Of Frogs and Boiling Water

( Disaster Toll Tripled in 2003 Amid Quakes, Heatwave )

What really killed me about the story was that as I read I could hear the oil companies, automakers and thneed factory owners chanting in the background, "Global warming is just a theory, it's never been proven, if the Earth climate is changing, which you can't prove, it has nothing to do with us, nothing to do with us, and more SUVs is what everyone, everyone, everyone needs."

Monster Mash

Just came back from my kids' school Halloween party. When I asked about it last week, the lady whose brainchild it was said that she'd wanted to see if anybody was interested, and so far it looked pretty good. She'd gotten about 9 calls from people not on the school council, and it seemed to be going over fairly well.

There must have been well over 300 people there. Pot-luck dinner started at 5:30, with salads, meatballs, chicken wings, chips, pasta, egg rolls, shepherd's pie, friend wontons, etc etc. And cookies, pies, and cupcakes galore for dessert. It seemed everyone was there: kids from Daniel's classes, Justin's class & day care, kids from our neighbourhood, kids who are babysat by the same babysitters as Daniel and Justin, kids from Beavers, etc. And the costumes: witches, vampires, gypsies, pirates, Buzz Lightyear, clowns, princesses, angels, Spidermen, fairies, sumo wrestlers, mummies, court jesters, spiders, Daniel's Beaver colony leader dressed as Shaggy, accompanied by Scooby, Velma, Fred, and Daphne, and even a tiny little Frodo and miniature Galadriel.

We went as a knight (Justin), black knight (Daniel), peasant (Chris), and generic medieval lady (me). We even took pictures of our own costumes. Don't worry, medee6040, when I post them I'll put them behind a cut link so you won't have to see them, because we're not talking SCA-quality at all ;)

We ate a ton, then danced and ran around until the kids, utterly exhausted, asked to go home. And you know, as a parent, there's few things as rewarding as wearing out your children. Bonus points for doing it without killing yourself in the process :)

At one point, as I looked out at the auditorium filled with kids and parents dancing to the Mackarena, YMCA, Monster Mash, Time Warp, Billie Jean, Britney, Get the Party Started, yadda yadda, I felt really, really bad for people who don't believe in Halloween. Because I'd hate like hell for my kids to miss out on all of this.

As Daniel said on the way to the car. "Wow. That was TOTALLY worth it!"

On that note, I'm staggering off to bed, myself. Mama tired.