weekend bits

[cellio]

Today's Halloween, so I've been assuming that costumed children (and some non-costumed non-children, based on past years) would show up on our porch seeking sugary tribute. I saw nothing in the newspaper about scheduled hours for this, so I applied the power of Google. I wonder whether this means that the web really is pervasive, or if people who have kids (or otherwise care) have alternative sources of information. Silly me; I just naturally assumed that this was one of the jobs of a local newspaper.

I did buy some sugary tribute; we'll see how many people show up before we leave for dinner with friends. We didn't get a lot of people last year or the year before; it's possible we have a a reputation as the house that hands out weird stuff due to Dani handing out comic books for a few years in the past. On the other hand, we might just live on a low-payoff street; the houses are more spread out than a few blocks over and I'm not sure how many neighbors participate.

This afternoon we visited with my parents (and sister and one of her kids, though said kid preferred the computer's company to ours). My parents are taking the death of their dog (about a month ago) pretty hard. Thor was a 14-year-old golden retriever; they'd had him since he was 2.

They had him cremated, and my mother showed us the urn that contains his ashes. I'll have to look that one up in Miss Manners. I mean, what's the proper response? "It's a pretty urn"? "I'm so sorry" (but I said that already)? Silence? (Oh, and a wise move: they seal the urn, so accidents that don't involve breakage are harmless.)

I knew that dogs could be trained to do a lot, but I was surprised to read about the assistance animal that called 911, barked persistently into the receiver until the folks on the other end reacted, and then unlocked the front door for the ambulance crew when his owner fell.

We had a visitor Shabbat afternoon, and the three of us played games for a few hours. Aha -- that's a good way to spend (part of) long Shabbat afternoons! (I can't just read all day -- I get headaches from eyestrain.) Of course, with the change of seasons and now the time change, long Shabbat afternoons are going to be much less long for a while. But I must remember this come summer and try to arrange for it on a regular basis. Besides, I like having company and I have friends who like to play games, so what's not to like in this plan?

Friday night at services someone was wearing a Kerry/Edwards button -- transliterated into Hebrew. Some words should just not be transliterated into Hebrew. "Edwards" is one of them. Boy did that look funny.

Comments

[ironangel]

Silly me; I just naturally assumed that this was one of the jobs of a local newspaper.

It may have been one of the geogrphically-specifric sections, but my post gazette had a blurb that said all the communities' schedules would be on the web...

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

They had him cremated, and my mother showed us the urn that contains his ashes. I'll have to look that one up in Miss Manners. I mean, what's the proper response? "It's a pretty urn"? "I'm so sorry" (but I said that already)? Silence? (Oh, and a wise move: they seal the urn, so accidents that don't involve breakage are harmless.)

I might have said, "Do you have a place to scatter them, or do you plan to keep them?" Of course, I'm known for nosy questions, so....

Oh, lest I forget

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I'm still somewhat amused/baffled by the idea of "hours" for trick or treating. We start getting kids as it turns dusk-ish (especially on a school night, which tonight is), and the last teens came past at just past 9. About what I expect. Why publish hours?

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

How was Kerry spelled in Hebrew? If spelled kuf-resh-yud, it's the Talmudic word for semen. Which is an odd thing to see on a button.

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, fond memories of long Shabbat afternoons at Hillel House. One day 5 of us decided to play a game together. Monopoly? Half of us were horrified at the idea of using even play money. Gin? With **playing cards**? Parcheesi? Nope, I wouldn't use dice on Shabbat, and we didn't have a spinner. Scrabble? No, Bruce said that putting letters together into words was "building".

Eventually we had to split into 2 groups to accomodate all of our quirky little Shabbat prohibitions.

(Nobody ever said "that's wrong on Shabbat", just "I don't do that." Ah, the beauty of religious tolerance...)

BTW, you can keep score on Shabbat by moving bookmarks to the corresponding page number in a large book.