Samhain

My sweet little Sagan passed away on Sunday afternoon.  Despite being on antibiotics and having the vaporizer running, she improved a bit early on, but then proceeded to get worse.  I'm just sick over the loss--particularly, because her partner, Simran, has been depressed and quiet without her, as she is now an only parakeet.  I need to get at least one more parakeet for Simi, so we are watching the humane societies and rescue groups.  They are unhappy birds unless they are with others of their own kind.

Poppy bird (cockatiel) turned one this week!

This weekend we had my in-laws here for a visit and then Sunday we attended the Dassera festivities.  It's my favorite holiday, because any holiday that includes a focus on eduction, wisdom, and the appreciation of learning is as good as it gets.

I'm spending this week trying to get caught up from the grading/prep work I was NOT able to do over the weekend.  L & I also do a lot of her homeschooling work over the weekends, and that didn't get done either.  I may be caught up again by the end of this week.

We've now reached the last day of October, and I still haven't found time to get to one of the many 'scary movies' released this month.  Tradition is that the girls and I go to at least one of the Oct. scary movies together, and there are three that we would like to see (Paranormal 4, Sinister, Possessed) but haven't had the time.  It's horrible.  Maybe Friday night after my friend's art show opening, we can get out and see one.

This is the first Halloween in 21 years (I didn't Dej out her first year as she was only 3 mos. old) that I do not have to take children trick-or-treating.  That's a job I have never really relished but since it was important to the kids, I sucked it up and did it.  M & I are both pretty giddy with the notion that our kids have reached the age where we can either ignore Halloween or not, depending on our mood/whim.

We went to my parents for dinner.  Instead of the usual chili, my dad made pizza.  The girls carved their pumpkins after dinner, while I made the roasted pumpkin seeds, and we were settled and ready for American Horror Story: Asylum  at 9.  It was a nice, stress-free Halloween.  So nice!  The biggest challenge was trying to keep the cats from chewing on the pumpkins as the girls were working on them.

We LOVED AHS last year, and we were very anxious for this season to start, though somewhat worried that it couldn't live up to last season.  No worries there!  After seeing the first three episodes, we are loving it and hooked just as badly as we were last season.  Wednesdays are once again the best day of the week!  Jessica Lange is doing another amazing job in her new role, and I'm still loving Evan Peters in his new role.

Dej comes to watch the show with us each week.  Jezi loves having Dej sitting in one place for an hour and makes the most of her opportunity to get cuddles from her.