Halloween Tradition.

We were supposed to spend the evening of Halloween with friends in the West Village, watching costumes parade in front of us, making us believe that maybe just for one night the world can turn upside down and let you forget who you are. Instead, we packed the car and headed for Bear Mt. park, setting out North on the Long Trail path. On it, Sam embarked to tell me the story of Jesus and from there we decided that story telling on Halloween along with Charlie Brown and the Pumpkin Special DVD will make a good family tradition for many years to come. Specifically, when we have kids, we will dress up in costumes and go hiking, tell stories. Then come back home, watch Charlie brown get rocks in his trick or treat bag and make pumpkin cookies. :) Neat huh? It was my best Halloween ever. Maybe next time he can tell me a story about the Big Bang and evolution.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good, the bad and the ugly. That sums up our house search thus far. Let's start with the ugly. Well, there's just too many examples of ugly looking buildings, apartments and duplexes. Mind you these are just the aesthetically challenged, the end product of some misguided 1970's architect who thought fake oak wall paneling looked good. Let me tell you without a doubt it doesn't in 2009 and I doubt it did in 1970. The bad is reserved for those places that are not only visually challenging for the eye but have owners with the audacity to over charge for it. These are the places that reek of that mysterious funk that you don't quite want to name. The surfaces of the kitchen and bathroom seem to have a ubiquitous greasy film covering everything, as if a grease fryer once resided front and center spraying the counters with an invisible oily mist. Avoid at all cost and count yourself lucky for leaving the Bate's Motel alive. That leaves us with the real estate equivalent of the good, or like Woolf's proclamation, a place that we can call our own.