Halloween Coincidence? Happiness and Regret...

Halloween is over, but the candy lingers on. Yeah, only because I bought the stuff that wouldn’t tempt me in a million years. You know, Baby Ruth, Butterfingers—the stuff with nuts that I would rather starve than eat. Believe me, if there were a Hershey Bar in the house, I’d have sticky, gooey, tell-tale chocolate stains on my fingers.

Anyhoo, here are a couple of photos of what our grandchildren did on Halloween, and you should know that these costumes were conceived independently, and it’s purely coincidence that the three and a half-year old in Sacramento was a road, while his two and a half-year old cousin in Boston was Lightning McQueen! As for the 4-month old, well, he’s little more than a prop for his dad, and if you’ve seen the movie “The Hangover”, you’ll recognize Alan and Carlos!



Kaitlyn (a.k.a. Lightning McQueen) and her mom!



Zachary as the happiest road ever!

Baby Sam (a.k.a. The Tank) with his daddy!

I hope your Halloween was equally sweet and memorable!  But I should have bought Hershey Bars...

I Missed National Coffee Day???

So it turns out that Wednesday was National Coffee Day. Did I have to be the very last person on the planet to find this out?


It’s not as if I don’t drink my standard eleventy-three cups a day, yes, even in the heat of summer. I just love the stuff. Sue me.

It’s not even about the caffeine, because I’m strictly a decaf drinker, for a variety of reasons, most of which fall under the heading of “I’ll take boring topics for $600, Alex.” But the flavor of choice is hazelnut decaf, just in case you were going to send me a shipment for my birthday, which I believe you forgot, by the way.

Wow. I’m beginning to sound angry. I’m beginning to scare myself, and this is WITHOUT caffeine. Good thing I never touch the stuff, right?

So the only reason I even found out about National Coffee Day AT LAST, is that my small-h hero, Grammar Girl, Tweeted about the difference between “expresso” and “espresso”. In case you missed it, (bwah-hah-hah), “expresso” would be slang for “speedy”, and “espresso” is the coffee drink.

Now it’s possible that the whole reason I missed this non-event event Wednesday is that it was the birthday of three very important people: my stepson Jason (he had a great birthday), my stepdaughter Jaime (she had a great birthday) and my capital-H Personal Hero and Spiritual Guide, Gwen Ifill.

I haven’t heard from Gwen about her birthday, but she wasn’t on the Newshour that night, so let’s just hope it was a good time for Gwen, too. (She doesn’t write, she doesn’t call… go raise children…)

Anyhoo, I hope all you coffee lovers out there celebrated big time, and next year I’ll be on the alert for National Coffee Day. That way, when I go to bed the night before, and hang my IV bag of Mornin’ Joe on the pole, I can put a bow on it and feel festive.

P.S. I can't believe September's already over! Waaaah! Nothing says 'end-of-summer' more than this-- not Labor Day, not stashing the white shoes or purse, not back-to-school, not anything. Once you start writing 'October' on your checks, you know the whole season's gone... Ah, well... I'm just saying... Bring on the Halloween candy!