lunch concert

Came down the stairs and found Craig like this eating his lunch. John Mayer playing and Craig positioned equally between the speakers.

Dinner Party

We hosted a dinner for the various and sundry folk doing things Russian around here. There's a reason more people don't do dinner parties much these days. I spent the whole day preparing and the 'meat' was Ikea meatballs so not too labor intensive. We were twelve so we used pretty much every dish in the house. A shocking amount of wine was drunk and thank god Craig got up before I did and made serious inroads on the detritus. Just enough time to recover today before Halloween festivities begin. The trick or treating here has to happen today because we can't have that sort of thing on the lord's day. Haven't bought any candy yet. Both kids are planning to dress up and be those embarrassingly too old trick or treaters tonight. Craig's band is playing its 10th annual Halloween party. Pictures tomorrow I promise.

Crucial difference

This picture illustrates that Craig belongs to a group of people to which I do not. This is a skor candy bar that has been PARTIALLY EATEN. Who does that? Who opens a chocolate bar and eats part of it? Craig does. That's who.

have you noticed?

That I am trying to post more regularly. Hint to fellow family bloggers...

We had to break down and have a faculty meeting this afternoon. Hideous. Reinforced my belief that things are substantially better without them. Hope we can dodge the need for another one until the new year.

On a much more exciting note, the electropalatography equipment has arrived and it looks suitably daunting. I wish there weren't still so many letters of support to write so I could just load the software and start playing.

photos from yesterday's walk

Same place...as those lovely fall leaves a few posts back.

photos from yesterday

A funny

Not nice to giggle over non-native English, but this one is too precious not to share:

"In history, the difference of social status make the words for women have negative connotations. Eg. To call a man a professional is a compliment; but to call a woman professional is perhaps to be a prostate."

The teeth make a reappearance

Sam got his braces off today. It was quite the ordeal. He was terribly worried that the orthodontist would hem and haw and suggest more time was needed, which in effect he did. "There is a small gap between two of the molars on the lower right that we could close up with about 3-4 more weeks of treatment." Meanwhile there are scads of people on this earth with huge great gaps between more than just a pair of teeth. I knew this was a no go and said "take them off" in my best Marie Antoinette voice. So they did. And then they just needed to do a couple of wee impressions to make the retainers. Well, it turns out that Sam's mouth is not the shape of any tray into which mould goop is poured. They had to do about four on each of the top and bottom. After he gagged and threw up for one of them they moved him into a more private area so he wouldn't scare the younger patients. What price beauty? He does have a gorgeous smile and the sick didn't hit his clothes before going back to school, so all in all another good day.

Shenanigans, snow and my raise

One of Sam's friends got suspended from school for chasing two younger girls on the way home the other day wearing a scary clown mask. Apparently, the vice principal told the remaining boys, "the girl has a profound fear of clowns." I managed not to burst immediately into giggles as Sam relayed this tale at dinner - I don't actually approve of terrorizing other children -- but the phrase "profound fear of clowns" was hard to keep a straight face for.

This morning we woke up to a dusting of snow on the hills and mountains and the windshield of Craig's car. I am loathe to give up and pick all the remaining tomatoes (there is only so much chutney one can make) so this evening I have wrapped the plants in old sheets.

And I got my raise. I called to schedule an appointment with my dean and his assistant said, "well, he has some time right now" Gulp. But no time to get all worried. We chatted and he called me about twenty minutes later to say I can expect to see that raise hit my next pay check. All in all, a great day.