Weekend in October

 Next weekend is Halloween and all the school activities - Spirit Week, a dance at school, and the girls are having a total of 6 girls spending the night on Saturday night!  This has been planned and looked forward to for so long.  I hope it's a great time for all of them - three big girls and three younger ones.  They'll go trick-or-treating in the neighbohoods near here.  There is always an over-the-top celebration not too far from their house, and this year maybe it won't be freezing and/or pouring rain.  There have been some rough ones in the past few years.  They deserve a nice one.  

Emily is planning her costume so carefully, and I reminded her that these girls might be old enough to go off by themselves.  I hope they let her go with them.  I'm not sure if or what Ryan is dressing as.  I haven't tried to keep up with them in years, and I like it that way.  Some years, we have no one ringing the doorbell, and some years, we do.  I may have lived here long enough with the cats on display that people feel like they know who I am.  Regardless, I'd better be prepared!  

I can't remember a less unproductive weekend lately.  I had so many things I had planned to do but just never drummed up any enthusiasm for them.  Some days, nothing I try turns out the way I want it to, and I lose my enthisiasm, esepcially since my newing room is now 75% in the garage, and I have to go out there to dig things out of boxes.  I did make a pretty detailed list of where things are, so I don't have to open the wrong bin too many times.  

First thing tomorrow morning, I'm going to join a Mah Jong tournament from ilovemahj.com.  I try to play a few times a week with the bots on line to keep me in practice between real games, but I've really not done that lately.  And now there's a 24-hour tournament.

The first time I tried a tournament, we were changing to the 2026 card, and I checked the wrong box and kept losing every game.  Not that I won that many more when I figured it out, but at least I knew what I was doing wrong.  The other two tournaments, I finished 592 out of 963 and glad to score that high.  Everyone plays the same hand with 3 bots, and it's hard to win, especially when there is a timer on.  I get too nervous when I'm being timed.  If I don't discard a tile quickly, it will be discarded for me!  

I've heard very little from the WinBins since the middle of the week.  I think there was a trip to the orthodontist and some extra homework, and I'm not even sure what else they've tried to fit in.

There was an interesting project that Graysen had in one of her classes, and I'm sorry to say I don't know which one.  It was their version of Shark Tank.  GG felt very lucky to have been chosen for a judge rather than an inventor, along with her friend Maija.  We gathered up some costume items and did a little planning over here, but I never go to ask how it went.  That's how it goes lately.  I'm still interested in the things the girls do, but I'm not always there in the moment. 

This picture was in the school album, and the girls have laughed about it.  They're just calmly standing there waiting for the starting signal, looking a little bored frankly.  I guess that's the last time Gray will wear the SMS jersey unless she does track in the spring.  I hope she does.  I want to see how they manage to jump those hurdles.

Kate's focus this week has been on preparing a "mystery bag" for math class.  They get tickets all week when they do something worthwhile, and on Friday they get to bid on certain things in the classroom.  She and I have had our heads together about a drawstring bag.  I think I can do one of those, but I'm not sure she's ready for casings yet.  She will pick out what it's filled with and offer it up Friday..  I've wasted too much time looking at videos and deciding which one I'm going to make.  I'm stuck on cm and inches tonight.  Some days, the smallest things derail me!  

That's very little to account for my weekend, but I enjoyed most of it.  I got my ballot ready to take to the drop box, so that's done - although a little confusing on some of the issues.