Be-Mused — Karen Templeton

And not, unfortunately, the five pounds I put back on over the last couple of weeks. Although it is worth noting that I’ve been up for three hours and have not yet gotten into the M&Ms. . .

But to return to the subject at hand. . .I bought two books yesterday at Sam’s, Pat Gaffney’s THE GOODBYE SUMMER and PLAYING WITH BOYS by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. I know they were in the cart, ‘cause the lady pre-beeped them before I got up to the cashier. Which meant they had to still be in the cart when we got out to the car. However, when we got home, the Gaffney had gone missing, and the husband said he only ever saw the one book. Weird. So I was mildly bummed, since I’d already read the first page of the Gaffney and was ready for more. Now.

Except. . .somewhere in the middle of the night, I had a vision of the stack of To Be Read books on the shelf by my bed, and I clearly saw the Gaffney book.

Yes, boys and girls, I had already bought it, probably several weeks ago. Neat trick, losing something but still having it.

Oh, but it gets better.

Before we go shopping, I scope out the pantry and fridge to see what we need (I know, a really novel concept). So, since one orange juice was just about gone, I knew we needed two. And I did note that we already had one lurking in the back, patiently waiting its turn. Except, somehow, when I got to the store, all I thought was “Two OJs, check.”

So, yes, now we have enough OJ to last until Thanksgiving. And lemme tell ya, three gallons of OJ take up a lot of space in an 18 cubic foot fridge.

#5 has his Halloween party and costume parade today, since all the fifth graders were scheduled to go on a day long field trip on Halloween proper. So off he went in his Creepy Skeleton Zombie Thing get-up, which was basically comprised of an old pair of dreck green jeans and coordinating sweatshirt left over from some brother or other, which we gleefully shredded and ripped. And then the kid himself came up with the idea to wear a red T-shirt underneath to look like blood seeping through the gashes in the sweatshirt. Hey, as long as he thinks that’s what it looks like, who am I to disillusion him? We doubt, however, that the glow-in-the-dark Devil Skeleton mask is going to pass muster with The Powers That Be at school, but he’s cool with that.

Oh, and he made a four-foot tall axe out of construction paper to complete the ensemble. With straws taped across the axe part to keep the paper from flopping.

Ingenious, if slightly scary.