A brief moment of wondering if it would fit in our hatchback.

Excuse the iPhone autofill typos

It’s a Halloween jack o’lantern piñata. Last year’s was so plain in comparison, and I still thought it was the second coming.

This year, the awesome includes ears, pointy nose, a jutting chin, and a wart on said chin. Plus hair.

We love it. Can’t wait to stuff it with goodies (half candy, half pumpkin-shaped erasers, etc).

Love for All

H/T InternationalJock’s DK diary.

Obligatory Kickoff NaBloPoMo Post Featuring Cute Halloween Kid

The Unreliable Narrator will turn five years old in mid-November. This was really the last year he could’ve been Yoda; apparently it’s hard to find ready-made Yoda costumes for people under 48″ tall.

The Unreliable Narrator as Yoda:

It was completely gratifying. Everyone knew who he was. (In some ways, isn’t that the semiotic payoff of a well-chosen or executed costume? It’s a drag to have to explain it on every doorstep.) He got much props from adults and older kids. There were a lot of storm troopers and Darth Vaders out there, several Anakin and Luke Skywalkers, but due to the difficulty of finding the right-sized Yoda costume mentioned above, I think the Unreliable Narrator sailed away with honors on the Recognition and Coolness fronts.

He chose to trick or treat with HB, so I stayed home and doled out candy. We gave out vitamin C gummy candies, which a friend informed me puts us on the nerdy “Fruit or raisins” category. I tweeted back something on the order of ‘at least we haven’t descended to giving out packets of Taco Bell sauce.’

Stress Relief

This past week, new levels of ugliness were unleashed by the McCain-Palin campaign.

It’s stressful. It’s stressful and anxiety-provoking to think that maybe America’s soul is permanently fouled with racism, that for hundreds of years it’s been convenient for some people to vote completely opposite their economic interests so long as they don’t have to grant equal rights to or acknowledge Those Ones.

I’m sickened with the fear that our old habits will reassert themselves and the latent racism of millions of people (combined with GOP voter fraud) will deliver McCain-Palin to us in 2009. It’s hard to keep equilibrium; it’s hard to feel like one’s small efforts to phonebank or canvass or write is enough let alone effective.

It’s oh so hard to keep the faith and believe that this time, America will do the right thing and enough people will elect Obama-Biden so we can have a fighting chance of figuring out our huge financial problems and sort out the rest of what we need.

So, here’s something overwhelmingly cute and hopeful.

I can haz hug now?

Chimps, with tiger cubs. Go to the slideshow and knock yourself out on cuteness.

(Thank me later.)

My Cat is Sexually Harassing Me. Make Her Stop.

Wasabi is the velour one, with colors like a Sigfried and Roy white tiger.

And man is she oversexed. I think maybe they didn’t quite get everything they were supposed to remove during the spay, because this girl is a freak. And you know what I’m talking about.

Wordless Wednesday: The Shag One (Ebi)

Furchild Ebi as a kitten before we adopted her. About 10 weeks old. (We had to wait another 2 weeks.)

Polar Bear Cub

Last week, a cute polar bear cub was taken from its distressed mother at a Nuremberg zoo, to be raised instead by zookeepers. (The zookeepers had only just recently experienced another polar bear mother eating her young, and didn’t want it to happen again. The public also pressured the zoo to prevent another possible infanticide, which provoked controversy, as mentioned in this report.)

We Played Hooky

it got to be too much–posting on NaBloPoMo every day. friends who are otherwise okay but overstepped a boundary at school. work this-and-that. so we took a mental health day and played hooky today.

guess where we went.