For Halloween, we had a whopping four trick-or-treaters. One small child, three
teenage girls. At least they all wore costumes… I heard that in
Sunnyvale, kids were just wandering around in street clothes. Is Halloween
getting worse every year? Is anyone even trying?

We saw “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Sleepy Hollow”. I hadn’t seen
“Sleepy Hollow” before… not a bad flick. Is it just me, or did both of
the scarecrows in “Sleepy Hollow” look like Jack Skellington (with and without
pumpkin head?) One thing bothered me… Ichabod Crane struck me as
a bit inconsistent. I mean, in one scene he’s in hand-to-hand combat with
an invincible headless ghost. And a few scenes later he’s up on a chair, frightened
of a large spider. What gives?

Anyway, we had Nancy’s chili and Don Little’s garlic tri-tip. And plenty of
leftover Halloween candy.

As for my birthday, that went… ummmm… rather well. Friday night we
went out as planned. We went into the back room of La Bodeguita del Medio.
Everyone bought me free drinks. And I smoked a cigar. It was very Gentleman’s
Club (but not the strip-club-with-plush-chairs variety). Then we went
to F&A’s. Mental note: if you decide to regress about seven years and
drink past your limit, make sure you have lots of good friends around to
apologize to Security and haul your sick, sorry butt home. Woo! Do I still
know how to party or what? Sad, sad, sad.

Well, presumably the next time this happens, in another seven years, it will
be for a more noble cause. “Drink all ze mojitos, Señor Goer…
or ze hostages die!”

The BBQ the next day went on, although I was thinking of cancelling it up until
about three hours before. Renee King showed up briefly! She was on her way to a wedding
reception. And she seemed unimpressed by the fact that there were only two other guests
when she arrived. Well, Renee, if you’d only come an hour and a half late like all the
cool people… Boy, that lady knows how to kick a man when he’s hung over
and down. That husband of hers, Whatshisname, is clearly a bad influence.

I should mention that due to my
weakened condition, I specifically requested “Number” candles on my cake, rather
than lots of little ones. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.

Fortunately, although I did not make it to the store, my friends covered for me
admirably. Barbara showed up right on time with piping hot baked potatoes
and all the fixings, just when I was thinking, “Damn, we need a starch.” I
don’t know how she managed to keep those potatoes hot all the way from
Campbell. That woman defies the laws of Thermodynamics.

Hmmmm… better add “defies laws of Thermodynamics” to The List.