Turtle Power!

The end of October was a real milestone for our older boy.  His very first Hallowe'en.

He's twice cowered in fear in the presence of an ersatz Santa Claus, but apparently has no qualms about dressing up in a ridiculous outfit and going toe to toe with Dracula, Dora the Explorer, miniature Jedi and a whole menagerie of well-padded animals.  Go figure.  Sugar can be a powerful goad.

I manned the Fraser door this year while Amy toddled behind our large green turtle.  The trailing hare to his tortoise.  A girlfriend told Amy that there was a firetruck down the street from our house, giving the initial impression of an emergency.  Not the case.  The truck was strategically parked at the intersection of a well known path of 'treaters and the men were shovelling candy out of their hats into the waiting bags of children.  At hearing this, Amy hustled Dex out the door but was unable to ogle, err, find them.

My one biggest fear stemmed from the fact that I had Tavish in hand while distributing candy to all the good little girls and boys.  I pictured me leaning out the door to deposit a couple miniature Kit-Kats and Aero bars into some pillow case cum candy bag, quickly followed by a curdled stream of Tav's own making.  Thankfully, that scary scenario never coalesced.

I actually tracked the number of kids and the time they arrived at our door, thinking I could make a couple of cool graphs showing the trends of arrivals and peak periods.  ("Cool graphs" is NOT an oxymoron, by the way.)  Unfortunately, the sub-zero temps seem to have driven a lot of kids to the malls, where candy is fully as plentiful as in the wild, and parkas can be shed.

But maybe I'll save this year's data and compare to next year, assuming it's warmer.  Then, I can see how temperature affects the number of trick-or-treaters and maybe, if I get really crazy, do a little regression analysis to estimate the approximate minimum temperature below which nobody will go outside for the purposes of procuring free candy.  The geek possibilities are nigh endless!

But anyway, here are a couple shots of Dex in this year's get-up.  (I got a lot of flack at work for not dressing up at all this year, considering I had the number one costume two years in a row.  Next year though, I have a totally killer idea.)

We got the costume from some friends whose kids had outgrown it, and darned if our own wee one doesn't just look adorable in it.  Also, Amy was completely entranced by how the bottom of the shell looked like a couple of bum cheeks.  The second picture doesn't quite do them justice, especially when he's seen walking from behind.

Comments

[TerriTorial]

How in the world did we manage that? Our boys are wearing the same costume. Great minds think alike!

Though I don't get all horny over cool graphs. Just so you know.

[Paula]

On behalf of parents of peanut-allergic children in Canada, thank you for distributing the gold standard of safe chocolate treats. My own graph would show the increased awareness of this (and a subsequent slightly smaller bag of death for my husband to take to work the next day).

[Mark]

Okay, that costume MUST have the same manufacturer as Ben's dinosaur costume. There's no doubt in my mind, the way the feet hang off the end so they can hide the child's real hands and feet.

Graphs? Cool? Well... useful sometimes, and impressive occasionally. But cool?

Paula's comment makes me almost glad we weren't at home to give out candy.

[Moksha Gren]

Unlike TerriTorial...I do "get all honry over cool graphs," so a tip of the hat to your fine data collection. I mean...even if the graph weren't cool on its own (which it is), a few years of this sort of data and you should be able to purchase the appropriate amount of candy based on the weather. Think of the effeciency, man!

Mall trick-or-treating....it's sad. There's just something wonderful about going door to door, neighbor to neighbor. That magic is kinda lost when it's a company handing out the candy instead of a neighbor. I'm glad to hear young Turtle Dex braved the cold. Although I'm sorry to hear Amy was unable to find her firemen. Would have made it a pretty good week for her, adding fireman ogling to octoberfest groping.Ah well..maybe next Halloween.

[Simon]

Terri:
You just don't know how cool some graphs can be. Data rocks!

Paula:
My candy distribution choice was born more out of the years of frustration from getting so much 'cheap' candy as a child. "What!? Another box of Sun-Maid raisins? This sucks!" I didn't want to be one of those households.

Mark:
See? I told you about the costumes. And graphs are too cool! Geez...

Moksha:
Thank you! Sweet justification at last. Outdoor trick-or-treating is where it's at, man.

[Nic]

It's lucky that trick-or-treaters never come to my door (I live in college accommodation), because I've always wanted to say "Trick!" just to see what they'd do. Or give them fruit, heheh. Evil?

Great costume!

[Alec Lynch]

Buy the *appropriate* amount of candy?
*Efficiency*??

Mosha, I like graphs as much as the next guy (well OK, maybe not all the next guys) but if I knew exactly how much candy I'd need for trick-or-treaters, then how would I ever justify *accidentally* buying too much and having mega leftovers that, you know, just can't be wasted?

Simon, this is not data that can ever, ever be released (at least not to my wife).

[marian]

What did you do with your leftover candy? We've yet to find out outlet... but I want it out of my life!

[Simon]

Alec, I promise never to release that sort of data directly to your wife. Just keep her away from this site next year. I have neither the metabolism nor will power for excess.

Marian, that's one of the curses of self-employment from which you suffer, I'm afraid. I just put all the leftover candy in a nondescript shopping bag and toted it in to work. By noon it had been whittled down to a couple packs of twizzlers and a chocolate egg. Office staff are notoriously voracious when it comes to free sweets.

[Linda]

Simon the Geek,
Cool Graph is too an oxymoron. If you weren't so "normal" in every other way, I'd worry aboot you ;-)
Dex's costume is as adorable as your new banner up there.

[Sarah]

I have to admit, those graphs sound very cool. I'm not kidding. It's not the sort of thing I would ever have the will- or brainpower to do myself, but hell I'll listen attentively when you present them!