Carve Away

We really get into Halloween, and I love carving pumpkins. This was the end result of our pumpkin carving this year.

Dylan carved his own pumpkins for the first time this year:




Brad did this bat.


I carved this stormtrooper for Connor,


and this cat on a fence for myself.


Fun!

Spooghetti

Tonight was Northridge's annual PTO fundraiser called Spooghetti Supper. Since the kids aren't allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school anymore, this is also a chance for them to show off their costumes to their friends. It's a good time for a good cause.

This year we've got two Harry Potters - the Quidditch Harry and the regular Harry. The temporary black hairspray didn't totally wash out of Connor's hair, so now it's got a bit of a grayish hue. Connor was so unrecognizable with black hair that both sets of grandparents didn't know who he was.

Cigarettes in Hell (Redux)

Awhile back, I posted about an Oasis song called "Cigarettes in Hell," but at that time I couldn't find the actual song to post. Since then, I've discovered it on YouTube, so in the interest of my continuing mission to spread the gospel of Oasis, here it is. The video isn't really a video, but it's the audio that counts.







link

I love Noel's sense of humor here, and songs like this pretty much cement his position as King of the B-Side. What he "throws away" as a b-side is better than what a lot of other songwriters come up with for a-sides.

Tragedy Strikes

Brad's cousin, Bram Davidson, died Monday of a heart attack at age 33. I didn't know him, but it's been hanging over me all week. The sudden death of such a young person makes me contemplate my own mortality. How tragic and sad.

Here's a link to his obituary.

Here's a link to his blog profile.

Upgrade

After limping along with prehistoric cell phones, Brad and I finally got new ones. These have all the bells and whistles, including ringtone capability. I chose "Songbird" by Oasis. FYI, here's a clip of the song.




What a racket ringtones are: two bucks a pop, for only a snippet of the song. Oh well, it's pretty cheap entertainment. It's kind of fun to "make a statement" with my ringtone. I think my statement says, "Oasis is the best band in the world."

Turn, Turn, Turn

Here was the view out my window this morning. Our Autumn Blaze Maple is really blazing this year. Gorgeous!

More Birthday Photos

We had family over for cake tonight, so here are a few more shots from Dylan's birthday.

Dylan's favorite gift, his first guitar. As I was tucking him in tonight, he said, "Thanks for the guitar, Mom. I wasn't expecting THAT!"

What a handsome nine-year-old!

Happy Birthday, Dylan

He's 9!

When I was a kid, my mom used to make special cakes for our birthdays. These were regular sheet cakes cut into shapes and frosted to look like a rocket, or a clown, or a guitar.

I'd like our kids to have similarly fond memories of their special birthdays, so I asked Dylan what kind of cake he'd like. He said he wanted a golden snitch cake. You know, the flying ball that Harry Potter chases in the game of quidditch. It took two tries, but I managed to make a spherical golden snitch cake!



I baked it in two pyrex bowls and set one half on top of the other, held together with toothpicks. I was pretty proud of myself on that one. Brad added the crowning touch: two construction paper wings and the Gryffindor crest on the cake board. Dylan loved his cake.



We hosted his friend party at Snoopers Tons of Fun. We'd had a couple of bad experiences there at other kids' parties, but this time it was terrific. It really helped that we had the place almost to ourselves. The pizza was delicious, and the kids had a great time.


Sock-footed fun


Doling out game tokens


The place to ourselves


I'll post some more pictures from his family party soon.

Happy Birthday, Number One!

Justin at MSG

We finally got around to watching the Justin Timberlake concert from Madison Square Garden on HBO. It was great! Talk about a hard-working showman. Justin sings and dances and plays piano. He also executive produced the show.

One of the things I really liked about the concert was how they changed up the songs in interesting ways. "My Love" was a highlight of the show for me. Here's the clip:

Link

I know many of my faithful readers are dismayed about my thing for JT. Too bad - I'm still knee-deep in this craze.

New Oasis single!

The new Oasis single, "Lord Don't Slow Me Down," won't be available until October 21, but they released the video today. Watch it HERE and NOW:



I'm so excited!! This song rocks.

This is a warm-up for the upcoming DVD release of their feature film, Lord Don't Slow Me Down, which was shot on their huge 2004-2006 world tour. Click here to jump to the film's website. They've got a trailer for the movie, and you can play virtual Frustration (AKA Trouble). Remember that game? You roll the die by popping the plastic dome in the middle of the board.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day in the Oasis neighborhood.