Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

We've survived. Hooray! Happy Halloween, everyone. Or as Alyssa would say, "How Een." This is the first year in a long, long time that I haven't carved a pumpkin. I got a couple for the kids, but both girls wanted to paint them. This fit my schedule nicely, as painting is much faster than carving, and requires much less supervision. We were supposed to paint our pumpkins last night, but due to circumstances beyond our control, that project got postponed until today. I blocked out 40 minutes between school and Anna's acting class, and the girls got the job done. After Anna's class, we came home and had pizza. I was going to do the rest of the Shepherd's Brain Pie for dinner, but it all got eaten at lunch time. My plan for tonight was to not go Trick-or-Treating, but I caved in just a little and let the girls go to two houses. This was more out of pity for our poor neighbors as anything else. You see, we sat around watching old Halloween videos for two whole...

There are those who claim to hate Halloween , and to be honest I can understand why they might feel that way. There are parts of the holiday I'm not terribly fond of myself. But we've worked to make Halloween fun at our house. Perhaps it helps that we have two little girls who dress up as puppies and kitties instead of some kind of undead creature. About the only thing that really causes problems around here is the candy - the girls don't hold their sugar well, and artificial colors have a Jekyll and Hyde effect on them. One thing we have done through the years is to have a Spooky Dinner for Halloween. This year Kara will be in Dallas on the 31st, so we had our Spooky Dinner tonight. We had Vampire Apples and Shepherd's Brain Pie. By pumpkinlight, of course.

I did something for myself today. I didn't tell anyone, I just did it. This kind of personal time is important, because it not only recharges the batteries, but being selfish for a few hours fills me with motivational guilt, and I'm extra productive afterwards. Today's trip was to Ft. Worth Meacham Airport , home of the OV-10 Bronco Association , for the Bi-Annual BroncoFest. I've been a fan of the OV-10 for more than twenty years now, and this was something I simply couldn't pass up. So, what's so special about the Bronco? Well, just look at it. My feelings for the bird were summed up very eloquently by a Vietnam Vet who was there with his wife. "I fell in love with this plane the first time I saw it. It's just the strangest looking thing." Then he added an opinion I hope to one day share through first-hand knowledge - "It flies like a dream." (sigh) The Bronco was used between Vietnam and Desert Storm as an observation platform for Forw...

I took the girls to see Charlotte's Web over at Aledo High School last night. I'm impressed at the quality of the productions that the school puts on. The girls both really enjoyed it. It was quite a bit shorter than Peter Pan , which was nice as it was a school night. Anna loves staying around after the show and getting autographs from the actors, and they in turn love signing. The two plays we've attended this year have had younger children playing roles that a high schooler would probably be too big for. One of the little "baby spiders" was a girl who sits next to Alyssa in her mainstream 3rd grade class. I have found it is nearly impossible to take Alyssa out in public without someone she knows - a teacher or classmate or therapist or aide - seeing us and saying "Hi." Alyssa, of course, always hides. I've thought it might be good for Anna to audition for a kid's role in one of the school's upcoming productions, but I abandoned that idea ...

My phone is dead. My Palm is dying. The smart choice was to head to ebay and replace them both at the same time. Behold the Palm Treo 650. Introduced in 2004, this phone is hardly state of the art. But then again, neither is my budget. And although the phone I purchased is old and worn, it is far better than either of the devices it replaces. Except for the alarm clock. The built in Palm alarm clock allows for one (1) alarm. This would be fine if all I had to do was one thing in the day. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ahem. Excuse me. Anyway, I need at least three alarms every weekday. So I downloaded a spiffy utility to allow more alarms, and it seemed to work great. I set up my alarms, picked from among the limited tones for each (adding diversity is a project to tackle soon) and went to sleep with full confidence. 45 minutes after I was SUPPOSED to wake up, Anna came and pounded on my door. It seems the on/off checkbox for the alarm doesn't set itself. Stupid thing. But...

Each year, as leaves turn to gold and fresh pumpkins fill the market, boxes of apples appear like magic on our doorstep.This has been happening for more than a decade, and while our family loves to eat apples, two boxes is a lot. Eventually, the time comes for the apples which are left to be made into applesauce.The process is a family affair, with everyone getting a turn at the Apple Smuncher. It is properly known as the Nemco Easy Apple Corer N55550-8C. It can turn an ordinary whole apple into eight sections and a core in a matter of seconds. Coordinated team smunching can power through apples at speeds of over 1000 an hour. It takes mere minutes for an entire box of apples to find its way into a stock pot. Once the apples are cooked, the whole mess is run through our handy-dandy, fancy-schmancy Back-To-Basics food mill, and turned into applesauce. Not just any applesauce, mind you, but some of the best tasting applesauce around. The secret, we've found, is to steam the apples wi...

The great Bill Cosby has an old routine where he cautions his audience to never say "Things can't get any WORSE," because they can and do. He then follows with several hilarious examples. So in keeping with this advice, I will start my description of yesterday by saying that it COULD have been worse. Kara had an appointment with a new doctor yesterday afternoon that she wanted me to attend with her. The appointment was from 2:00-3:00, so I needed someone to meet the girls' buses after school. This part was really no problem, as the girls always beg me to let them spend the afternoon at someone else's house, and our Home Teacher's wife loves to have them over. And they have two little high energy dogs that the girls just love. So anyway, I expected an hour at the doctor's, where we would get all kinds of new and exciting information that would restore our hope and Kara's health. And then I would take a little bit of time to myself, maybe writing or goi...