The kids helped decorate for Halloween recently. By help, I mean broke things and jumped on top of the blow-up monster.

They are getting excited, and I am holding my breath that Handsome's costume will come in. The first place I ordered it from did not get it in and after a month and a half of waiting and checking the status, they finally told me to look elsewhere. Wacky Planet, that is exactly what I will do, from now on, not just for this costume. Thanks for clearly stating your business problems and showing that you cannot fulfill orders even when close to two months in advance of a holiday you said you were prepared for.

The second place I ordered it from has shipped it, and I hope to get it this week. Thanks to my friends for suggesting ebay, which I was hesitant to try. Ebay to me is like Wal-Mart: if you have never been there, you hesitate to give in and admit to the masses of people who go there that you haven't yet acquised to the almighty power that the business has over America. But once there, you are pleasantly surprised to see that it is not the horrible conglomeration of trolls and geeks you thought it would be. I'll know more when I see what arrives in the mail and in what condition. I am hoping it is just fine, because I'd rather embarrass the hell out of him with pictures of him as a blue penguin than a green dinosaur back-up costume. I'll put the blue penguin costume pictures right next to the pictures of him wearing his sister's shoes and the ones of him rifling through a purse of lipstick when his prom date comes over. Mower wonders why I take so many pictures? Because they will one day be a wonderful bargaining tool with a teenager, that's why.