Tag: Halloween

  • It’s Halloween, Ya’ll!

    We are already to go for Halloween tonight! The kid wanted to go as Hermione Granger. But not just basic school girl uniformed Hermione. No, my kid wanted to specifically be Hermione from the end of the movie version of Prisoner of Azkaban, with the pink hoodie, jeans and Time Turner. It’s not so much a costume as it is more like cosplay. Not that it matters, it’s what she wanted to do, and I was more than happy to help her achieve it.

    So far, this is the kid’s Halloween Costume History:

    1. Baby Dalek from Doctor Who
    2. Butterfly
    3. Witch from Room on the Broom
    4. Dee Snider from Twisted Sister
    5. Wonder Woman
    6. Hilda from the Hilda book series
    7. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie

    Except for the first two costumes on the list, all the others have been her idea.

    When I thought about the kid’s costumes last night, and made this little list, I had the hardest time remembering what I dressed up as on Halloween. I know I did Indiana Jones, and a California Raisin, but I can’t remember any of the others. Yet, I have memories of Trick or Treating. I remember the neighborhood I grew up in, and going with a big group of friends. My mom taking us out, while dad stayed at home handing out candy. The one family on the block that turned their home into a haunted house that you could walk through. The junior high boys pulling pranks and trying to scare the little kids. I remember so much, just not what I had on.

    I don’t know if I have blocked something out, or if I’m getting older and this is just how memory works.

    This year, just like last year, my goal is to give the kid a feeling of normalcy, and just being a kid. We’ll go out, and hit up the brownstones in the neighborhood. We’ll be goofy and compliment kids on their costumes, and eat too much candy.

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  • ODDS and ENDS: Apple Picking, I Like Teams that Frustrate Me, and Halloween Costumes

    (By Mennen!)

    It’s Fall, which means apple picking. This is the one stupid Autumn tradition we have that I cannot quit. It’s… it’s just dumb. We go to a farm and pay the farmer to go out and harvest his crop for him. It feels like such a con, but damn do I love doing it. And we do take it too seriously. We’ll get up at the crack of dawn and drive way out to a farm in upstate New York, so we can be the first people there. And we’re gun’na buy a pumpkin too, maybe pickles as well, because I think we did that last time. The dog will be with us, and we’ll wander around the orchard, picking, then sampling apples, and if they don’t meet our standards, we’ll toss the half-eaten fruit on the ground, like some inconsiderate Patrician. Then for a week afterward, we’ll find a way to work apples into every meal. But the wife will make a really great apple pie, so that does make it worth it. It is a little bit of a cliché thing to do, but aren’t stupid traditions the ones we love the most?

    Oh, I sure know how to pick sports teams that end up confounding and frustrating me. I will say this, Tottenham accomplished the bare minimum in their Champions League Group match against Frankfurt – They didn’t lose. At the half way point in the group stage matches, Spurs are in second place with four points, so they are not out of the woods, and could still blow this. And that is the thing with this team – they still don’t seem to have found their groove. The Kane/Son duo still hasn’t shown up this season, and I think without that threat up front, it gives opponents the confidence to try added pressure against Tottenham’s back line, especially in the final ten minutes. And this Saturday will be another test against upstart Brighton, who is in fourth place behind Tottenham in the Premiere League. With only a month left to go before the World Cup break in November, Conte has to get this club into some cohesive championship form. The goal this season wasn’t to just be good, it was to win trophies.

    And, I spent two hours this morning searching and ordering a Hermione Granger costume for my daughter. Not that tie and robes boarding school stuff, no sir! She wants a very specific version of Hermione from a certain scene from a movie. I didn’t mean to, but I think I am teaching my daughter how to Cosplay.

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