October flew by!

Good morning, Flat Earthers!*

I can't believe that it's already the end of October! Lots has happened this month, much of it the typical stuff that happens every day, week, and month of the year. But let's hit some highlights, shall we?

First, and I'm cheating a little bit because this happened toward the end of September, but we need to remember it: Mal has always had sleeping issues. First, he wouldn't sleep if he wasn't touching my body. This made his infancy exhausting; I couldn't even put him down for a nap for more than about 10 minutes because he'd wake up. I had to wear him, or have him lying on top of me or right beside me. As he got older, he just wouldn't settle at night and sleep in a different room (except that one time Grandma Patsy visited, and he slept in his own room with her!), so he was in bed with James and me. A few weeks after we moved into this house, I decided to get him out of our bedroom and train him to sleep on a futon mattress on the floor of his room... which I did, but I ended up sleeping in there with him, and have ever since. 

For a couple of years, we've had a hard cut-off of 10 years old. I've told him that he needed to figure it out because I was going to return to my bedroom by the time he turned ten. (Because even if he wasn't ready exactly at 10, pretty soon he'd want me out of his room and likely wouldn't feel comfortable telling me why, if you get my meaning.) Anyhoo, a couple of days before his 9th birthday, he told me he thought I could go into my own room when he turned 9! So that's what I did!

One side effect of this is that I sometimes snore a little, and D can hear it through the wall. James used to wake D up, but since he got a CPAP (I don't have apnea, plus I am a tornado when I sleep and not a good candidate) he's pretty quiet. James had gotten into the habit of closing the bathroom door and the closet doors to help insulate against noise pollution going into D's room, but we have a small wall that's still the only barrier between the rooms. So we invested in some acoustic tiles, and I think they're pretty cool-looking!

Next up, we went to trivia night at The Good Lot for the first time as a family. Mal played with other kids while D, James, and I did trivia. We won one of the three rounds, and the prizes included a flight of beer (they had cider, too!) and a cute skeleton shot "glass" (plastic). We'll definitely go back; I might even make it an event for our Tuesday library/park group. (I just did. I'm such an overachiever.)

Since we hadn't been to the state fair since pre-pandemic, we went the next-to-the-last weekend it was open and, for the first time in about ten years, D went with us! It was a lot of walking (we stayed in an adorable 4-plex about a mile from the park, so we walked 4 miles just getting there and back twice the day we went to the fair), a LOT of people, and a lot of money, but what a great weekend!

First, I was trying to show Mal a video of Big Tex because he didn't remember him. We were surprised to see ourselves a decade ago in The Daytripper's recently-released (or re-released?) video!

We had our mandatory stop at the Hillsboro Braum's on the way up. We got to the fair just as it was opening on Friday, and we were able to try the fried sushi bombs before the food court got too busy (and no one got shot, unlike the next evening, where apparently two guys got into a fight in one of the lines and one of them shot three people, all of whom are fortunately okay). 

As per usual, we enjoyed the Go Texan! sample area. My favorite was the flavored olive oils. They had salsa, chocolate, hot sauce, and this year the dairy sample was an ice cream sandwich instead of a small cone. I guess Bessie the Cow doesn't visit anymore, which is probably better for the cow, but I always loved seeing what I'm assuming is the most beautiful calf they could find.

Little Hands on the Farm is done, but the petting zoo is still around. They moved it into a much larger arena, which really helps both with the crowds and the smell.

Mal surprised us by wanting to ride the Texas Skyway, a gondola that runs from the front of the park to the back (and vice-versa). He never wants to ride anything, so James thought if there ever was a time to spend nearly $50 on a 7-minute activity, this was it!

We finished up our fair food purchases for the morning with tornado fries (for Mal, mostly) and a bao taco trio. Man, those were amazing. Definitely the best thing we had that half of the day. The taco "shells" were made of bao dough, steamed as bao buns are, and were each filled with a different meat: pork belly, pulled barbecue beef, and chicken. I could have eaten a whole plate by myself, but we shared because we do have a mortgage to pay off. 

We decided to take a break as the park was filling up around 1 PM. We spent the afternoon at the AirBnB relaxing, and then went back at nightfall.

We hit most (but not all) of the things we'd missed in the morning; most importantly, the craft competition. I always love looking at the things the people of Texas create! Also, butter sculpture. 

Then we tracked down the one food we'd been wanting to try but were too full to find in the morning: a strawberry cheesecake sopapilla. Aww, man. Definitely the best dessert I've ever had at the fair. Worth finding, fighting people in lines around the sopapilla kiosk, and sitting in an area with a bunch of gnats to consume. 

I think the only thing we'd wanted to see that we didn't was the Dia de los Muertos museum, and maybe the carved pumpkins in the greenhouse with the trains (if they even still have those). 

All together, a great day at the fair! I was happy to go back in the evening because whenever we've gone in the past, we've just left midday and gone home or back to a hotel on the other side of town. Definitely a benefit of staying in the vicinity!

D was kind of "peopled out" so stayed "home" to recover the next day. James, Mal, and I got up and took the bus to Cafe Brazil, where James used to have brunch when he lived in Deep Ellum. Delicious, as always, and we got to experience the solar eclipse with a bunch of other diners and staff. I was glad we had our eclipse glasses, as they got passed around throughout the dining room and kitchen. It was so much fun to be excited with everyone else.

We then took the train downtown to poke around a bit before taking the train back to Fair Park and walking "home." 

Believe it or don't, we had dinner that night at Cici's Pizza. It was like a block from our place and Mal wanted to go. Since James hadn't been to one in a while, he was down. 

The next morning, we packed up and hit the Dallas Arboretum before we left town. I'd only ever been during the week, and holy cow was it busy. But it was a beauty, as ever.

On the way home, we stopped at Mal's favorite Hat Creek Burger in Temple for a late lunch and to say "howdy" to Nana and Pappy before ending our weekend away.

This weekend was the first time we've used Rover, a pet-sitting app/website, and we were very pleased! Our sitter sent pictures and updates every day, and was super conscientious and clean. I was surprised that I didn't need to sweep or vacuum up Aish hair when we returned. When they were younger, we'd have just left the cats alone for the 3 days we were gone. Alas, they're all teenagers and need a bit more maintenance.

In other news, Mal took an online assessment and qualified for a the regional semi-finals of a geography bee. We were supposed to have done that last weekend, but they had to reschedule for December at the last minute. 

We're rounding out the month with Halloween, of course. Our little town has done stuff for Halloween ever since we moved here, but the celebration is getting better and better. Last year, a guy from Public Works built a few spooky decorations that were in the main park area. This year, they really let him go wild and used a small path across the way to showcase a half dozen of his creations. It was perfect in that it was pretty macabre, but also not threatening so kids were having fun exploring the "haunted walk."

And, of course, they had games for the kids, who were able to "earn" candy. It's the first year they haven't had a trunk-or-treat, but I think this is good, as they probably never knew whether they were going to have 4 participants or 15.

They also had hot dogs and chips available, which James and I especially appreciated because we both finished outside work (him: building a bed frame, me: mowing the lawn) right as it was time to walk down to the park.

Some more quick Mal things: Yesterday, he burnt himself on our tea kettle, which SUCKS, but it's because he was making himself ramen. It's the first time he's done it start to finish on his own. He swore off of using the kettle but I told him burning yourself is just part of learning to "cook." Next time he's going to use silicone gloves.

This week, he had his first dentist appointment in which he had ZERO cavities! His teeth are just prone to being meh, so I don't claim this as a win in terms of his dental care... but it is definitely a relief!

Finally, Mal played Scrabble with me for the first time Friday night, and although he is still working on figuring out where it's legal to place a word, he did really well in terms of pulling words out of scrambled tiles! After we played, he played once with Nana. When we got home, he played with his dad. Now that he has three practice games under his belt, we'll start keeping score. He told me, "Don't take it easy on me, Mom!" He should know that I would never.

This morning, we have all of the windows open and are just waiting on the cold front that will bring the temperature down from the 70s into the 40s. Normally, if it's going to get cold, I'd just try to keep the warmth in the house to stave off the heater coming on. But, dang, it's been so muggy and gross, I really want to feel the cold in all of its glory. I am wearing bike shorts and a tank top and can't wait until I need to put on pants and a sweatshirt! BRING IT!

 *That's a joke. Clearly, the earth is a cube and the scientists are just trying to trick us because there are other planets that are also cubes very nearby and if we knew this, we could just hop around like Q-Bert without the need for commercial space travel and since no one can make money off of that system, they obscure it from us. Stay high, brothers.