HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I just called work, and I'm going in late, which means I get to go trick-or-treating with my kids tonight. This is another great advantage of working for a small town hospital, and of it being very slow.

Last year my kids only had a little bit of candy in their bags, and they were content. I wasn't. I wanted to have more candy so I could steal it from them. I ended up putting my 3 YO on my shoulders and knocking on doors myself.

My son is nine this year, so hopefully he is self driven. We'll see. My daughter is already whining about wearing her Winni-the-Poo costume. She says it makes her look too fat. So I told her to wear her chicken costume. "That makes me look too fat too, da da."

Hmmm, I wonder where she got that idea from.

No dieting tonight.
---------------------

Well, KK finally decided on the chicken costume, but it took her mom to persuade her that she didn't look fat. My son was actually into moving fast house to house, which is the way I like to do it, but the wife and daughter were content to lallygag along. I looked back once and observed my wife and daughter doing the chicken dance.

"Come on, mom!" my son yelled. It was of no use. There was no sense of urgency back there.

That's how it went for the first hour, until my son wanted to go to his school. Here the kids had to wait in line to play various games in order to get candy. How boring for dad. But, being the good dad I am, I waited patiently the 10 minutes it took for my kids to get to the front of the line. They bot got their prizes and we were out of there.

When we were back outside my wife said, "How about if we go home now."

"Yeah, I'm ready to go home," my son agreed.

I looked at the clock as I hop into the car. It was only 7:15. "You guys have another 45 minutes, don't you--"

"Sush!" the wife looked at me bug-eyed. "They already said no."

"Fine by me," I said. "You might as well drop me off at work."

"Besides," she said, "I'm tired and want to go to bed."

I suppose by the time my kids are really into Trick-or-Treating I'll be too old too care. I'll turn into my dad and just drop them off wherever they want and follow them around inside the toasty car with a beer between my legs.

The funny thing is, my kids ended up with a huge hoard of candy in that hour, enough to last us until Easter when I'll end up throwing half of it away.

Speaking of Easter Candy, it's time to toss it.