Halloween 2006

Our street is a fairly quiet no outlet street off the local roadway. Most of the trick-or-treaters stay on this local roadway or on one of the other longer connecting streets. This explains why we usually get only about 35 trick-or-treaters every year.

This year was a banner year, with 40 kids making it to our house. Here's a rundown on the multiple costumes that we saw: 5 witches, 5 with nondescript costumes, 3 vampires, 3 wearing school jerseys, 2 cheerleaders, 2 cowboys, and 2 hillbillies. We were also visited by one each of the following: Buzz Lightyear, Bat Girl, Snow White, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, motocrosser, preppie, bunny rabbit, gypsy, astronaut, dalmatian, dragon, zombie, football player, wearing "The Scream" mask, monster of some sort, princess and someone wearing an asian outfit. Some of the outfits were obviously homemade.

Our own kids were a butterfly, a policeman and Thomas the Tank Engine. The days leading up to Halloween did not bode well for Ryan getting into a costume. We had a few options for him, but he did not express interest in wearing any costume. In the end, when he figured out that wearing a costume meant that strangers would put candy into a bag that he possessed, wearing a costume was not a problem.

Conversations with Kids - Part III

Dad: Do you know who in our family is Chinese?

Ethan: I don't know. Is it mom?

Dad: That's right. Now what am I?

Naomi: Japanese?

Dad: That's right again. (with kids smiling for answering correctly)

Dad: Now what does this make you?

Ethan: English?

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Here's a fun video clip that is a favorite of our kids.

Stats Redux - October 12, 2006

Here's an update on stats first posted in November 2005, updated in January 2006 and in June 2006.

Price of Gas: $2.41 per gallon (and falling; it must be election season)
Price of Milk: $2.99 for hormone free milk at Trader Joe's ($0.30 price drop since June 2006)
Bridge Toll: still $3 on all Bay Area bridges except Golden Gate Bridge (very satisfied FasTrak user now)
Today's High Temperature: 81 degrees F (overhight low of 52)
Dow Jones Average: 11,947.70 (up 95.57 today); and about 1100 since first 2006 trading day (wow!)
Shopping Days to Christmas: 72 days including Christmas Eve (definitely recommend doing Secret Santa to minimize shopping)
Dinner Tonight: Pork Chops w/Tomato & Barley and Green Beans (spinach still recalled due to e-coli)
Average Commute Time: still over an hour (in a 3-person carpool; travel time +10 minutes due to new pick-up in Dublin)
Cost of Area Homes: still over $600,000, but properties are moving more slowly than ever (home on our street moved to "pending" status, but now back on market again)
Movie Ticket: $9.50 ($6.25 matinee), thumbs up to to Jet Li's Fearless (still NetFlix customer too)
Time with My Kids: Practicing forward rolls and skin-the-cats with my son; playing Trouble with all 3 (okay, Ryan really cannot make it through a game yet)