After five roller derby bouts, I was finally on a winning team!

Congrats Cash! Any winning bruises?

Consuela, I saw Rita Moreno at the Paramount before I moved and she knocked my socks off.

I never knew that she had a five-year affair with Marlon Brando

Yeah, well, so did Wally Cox. Brando, you man slut!

We're back from my friend Robin's birthday party. The commute wasn't difficult because Matilda jumped rope the one mile (part of it uphill) to Robin's house after Muni/BART. And it was really good seeing people I hadn't seen for several years and catching up a bit. This is the circle of friends I had when I first moved to SF 25 years ago. Now we've all got kids in high school or going to college.

Excellent evening for Matilda-isms:

(showing Hec a picture she's just drawn): Do you like her?

Hec: Is that a crown on her head?

Matilda [in a withering No, you crazyhead! tone): No, Daddy, it's a birthday cake.

And later, her comments on the list of horror films Hec was working from:

The Fog? That could be pretty scary... like a vampire throwing a smoke bomb!

Also a good evening for people-watching and eavesdropping. On the way back to BART after the party (on a night so balmy Matilda was skipping around in her fairy princess tank dress without even a cardigan, under a crescent moon so big and low it looked like something out of Little Nemo In Slumberland), we passed what looked like three college kids on their way out somewhere, cheerfully giving each other rations of college-kid shit about who knew what. They'd been talking and talking and the tall, vaguely chubby-Malcolm-Gladwelly looking boy in the middle had been saying something when the pink-haired girl next to him threw up one hand and said, "SHUT -- "

Looking mightily aggrieved, he shouted, "I was AGREEING VEHEMENTLY with whatever the fuck you were saying!" And off they all stomped.

On the BART platform we saw a gentleman zombie (rotting face, dress coat and black tie), an assortment of punk pixies, ballerinas and spacegirls, an improbable black belt, and someone who looked like possibly he'd lost the other 75% of his barbershop quartet. On the train itself, more zombies, a sailor, a slutty baseball player, and numerous persons who didn't seem to be costumed exactly, just miscellaneously incredibly sharp dressers.

On Muni, we saw yet more zombies, ballerinas in goth, punk, and traditional flavors, several Angry Birds (a twentysomething sitting behind one of the Birds said, mystified, "So is that like an actual thing?"), a partially costumed Black Panther (not historical or feline, but Marvelverse; she had her spear out and the rest of her costume in her bag, and was utterly geeking out about it once she realized Hec knew the Marvelverse), pumpkins, one of Santa's elves, and a perfectly normal looking man with a toy gorilla stitched to the top of his cap.

Two women standing in the aisle in front of us were in the middle of a long conversation about a film one of them had just seen; I have no idea what it was, but apparently it was by a foot fetishist who has made a lot of movies but finally, finally mastered the delicate balance of fetish and art: "...for the first time ever, it didn't feel like a fetish. It was just an element in the storytelling. Usually the foot fetish calls such attention to itself and you just get hung up on it, but this time he really made it organic to the entire film, and it made such sense you hardly even noticed it was there."

Also, apparently there's some kind of Halloween-themed citywide treasure hunt/capture the flag game going on tonight, and people were jumping on and off the train wearing little sky-blue armbands all the way from downtown to Stanyan Street.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Y'know, for anyone but me this would be a really odd email to get:

Did I leave my wrench and speed wrench in your car last night?

See, now, if you have a speed wrench, why would you also need a regular wrench?

And the subject line... Wrenches.

No bruises but a wicked case of rink rash. I fell right on my pumpkin.

We went to Boney Island tonight. A guy, who I guess is a producer on The Simpsons, spends MONTHS turning his yard into a Halloween extravaganza. It was AMAZING. Check it out: [link] Hundreds of animatronic skeletons and a blacklight musical fountain display and the three-story tree house. All free and so much fun.

One of the skeleton attractions is a fortune teller. They built a shadow box inside the front window of the house, and that display is in there. The cool part is a nondescript older guy, holding a slurpee cup, standing near the back of the crowd. We went with friend's kids and the younger went up front. The skeleton told him he knew his name. At the same time, slurpee man motioned the dad over, who whispered in his ear. When the skeleton said "Your name is Ethan." Ethan jumped about a foot. It was awesome.

Timelies all!

Another lazy Sunday morning, with Nova on my lap.