But there is so much more to research!

I just wanted to report that I have nearly finished my Scottish History research project!!! All I have to do is attach some neatly printed tabs to the page dividers and send the binder off to my professor.

You know, I say this about nearly every class I finish, but I think this has to be my favorite class so far. The research I did was personal in nature and connected me in a very real way to my Scottish heritage. I probably didn't turn up anything that hadn't already been done, but letting others do the work was not going to connect me to my ancestors. And as for the work that had already been done, I have proof of what has been done in the way of photocopies of old parochial registers and civil records, proof which I haven't ever seen before.

Oh, I dearly loved scrolling through the Rathen Old Parochial Register microfilm! I am willing to wager that I'm related to most of the names listed in it. I envision myself someday sitting down with the Rathen OPR and going through each entry and creating family groups and linking everybody together!

The hardest part of the research project was STOPPING. There are so many links to follow, so many names to find and put in the appropriate boxes. But of course, I had to stop somewhere or I would never finish the class.

Now I have to study for the final exam. I could actually finish this class when I had planned to finish it! (not so for my Humanities class, but once this class is complete, I can devote all my time to Humanities. I am halfway done with it)

Hooray! (dance of happiness)

Why Purell is my new best friend

Normally I think nothing of walking around licking doorknobs and rubbing my face on the counter, and I encourage my children to do the same, even going so far as to serve dinner to them off the dirty floor.

(smiley)

Not really.

Normally, I don't do much in the way of barricading myself from bacteria or viruses, except I do wash my hands before preparing food and after using the bathroom. But Matt has the flu--probably just the generic flu, not the one you can't get from pigs--and I found myself, yesterday, going around with a Lysol wipe and disinfecting most Matt-high surfaces in the house. And I've been using hand sanitizer every time I bring Matt a drink. I've also been using it on the thermometer after every time he takes his temperature.

Yes, Matt takes his own temperature. He didn't even tell me he was sick on Wednesday morning until he had rock-solid proof. He didn't whine or moan, he just said, "Mom, I felt hot when I woke up so I took my temperature and it's 101." It kind of took all the fun out of playing "Mom." I didn't get to hem and haw and feel his forehead with the back of my hand or dig through the medicine shelf for the thermometer, all the while thinking, I hope he's not sick, I hope he's just warm from being in bed. He did all of it himself.

Matt has been a good little patient, except last night was he was thoroughly sick of being sick. He was bored and wanted to go back to school today in the worst way. But the virus needed another day to exhaust itself and so he's home again today, watching a movie.

I remember enjoying sick days when I was a kid. Most of those years, my mother was a substitute teacher and usually had to work on those days I stayed home. I would get out a pen and the TV guide that came with the Sunday newspaper and circle all the programs I would watch. I'd pull up a TV tray laden with toast and 7-up and watch TV ALL. DAY. LONG. I'd watch Sesame Street (even when I was in junior high), The Price is Right, and all the soaps--All My Children (because that reminded me of one of my grandmas--she called it "her story," as in "go outside and play while I watch my story"), One Life to Live, and General Hospital (because that reminded me of the other grandma, who would let us watch it when we stayed with her).

Matt tried watching the movie that he swears makes him feel better--the Spongebob Squarepants movie--but it didn't work this time. I told him maybe it only works when he has a stomachache. It doesn't work on fevers.

He woke up this morning with no fever, but I'm keeping him home for one more day of recuperation.

Please please please let me not get sick.

They might be AWESOME

Jim and I had a dinner date planned for tonight (speaking in past tense. It's still tonight, but the date is over and I'm in the retelling mode so it's past tense). When he got home at 4:30, he proposed a change in plans. Rather than doing what we had planned, he wondered if perhaps I wanted to go to First Avenue to see They Might Be Giants?

!!!!

DUH! You should have seen my dance of glee and joy and excitement! I am SO GLAD I didn't have to babysit this evening!

I've never been to First Avenue nightclub--and I've lived here how many years?

Then the insecurity started to set in. I'm a housewife! I'm over, uh, thirty! I'm not thin and my wardrobe lacks panache and something called "style." My hair had already pretty much gone to bed and could not be roused to do anything but droop listlessly over my ears. I don't go clubbing ever. I don't know the rules of going to a nightclub! But I pummeled my insecurity into the back of the closet with the forgotten pillows, the nebulizer machine, and a pile of worn out shoes, I put on my oxblood heels (yes I wore heels to a place where I'd be standing for several hours) and a bracelet that I hope looked classy. I grabbed my "vintage" coat (the one that Matt happily, and what he thought kindly, told me that I looked like a couch in). I envisioned bouncers screening potential concert-goers and figured that wearing that green patterned coat with the faux fur collar would be my ticket in.

Thank goodness the only requirement to get in was to bring a friend named Andrew Jackson (a bit o' green). Jim and I found spots near the back of the dance floor. We were there nearly two hours early, but the cement half wall was already taken and the floor was 2/3 full.

And finally the concert began! I was close enough to see both Johns' faces! Linnell and Flansburgh RIGHT THERE, not thirty feet away!

And they were going to do the WHOLE Flood album! Not necessarily in sequence, but STILL! The WHOLE album! My favorite one! Particle Man, Istanbul (not Constantinople), Birdhouse in Your Soul, We Want a Rock, Your Racist Friend, Hot Cha, Whistling in the Dark, Lucky Ball and Chain! Oh I was in happy land!

And they were loud! The crowd was loud right back at them. I sang every word I that I could and I couldn't hear myself. The bass line was loud enough to rearrange your internal organs. The drum beat was musical CPR. You could almost see the sound vibrations pass through the foggy air (no smoking indoors, THANK GOODNESS. It was smoke from the fog machine).

Too bad I had to stand behind the biggest guy in the room. Flansburgh mentioned that this was probably the tallest audience they've seen on their tour. It was probably a joke but nonetheless I felt practically little-peopleian. This is why I wore my three-inch heels--so I would have some chance of seeing the stage among the herd of gargantuan Vikings, Swedes, Danes, and smattering of Germans that populate the Minnesotan Prairie. When the concert finally began, the Giant Man was off to the side, but gradually, like the Sahara encroaching on Central Africa, he moved in front of me. And my circle of personal space went the way of the dinosaur. I was forced to make bodily contact with him more than once and I nearly died.

But even the pretend claustrophobia stemming from being jammed in with a crowd of people who all had a good 6 inches at least on me (except Jim, who was jammed up between me and a garbage can) couldn't dampen the enthusiasm I had for singing along with a bunch of songs that I know backward and forward. All of us sang. It was like the alt-rock version of a Messiah sing-a-long.

Sadly, cameras were verboten so I have no pictorial evidence of the concert. So you'll have to imagine me dancing along with nearly a large town's worth of people.

For a few hours, I forgot the dumpiness, the overweightness, the dowdiness, the awkwardness and enjoyed being at a hip downtown music club, dancing and singing like I was a part of an "in" crowd. After the show, I passed by glass window and the illusion was shattered, but for a little while, I forgot my insecurities. It was worth it.

My feet hurt at the end of the night, but I smiled all the way home. Jim and I held hands from time to time during the concert. We need to enjoy live music more often.

Moving dreams and Hayley

I wonder what it means when you have moving dreams? (Moving as in leaving one house to live in another) The apartment we moved to (yes, an apartment) was huge. The master bedroom went on for ages and had all these great built-in bookshelves and a wall of windows to look out over a scenic view. There were hidden passages and nooks and crannies and red velvet curtains. Then we moved in and the staircase was flimsy and collapsed and the tv reception we found out to be a mirrored reflection off the lobby tv sent through a crazy maze of mirrors and a hole in the door. Might it mean that what I want (bigger things) might actually be not what is best for me? Might it mean I'm trying to take control over too much and life is falling apart? Might it mean don't ever move or your husband will hurt himself on a collapsed staircase? Might it mean that I need to go to bed earlier so I don't fall asleep on the couch and have vivid dreams? Oh, who knows what it means. I just woke up and am still suffering from the after-effects of living a completely different life. (What, I have 5 kids? and a tiny TV?)

On to Hayley. Two things.

She was invited to be in the combined middle schools' honor band. The invitation made her very happy! I was almost convinced that she didn't care much about music because she spends most of her time drawing or reading and not talking about band like her big sister used to (and still does now that she's going to play the flute in a volunteer orchestra that will present the Messiah later this month). But this made her very happy. Paul was in this same band (Kate wasn't because they hadn't formed it when she was in the middle school) and enjoyed it for the most part (he didn't like the concert uniform which consisted of black pants, a tux shirt, a bow tie and a cummerbund--DANGIT I FORGOT TO GIVE HAYLEY HER MEASUREMENT SHEET FOR UNIFORM ORDERING!!!! SEE ARE AY PEA!--guess what that is). The honor band is a very good group. They play difficult music and spend time on performance technique. They participate in contests (the equivalent of conference meets for cross country). Last year the group even went to Chicago for a bigger contest and did very well. Cheers to Hayley for making it in! She's been practicing using some program on the computer/web that plays the song as if a school band were playing it and she plays along. It can, through a microphone, chart what she plays and show her where she played notes (wrong and right). It's really a nifty set-up. And she can send her recording to her teacher (over the web) for grading.

Also for Hayley, she babysat for the first time last night! It the first job she had performed for someone outside the family. She said the baby was a little difficult to get to sleep but otherwise she liked it. She REALLY liked getting paid. I wish she'd had more experience with babysitting at home, but that would have meant I had to have more children. And no. But she had a unit on babysitting last year in school and I gave her a few suggestions and told her that I would be just a phone call away. She didn't call and she came home several sheets of green paper with faces on it richer.

I'm finally starting to wake up now and it's time for me to eat breakfast and attend to my babysitting. Fake child is here.

Ten things as we launch into November (ACK!)

1. I love fall/autumn. I love driving through a rainstorm of yellow leaves. I love seeing nature hide well-manicured lawns with them and cover streets with them. I spent a little time raking this year only because Fake Child wanted to play outside and jump into a pile of leaves.
2. I remembered my own children doing the same thing, squealing with delight. At the time it seemed like they were taking forever to grow up. But forever turned into yesterday, last year, and several years ago. Now they play frisbee outside in the cold and rain, they go running, they hide in their room and draw anime, they build Lego monuments to Star Wars. And they move away and call home to ask what can they do to help a roommate with sinister, unnamed health issues.
3. I got most of my Halloween decorations boxed up. It's sad to put all that orange and black away. I don't really know why I like Halloween so much. Maybe it's the contrast of light and dark. I love the way the light shines through the jack o' lantern face and creates something new. I love the bright colors (and the dark and ominous ones).
4. I started a new knitting project aside from the new KAL and it's actually going pretty quickly despite having to rip out part of it because somehow it got wonky on me.
5. Paul is done with cross country for the year. The majority of the team, including Paul, had a bad race at sectionals. The weather was crappy and he just didn't feel right. We sighed, we patted, we didn't take pictures because it was raining, and we said, "next year." His main goal for this year was to get under 18 minutes. He was so close with an 18:08 as his fastest time. Next year, we said again. He has two more "next years." Next up is track in the spring.
6. I need to go grocery shopping today.
7. I need to start making assignments for Thanksgiving dinner. Brothers, expect phone calls soon (not that any of you read this. But Jen does, so Jen, start thinking of what Mike can contribute to Thanksgiving dinner. Those pheasant tidbits last year were delish...hint hint hint. And I'm pretty sure Marissa looks at this as well, so Marissa, put the bug in Dave's ear that I will be calling soon).
8. Yes, mom let me be in charge of asking people to bring stuff to Thanksgiving dinner. I guess I'm old enough to handle a little responsibility now. She's still hogging the turkey duty though. And pies. But she makes terrific pies.
9. I'm hungry. I should eat before I go grocery shopping.
10. I can't believe it's already November!

And they're off!

They are off to collect bags and loads and wads of candy.

Here is the campfire.
Here is Gaara.
Here is Gaara's squash thingie. (Or Mr. Peanut)
Here is Hayley and her friend, the sumo wrestler.
Matt is making the rounds with two friends and Hayley is going separately with her friend. Paul is doing his weekend job--cleaning the bathroom. Other Jim is working but is done at 8. Dunno what he's doing after that. I'm handing out candy and trying not to eat what is still in the bowl. Jim is handing out pizzas to people who pay for them.

Happy Halloween!

This is the last Halloween Decoration Special Feature of the year and that leaves me a little sad. Tomorrow all the pretty pumpkins and scary skulls come down. Boo (hoo!).

I'll update later tonight with pictures of trick-or-treaters so for now I'll just leave you with the last Halloween Decoration Special Feature. It is the pumpkin dishcloth I knitted over the last few nights.