New Hôm Nay

Well, it's one step forward, one step back with the final bit of adoption paperwork. The application for Sam's certificate of citizenship was returned because I sent a personal check and they only take cashier's checks or money orders. I should have known better, having done this all before..."Doh!" Luckily this mistake "only" cost me the money it took to send the application by registered mail ($13 to cover several hundred dollars worth of original documents). What's another $13 at this point? Nothing really. It's just frustrating to make a dumb mistake on the last step!

The amazing thing was, they actually had the rejected application and all my forms back to me within 2 days of their receiving it. Not bad at all for a government office. :-)

On another note, we spent our Saturday morning with the largest mob of costumed people I have ever seen at the zoo's annual Halloween event, Boo at the Zoo. The animals must have wondered what was going on, but they took it in stride. It was great! Alex discovered blue taffy, Sam had his first big Tootsie Pop, and we all had a grand time.

Un vídeo de un concurso japonés bastante simpático.

Últimamente se habla mucho de los símbolos nacionales y de la bandera en particular.
Un madrileño ha "diseñado" una nueva bandera que se cree será del gusto tanto de opositores como de seguidores de partidos de izquierdas y de derechas.

Navegando, navegando, me he encontrado esta web en la que mediante 20 preguntas pueden averiguar algo en lo que estés pensando.
Conmigo ha funcionado, la primera era música y la acertaron con menos de 20 preguntas (me quedé boquiabierto) y la segunda era uña y necesitó algo más.

Genial

http://www.20q.net/

Cuando era pequeño miraba a los mayores con cierta admiración y cierto respeto ya que pensaba que al ser mayores eran muy distintos de mí, que siempre tenían razón; me veía incapaz de reconocer que alguna vez habían sido niños también. Ahora me doy cuenta de que las cosas no han cambiado tanto y que somos lo que éramos pero nos esforzamos en que no se note.
Me preocupa que los niños, con quien siempre me he sentido muy identificado, no me vean como a alguien diferente a ellos y que no piensen que el tiempo les va a hacer cambiar, porque eso sería un gran error, pienso.
Me encanta la gente a la que me puedo imaginar cuando eran pequeños o pequeñas.

This one goes out to Beau Davidson in memory of some good times:


1. Kick the Cookie Under the Crash Cart

2. Focus to Walk

3. Don't Scratch Your Balls With Your Keys

4. Knock on Glass

5. Splint My Handjob

6. If You Break Your Leg, I Got Your Back

7. Kicked In the Calf By a Cow

8. Good Consistency of Chewiness

Took my little tiger and pumpkin to Engh Gardens' "Pumpkin Patch" today.
Alex took off through the hay bale maze, so I had to grab Sam and follow before I lost her. Luckily I was tall enough to see over the bales so I could sort of tell where she was. It was cute seeing her little tiger tail wagging along behind her. Sam liked playing with all the tiny pumpkins, and several people commented on what a cute pumpkin he was. Alex wore it 2 years ago, but she would never keep the hat on.

I've decided after all these years I should really just get a costume I like and wear it every year for Halloween. I tried looking around for some fun masks or hats, but all I can seem to find in the regular stores are very ugly, gory, or grotesque. Not to mention boring. There are a hundred variations on witches, vampires, beasts, ogres, etc. Where are all the cute, innocent, funny costumes? Nothing seemed to inspire me. Finally I bought a $2.50 headband with two spiders with "googly eyes" wobbling around on springs on top. If anyone knows where I can find a Lisa Simpson costume, let me know. I would dress up as Lisa and carry a sign with my favorite quote of hers: "The courage of the small embiggens us all!"