Happy Halloween, Samhain, etc.

Later I’ll be attempting to affix a tiara, ballet tutu and pink cape to M’s pink unicorn costume so she can be a princess ballerina unicorn. We had a ballerina dinosaur a couple of years ago… I detect a theme here…

M in the hammock

Originally uploaded by morecoffeeplease.

The hammock chair is a great success; it’s a shame we have only one decent branch from which to hang one, because it is quickly becoming an item of contention. I had a rather long turn in it reading library books, then I was booted out by M.

You know that thing where you twist up a swing at the playground and then hang on for dear life while it untwists? Since the hammock is hung by ropes and not chains, it can get about seven times as twisty. If you happen to be wearing a crown/tiara and a cape, all the better.

Also if you have been sick all day and your parents aren’t convinced that your stomach contents will stay put through the tornado-like twistiness, it adds a certain pleasing frisson.

Sitting next to me on the table, her power light breathing quietly in the way that Macs do, is my shiny new black MacBook — my present from D, who obviously knows very, very well how to make me happy.

She is a thing of beauty, this MacBook, and a few light-years ahead of the slightly-ailing 2001 Dell laptop I’m using at the moment. Tomorrow I’ll have time to get her all set up properly (I’ve only got the wireless configured at the moment)[1] and perhaps then she’ll reveal her name.

There are four computers on our dining room table at the moment (plus a stray tiara, a strange little screwdriver, and some Kleenex because we are all still sick). More computers than people — geek.family.

[1]: …which really means, buy and install Civilization IV

I bought Maddy the best Halloween costume on eBay. I mean, it’s totally tacky but in the way that’s beeYOOteeful to a four-year-old’s eyes. She’s been all about unicorns lately — it’s a pink plush unicorn costume, with shiny wings and horn and a nice fluffy mane and tail, most of which show in the photo. (Posing for photos is a serious business these days. No smile was to be had.)

I’m guessing that on Halloween it may get worn with a pink ballet tutu and tiara because hey! pink ballerina unicorn beats plain old pink unicorn. Plus, more pink.

(Dear Karma Fairy: whatever I did in my teens to deserve all this pinkness? You’ve made your point. Now please make it stop. Thx.)