All things festive

You realize how dark and poorly lit the street is when a) it's the first night you've walked home since the time change and b) it's Halloween in a college town. Something about gangly 19-year-olds in scary masks and baggy clothes is particularly off-putting.
Walking home, I passed a couple of neighbors who were running wild, and when they saw me they asked, "Are you going to buy more candy?!?" "Why, are we out?" I asked. "Oh, I don't know, we haven't hit your house yet." Apparently the sugar-loaded children could fathom no-one being outside of their home unless it involved the procurement of candy. In fact, I was on my way to the tienda to buy some soda (for Rum and Cokes to get us through the evening). Inside I had to wait patiently as the proprietors were slammed with children thrusting their bags over the counter for free candy. One kid had two bags, and the shop owner asked him why.

"Because I get more candy that way!" Ah, the honesty of youth.

Not nearly as swamped as our dear little neighbors had forewarned, we still had a nice contingent of Supermans, Vampires, Fairies, and Power Troopers. I'd planned to post pictures, but they aren't very interesting. Somehow I hadn't noticed at the time that there were only about one or two kids actually in costume for every group of 8-10 who knocked on our door.

On the actual Hallowe'en, Brant was dressed as "Day-off Brant," While Larissa was sporting "Scientist Larissa" gear. So to compensate, here are the Clef Bash photos from Wycliffe's birthday/costume party. Birthday dude is the one in the leotard.



Note to the teenagers of my neighborhood: If you aren't wearing a costume, asking me for candy is begging. Pajamas are not a costume. Pajamas that are probably too small for your little sister - still not a costume (though disconcerting). Also, if you're old enough to beg for candy without a costume, you'd better not be too scared of my dog to come to my door. A scared 6-year-old dressed as Tarzan - I'll walk down to the sidewalk to feed. But you? Nope.

And last, but not least, Sock Wars is over (at least for this assassin), with appropriately timed, appropriately colored socks.