Halloween's on the docket, baseball's not

What does a trick-or-treater and the skin of a hot dog have in common?

They're both hollow weiners.

Ha! I made that up myself back in college. I swear I've read it in print since then.

Tonight is a much-anticipated night (at least for Annika). The girls have matching lady-bug costumes. I'll try to put up a picture soon.

Well, the World Series ended sourly last Friday. It was pretty disappointing to watch the Tigers essentially give it away - 5 errors in 5 games by the pitchers. One of my colleagues mentioned that his TV was lucky that he wasn't wearing shoes when the 4th error occurred in game 4. Last year, when the Tigers were finishing up another losing season, I wondered whether I would get all wrapped up in a successful season or not, like I have recently with Notre Dame football and in hoping the Yankees would lose. Heck, the Tigers hadn't played a postseason game since I was in 6th grade. Despite the miserable conclusion to this season, I was glad that it hurt - I was disappointed and mad and somewhat crabby (just ask Lisa) when they just tanked in the last few games. Baseball is my favorite of the major sports, as it has been since 1st grade or so - I like the uniqueness of the ballparks, the history of the game, and the glut of statistics. I've always enjoyed chasing down a pop fly. That said, it bothers me (playing the Tigers or not) that the World Series champion barely won more than half of their regular season games. The Cardinals had the13th best record in baseball, but they made it to the playoffs and won the World Series. I know there are more important things to care about in the world, but...there it is. Play ball!

A Rock 'n Roll Education

Last night, somewhat bored, I put on some music in the basement, which, as it frequently does, inspired the girls to start dancing. Annika much prefers to dance with someone (me), holding hands and mostly jumping around the room. Abby was content to dance by herself, holding a Polly Pocket doll most of the time. Both girls like to watch their reflections on the dark TV screen. We also played steamroller during some of the songs. Abby wasn't quite so keen on getting steamrolled. Last night's playlist:

Roy Orbison - Oh Pretty Woman
The Beatles - Oh Darling, Hello Goodbye, and All You Need Is Love
The Traveling Wilbury's - Wilbury Twist
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (twice - Annika really liked that one) and Particle Man
Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Will Rock You (Abby started to get the lyrics to this one) and We Are the Champions
Fountains of Wayne - Mexican Wine (a perennial favorite) and Stacy's Mom

Annika went into ballerina mode during We Are the Champions, but it actually fits pretty well. I dipped her at the end of Istanbul, which she thought was great, so that's why we had to do it again. I do realize that it doesn't sound great that my 5-year-old likes a song called Mexican Wine, but...I don't have any good defense for it, either. It's a fun song.

Speaking of fun songs - the first few lines of the Wilbury Twist go as follows:

"Put your hand on your head (hand on your head)
Put your foot in the air (foot in the air)
Then you hop around the room (hop around the room)
In your underwear (in your underwear)"

Of course, Annika thinks this is hilarious, and every time I've played it I've had to stop her from following the directions word-for-word.

When it was all over, it was time for jammies. They were sweaty.

Miscellaneous October Items

First off - go Tigers! After assuming all was lost last Sunday, it was joy to see the party that was Comerica Park yesterday after the Tigers offed the Yankees, the most vile of all baseball teams. Last week it seemed like a nightmare for the Tigers to lose their division and end up facing the Yankees. However, I couldn't script anything better for the Tigers to dump the Evil Empire in Detroit and then watch the whole park celebrate. Here's hoping the next series goes this well...

Abby's speech and vocabulary continues to expand. She occasionally declares things to be "awesome," which comes from her sister's influence. The other day, while wearing a long-sleeve onesie and overalls, she also had on a dress-up skirt and two dress-up shirts, and then would throw her arms in the air and declare "Beautiful!"

Tonight Annika offered to pray before supper and promptly thanked God for skunks, tigers, birds, cats, dogs, horses, cows, and most of all, people. No mention of the scrambled eggs we were about to eat.

I missed some of the Tigers game the other day because the house three lots down from us had a fire in the basement, which brought around about nine firetrucks, water trucks, ambulances, and police cruisers, along with firefighters, many of which are volunteer. No one was hurt and the outside of the house shows little damage, but apparently it's not livable. Quite the excitement for Dairy Lane. I rode my bike over and watched for a little bit, and had a conversation with some neighbors that had recently put their dog down. I'm still not used to country-style animal care, which usually involves guns.

That's the latest here! Yeee-haaa!