Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Tootsie Rolls

Tootsie Rolls will now forever remind me of my father-in-law, Carl. It was during one of his better weekends. We were there and so was my sister-in-law, though I think she was just leaving. There was a huge bag of Tootsie Rolls on the table that her kids had bought. Carl and I were sitting at the table. Mr. P was doing something out in the barn or garage. Penboy was playing with cats and dogs. And Carl and I were just sitting there, keeping each other company, eating those Tootsie Rolls. It was a good moment. He told stories and we laughed. And it was such a sweet time.
Today, I was eating a leftover Halloween lollipop and it was a  Tootsie pop, as it turned out. The taste of that chocolatey middle brought that time back to me. I almost didn't want to finish that Tootsie pop, to make that memory last.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Fall

Fall has me feeling a bit melancholy. It doesn't help that I've been sick for two and a half weeks. We are waiting to find out if Penboy needs to have his tonsils out, but I'm now wondering if I need mine out too. Sigh.

On the plus side, we had a pretty good Halloween, despite the rain. Penboy was a cow.
The cow snout (or whatever one calls a cow nose) kept him dry. We came home with two bags full of Halloween loot. I think people were worried not too many kids would come out in the bad weather.

On the plus side, I lost about ten pounds in the past couple of months.

OK, so totally bad shopping day today. It's Penboy's b-day coming up and we promised him an iPad mini. Yeah, my kid is a total techno geek. We promised him a 32 gig one. Impossible to find in this city. We tried the Apple store first, of course. Nope, they only have 64s. Way too large for him. Then we tried Best Buy, where I would like to add, service was totally atrocious. While Mr. P and Penboy stood around waiting for ANYONE who worked there to help us, I used their laptops to find out if any of the neighbouring stores had them in stock. Nope. The only way to get one is to order from Apple online, which has a two week delivery period. Penboy in tears. Mr. P's face acquired a permascowl the longer we waited to be served. Finally, someone came and said they were out, of course. They got five, that's 5 in total, on the day they were released, and were sold out that same day.
Then had to drag Penboy to WalMart where I (in vain) tried to get him to try on shoes. Then Shoe Company, where Mr. P totally refused to go in. I fear a deeply scarring incident occured there the last time he was in the store and now he refuses to cross their threshold. Penboy and I had to go in though, 'cause his school shoes are falling apart. After refusing every shoe I recommended (he only wanted the ones that light up, which don't come in small hobbit foot sizes), I finally got him to try on a nice pair of Sketchers and reluctantly agree that they would be OK. I would like to add that these shoes are totally awesome - black and orange, and super light.

I feel in need of a treat for me now. I will get one too, once I prepare the venison roast (birhtday boy dinner). I still have a half a bottle of Chardonnay in the fridge. Ah, sweet, golden elixir...