front walkway for the neighborhood kiddies. I’m hoping the little man will be happy to stay in, and maybe even join me in handing out the treats. But I’m afraid he’ll whine “mine” and pitch a fit each time I try to give some away. We’ll see. He did look incredibly cute this morning. He wore his monkey costume to my office party, but he was practically catatonic for the duration of his visit. As Monsters, Inc was playing on a giant screen. When he did manage to unglue himself from it, it was only to scavenge for candy. Or to pester a kid who was dressed up as Buzz Lightyear (a perennial fave of his). Hopefully the pre-school party went well. Dropped him off five minutes late…and was scolded by his teacher (yikes, now that was scary). I suspect he’ll be that delightful combo of hyper+tired+crabby when I retrieve him this afternoon. But what kid won’t be by the end of the day? And it is only once a year.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Except that won’t include a fresh episode of Buffy tonight. Sigh. It’s so early in the season…so why do we have to endure repeats already? This is only going to make the week drag. At least Halloween will help break things up. It’s always been my favorite holiday. I no longer dress up, but I’m excited about the little man’s monkey costume (and he seems to be as well). He’ll be coming down to my office kiddie party, and attending a party at pre-school too. He should be good and sugared up by the end of the day. At which point he’ll assist me in doling out goodies to the neighborhood kids. We generally get between 75 and 100 (unless I’m a bit slow, and the bulk of them are repeat visitors), so I have to make sure we are well stocked. Went down on my lunch break today and spent $25 on candy and decorations and whatnot. I was trudging along, carrying the goodie-laden bags back to the office, when I encountered this crazy old woman. I’ve seen her frequently downtown. She’s usually shouting something or other that I assume makes sense to her, and her alone. Today was no different. She saw me coming and, to my horror, started pointing at me. Why me? There were all sorts of other people around. And so pointing at me, she started shouting “Look at Gorgeous Annie! Gorgeous! Annie! Gorrrrrrrrr-geous!” in a booming voice. Umm, all right then. Hopefully that won’t be the highlight of my day. But it has proven to be the most interesting occurrence thus far. How sad.

We had a good time. It was a pleasant trip. But I was torn…part of me wanted to stay a bit longer, the other wanted to see my son. Currently I’m very glad to be home, in my jammies. More details (including photos) soon. Now it’s time to cuddle with the little man.

It’s been a wonderful week. But the putzing-around-the-house portion of my vacation is coming to a close. Tomorrow we’ll be sending P off to stay with family, packing up the car and trying to take in as much of Chicago as possible in two days. J and I have got hotel reservations (like real grown-ups and everything). I’ve also procured tickets to see Neko Case at the Metro tomorrow night. And tickets to see Neil Gaiman on Saturday. And I’ve got many ideas of how to fill in the gaps in between.

A certain someone has decided I should refer to him as “J”, as it is much less clumsy. I fully agree. I’d considered the acronym “ACS”, but didn’t much care for it. J has an even more intriguing idea. A while back he wrote some blogging software for me. Which I have failed to implement (it’s on the to-do list). When I get to it, it will finally enable commenting by visitors. But J would like to add another nifty feature. Visitors could customize the site somewhat. Not as much as, say, waferbaby, (gotta take baby steps). But visitors could select the alias of their choice, for the various key players in the days of my life. The little man could just be “P” or “the monkey” or “P.M. Bubbles”. It would be up to you. If I had comments enabled now, you could tell me what you think of that. Sigh. Soon. Very soon.

All right, I admit it. I compulsively check my usage logs first thing in the morning. As you do. And I’ve got a love/hate relationship with the search strings section. I am repulsed and confused as often as I am amused.
amusing:
aesthetically pleasing photos of appealing ladies
dreams in middle english
beeping strips
how to recognize asbestos siding
huh what?
her headache throb her temples
arabic underwear movies
apologia or vought or distraction or curry or diphthong
and icky-gross:
anaphylactic shock photos
cervix speculum photos
Dude, some people are so messed up.

If you want to know the lowdown on what makes Wal-mart so evil, this is a great place to start. And if you agree that the world’s largest corporation shouldn’t be making handgun ammunition so readily available, please sign the Wal-Mart is Nothing Without Its Customers petition. On a somewhat lighter (but related) note, I do hope to see Michael Moore’s latest film, “Bowling for Columbine“. It hasn’t opened here yet but it will be playing in Chicago when I am there next week.

I don’t get it. So our pres doesn’t support firearms ‘fingerprinting‘, citing privacy issues. But other invasions of privacy are wholly acceptable. A fellow listmember just posted this bit of news in an email:
“The University is required by federal law to report your Social Security number and other pertinent information to the Internal Revenue Service pursuant to the reporting requirements imposed by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The University also will use the Social Security number you provide to verify your identity. Social Security number disclosure is mandatory. This notification is provided to you as requested by the Federal Privacy Act of 1974.”
He wonders:
The IRS needs to know who’s taking ‘Unix System Administration I’?
Messed up. And how about that Patriot Act? The government’s worried about what I may be googling, for pete’s sake, but a national database of gun owners is deemed a preposterous invasion of privacy (must be GW’s NRA buddies whispering in his ear). What about databases for vehicle owners? Those have been standard for years. And have aided authorities in apprehending people…like those who have used their vehicles to injure others, then fled the scene of the crime. I can see where a database of gun owners could be similarly helpful. My main point, though, is please be consistent. Don’t tell us you’re worried about privacy issues, when that clearly isn’t so. If it is, repeal the flipping Patriot Act. Otherwise quit your whining.

I think I’m coming down with something. Rather flu-like. Bah. Going to attempt to ignore it. And it’s snowing. Kind of a lot. As for this morning’s mood…I seem to have snapped out of it. And have slid back into desensitized machine mode. A stroll through the skyways at lunch hour will do that to a soul.

Good morning crazy fucking world. Every so often I find myself in this odd spot. My awareness heightened. Suspended between a dawning reality, and a looming surreality, about to fully blossom. It won’t last long though. Soon I’ll be pushed over the edge and my coping mechanism will kick in…giving me little choice but to shrug it off and carry on. Yes, humans have always inflicted terrible violence upon one another. But it doesn’t make it any less horrifying. And lately it seems to be happening everywhere. And some of it so randomly (well, aside from Israel’s “targeted killings“). I started my day off by reading one chilling article followed by another. Serial snipers, bombings, assassinations, impending wars. With Iraq, yes, but also more violence in the Ivory Coast, killings in Gujarat, India, and tensions running high in Northern Ireland. It’s all too much. I don’t know if there is any comfort to be had in this reporter’s fatalistic attitude. For once, I don’t have the words.