Black Friday--is it worth it?

Especially at Wal Mart. Ech.

Normally, I'm not a Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopper, as much as I LOOOOVE Christmas shopping. However, this year, Wal Mart will have the Leapster for $30. I've been toying with getting one for The Girl for about six months, but they're almost $70. I would have to be there at 5 am, probably in the middle of a large number of muscly trailer-reared, Coke-in-the-baby-bottle pregnant smokers, but damn, I want a Leapster. And since "Cheap" is my middle name, well, I might just have to try it.

I haven't publish the pic of The Girl's decision yet, because I haven't taken a picture. I'm thinking later today, since we're going to build on the decision this afternoon, while Zach is out of town. Heh. Girl's day out! Movie, shopping, other stuff.

So if I get my paws on a Leapster on Friday, I'll let you all know, so I can beg you to buy her some games for it. (Or I could just go to ebay. . .)

I've been seriously remiss

Halloween has come and gone, not to mention The Birthday, and I've just been sitting around, not posting any photos, not writing any thank you notes. This is mainly because I've been paralyzed by all the election stuff, which is now thankfully over, and I can start my life again, so here are the few photos taken on Halloween that turned out well enough to post. She decided she wanted to be a belly dancer right after Halloween last year, and never changed her mind, except for a brief moment when she considered dressing as Super Robot Martian Girl.

Now I'm wondering if that wouldn't have been easier. There isn't much to say about the whole evening, other than much candy was collected, which she quite generously continues to share with her father and I. This is helped, I suspect, by the fact that she could take or leave the "fun-size" chocolate options, and goes instead for the lollipops and other forms of straight sugar lumps. A win-win situation!

Anyway, her request for next year's costume is to be a girl pirate, which I think I can handle, as it involves far less chiffonny stuff and far more stuff one can buy at the costume shop, like a tri-cornered hat or an eyepatch.

There are other things to discuss, and I'll discuss them under individual headings, so that I can avoid having to come up with seamless transitions. Seamless transitions are really hard.

CHRISTMAS

This year, we will again remain in Austin for the holidays. Any and everybody who would like to join us is welcome, and I promise that if I again make a brussels sprouts dish for Christmas dinner, I will also provide a baked potato for those who find sprouts un-festive. There is a potential trip to see The Nutcracker again this year, and perhaps attend the High Tea given by the Junion League (although I think that happens in November.)

TRAIL of LIGHTS

(The Trail of Lights is a continuous 1.25 mile long display of 41 lighted scenes, and special features including Santa's House, Santa’s post box, a giant Yule Log, a crafts fair, food and beverage stands, a holiday train ride and two stages of entertainment. The Festival begins with the Zilker Tree Lighting, a 155 feet tall, 180 feet diameter lighted man-made tree consisting of 3,309 bulbs on 39 streamers strung from Austin's historical Moonlight Tower. Since 1987, the honor of lighting the tree has been bestowed upon the winner of the city-wide children's tree coloring contest. The tree lighting ceremony takes place on the first Sunday of December. The following Saturday, a 5k Run provides registrants with a sneak preview of the Trail of Lights. The Trail of Lights Parade, on December 14th, opens the Trail of Lights opens with pomp and ceremony featuring large scale puppetry, music and Santa’s sleigh. Over 300,000 visitors experienced the Trail of Lights and the Zilker Tree in 2007.)

That there is excerpted from the official website. At any rate, I have this here because this year, Zoe will be dancing on one of the stages at the Festival of Lights, on December 20th. Last year, she was invited to watch because it was anticipated that she'd be on the dance team this year. We sat in the audience and she bemoaned the fact that she wasn't up on the stage right then and there. So now's her chance, she's indeed on the dance team, and she has her costume all ready to go, and they will be dancing to, of all the pieces of music they could possibly dance to, Ave Maria, which pretty much guarantees that I will be openly weeping in the audience. Plus, Zoe has the only "solo" part of the dance. Did I ever mention that she's purt'near perfect?

PRESENTS (no, not presidents. That'll come later.)
I know that everyone who reads this is just itching to buy presents for The Kid and myself, and as a service to those people, I will say that both of us have wishlists on Amazon. For the sake of convenience, I will put links to them here, as well.


Zoe's wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14D66MUB32AFP/ref=reg_hu-wl_goto-registry?ie=UTF8&sort=date-added


Stef's wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=gno_listpop_wi


Zach's wishlist: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3VSLLVYJP3IDS/ref=cm_wl_sortbar_v_page_1?ie=UTF8&page=1


Check early and check often, as they will be updated as frequently as our black little hearts decide we NEED just one more thing! I could also use ideas for you all, by the way. What does everybody want?


KINDERGARTEN
Three times a week, The Kid comes home with reading homework. Because she is in the highest reading group in her class, (the Cheetahs) she gets more and more difficult stuff. Yesterday, she came home with a book called "Knights of the Kitchen Table." The following are the opening paragraphs (keep in mind she's in KINDERGARTEN):


"Halt, vile knaves. Be prepared to die."
"Is he talking to us?" asked Fred.
I looked around the small clearing. A dirt path went from one end to the other. Fred, Sam, and I stood at one end. A large guy on a black horse stood at the other. He was dressed from head to toe in black armor like you see in those books about knights and castles.
"I don't see any other vile knaves around," I said.


Yeah, she's five. And she can read this. Her comprehension isn't very good yet, and she still will probably have trouble with the word "knave," but otherwise, this won't present a problem to her. It frightens me a little. I think when the aliens decide to openly invade Earth, she's one of the ones they'll pick to communicate with. I don't feel particularly sanguine about letting the Greys sleep in our guest room, but if she vouches for them. . . we'll see.


PRESIDENT
I don't need to say much about this. I will limit it to: Woooo-hooooooooo!


INTERNSHIP
I started my internship this past Monday, spending a few hours at the Capital Area Veterinary Specialists helping restrain dogs and finding my way around the hospital. I had my arms around a pug, an English bulldog, a German shepherd, a daschund, a golden retriever, and got to scritch a pit bull with hot-pink toenails. I also got to watch Dr. Caplan perform a bone biopsy on the German shepherd while my socks were quietly being blown off by the fact that I was actually there, actually in a hospital and it was beyond wonderful and it made me happy like an idiot.


Stay tuned for the next photograph--Zoe made an interesting request that I agreed to. I think you all will like it.