Trick or Treat

We took the kids out last night to gather sweets and goodies from the neighbors. What fun!

Leah went to the store earlier in the day and found our capitalist economy to be hard at work. Bags of candy that had been $2-3 a week before were now $5-6. She opted to not purchase any candy and reasoned that since we’d all be out, it wouldn’t matter. I had a better plan.

You might not think this was a good idea, and you should know that Leah didn’t agree at first, but I convinced her to let us give it a try. I figured that most of the candy the kids got from our neighbors wasn’t going to be eaten by my children anyway. So I reasoned that if we went out early and filled our bags, then when we got home we could let our kids pass out candy to the kids that got a later start. Leah thought that seemed kind of cheap to make the kids give away the candy that they had just gone out to collect, but she was missing two critical pieces of information:

1. She wasn’t there last year when it was too cold to go out, and the girls had the best time just answering the door and passing out candy.

2. She wasn’t thinking about the licorice, taffy, cheese crackers (seriously, we got cheese crackers at one house), mounds, and almond joys that our kids didn’t want in the first place.

So, we headed out a little after six with some friends of ours and some neighbors to collect as much candy as possible. There were probably ten kids in our group and after an hour or so they were all tired of walking. Thankfully, Leah had thought ahead and brought the wagon for the littlest ones. Reagan had the brilliant idea at that point of all the kids going back to our living room to have candy swap; she didn’t know my plan yet, but it was starting to come together.

After we arrived back at the house, the kids all gathered in a big circle in the living room and started going through their haul. Reagan was like a little auctioneer moving from person to person helping to facilitate trades. One snickers for two lollipops; two tootsie rolls for a bag of M&Ms. It was hilarious.

Just then, the doorbell rang, and all of the kids looked at me. I told them to answer the door, and they asked where the candy to hand out was. I just told them to figure something out. They all looked at each other and piled their rejects into a top hat (part of the Willy Wonka costume that one of them wore). They answered the door and realized the genius of my idea.

From that point on, they were ambitious about inviting kids to the door so that they could pass out candy. Of course, I told them to make sure to mix in a few good things every once in a while so we didn’t the reputation of being the “crappy candy” house, and when it was all over, we had less than half of our original haul left. Just enough to keep the kids happy for a while, and more than enough to make Mom and Dad happy.

Leah finally had to admit that it was a brilliant idea and that it had worked flawlessly. Next year, I think I’ll run for political office. If I can work kids so easily, adults wouldn’t even be a challenge!

Overanalyzing Television Shows

Do you think it’s possible that we’re overanalyzing Heroes? I thought it might be for a brief moment earlier today, but then I decided that it’s just too good of a show to not continue our discussions. As usual, highlight below to read:

Does anyone else wonder if there is a hidden meaning in the name of Mohinder’s neighbor? Of course not, because none of you know her name. Knowing my audience, you may not even know who I’m talking about, so let me break it down for you, Caci. She’s the short-haired, skinny girl that’s been spying on the tall Indian guy and making everyone wonder what she’s really up to. Anyway, her name is Eden. Kind of makes you wonder if she’s the starting point. Patient Zero as Mohinder’s dad referred to it.

Also, Niki appears to be the one with the Incredible Hulk style powers. Apparently, she has super strength when her alter ego comes out. Did you see the way she just threw D.L. across the room like he was a bag of potato chips? I wonder if she’s dead, though. After D.L. reached in and scrambled things around, who knows? Obviously, I guess that she’ll continue to be around since Ali Larter is listed as a main cast member.

In looking at IMDB earlier to verify Eden’s name, I came across something interesting. Apparently, Sylar will be played by Sean Bean. For those who don’t recognize the name perhaps you’ll remember him as Boromir in LOTR, the pilot in Flightplan, the husband in Silent Hill, the bad guy in National Treasure, or the doctor in The Island. If you don’t know him from any of those, then just trust me that he’s a great actor and should make a very well done bad guy. Oh, and they list Sylar as the surname. Apparently, his full name is Paul Sylar, so we’ll have to keep an ear out for anyone named Paul to appear in the show.

Lastly, I really liked it that they made a point to bring everyone’s attention to the mysterious symbol last night. Those of you that may not have noticed it before should have picked up on it last night as Isaac uncovered it in one of his paintings of Niki. Now we just need to figure out what it means.

That’s all for now. Let me hear your thoughts and observations.

Lucky's Bad Day

Friday afternoon, Leah let Lucky out into the back to do his business just like any other day. When she got ready to bring him back inside, though, he wasn’t in the yard. Apparently, he figured out how to open the gate on his own and escape. They looked and could not find him, and when I got home we all looked and could not find him.

We left the gate open figuring that if wasn’t picked up by the pound that he would come home on his own, but when I checked early Saturday morning, he was still not around. It was just after that that the phone started ringing. It was the vet. Before she answered the phone, Leah figured that the pound must have him, and they were just calling to let us know. That’s not exactly the case.

A couple several miles from our house had called the vet’s number off of Lucky’s collar to inform them that he had been hit by a car and had died during the night. The kids were not up yet, so I went ahead and got dressed to go and handle the situation. Now, here’s the funny part of this sad story: I needed to figure out where this couple lives.

I called the number that the vet gave me for the couple, and a gentleman answered the phone (to give you a good context, I did meet this guy, and he was about 55). I introduced myself and told him why I was calling. I told him that I wanted to come by and pick up Lucky, and I needed to know where he was. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: Hi, this is Michael Newman. I got a call from the vet a few minutes ago, and they told me that our dog died last night and is in your yard.

Gentleman: That’s right. He got hit by a car last night.

Me: Well, I’d like to come by and pick up his body. Can you tell me where you are?

Gentleman: Sure. I’m at home.

Me: Okay. Can you give me your address?

Gentleman: Yeah. It’s xxxx Elm Grove.

Me: That’s not really helping me much. I’m in Woodbridge near Sachse Rd. and Miles Rd. Could you give me directions from there?

Gentleman: Oh. Is that the four-way stop?

Me: No. The four-way stop is at Miller Rd, but can you just give me directions from there?

Gentleman: Not really. I don’t know the way from there.

Me: Okay. Are there any other major roads near you?

Gentleman: Well, you know, there’s that winding, hilly road that Elm Grove dead ends into, and I’m just across the street from the new dump.

Me: The new dump? I know about the Hinton Landfill. Is that what you’re talking about?

Gentleman: I don’t know the name of it.

Me: Hmmm….tell you what. I’m going to get on the computer and see if I can get a map to your house. Can you give me your full address?

Gentleman: Yeah. It’s xxxx Elm Grove.

Me: Is that in Sachse, Wylie, Rowlett, Rockwall? What city?

Gentleman: Oh. Well, Sachse is down a couple of houses to my right, and Rowlett is a couple of houses to my left. I don’t reckon I live in a city.

Me: Tell you what. Let me do a little investigating and see if I can find you.

I really didn’t make that up. I got on Google maps and found the Hinton Landfill on the assumption that that is what he was talking about. I managed to find Elm Grove Road, and I managed to find his house. I picked Lucky up, took care of his body, and brought his collar home for Abbie. The kids were pretty sad on Saturday and they’ve already started asking if we are going to get another dog. Leah and I are agreed to wait a little while before we get back into that boat.

ABBA Reborn

Who says that I don’t do Karaoke? They should probably say that I shouldn’t do Karaoke.

We had a Karaoke contest at the office, and I didn’t intend to perform. When I was asked by our President to join her in singing ABBA’s “Waterloo,” though, I just couldn’t refuse. Of course, she did play the, “you do all kinds of crazy things for the kids at your church,” card. So, there I was on Friday morning. All decked out in the outfit she chose for me and ready to sing. I’ve opted to not post pictures of the rest of my group since I don’t know that they would want them released for public consumption. Just rest assured that I “fit in.”

We didn’t win the contest, but we did have fun. There’s even a video of the performance that you might get to see the next time we’re all together. Until then, just enjoy this one pic and remember what Ash on “Supernatural” says about the do: “Business in the front; party in the back!!”