Halloween '08

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I guess because you get to act like a kid, and pretend to be someone else for a day. Not to mention the candy... This year it fell on a Friday, which was excellent. We have a costume contest and a pumpkin contest at work every year, with great prizes. I'm pretty sure my pumpkins would have won at least one prize! However, Kip woke up with a bad sore throat, so I had to stay home from work and take him to the doctor. I figured if it was strep, we'd get a jump on it and he'd be okay to go back to school on Monday. Turned out not to be strep, though, which is a good thing.

Kip insisted he is too old to go trick-or-treating anymore. So he sat on the front steps in his skull mask and handed out the candy. Several of his classmates came by in costume, proving that 13 is apparently NOT too old... He hit the nail right on the head when he told me, "Mom, you're grown up physically, but on Halloween you're still like 9 years old!" Hey, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'll always be a kid at heart!

Playing the Ponies

Our annual trip to Laurel, MD for the Maryland Million horse races paid off nicely this year. We always go with Charlie & Ruth, and try to get other friends to join us. This year, Norma and her son Dean came down from Connecticut. It was actually Norma's second time with us. She studied the program while Lon studied the horses being paraded by. We all placed our bets. Then everyone stood on the picnic tables to scream at the horses as they raced. Okay, they're not screaming in this picture... I think they were still loading the horses into the gate at that point. Anyway, Lon bet on a longshot named "He's a Dixie Boy" in the last race, who came around to win! He graciously treated all 7 of us to dinner at Outback. Lon did, that is, not the horse. What a great day -- gorgeous weather, the company of good friends, and winning money!