Every year around Halloween we go up to my sister's house and carve pumpkins with the kids. This year we added carmel apples too. Here's some pics from this year's pumpkin party.

Mmmmm....hairy hotdog...




There are so many things wrong with this.
1. She...she?...er...he? ...er... it...does not look happy about
the costume or having its picture taken.
2. Hitler? Really?
3. I can think of one thing that's missing from the picture - a newspaper with today's date. Pat's parents had been waiting and waiting for this proof of life photo from the kidnappers.




I really don't know where to begin, but I guess I'll start with their legs.
Do they both have shaved legs and are they both wearing nylons and white tennies?




The saddest part of this photo is that the kid seems to really
like his costume. He thinks it's just hilarious!




A classic - although I don't recall Darth Vader wearing a shirt that had a bad drawing of him with a totally wrong helmet and the movie logo on it.




Another classic - Good ol' Star Trek, Next Generation. I remember one year trying to make that cool little walkie-talkie badge thing. Also, why is she standing like that? It almost looks like her right side does not belong to her left side...a little photoshop action maybe?




COWABUNGA DUDE!!!




Everyone knows that Spider Man DOES NOT have a doggie side-kick
or a shower-cap-eye-mask combo.




This is the scariest costume I have ever seen.

Hang in there for the ghost riding part...it's worth it.

SUPERYARD - Do these parents actually think that little pen is big enough for those two kids? Or is big enough to be called a "Superyard"? It's not even big enough for my dog.



BUMPER BONNETS - Anybody have a prediction on how this kid is gonna turn out?



YETI-BOOTS - That's just gross.

The widespread existence of fetal homicide laws, when considered next to current abortion law, creates for the U.S. a form of legal schizophrenia that is both tragic and bizarre. It boggles the mind that a culture as "advanced" and "intelligent" as ours could live with such a blatant double standard, a double standard that is enshrined in law. Either unborn children are people before they're born (in which case fetal homicide laws are just and abortion laws are not), or unborn children are not people before they're born (in which case abortion laws are just and fetal homicide laws are not). You can't have it both ways, but we do. It is absolutely absurd. More than anything, this strange legal partnership makes it clear that, for all the arguments that are made about why unborn children should not be given rights of personhood, this isn't the issue at all. The only thing that matters is the will of the mother. If the mother wants the child, it is a person. Those who harm it will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If the mother doesn't want the child, it isn't a person. It can be torn limb from limb with full legal impunity, no questions asked. The child is exactly the same in both scenarios, it is only the affections of the mother which are changed. Do you see the problem with this? Do you see a problem with basing one person's right to life on nothing else but the whims of another? - Abort73.com II. Facts About Abortion 2. Fetal Homicide Laws

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As a woman who has experienced several early miscarriages, I have come face to face with this type of schizophrenic thinking. The death of an unborn child is either a woman's right or a tragic loss depending completely on how the woman feels. When a woman becomes pregnant and decides she'd rather not be, it is a difficult, yet acceptable decision to have an abortion, after all it is her right. When a woman has a miscarriage, it is a horrible tragedy that is difficult to move past.  There is a huge disconnect here and it seems to be based entirely on how the woman feels.

Wow. I'm disgusted that so many women are deceived on this issue, yet I'm reminded that but for the grace of God, there go I. There was nothing in me to keep me from this type of sin, my flesh is just as easily deceived.  Were it not for God choosing me, redeeming me and continually sanctifying me I may have believed the abortion lie too. Praise God for His mercy!

Not long after I took this earlier picture Fritz decided he needed to finish the job. (Maybe he heard me say something about needing blog material.) In the picture below, the white part to the left is the lining of the dead doggie bed. I don't know how he managed to pull it out still mostly intact since he doesn't have opposable thumbs.



I'm thinking about installing one of those security cameras just so I can see how he's able to do the crazy things he does.

I just got an email from my Dad with the subject "Some Photos for Your Memoirs"

1. I'm writing memoirs? Oh boy, one more thing to do. Can my blog count as my "memoirs'?

2. What was I thinking? Did I wake up late that morning and have to throw on the first thing I found or did I actually think that looked good?

3. The excuse for the hair-do has to be the rain, or rather, the mist that constantly blessed us Washingtonians and ruined even the nicest hair-dos. Actually, I'm not sure that style looked any better before I went outside that morning.

4. Theresa, I know we haven't seen each other since HS graduation, but if you happen upon my blog and see this photo - I'm sorry, so so sorry. Thanks for being my friend even though I occasionally dressed like that. It was occasionally wasn't it?



The others aren't quite as painful or humiliating as the first, but I'll include them just for memories sake. Sooz, Chris, Peter, Patti and Omega - remember those times? They were so great.

The show I told you about a while back hosted by the great comedy duo Rhett & Link has been cancelled. (cue sad trombone "Wa wa wa waaa") The show was actually a bit of a disappointment and I think they saw its doom coming, but it is a little sad nonetheless.

Earlier that day, a well-intentioned stranger passes by and says, "Here's a peach dude. Good luck with your Kung Fu."


Black Shadow Biscuit vs. Nunchuku Chipmunk Master

 

Come on, really? You're a teenager at the Great Wall of China and you ask your mom to take a shot of you in your sweet karate outfit doing that? Really?


"They're the world's most fearsome fighting team (We're really hip)
They're heroes in a half-shell and they're green (Hey - get a grip!)"



Is he getting kicked in the face or is this some sort of self-discipline exorcize where he has to keep Stinky Stanley's stink foot in his face for 30 seconds? In either case it looks like Stinky Stanley is about go down.

I'm sure you have heard all about the fires here in So. Cal. and I don't have any new information, except that today was the first day the winds started to slow and the smoke has settled in the Valley. It's quite erie - the sky is brown and thick and the sun is orange and dark.

I found these satellite photos online and I think they give a good idea of how widespread and fast growing these fires have been.


LA County Fires 11:35 am LA County Fires 2:50 pm


All So Cal. Fires (Santa Clarita, Lake Arrowhead, Malibu, Orange County, San Diego)
The stream at the bottom right of the photo is actually dust from the deserts in Mexico. That's how strong these Santa Ana winds are!

A BIBLICAL MANDATE

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A while back, I mentioned that Fritz had chewed up and snorted styrofoam crumbles which got lodged in his sinuses. I thought I'd take this TGIFritz installment to expound on that story.

We had recently thrown out a large piece of packing styrofoam.  You know, the kind that crumbles into tiny Nerds sized bits? If I've learned one thing about Fritz it's that he cannot resist any visible items in the trash bins.  Even if the only thing that is visible is the little red tie from the trash bag sticking out 1/100th of an inch, he will manage to get the entire trash bag with most of it's contents out onto the driveway.  Anyway, the styrofoam was tall enough to hold the trash bin lid open and intrigue the little trouble maker. He managed to pull the entire piece out of the bin and spend the day playing with it and chewing it up. When we came home it looked as though it had snowed tiny Nerds sized styrofoam bits all over our driveway.  Fritz greeted us with his normal kidney bean happy dance only this time he was snorting like Owen from Trains, Planes and Automobiles. You see, this styrofoam snow was about the same weight as a snowflake and would blow around if you blinked near it and Fritz had been chewing on and playing in it for several hours. He had gotten quite a bit of it stuck up his nose and every time he snorted it moved farther up into his sinuses and closer to his brain. We found out not too much later that he had also swallowed a good bit of styrofoam.  I won't go into too much detail, I'll just say that the land-mines in the yard were polka-dotted.  It took a few days of snorting, but finally the styrofoam came loose and made one more polka-dotted deposit in the back yard, and now I always make sure the trash bin lid is completely closed.

I don't often post like this. My blog is intended to be a site you can visit to add a little humor to your day and maybe check in on what's happening in the Martin house. I prefer to entertain than editorialize because there are so many other blogs out there that editorialize so much better than I. However, I'm going to detour from the main road a bit today and write some thoughts on the Separation of Church and State. (You can let me know in the comments if I'm better off keeping my thoughts out of the blogosphere )


Anytime a big election is approaching there is alot of talk among the candidates about religion. There is alot of talk about religion in regards to public schools, courthouses & monuments. The theme in the talk seems to be separation of church and state. The goal seems to be eliminating, or at least compartmentalizing, religion, scratch that, Christianity from all things public.

I have heard the following question asked of several candidates, "What part will religion play in the decisions you make?" Most of the time the answer is something like how his religion is very important to him personally, but is a political non-issue apart from helping the needy and feeding the hungry.

It seems that any individual is welcome to be religious and even Christian as long as that religion does not creep out of his private life and into his public. I have two problems with this:

1. My faith is not a part of me, it is ALL of me. I don't wear faith as an accessory to certain outfits. It permeates my mind and my soul. It forms my worldview, values and my lifestyle - it is who I am. A faith that can be separated from oneself in particular circumstances is not true faith, it is merely a convenient value system that inevitably paves the road for hypocrisy.

2. Constitutional separation of church and state was never meant to eliminate religion from public life. It was meant to preserve the progress made by the Covenanters in Scotland and the Reformers in Europe. The power over the church should not be in the hands of the government and the power over the government should not rest in the hands of the church. Separation of church and state exists for the same reason as the balance of power between the Judicial, Legislative and Executive branches. It exists because of rulers like Bloody Mary who held supreme power over the government and the church. The separation protects the church from corrupt politicians and the government from corrupt clergy. It ensures that the Bible, not the Constitution, has ultimate authority over the church.

Oh theeere she is!



I appreciate several special things about this cover. I'll list them for you -
a) the special matching orange tie and suit pants
b) the special hairdo
c) the special signature - Jeff "Ziff"
d) the special hand-hook



I'll let you come up with your own comments for this one.
Let's just say the word I'm thinking of rhymes with Day, Say & Hey...



Yeah, he looks real.
(BTW, did you know K.F.C. put out records?)



I'm not sure what's more disturbing - the title, the outfit or the
permed mullet.



Self-titled debut featuring her own arrangements of minstrel and folk songs. No record collection would be complete without the vocal/keyboard stylings of Joyce.

...California

The weather has been AWESOME here the last few days. The mornings have been crisp and cool, the evenings chilly and the afternoons cloudy! I love it! We even got rain over the weekend. It really feels like Fall here in So. Cal and that is a great thing. See, my favorite seasons in this part of the country are Fall and Spring. There is nothing like the freshness of Spring and the cool of Fall. Sure, I like Summer and Winter enough, but for my taste, Summer is too hot and Winter is not cold enough. I like to be able to go outside in the Summer without dying of heat stroke and I like to go out in the Winter knowing that hypothermia could be just a few hours away. Of course, I only like it that cold if the pay-off is snow. Call me crazy. I guess it comes from my Northwestern upbringing. There's nothing like a Washington afternoon just after a storm when the sky is still charcoal gray and the sun peaks through the clouds onto the hills and lights up the turned trees.

80's Ninja


Preacher Ninja


Wanna-be-ninjas


Ron Lee, Corporate Ninja


Urban Ninja


Black Shadow Biscuit, the ninja cat


Las Tortugas Ninja Mutantes Adolescentes


Grown-up Mutant Ninja Tommy

(von GUS)

Here's what we came home to yesterday...

www.engrish.com

I don't normally post like this, but recently I have heard too many Christians repeating the talking points of the global warming religion under the guise of stewardship. I'm all for good stewardship and decreasing waste. I'm not for worshiping the environment. As a side note, it seems obvious to me that the threat of global warming is already motivating a push for increased taxes and eventually increased governmental power over our daily lives (regulating what type of cars we drive or what type of lightbulbs we use, for example). The following quotes are glimpses into the dangers of environmentalism.

"Christians do bear a responsibility to be good stewards of the earth. This is not an easy responsibility to bear in the confusing context of modern ecological debates. But the church of Jesus Christ bears the responsibility to be the steward of the Gospel above all other concerns. The temptation to turn to this-worldly concerns at the expense of spiritual concerns is very strong. Beyond this, human beings will worship either the Creator or the creation. When the authority of the Bible is undermined and confidence that we can know the Creator is compromised, the creation itself looms larger and larger as a central passion." - Albert Mohler

"If you don't believe in God, you have no meaning in your life, and you will thus search for meaning, and you will find it anywhere.  Most people, even atheists, want religion of some kind in their life.  Hello, global warming, as a substitute -- apparently unrecognized and not even organized -- religion.  Yet it is.  So you can set the stage for more people, if the atheists were to ever get their way, of establishing global warming as an unofficial religion that does force people to behave in religious ways just to a false god: the earth, a tangible god.  By the way, there's another thing, another character that all major religions require, and the same thing can be said of manmade global warming, and that characteristic that both require is "faith."  Because, when you get down to it, nobody can prove their religion is true.  That's why there is faith, and that's why faithful people frighten those who have no faith, because faithful people realize there's something larger than themselves.  The global warming people essentially are atheists. You cannot believe in the God of Creation and believe manmade global warming.  You just can't.  You might run around and say, "I don't want to destroy God's creation."  God's laughing at you.  You can't!  He could, but you can't.  You can't create it; you can't destroy it.  You might be changing it. We adapt to it. We have to adapt to it. Every living thing has to adapt to nature in order to thrive." -Rush Limbaugh

I ABSOLUTELY HATE it when people scare me....but I love watching other people get scared.








PS - I DO NOT recommend following the advice of the 2nd video and going to devilthreads.com.

1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word SIKE.

2. You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
and can do the Carlton




3. You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey on Blossom




4. If you ever watched "Fraggle Rock"




5. It was actually worth getting up early on a
Saturday to watch cartoons.




6. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.




7. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.




8. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.


9. You played the game "MASH"
(Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House) 




10. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets
and were proud of it. 




11. You know the profound meaning of " WAX ON , WAX OFF" 




12. You wanted to be a Goonie.




13. You ever wore fluorescent clothing.
(some of us...head-to-toe) 




14. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted. 




15. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the
only female smurf. 




16. You took lunch boxes to school...and traded Garbage Pailkids in the schoolyard. 




17. You remember the CRAZE, then the
BANNING of slap bracelets. 




18. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after every sentence.


19. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets. 




21. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes. 



22. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying "I know you are, but what am I?" 




23. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up" 




24. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates. 




25. You have ever played with a Skip-It. 



26. You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that. 




27. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot. 




28. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac. 




29. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool...and don't even flinch when people refer to them as "NKOTB" 




30. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell," The ORIGINAL class. 




31. You know all the words to Bon Jovi
SHOT THROUGH THE HEART. 




32. You just sang those words to yourself.


33. You still sing "We are the World" 




34. You tight rolled your jeans. 




35. You owned a bannana clip. 




36. You remember "Where's the Beef?" 




37. You used to (and probably still do) say
"What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" 




38. You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you! 


(von MICHELLE)

It's been just over a week of slow draining and the pool is finely cleaned and put away until next summer. I'm not really sad to see it go. It's been well over a month since we swam and I've been ready for Fall since that day it hit 113°. I'm looking forward to some crisp Fall evenings around the backyard fire pit roasting mallows.



Thanks Easy Set Pool. You were a great Summertime friend providing cool refreshment and aquatic fun. See you next year.

My husband took me to see Wicked on Saturday night. WOW! It was Wicked awesome!

We decided to go on a whim and just happened to find INCREDIBLE seats in the center-orchestra section. Before the show we headed up to the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and had a delicious dinner at The Grill. Our waitress was great and even gave us 2 complimentary tickets for the shuttle to the theater so we could stay parked there.

Neither of us had ever sat that close at a show before and it was a completely different experience. It was like we were a part of the show, pulled into the action and drawn in by every detail of the acting. We even made eye contact with the cast. Speaking of the cast, there was not one member who did not impress us. In particular, the two leading ladies were amazing.

Eden Espinosa as "Elphaba" was magnetic. As soon as she stepped on stage, she enthralled the audience. Every scene she played was powerful but the final scene before intermission was especially captivating. It was a standing ovation, award winning, career-making kind of scene.

After the show we went out to the curb to catch the shuttle back to our car and stood in line with about 60 other people. We watched as the first bus came and picked up all but 15 of us. Then we watched as all the cast came out of the theater, signed a few autographs and headed home. We watched as the theater was locked up and went dark. After about 40 minutes of standing and waiting for the bus, the group of us that continued to wait realized that it wasn't coming back and we would have to walk the couple miles down Hollywood Blvd. to our cars... at midnight... in Hollywood. We all managed to stay together as a group, clutching our souvenir programs and avoiding eye contact as we tried to blend in with the crazies and scaries. You'll be glad to know that we made it back unscathed, though a little shaken.

Save the walk back, our evening was fantastic. You've GOT TO go see Wicked! It's definitely in my top 3 best shows of all time.