Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM)

Had to run over to school to drop off some items forgotten this morning. The foliage is definitely turning 'round here but it doesn't look like it's going to do so very enthusiastically this year. It didn't matter so much today, as the weather is drizzly and misty and covers everything with a kind of sepia wash anyway. (My very favorite kind of weather in my very favorite season, by the way.)

We had a rocky start this morning - the impetus of my having to make the extra trip - because today is the school's big Halloween costume party and the Llama-ettes required more scraping off the ceiling than usual.

As I might have mentioned in a previous post (Llama Butchers: Now with Alzheimmer Blogging!) my six year old decided to be a plain old ghost this year. Thus, all we had to do was swath her in a flowing white bedsheet and paint her face. I like costumes like that.

My four year old is some species of fairy, vaguely reminiscent of one of Titania's retinue. This is a good costume for her because she has a natural elfin look about her to begin with. This morning, in her frilly skirt and oversized butterfly wings she came up to me and said, "Daddy, do I look beautiful in this costume?" My immediate -and heartfelt - response was, "Sweetheart, you look beautiful in everything you wear." "Thanks!" she said, beetling off.

My two year old is also a fairy, contrary to my earlier belief that she was going as a vampire. Her costume consists of a longish purple gown with a picture of Tinkerbell on the front. The costume in no way actually looks like anything Tinkerbellish, but the child doesn't care. What matters to her is that she has a wand as well. The four year old has one, too, and I had a great deal of trouble convincing this pair of lunatics that wands are not to be used as lightsabers.

Given the chaotic task of jamming everyone into their costume and getting them off to school, I absent-mindedly put my four year old's wings on top of the car while I was shoving her into it and completely forgot about them. Fifteen minutes later, as I was strolling about in the garden, the Missus suddenly reappeared, like the Demon Queen in a pantomime coming up out of a trapdoor, demanding to know where the wings were. Subsequent investigation proved that they were about 70 yards down the road where, braving rush hour traffic, I was able to nip out and secure them. All is well now.

So here I am, house to myself and coffee at my fingertips. Now what did I do with my Age of Empires game......