Our neighbor was putting out Hallowe'en decorations and I commented. Their four-year-old granddaughter gave me the grand tour of the "haunted back yard," as well. The neighbor wondered about Rich, saying he's lost more weight. It's those cheekbones and the hollows under them! Anyway, she reminded me of when her husband was sick and looked so awful.

Sam had another detention Friday, so I went to the house to tutor on Monday. Sam had "explained" to the office that with ADHD, the child wasn't responsible. I explained that in the first place I don't think the child has ADHD and secondly, no alphabet soup condition was in charge of Sam, that Sam was in charge of how Sam acts.

Monica has put up a new Web page. Parts of it are really funny. It turned out she didn't get the flowers I sent her for her birthday. How annoying. Everything I tried to cheer her up on the day seemed to be snakebit. I had put announcements up at eCircles, which were supposed to be at the top of the intro page. Ha. Then this fancy floral arrangement wasn't delivered. When I went to the florist to complain, it seems that the florist they usually use in San Jose didn't have the M&M arrangement I had ordered, so they sent it to another florist, who claims not to have gotten the order. Argh. I told them to send it again, since I think that was simpler than trying to get a refund. She finally got it this afternoon and gave me a quick call.

I went out to lunch with Wowbagger. I was trying to tell him about the abbey, and he wasn't listening. I finally said "if I wanted to be ignored, I could have stayed home." Men!

I signed a petition to get my Libertarian candidate on the ballot. This guy looks like a geriatric hippie. Whatever.

Rich started his colonoscopy diet, nothing with small seeds, no nuts, etc. I gave him chicken livers and rice.

Speaking of snakebit: I've been following the latest soap opera from Little Rock, this one the Alltel Arena. Oh. My. God. Whaddamess. They cancelled the Grand Opening which was to be a Lakers exhibition game because someone finally thought that gee, if the concrete beams had cracks, just maybe they shouldn't put a sellout crowd in there. This wasn't decided until two hours before the game, of course. ESPN called it the "Temple of Doom." Then they x-rayed the beams and discovered the rebar is in the wrong place in 15 of the 17 raker beams. Another event was cancelled. People are calling it "Falltel", and there are jokes that Alltel will pay twice as much as they already paid to put their name on, to take it off. If this were in Sacramento, I'd be furious, but it's in Little Rock, home of the Clinton Library and the Markham Street controversy, and far enough away to be funny. Meredith Oakley's column last week in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette included this letter from a reader:

                  And now for the really silly stuff, we turn to the electronic mailbag. I can't
                  remember who first sent it my way, but whoever it was will note that I've
                  edited it for a more general readership.
                      "Welcome to the Alltel Arena. The following are new general admission
                  rules:
                      "1. A weight limit of no more than 40 pounds (one 5-gallon bucket of
                  water) per seat has been established.
                      "2. The number of seats required per person will be determined by
                  dividing one's weight by 40, e.g. a 120-pound person will require three
                  seats.
                      "3. With multiple seats, do not sit in just one. Remove the arm rests and
                  lie across all to distribute your weight evenly.
                      "4. Once seated or lying, you must
                      always wear safety seat belts.
                      "5. Arena guests must show proof of valid life and health insurance.
                      "6. Arena guests must have signed a living will.
                      "7. Arena guests must have proof of recent type- and cross-matching for
                  two (2) units of blood.
                      "8. No talking, screaming or yelling.
                      "9. No jumping or getting excited.
                      "10. Arena guests must wear a helmet or hard hat or come on special
                  'hard-hat' nights.
                      "11. Arena guests must carry at all times an emergency cervical collar.
                      "12. Do not remove chunks of cracked supports as souvenirs.
                      "13. Do not shower. The more you smell, the easier for
                  search-and-rescue dogs to find you.
                      "14. Arena guests must have proof of good hearing and vision. If you hear
                  loud cracking noises and you see the monitoring engineers running to the
                  exits for their lives, follow them.
                      "As always, we hope you enjoy your visit here at the new Alltel Arena!

Heh heh heh.