Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: Halloween has come and gone and I DID NOT EAT A SINGLE PIECE OF CANDY. It was cute to see all the little kids out. We like this neighborhood. To the right is this year's pumpkin creation. It has a nice fangy quality, but it can't top last year's pumpkins for saintliness or cheekiness . P.S. Today was the 10th anniversary of our first date, and nine years since we did this .

Lisa writes: E-mail from my Dad: "[Donny's old Scout leader] Lou got up in Sunday School today and told about Donny when they were biking the Continental Divide while he was a Venture Scout. "They came to a river and Donny was elected to see if they could cross it at that point. So Donny took off on his bike across the river. On the shore they could see him sinking lower and lower into the water. Finally, all they could see was his helmet sticking up out of the water. Pretty soon the helmet started moving sideway down stream. It eventually stopped and the helmet started to come back out of the water, then his head, then his shoulders, etc. When he rode up on the other side, he yelled back, "Yeah, it's no problem. Come on across." So the group packed up, moved to another spot and crossed in shallower water. "But Lou says that he'll never forget seeing just the top of that helmet sticking out of the water as Donny floated away down stream."

Lisa writes: The sign worked! There was nobody parked in the entrance way at Mass today and traffic was moving as smooth as butter.

Lisa writes: Every Sunday, the noon Mass attendees are trying to get into the parking lot just as the 10:30 Mass attendees are trying to get out. It's a full house every showing, so the entrance/exit would be a bottleneck no matter what, but for the past three weeks a couple of ding-dongs have been parking on the yellow curb, effectively turning the two-way entrance into a single lane. Cars trying to get in back up all the way down the street. Now, this doesn't technically affect Tom and me since we walk to church, but we pass the chaos every Sunday and it bugs us. Everybody just got out of church and they're already mad. They're sinning in their hearts and saying bad words! Why are these people parking on the yellow curb? Don't they know what problems they're causing? Why doesn't somebody do something? Should we write a letter to the pastor? Maybe tell the Knights of Columbus? Or, I could stop at Hobby Lobby and pick up the materials to do this. I'll l...

Lisa writes: I tried on 29 pairs of pants yesterday. Girls will understand this. Guys will not. Guys can buy pants without even trying them on. "36x34? Okey dokey, I'll take them!" This does not work for women. I wish it did. The manufacturers of women's clothes assign random numbers (In the words of Dave Barry: "My wife wants to be an 8. I keep asking her, 'Eight what?'") and aren't even consistent about what the numbers mean. Socks have different sizing than shoes. Panties are different from pants. And one size 10 may fit totally differently than another size 10. But that's not the point here. The point is that I spent two hours trying on 29 pairs of pants, and just as I got up to the cash register, the store went dark. The power went out in the whole block. So I left my cart full of pants and came home, but not before calling Tom to tell him that God just saved him $300.

Lisa writes: For my bro-in-law Tim's birthday, Christi and Co. did a bike ride through Zion's National Park in Southern Utah. Christi wrote: "'Are we there yet?' We did an 8 mile ride. Madison & Taylor had a couple impressive wipe outs on the way down. They were seeing how fast they could go...they made it to 30 mph...now they know."

Lisa writes: Because every trip to Home Depot is followed by ... ... another trip to Home Depot! 1st trip to Home Depot: Buy the ceiling fan. 2rd-5th trips to Home Depot: Not sure I like this ceiling fan. Go back to look at other ceiling fans. Finally decide this one is okay. 6th trip to Home Depot: Buy the cross-bar to install the ceiling fan and remote control for ceiling fan. 7th trip to Home Depot: Buy extra long metal screws to install ceiling fan, because the ones that came with the kit weren't long enough. Forget to pick up 12 volt battery for remote. 8th trip to Home Depot: Buy battery. See bathroom ventilation fans. Stare at them for a long time thinking about how cool it would be to install a ventilation fan in the bathroom... To be continued ... of course.

Lisa writes: Or, "Weirdnesses: Continued." Lisa is strongly of the opinion that sodium lauryl sulfate causes, or antagonizes, canker sores. (You never want to antagonize a canker sore. They're cranky.) It does not, as is often hysterically reported, cause cancer , and is just fine in shampoo and dish detergent, etc. It's just a foaming agent. It makes bubbles and breaks up oils. This is great in your hair and on your dishes, but it's a problem in your mouth. Ever touched a fish? You know how they have that thin slime layer on their scales? And if you touch them with a dry finger, they'll get a sore there because you broke the slime layer? The mucus membrane in your mouth has the same thing, and if you are genetically predisposed to canker sores, using SLS breaks up the protective slime layer (maybe I should find a better word for it?) and lets those bad germs get in. Which is why I am a fan of: - Rembrant Sensitive or Rembrant Canker Sore toothpaste - Sensod...

Lisa writes: Lori and Benjamin visted our house over the weekend and, true to the way I was raised, I got it all on tape. You can see waddler nephew Benjamin in all of his big-eyed glory here and here and in a few more places soon to be posted. The cutest thing, to me, was how Baby B took a shine to Tom. When Tom came back after being gone for maybe half an hour, Benjamin was THRILLED to see him, squealed in delight, and came staggering over to hug him around the legs. Tom says, "The feeling was mutual."

Tom writes: One of the joys of studying tai chi at my particular school is getting "volunteered" to perform in different demonstrations and shows. This usually entails many hours of preparation and then many hours of waiting on performance day for several short minutes of the show. Yet it is kind of fun, in a twisted sort of way. This presentation (on Sept 30) was at a Chinese cultural festival at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. They say that Willie Nelson appeared there two weeks before we did. And if he makes a living hanging out in backstage areas like where we were, I take my hat off to him - the nicest thing you could say about the backstage area and dressing rooms is that it is functional. And without further ado, here is the show. Look for me. I am the one in white pajamas. The little dot in the second row back to the far right of the screen...

Lisa writes: I pass the Mustafa Center every morning on the way to work. It is a miniature Muslim worship center (mosque? church? shrine? temple?) about the size of a Pizza Hut, but with beautiful little white, curling columns and turrets and a robins-egg-blue blue tiled dome. It's right next door to a Starbucks. Today, the traffic was slow because a service was letting out at 8:30 a.m. A big worship service had just finished, and men in long shirts and vests and baggy pants, and women with scarves loosely wrapped around their heads were all coming out, many of them having to cross the street to get to where their cars were parked. I googled the occasion when I got to work: "Tomorrow is Eid-Ul Fitr. Also known as Seker Bayram or Ramazan Bayram, it marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. It is a day of thanksgiving." This is the last day of the fast -- tomorrow, all of the Muslims you know will be fat and happy and much less irritiable by lunchtime.

Lisa writes: I spent about three hours last Saturday blowing and sucking up leaves with our nifty new leaf blower/sucker contraption. I sucked up 40 pounds of leaves and little sticks off the lawn. No exaggeration -- I weighed the bag. The sucker-option crunches up the leaves, but they don't disappear. What do you do with 40 pounds of crunched up leaves? Inspiration struck at the Dollar Store in the form of this: An 11-foot wide black plastic trash bag spider, stuffed with leaves (or old newspapers, for the leafless). I'm thinking this will be most effective on Halloween perched on the roof the carport, where little kiddos will have to pass under it to get to the front door. On second thought, kids are pretty jaded and sophisticated these days. They probably won't be scared by the sight of a giant plastic trash bag spider. To get a reaction, we might have to drop it on them.

Lisa writes: Talked to Lori on the phone and she said that Benjamin is officially a toddler. She said, "He can walk across the room, turn around, and come back when he wants to. He's not a baby anymore -- he's a toddler. Although, he does waddle like a penguin." Five-year old Ava only caught the last bit of that remark and later announced to her friend, "My baby brother is a 'waddler.'" Here's what's next:

Lisa writes: We bought a house and we're trying to be frugal. Here is a typical example of Anderson Economics Theory. + Take sack lunches to work instead of buying lunch for $6/day. Savings = $264 + Drive past the cheaper gas station on the way home. Savings = .60 cents a tank x 4 tanks + Lisa gives Tom a haircut. Savings = $20 + Share an entree at a restaurant. Savings = $13 Total Savings = $281.40 - Buy airplane tickets to Salt Lake City, Vail, Rio de Janeiro. Total Savings = Negative $2999.60

Lisa writes: I've been reading up on TimeBanks . And I think they are a fantastic idea. And I am very jazzed. And I want to run out and start one for our neighborhood immediately . The concept is sort of a mix of bartering and "pay it forward": You spend an hour doing a service for somebody, you get an hour's credit in the Time Bank that you can use to "pay" for an hour of service from anybody else in the group. You can hoard your hours for a big project, or you can donate your hours to somebody else who needs them. Your community sets up a website where everybody lists what they want and what they're offering and where you can keep track of your balances. When I get all hyperactive, Chihuahua-quivery excited about something, it usually means I need to calm down and think before acting. The TimeBanks USA website is chock-full of inspiring stories about members using their time dollars to pay for childcare, home repair, left-handed knitting lessons, and...

Lisa writes: We are almost done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . Knowing that this is the Very Last One, we've been reading it in small chunks, stretching it out like a kid trying to hoard Halloween candy until Christmas. We have informed friends and acquaintances that, if you love us, you will not think it a funny joke to write or call and tell us how the story ends.

Lisa writes: Okay, combine this with this and that's what we saw marching down the street in Old Towne on Saturday. They're called ocicats and if we weren't both ridiculously allergic, we'd WANT one!