Trick or treat!

I don't know about treats, but Danny and I had a bit of a nasty trick played on us this week:

 

We had just gotten a flat tire fixed and the oil changed on the Saturn, and had asked the mechanics to park it on the street so we could pick it up after close. When Danny went to pick it up, this is what he found. He tried to drive it home and discovered whoever had hit it had done more than smash the door in, but had knocked the whole front out of alignment. No note, of course. And no witnesses, either. So we were feeling pretty depressed about that, since Danny had talked me into taking comprehensive and collision off this car a while ago, since it's not worth very much. But when Danny called the insurance to take liability off it as well, he found out that he in fact had never followed through with the coverage reduction. So it was still insured! Our trick turned to treat, after all! This was almost as good as when my computer exploded and I was about to throw it away when Best Buy sent me a letter asking if I wanted to renew my performance service plan that I didn't know I had. Maybe even better!

And now, for what you thought this post was going to be about, Jack had his first Halloween today. But the fun started yesterday, when Jack won my department's costume contest. It really wasn't fair, I know. People put time and effort and face paint and chicken-wire into their costumes, and I just played the baby card. How could you note vote for this guy?



So Jack won his mommy a $10 gift card at her favorite coffee shop, enjoyed his first pineapple off the free pizza, and made lots of friends and admirers. Not bad for a day's work as a puppy.

There were some real doggies at the party, who our own Jack-pup had a great time meeting and greeting. He scampered after them in delight, leading someone to comment that out of their peripheral vision, Jack was indistinguishable from the other dogs. Except that the real dogs were dressed as insects. What else do you expect from entomologists? However they were disguised, I think the dogs accepted Jack as one of their own.

(Kudos to Margarita for getting that shot. I kept trying, but just got a dozen pictures of Jack and/or the dogs' butts.)

Then we stuffed him into that outfit all over again today, to stroll down College Ave, with a parade of fairies and princesses and transformers and firemen a whole menagerie of adorable creatures. All the shopkeeper come out to give the kids candy before the real trick or treating starts, and we brought Jack to show off, even if he's not interested in candy yet.

(The pet store had an especially appropriate candy dish.)

We made pumpkin pancakes for brunch, which he did enjoy, and then carved some pumpkins and decorated the house to get ready for the real trick or treaters. Jack was so cute with the pumpkins. He could tell they had faces, but didn't know quite what to make of them. They weren't quite people, but they weren't just drawings either. They weren't toys, he couldn't stuff them in his mouth, but there they were smiling at him. What was he supposed to do? He smiled back.



We had some friends over to help us pass out candy, and Jack enjoyed staying up way past his bedtime to watch all the kids come by. He was in such a good mood all night.

Happy Halloween, Jack! Next year you'll be one of those big kids trick or treating. Maybe you'll even be able to say Trick or Treat!