October 21, 2008 Happy Halloween!

Since Dad got home so late last night we decided to wait until this morning to carve pumpkins. We were a little slow getting moving but once we did we were on a roll. Danny picked a wolf pattern for Daddy to carve, Em chose a funny dinosaur, and I, a cat. They came out pretty cute, can't wait to see what they look like tonight!

We finished up the pumpkins and since we needed to go to Walmart in Wareham anyway thought we'd stop in at Spirit Auto and see what was going on. When we arrived the car was no where to be seen. Mike and I went in and found the car in their one stall garage. Apparently the alternator came in and was replaced so they sent it across the street for an oil change and the technician over there found a rust hole in the oil pan so they were waiting for that part to come in. The promised it would be ready Saturday morning. We stopped at Sandwich Pizza on the way home then declared it nap time. Dan and Mike fell asleep nearly immediately, I tried but failed and decided instead to go for a run. I came home, took a quick shower and woke Mike and Dan up to get ready for trick or treating. Dan excitedly suited up and thought he looked great. If you can't tell he's Leonardo the teenage mutant ninja turtle. Since it was Mike & Laurie's men's night we made our way up there with our supplies then went back out to do some treating. We have maybe 10 houses in our neighborhood that participate which is just about perfect...not too much, not too little. Dan made sure to tell everybody that if they needed anything he'd be there to help. Pretty cute.

October 30, 2008 Happy Birthday Marley, Emily's car, Halloween

Another day begins and I woke wondering if we'd pick up Em's car today...I'm not holding my breath. Dan and I took Em to work, then to our Thursday playdate at the Oak Ridge Playground. We met Marcial, Ana and Tony there, we haven't seen them in a long time and it was good to catch up. Ana and Danny are the same age and the last time Danny saw Tony he couldn't talk. Dan was very excited when he found out that now he could and wanted to play hide and seek with Dan. He's gotten so big! Marcial is a hospitalist at Cape Cod Hospital, and just a sweet affectionate guy. It's always a treat to catch up with him! At noon we headed home for lunch and then off to pick up Em at work again. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store. Em's direct deposit hasn't started yet so I taught her how to make a deposit to both a checking and savings account with one check. Then we shopped for the making of pizza tonight. Last weekend seemed like too far away from Halloween to carve the pumpkins but we forgot to take into account that I was working Monday and Tuesday night, had school on Wednesday night and Thursday was Survivor, as well as Mikey working late to try to avoid working on Friday. Dan and Marley both needed a walk so we picked up Laurie and did our loop around Cove, Aritsan, Shore drive into the woods back to our house. When we arrived home, Dan asked if we could clean the pumpkins and I said sure. I'd lured Laurie into the house with a cup of tea, but promptly put her to work. Thanks for the help Laurie!
Spirit Auto finally called at 5:30pm to tell us the part never arrived today and they expect it tomorrow, we've heard that before. At this point I'm glad Mike will be able to come with us to pick it up. If something fishy is going on he'll flush it out.

October 28, 2008 Sick and Title

Mike and Em both woke up this morning with sore throats, at which time we concluded they both have Dan's cold. Dan is feeling significantly better and is attempting to expend all the energy he's stored up in the last few days. Em didn't need to be at work so we spent most of the morning sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. The dealer we used doesn't keep his titles in house, and the Title was due to arrive sometime this morning. We were hoping it would be early, so we could run up to Needham to have the insurance started then back to the registry, then finally back to the dealer to pick the car up. But the phone didn't ring until nearly 1:30 so the kids climbed into the van for the ride to Wareham, Em and I signed all the necessary papers and left there 10 minutes later with the title and RMV-1 form in hand. Eric is supposed to come by tonight to stamp the form and initiate the insurance. Dan and I will take a ride to the registry tomorrow before we pick Em up from work to register the car, then it's just a matter of picking her up and coming home so Laurie can give us a ride over to pick up the car. I'm glad it's almost done, and we can move on to her actually passing the road test. Dan had a good time painting his turtle shell, we hadn't taken shrinkage into account but Dan's happy with it anyway. We're running a little behind in Halloween preparation but with Mike, Em and I all home on Friday I'm sure we can get everything done!

October 25, 2008 Halloween,Emmy's new car, and Mike's gallery.

Dan and I spent the better half of Thursday working on his turtle shell for his Halloween costume. He's going to be Leonardo from the Teenaged Mutant Ninja turtles and since Halloween is just over a week away we knew we had to get moving. The grocery store was giving away Red Sox balloons (since their season is now over) so we decided it would be the perfect mold for his turtle shell. Dan had a great time playing in the flour and water glue!
Friday we were scheduled to feed the animals at Green Briar but on our way there we got a text from Buzz and the girls asking us if we'd join them at the playground since it was such a nice morning. Last night was our first frost so I found it hard to believe, but we thought we'd give it a try and sure enough the morning was bright, beautiful, and warm. We played with the girls until it was time for them to go (Seneca had to be to school at noon) and Dan and I went off to feed the animals. We got home and Dan refused lunch, very uncommon for him. He layed on the couch and nearly fell asleep. I felt his head and sure enough a fever. He's spent lots of time with the Harmon girls this week and they all have runny noses. so I wasn't surprised.
Mike and I spent the afternoon getting ready for men's night then I took Marley for a walk while the guys rested. We had a small group for men's night, just Mike and Laurie and Richard. I'm not sure where everybody else was but we had tons of ham and scalloped potatoes left over. The night ended early and we tucked Dan into bed after a dose of Tylenol. Em, Mike and I stayed up to watch Ocean's 11, then went off to bed shortly after.
We woke up this morning and Dan immediately said "feel my head". He was nice and
cool and he seemed to be back to normal. He woke me around 2am to give him another dose of Tylenol, so I wasn't sure he was cured, but glad that he seemed better. I went for a run and did my 3.5 mile loop in 42 minutes, 5 minutes less then the last time I timed it. As I was getting back I decided to get the mail from the day before and found that our Disney tickets had arrived, Hurray!
We decided we'd head over to Wareham and try Leo's luncherama for breakfast then go check out that Ford Contour before Emily had to be to work at 12:45pm. Breakfast was good, typical diner food, Dan didn't eat and was suddenly looking under the weather again. While eating I got a call from Russ at Spirit Auto letting us know the car was ready. "Well good!" I told him "We'll be there in half an hour." We arrived just as the Contour was being finished. Mike immediately popped the hood, climbed under each side, checked the trunk, and found the source of a couple of leaks. He and Em climbed in to take it for a test drive. Mike drove it out, but Emmy drove it back. Mike declared it a decent buy, settled on a price of $3300, Em said it was the one she wanted and signed the papers. We arrived at 11:45am and left with the papers signed at 12:20.

We took Emmy to work then went over to Color Obsession which is a high end art gallery in South Cape Village that caters to New Seabury. Gail took 17 of Mike's pieces to display and sell. He's been working with a glass blower named Dave McDermott http://www.mcdermottglass.com/ and a master furniture builder Paul Noyse who both have work in this gallery. The three of them are getting ready to collaborate on a piece. He's excited and I'm very proud of him for following his passion!