Time Of The Season

Okay, time to trot out the last of the Halloween pictures before I -- perhaps quite literally, this time -- run out of things to say.

This picture was originally in my Twitter feed. It's from the school Halloween parade on Friday. Oh boy, was that an unmitigated disaster, or what? Imagine 100 kids, aged 6 weeks-5 years, all in costumes, all freshly-awakened from their naps, after a big lunch, on a cool and cloudy day, while trying to stay in a straight line, and -- ooooh, look! There's a bug!

Yeah, it went about that well. And it was a bad day for Shae, because she was so tired, after waking up at 2:00 that day and pretty much refusing to go back to sleep. Obviously this picture has been edited, since it's all sepia-toned; I had wanted to make it "match" the pre-cyclone coloring of "The Wizard of Oz," but G says the sad, serious little face is very "Grapes of Wrath." Can't really argue.

Trick-or-treat went much better than the parade, in spite of the rain. At least it wasn't freezing, and there were so few actual kids out this year that Shae made quite an excellent haul. Being cute doesn't hurt, I guess. We ran into some people we knew, including Aidan, who went with us on vacation to the shore (and I can't believe that I never put up any pictures to prove it, but he was there).

BTW: Aidan has a little sister, Mia, who's birthday is tomorrow and also a cousin Kaine who is about 6 months old, and Mia and Kaine were dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Frickin' adorable. Cute kids in coordinated costumes FTW!

If there is any reason why I am glad for my iPhone, it is this: I am able to catch moments without having to get that giant-ass camera out. Yes, this picture isn't as great as some of the others, and yet I think it's even more awesome because there is no posing or pretense. This is my kid, tearing into the house and running right over to her "Nannie Hallman" to give her a hug. And Nana loves it, obviously.

OK, so that's it ... as of tomorrow, I have no idea what you're going to get. No more new pictures, and the weather doesn't look promising. Maybe I'll eat a bagful of Halloween candy and write something while I'm tweaking. That ought to be interesting.