"Happy" and "Crappy"

You're looking at "Best Costumes 2010". Oh yeah, you are.

Bus Painting

The kids and I pass quite a few school buses in traffic on the way to school each morning. I guess those school buses were the inspiration for the following car conversation:

Jack: Mom, when I get older I'm going to buy a bus and change the name on the side. It will say, "Jack's Lab" on the side.

Mom: Oh? For taking passengers to see your science labratory?

Jack: Yeah. For when people want to come see my inventions and stuff.

Mom: That's a good idea, Jack.

Jack: Yeah. But I don't think I want it yellow though. I think I'll paint the bus white. White seems science-y, and scientists wear those white coats. You know, Mom?

Emma: No, not white.

Jack: Sigh. What color then Emma? What color do you want?

Emma: Pink.

Jack: Okay, maybe I'll paint one pink.

Emma: No, not pink. Purple!

Jack: Sighhhh. Emma, now you need to pick a color. I can't be repainting my bus every time you change your mind. If you pick pink, you need to stick with it. If you pick purple, that's it.

Emma: Purple.

Emma again: With purple wheels.

Jack: I can't really paint the wheels, Emma.

Emma: No, red wheels.

Jack: EMMAAAA!

Feelin' Musical

Jack is learning to read music at school. Yesterday, I caught him using the iPad to draw sheet music just as his teacher had shown him. Check out the time signature, quarter rests, and even a repeat sign. (Sure, one measure has five beats, but hey.) He'll "sing" the rhythm to you, correctly, if you ask. Geez.

Not to be outdone, Emma immediately wanted to demonstrate her musical ability too.

Have you any "woof?" Yeah, me neither.

Finding the Costumes

We, adult Hoodenpyles, are invited to a Halloween party for the second year in a row.

After one accepts a Halloween party invitation, it is natural for the mind to jump right into, "What am I going to dress up as? Am I going to look like an idiot? Am I too old for this?" All of these are valid questions, and so it's worth a look on the internet to get some answers.

I dare you. Type in the google search words: "Halloween Costumes for Adults".

Glare.

If you do sit down and reenact my search, you'll find that 99.9 percent of your internet search results look like this:

Kill. Me. Now.

But hold on a minute... Jim is going to the party too. So one might alter the search: "Adult Couple's Halloween Costumes."

That's it. Search over. This is just stupid.

Kids' costumes are so much simpler to find on the internet. In fact, I ordered one just the other day. Jack wanted to be Optimus Prime from the Transformers. No problem. A quick google search yields several nice versions, and so it's ordered. Done. No disgust factor. No stupidness. No excessive boob shots.

Jack's costume arrived yesterday afternoon. We were excited to open the box! Optimus Prime! Optimus Prime! Optimus Pr...

Wait a minute... What is THIS?!!!

This is either a BIG shipping mistake, or someone is playing a really bad joke on me.

I really like you, Jack.

Stick It

Jack's latest persuasive argument centers around:

The lint roller.

Yes, the placement and storage of our family's lint roller(s) is on his mind. Nevermind thinking about useful things like: learning how to take a bath in less than an hour, keeping his room orderly, or not engaging his sister in knock-down-drag-out-I-want-to-choke-you fights. The lint roller, folks. It's apparently a pretty critical issue.

The lint roller can and should be stuck to the kitchen/garage doorway. For atleast two reasons (and more if repetition of the first two reasons counts as more reasons), it seems logical and handy. A) One never has to dig in a drawer. It's right there in your face. B) It's "meant" to be stuck to things. It's very sticky.

In closing, the lint roller "just should" be a fixture in the doorway. Duh.