Playing catch up

Somehow Halloween has come and gone and we are in November! Ah, sweet, schizophrenic Utah. Trying to decide whether to be 40 degrees or 80. Steve is madly trying to finish the sprinklers before the snow comes in earnest and buries our yard until spring.
A couple fun things happened in the last month:
1. The second weekend of October was the end of the summer Platinum party. This year it was held at the capitol building, which meant that we all got to dress up, eat well, and listen to some jazz. I've had some nice memories of the place: Steve and I went to prom there in high school and I had my bridal pictures taken on the huge staircase.
2. Steve and I went on a day-long trip to Park City. We shopped at the outlets, spent the night in a hotel, and I once again proved that I can pick the most expensive restaurant within a ten mile radius. It's a gift. Poor Steve. He had the soup.
3. After only 11 years of marriage and 4 children, we have acquired 4 Halloween decorations: a web, a large, hairy spider I like to call Porsche, a small spider named Bob, and a sign we stick in the dirt that has a skeleton's bony arm with finger pointing to our haunted house. Alas, no one came. We have very few neighbors. I still buy candy because it just seems wrong not to have it just in case.
4. My kids trick-or-treated in my mom's neighborhood--a veritable trick-or-treater's Mecca. Her street is a part of a series of cul-de-sacs and after only an hour, our kids' bags were full. I have spent the last day or two picking up wrappers and trying to brush the kids' teeth with reckless abandon. I don't think it's doing much, though. I think they are eating candy in their sleep. I guess it should make me feel good that we are single-handedly putting our dentist's 9 kids through college...
5. I got to go to a Halloween party hosted by my friend Kathy who is the music/art teacher at Challenger. Several of my teacher-friends came and it was GREAT to see them and talk about the time we spent in the trenches together. Sure, my witch hat burst into flames when I sidled up against a skull candelabra and sure, a complete stranger yanked it off my head, stomped on it a few times, and handed it back to me, but it was worth it. I need to get a new costume for next year, anyway.