Happy Trick or Treat!

Sophie was a little mouse! EJ wore this costume when she was Sophie's age:


EJ was Hannah Montana, complete with her new ecco boots:

And, this is an outfit that I bought for EJ from Chinatown in San Francisco. We didn't buy her any bigger sizes when we were in China (don't know what I was thinking!), so she requested a new dress in hot pink, which I found, and a pants set. The hat was meant for Sophie but it fits EJ too!

I'm home...

...but it wasn't easy. The trip out was fairly uneventful, despite the warnings of severe turbulence on the way to Chicago (which never materialized, thankfully - I hate minor turbulence!) and despite the woman sitting across the aisle from me between Chicago and San Fran - the one who looked like death warmed over - who clutched the airsick bag the entire trip. I had movies on my iPod and I was fine.

The trip back was a little different.

I decided to take the redeye back last night. I'm not a fan of redeyes, but since it was the only way to experience the entire conference and still get home for trick-or-treat, it served the purpose. I went to an early dinner at a fabulous restaurant near the hotel with some of my friends from work (The Grand Cafe) and then ducked out around 8 to go back to the hotel and grab a cab to the airport. I made it there in good time, hopped on the plane and spent the next few hours snoozing on and off. Not too bad.

I landed in D.C. around 6 AM (ahead of schedule!) and had about a 2.5 hour layover to get my connecting flight home. No problem - I grabbed some tea for my sore throat and read a magazine. But the flight kept getting delayed - first to 9:15, then 9:30, then 10, 10:30. The plane was being repaired. Apparently, it took a hit from a bird and some unit had to be replaced. The unit was swapped out but the mechanics couldn't seem to get the bolts in alignment, which is just a teeny little problem.

At 10:45, they FINALLY decided to put us on another plane. Which they had to pull out of the hangar and "dust off". Which they then discovered had had some maintenance the day before. Which had never been signed off on. So they couldn't let us board. Until they found the head mechanic. Who had to come over and RETEST the whole plane. And then he signed off. So they let us board. Board a plane that had no fuel in it. So they called the fuel truck. Which took a while. They couldn't close the door until refueling was complete. Which made people testy. Especially the guy in the bulkhead row who wasn't allowed to keep his laptop bag on the floor. So he slammed the overhead bin shut. He should have been removed from the plane.

I was starting to panic that I wasn't going to be home for trick or treat after all. We finally took off about four hours later than planned and I made it home with 2.5 hours to spare. But this time there was a guy across the aisle from me who used his airsick bag. For a smooth flight! About halfway through the flight, his wife asked the flight attendant for a plastic bag because "he always gets sick during the landing". And he did! Oh joy.

Greetings from San Francisco!

I'm in beautiful San Francisco this week for my company's annual user conference. I haven't been here in at least 14 years, but it is just as exciting as I remember. We are staying in Union Square and having a really great time.

I left really early on Monday morning and arrived in San Francisco around lunchtime. I met up with a few co-workers for lunch and then my friend K and I walked to Chinatown for a little shopping. I bought some jade earrings to go with the bangle I bought in Beijing and some new silk outfits for EJ and a hat for Sophie.

Later, we met up with my good friends JC and BK. JC and I worked together for several years and he and B moved to San Francisco in the spring for B's new job. J met K and I at the hotel and we took and old streetcar to his neighborhood and walked to their house. We enjoyed dinner at Andalu, which had fabulous food served tapas style. We also REALLY enjoyed the sangria! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics, but I know that J took some at the restaurant, so I'll have to ask him to send them along!

This morning, we did a Segway tour of the city (as we did last year in DC). This tour didn't seem quite as long, but was still a lot of fun. After that, we had lunch at Scoma's, which was recommended by our tour guide. I had a dungeness crab salad, which was excellent.

After lunch, K and I walked over to Pier 49 to do a little shopping (not too much, honey!). Here I am with the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge behind me...you can barely see the peaks above the thick layer of fog that was rolling in.

Earlier, when we were taking the tour, you could only see the lower half of the bridge!

If you've been to Pier 39, you know about the sea lions. There were a lot more hanging out today than I remember from my last trip.

After a few hours' rest, we had an opening cocktail party this evening and then went to dinner at Cortez, just a block or so from the hotel. I had eaten some appetizers at the cocktail reception, so I really wasn't hungry, but managed to share some small plate items and taste a few others. If you click on the link, you can see that the menu was a bit eclectic...

K gets to have a "fun" week at home with the girls. On Sunday evening, they decided to tackle the annual carving on the pumpkin since it was going to be busy every other night during the week.

EJ showed Sophie how to scoop the good. Sophie preferred running her fingers through the pumpkin seeds instead.

EJ finishes off the jack-o-lantern.

It's off to bed now. It's after midnight and I need to be up early!

Quotes of the Day

"Resistance is futile."
This quote is from today's Boston Globe review of High School Musical 3. If you have a girl between the age of 6 (or 4?) and 12, I suspect you know what I'm talking about. This Saturday, I'm going with one other mom to take a big group of girls to the movie, and I'm sure we'll have fun. EJ got the soundtrack on Tuesday, so we're singing all the songs and we watched the "Making Of..." DVD. Oh boy. Anyway, the review is as expected. You can read it here. I like the section where they say the movie "has introduced the pleasures of singing and dancing to a new generation? In the real world, Troy would probably be on steroids and Sharpay would be bulimic; Ryan would be in the closet and Kelsi would be in denial; Gabriella would be sending nude cellphone pictures to her boyfriend that would end up on the Internet. (Oh, wait . . .)" Funny.

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."
This one's from Groucho Marx and is featured in this month's issue of Reader's Digest. Seems appropriate for the last two weeks before the election and/or the current financial mess. Ugh. Enough already.

"Tiggah gave me boon!"
Today's last quote is Sophie telling her big sister about her day's adventure. She went to daycare in the AM while I worked from home. I picked her up after lunch (but before nap) and we headed into my office. It's about an hour's drive and I assumed she would nap. I was wrong. We got to work, where we spent the afternoon trick-or-treating from office to office. To the lack of a nap, add some sugar (M&Ms and KitKats, gee, thanks D!!!), two cups of apple cider, and then...the Tigger sighting! Yes, AM, VP of fun at my office, was at it again...dressed as Tigger, bouncing around, and handing out balloons. What fun! Poor thing didn't make it to the bottom of the hill near my office before she fell asleep in the back seat of the car. Let's just say it wasn't pleasant arriving home at 6:20pm with a sleep-deprived and sugar-overloaded kid. She wailed for the last 30 minutes and fought us as we put on her pjs.

Tomorrow night is EJ's school party - she's going to be Hannah Montana! Saturday is the movie. Sunday is the day I really need to pack for my San Francisco trip since I leave very early on Monday!

A little OCD...

...never hurt anyone. Sophie shows tendencies toward "order and structure" in her life. She and K were playing with the matching cards tonight (she's very good with them), and then she decided to line them all up. She's very funny about having things in nice neat lines or in stackable order (she was playing with the wooden stacking dolls we have from our visit to Russia many years ago). She studies EVERYTHING to great detail and likes to figure out how things work. I think an engineering career is in her future...

One more win...

...that's all the Red Sox need to get back into the World Series. Stupid me, being the exhausted mommy I am...I went to bed too early Thursday night! But there's something about it being 10:45 P.M. and the score being 7-0 in the 7th inning that makes you not want to watch any more. I was tired, and I missed the biggest comeback of the year. I didn't even look at boston.com on Friday morning, because I just knew that they lost. I listen to satellite radio on the way to work, so I didn't hear it then, either. Imagine my surprise when I commented to a co-worker that at least I could sleep now that baseball season was "over", and she looked and me and told me they won! I seriously thought she was joking me.

Today, I took the girls for their holiday portrait. I like going early before the crowds get crazy (I'm losing my patience in my old age). Sophie did so good this time...again, just a few minutes to warm up to the photographer and then she started striking poses.

When we got home, I thought I would take a few shots in the yard...





...and when EJ decided to strike a pose, Sophie followed along:

But then, EJ got all silly...

...and it just went downhill from there!

Go Sox!!!!

Tough re-entry

Ahhh...a four day weekend that had no big plans. I took Friday off, and then three other days with nothing more planned than some coffee and bagels at my cousin's house. EJ and I did a little shopping (ooo...there's now a Lucky Jeans outlet in Kittery!), we went out for some yummy Mexican food, and I took the girls to the toy store to get some Christmas gift ideas (without a lot of luck).

So, re-entering the weekly routine today was expected to be uneventful. Daycare called K before lunch to report that Sophie appeared to have conjunctivitis. We didn't remember her eye being red this morning, but I thought she felt a little warm. The teacher said that her eye was draining some yucky stuff. So, he went and picked her up. He had a tough time getting her to lay down for her nap, and I left work early to get home in time to get her to the dr. When she woke up from her nap, she was as mellow as I've ever seen her - wasn't talking to us, just very quiet and clingy. She did great at the dr's, and we need to use eyedrops a few times a day until it clears. She didn't seem to mind them too much. She can't go back to school tomorrow, so I'll have to work from home.

I'm also working from home on Thursday, as K is having oral surgery. He needs to have a tooth extracted (while under anesthesia), so I have to shuttle him around. Mind you, this is a tooth that we've already sunk a lot of money into to try to save, and now we're going to throw it out! He's also having some prep work done for an implant that will happen after the first of the year. Yikes. It's a good week here, huh?

After dinner, Sophie really perked back up again and she ran around the house for about 30 minutes! Then, EJ showed her a few hip hop moves, which she picked up right away since she LOVES to imitate EJ!

And we won't even talk about the Sox tonight since they're already down 3-0 in the 2nd inning. Ugh. I just have one comparison to make. What's up with Youk's beard? Kevin Youkilis and Yukon Cornelius...separated at birth? Youk...Yuk? You decide: