Halloween Index Improves 100% Quarter for Quarter

Why did the index go up? This year there were two houses (out of fifty) passing out full size candy bars and last year there was just one. Clear evidence of economic growth in Milton.

Other notable trends included a chocolate-heavy haul, surprisingly little sour candy, and not a single Mary Jane or Bit o' Honey. Rachel pointed out that the last of those might be because few people go to www.crapoldpeoplecallcandy.com to order their Halloween candy.

Blues was bewildered by the whole thing. He seemed to clearly understand that being the dragon to Ellis's knight made him the butt of the Halloween costumes. It probably didn't help that dragon costume wasn't very fierce and was shaped roughly like Homer Simpson. The most excited he got all night was when we arrived on a porch and there was a plastic ride on toy that

belonged to the resident little brother. I thought we were going to have to buy the damned thing his grip was so vicious.

Ellis has begun to understand the benefit of houses that are close together and he frequently asked if we were going to a place with small yards. We did indeed execute on the general principle that close packing was necessary to get all the candy Ellis wanted before Blues conked out. We found that the neighborhood meeting this requirement was packed with people, most of whom weren't actually trick-or-treating, rather they were the support staff for those trick-or-treating. I swear I saw one 4 year old flanked by both parents, two grandmas, a grandpa, a step-grandpa and her priest.

Ellis was full of questions as one would expect. My favorite being, "Dad why did the government decide Halloween should be in October." I suggested summer might be more reliable weather-wise and Ellis countered that some costumes wouldn't be amenable to a hot night and would make you all sweaty.

The rule at our house is that after a good dinner you may eat all of the Halloween candy you want, but only on this one night. With a little help from me, Ellis made the most of it, choking down close to 20 pieces of candy. My help consisted of warning him to avoid candy that took a long time to eat like suckers, gum, and taffy which should be saved for a night when candy is limited to one piece and you want your selection to last for a long time.

apple picking

We've stopped the orchard between home and Ellis's school a few times this fall. Sometimes we pick, sometimes we buy apples they've harvested, and often we buy large quantities of cider. I think we may have picked our last time, but have a few pictures to share.

Ellis's class had visited the orchard with his class and so was full information for me about the proper way to pick an apple ("twist, twist, then point the eye to the sky, you'll have it") and how to use the apple rakes. I agreed to let him bring a rake with us, even though I sensed I was essentially arming him. Fortunately, we've already made our year's worth of apple sauce and apple butter from not so nice apples that grow on the neglected trees in our yard. So we only had to pick for 20 minutes or so to get a good supply for eating over the next couple weeks.

Finally, we stopped to pick out a few pumpkins for carving.

because i have nothing coherent to say

It's obviously been way too long since I posted anything here. Ellis is back in school and a wet and windy fall is here in full force. So, appropos of nothing, here are a bunch of pictures from various playground trips this summer.

Oh, and one video. I wanted to put Helter Skelter over the top of this, but that's why it never got posted in, you know, July. So just image that when you get to the bottom you go back to the top of slide...