Disappointing kids, revisited

The kids are alright - John surfaced on Saturday afternoon, and even though he was unwilling to mow the grass after I raked, and had already eaten Chipotle by the time I was offering beef & vegetable stirfry, he dressed up again as George Jung and went out paradin'. He got to see Natty Nation at midnight.

Al provided a little comic relief - he called and we were debating who was going to use the turn-signal-less Bug, me or him, and he said, "well, I just have to be frank; there's a 12-pack of beer on the floor of the back seat - could you leave it at the house before you go out for the night?" And when I told him that I'd found the beer hours ago (when I was cleaning out all his miscellaneous debris, Hostess cupcake wrappers, and college orientation papers and loose CDs) and stuck it in the fridge, his response was "In the fridge? Sweet" like it was so remarkable that his mom had the sense to put the beer in the fridge ...

And then Sunday, when I was a little worried about finding both of them and getting them off to Milwaukee together, Al had come in at 3:00 a.m. or so - I didn't think he was home when I checked because all the lights were on, but he had just passed out with 'em on, and John came back at something like 9:30, before I was even home with the bagels. And even though I couldn't get them to car pool to Milwaukee together, Al graciously took the bus, so I didn't have to drive either the turn-signal-less Bug, nor borrow Mark's car.

I went to see the annual honor among thieves Harmony Bar Halloween show - grand prize winner was the mens-room-cubicle-Larry-Craig's-office. There was also a dead Marcel Marceau with a megaphone around her neck, and a guy in a werewolf mask chewing gum - Heike and I were joking that he was doing a kick the flesh-eating habit program, hence the gum instead of necks.

I sent John off with containers of beef stirfry, rice, and pumpkin-rosemary pasta.

oh, and as a final little coda - on Saturday when I was raking leaves and mad at everyone, I yelled at a young couple who was using our driveway to cut through to the street from their apartment behind us - and as I was just getting into my rant, I realized, oh shit, these aren't the right ones - they were another, innocent couple who had been told by the original most egregious couple that it was OK to cut through - and they left me a little apology giftie of a dozen or so apples in a wine bottle bag tied with jute string and a note - Mark brought it in with the papers today.