Halloween and weekend happenings...

Halloween in the new neighborhood was lots of fun, there were plenty of adorable trick or treaters, and Allie had fun trick or treating around here.

Can you guess who she is?

She's Barbie! But she did get people guessing that she was Dolly Parton, Hannah Montana, and most outrageous to Allie, someone said Britney Spears! She wasn't too happy about that, as she said, "I'd NEVER be her!"

Her friend went as a gangster, and since Allie was Barbie, her friend decided to be "gangster Ken" so it was a lot of fun.

It was interesting, most of the little boys were ninjas or Spider Man, and most of the girls were fairies or Disney princesses.

We decided to get a little more creative with pumpkins this year. I decided to do "barfing pumpkin" Allie did a girly pumpkin with a bow in her hair. J spray painted his pumpkin white to create "ghost pumpkin."

Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile may remember my encounter last year with the "Jackass o' Lantern" (Here's the link to the post http://girlnamedmoe.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html ) Fortunately, I have not encountered the Jackass O' Lantern again, but did hear that his wife left him. Quelle Suprise. So, he had to spend this Halloween without Mrs. Jack O'Lantern, who apparently came to her senses.

This weekend, I actually went out! To a concert with a friend at an actual club! Where people have grown-up alcohol drinks and they dress up! It was really weird, simply because I had not been in that kind of environment since before I had Allie. J & I tend to be pretty low key in our infrequent outings, usually dinner and a movie, or dinner with a few friends. Once you have kids, your life kind of becomes more about their social lives and doing family friendly activities.

So, anyway, I went with a very lovely friend who shares my passion for.....Neil Diamond. Yes, that's right, I don't really make a secret of it, but I kind of love Neil even though he can be cheezy. His music is the music we listened to growing up. For a time, my Dad had a black van, which was called the "pimp mobile" because it had red velvety plush interiors, truly the inside of the van looked like a turn of the century bordello. Anyway, the pimp van had an 8 track, and very often we would pop-in Neil's "Hot August Nights" 8 track and rock out. I'd have to say "Sweet Caroline" is one of my all time favorite songs.

I guess I'm not the only one who has a nostalgic love for the vaguely cheezy works of Neil. I say cheezy with respect because I really do love Neil. The group I saw Saturday night at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland is a Neil Diamond tribute band, called Super Diamond http://www.superdiamond.com/ They sing all of Neil's hits, and are true to the circa 1970s Neil with flashy, shiny clothes, open shirts, gold medallions and sideburns galore.

I have to say, it was REALLY FUN. I don't remember when I danced so much or sang so loud! They did cheese-out a few songs, which are already so campy anyway, it seemed beside the point, but they were fun.

In the immortal words of Neil, "Good times never seemed so good."