Boo!

Last weekend - or, perhaps more accurately for anyone with kids, last month - was Halloween. The Bug in all her infinite girliness was (stand back!) a princess.  The Bunny, who doesn't yet have a say in the matter, was a little black kitty cat.  Incidentally, this puzzled the hell out of Sirius and Buffy, and her whiskers were extremely entertaining to her sister.

The festivities kicked off with a trip to the costume shop in mid-October.  I thought this was way ahead of the game, but apparently all the pink princess costumes had sold out weeks earlier.  While the Bug was a bit disappointed to be a blue princess, she was quite pleased with her sparkles and her "jewels." 

The following Friday was the school trip to the pumpkin patch, and I "chaperoned."  I use quotation marks because despite the lengthy set of instructions Miss Diana provided to all the parents in attendance, I pretty much had the Bug latched to either my hand or my leg the entire time.  I did extremely little actual chaperoning.  And I can pretty much guarantee that those teachers do not get paid anywhere near enough. 

The Friday after that was the school Halloween carnival, so the Bug and her friends all wore costumes to school.  Totally adorable.  And that evening was her school program.  I'm pretty sure the brownies we took were supposed to have been delivered to the school in the morning.  By any measure of accounting, I think am scoring a C (at best) in this pre-school thing. 

Sunday was the big day.  We visited our zoo in the morning, and went trick-or-treating in Joker's former 'hood with some friends.  The Bug is definitely a little shy - she insisted on holding my hand all the way up to every porch - but these kids have some sort of innate gene or something.  They are programmed to walk right up to complete strangers, most of whom have pretty freaky looking houses and countenances, and ask for candy.  And somehow, we are all OK with that.

Family portrait

The Bug's artwork has become increasingly recognizable.  First, she was able to make flowers with discernible stems and blooms.  Then she moved on to faces.  Here, you can see she has mastered not only rainbows and faces, but entire people: from left, Joker, the Bunny, the Bug and yours truly.

Paris and Provence

Sorting through a stack of what I thought was just bills and junk mail, I found two other postcards from Mima and Boppie's trip to France.  The first was sent at the start of their trip, written while they were looking at Notre Dame.  The Bug was extremely amused by this one.  Not only does the cat look like our little buddy Sirius, but Joker bought this print when he was in France years ago and we have it hanging in one of our bathrooms.

 

The middle of their trip was spent in Provence.  They sent this from the town of Cassis, and told us of the calanques (essentially French fjords) between this town and Marseilles - long, deep, narrow inlets filled with the cerulean water of the Mediterranean.  Sounds like a place we have to see for ourselves someday!

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Mima and Boppie just returned from a fantastic visit to Paris and Provence.  They saw some beautiful towns, ate their hearts out and found the granddaddy of the impressionist museums to be truly amazing; Boppie deemed it the best art museum he's ever seen.  They sent the Bunny the postcard of Gauguin below, and they sent the girly-girl Bug the Degas at the bottom.

The Bitch is definitely Back

Last night I had the extreme good fortune of being able to see Elton John and Leon Russell in concert at the Beacon Theatre.  Yes, the Elton John.  Sir Elton.  Elton fucking John!!  In the 3,000-seat Beacon. It was totally awesome!

After a brief introduction from Elton, Leon Russell took the stage, looking with his shaggy white beard like ZZ Top's great uncle.  He played the 9-foot grand piano on the right, and was supported by an all-star 15-member supporting band.  He played some of his best known hits, and I particularly loved his honkey tonk. His gravelly voice sounded amazing, and his forceful piano playing was incredible. 

After four or five solo songs, Elton joined him (playing the other 9-foot grand piano on the stage), and they played their new album in its entirety.  I've listened to it this week in advance of yesterday's release date, and found the album to be really enjoyable but mellow.  Played live, there was an energy that kept it from feeling "mellow" in the least - we didn't know a word, but in the hands and voices in these masters the songs were exciting.

Then Russell left the stage and Elton played his hits.  Lots of them, and the old favorites, too!  "Tiny Dancer" practically brought me to tears; it makes me think of the Bug because Joker put it on her special baby CD.  "Your Song" live is about the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.  He played "Levon," "Take Me to the Pilot," "Ballad of a Well Known Gun," "The Bitch is Back" and more.  And Russell joined him for an (unrehearsed) encore of "Honkey Cat."  Un-fucking-believable.  I haven't left a concert feeling that impressed and excited and happy in a very long time.  If you didn't watch it live on Fuse, you should definitely catch the encore next week!

Untitled 1 & 2, mixed media on paper, 2010

The Bug's love of art continues.  She loves everything from coloring in coloring books to drawing pictures and designs for us to paint, glue and more.  Almost nightly, she'll run into the kitchen while I'm cooking with a "special delivery" of something she's just made "for you, Mommy!"

While Mima was here in September, the Bug truly expanded into a previously untested material: leaves!  Here are some of her creations. 

 

 

Neither work of art quite fit on my scanner, but you get the idea: leaves, glitter glue, sequins, beads, regular glue... truly the whole nine yards!

October beach visit

Last weekend we made a quick visit down to the Jersey Shore town of Ocean Grove, a place where Joker spent a great deal of time when he was growing up.  I love visiting beaches in the off-season, and the weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect.  Both the Bug and the Bunny had a blast playing in the sand, flying a kite, playing on the playground and taking walks on the boardwalk.  A couple of our dear friends met us there, and we had a really fun night catching up, too.

The skies were stormy and the seas were pretty rough on Friday evening.

 But the sunrise on Saturday morning was absolutely glorious.

While the Bunny took her morning nap, Joker and the Bug set up our little tepee to be our home base on the beach.  They flew a kite, threw the football around and had the beach practically to themselves!