Jolly Halloween Costumes, 2009

We really like Halloween and have already got our costumes ready. Penny's love for anatomy made her skeleton costume a breeze. The Twins had been reading Shelley's Frankenstein and fought over who got to be who (I'm still not sure who is who). Black Jack didn't want to make too much of a fuss this year, so he added bat wings and red contacts. Yvette had recently seen a broadway musical about Oz and the witches so besides singing every second, she painted herself green. Magnus really got into this year and wrapped himself, chanting something anciently Egyptian. Stilts had to be all zen and opted on being the full moon (I actually wouldn't be surprised if he got real moon-glow somehow). Al...? Well, he could only find a white sheet. And as for me, Wolfman was the only way to go.

Fall Ahead

I quite like when the summer shifts into autumn. I think it's because I like scarves. And the crispness of late afternoon air. And the brilliant colors that emerge as chlorophyll disintegrates from all the leaves.

I particularly like autumn in October because there is so much to do: spooky stories to tell, costumes to create, apple cider to drink, and parties to attend. I usually go with Penny to a few haunted houses (and end up sleeping with a flashlight next to me for weeks afterwards). And Yvette hosts a get together that I look forward to every year. Algernon reads The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Yvette's and inevitably one of The Twins ends up screaming at first mention of the Headless Horseman. I can't wait.

I have a great costume already.

I hope you have a great costume already...

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Kuala Lampur: Somewhere New

Stilts recently took me with him to Malaysia. He was attending a yoga retreat and I explored Kuala Lampur by myself.

I strolled past the Malaysian Houses of Parliament hoping to run into Malaysian parliamentarians, but I did not.

I did go to 12 of the city's many, many malls. I made a plan to get to 30 on my next trip and 24 the trip after that... I think then I will really be an authority on Malaysian malls.

I visited the Petronas Twin Towers and looked at the tiny world below from the skybridge on the 41st floor. I took a few taxi rides over the city and made a few taxi driver friends. And when I felt ready to go home, Stilts and I ate a final Nasi lemak meal together and were off on our way.

I like new places (and home places, too).

I hope you like new places and your home place, too.

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