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I admit the photo has nothing to do with spam. Truth be told, it’s a year old and I’m enjoying the aroma of my mom’s homemade apple pie, the one she made when my parents visited Nantes last November. Somehow, it seemed like the right balance for a post about spam.

This morning Melinda said to me, “Let’s get an early start on our errands and get them done quickly.” A great plan. Too bad it didn’t go as we wanted.

First, we had to wait to get started until after we picked up Ella from her overnight birthday party. That was 10:30. Then, errand number one, closing our safe deposit box, took much longer than what we thought it would. It was already past noon when we moved on to errand number two, which involved trying to buy me a vintage suit. We first tried the Goodwill in downtown Seattle. No go. Not even close. Then we tried the Value Village on Capital Hill. No go. And upon returning to the car we discovered we had been given a ticket. Our license tabs had expired and we had totally forgotten to renew them. That’s $47.

That’s $47 and a new errand to run, I mean, renewing the license. We arrived at the nearest licensing station 5 minutes after it closed, so set off across town to Ballard to another that is open much later. Because of construction, it took an eternity to get there. And once we arrived, we learned the car needs an emission test before we can renew the license. Thank goodness the kind clerk allowed us to reverse the order. But arriving at the emission station, we found it was closed.

What was left? Get some Mexican food at the taco truck in today’s photo and come home to write today’s post.

There is this unique organic, gluten-free, vegetarian restaurant in our neighborhood called Thrive. Melinda and I thoroughly enjoy it; in fact, in our perfect world we have a personal chef who makes us the kind of meals, snacks, beverages and desserts that you can order at Thrive.

After a busy Friday late afternoon/early evening that involved getting Ella to her dance class and then quickly to a friend’s birthday party (and pick up a present for her), Melinda and I decided to stop at Thrive for a quick dinner. It was a good decision. If this kind of food interests you, click on their menu and find the Nori Rolls and the Awaken Warm Grain Bowl. Those Nori Rolls, man, I could just keep eating them. There they are in today’s photo.

Sitting there tonight we started talking about next summer when we hope Frédérique and Laurent will be visiting us. We keep noting places we want to take them.

Thrive is on the list.

Here’s another picture from last weekend’s trip to Target. While this one didn’t strike me as being quite as funny as “men swear,” the idea of placing a sign saying “Better For You” above the Cheese Whiz and snack crackers in the food department still gave me a chuckle.

What do you think is on the “Worse For You” aisle??

I don’t recall seeing anything in France that resembled spraying a cheese-like product from an aerosol can. I feel fairly confident that such a concept is uniquely American. And, boy, does that make me feel proud, kind of like when I think of “Freedom Fries.”

Looking at the photos the last two days leads me to consider the concept of something being “blog-worthy.” I referenced this before but feel it’s time to refresh your memories. So, raise your hand if you’re a Seinfeld fan. Keep your hand in the air if you remember the episode in which Elaine evaluates potential suitors from the standpoint of whether or not they are “sponge-worthy.”

Men Swear. Cheese Whiz. Blog-worthy.

Melinda & I were in Target over the weekend. For the benefit of my French friends, Target is one of those “all-purpose” stores, kind of like Leclerc although not nearly the amount of groceries. I really don’t know how to describe it much better than that, other than to say that I always feel tired after having been there. Christine, I think you know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, as we were walking through the store I started to chuckle and then laugh out loud. Admittedly, I was in a bit of a nutty mood to begin with, but walking through the clothing section and seeing this sign struck me as very funny. Menswear. Of course they do. So do teenage boys.

That’s almost all I have for you today other than to wish a happy birthday to our good friend Théo in Nantes. Théo, are you reading this blog regularly? Want to come mow our lawn in Seattle? We miss you!

One of the craziest events each year on the PSCS calendar is comedy night. Each year, we get a professional stand-up comedian to volunteer to teach a stand-up comedy class. A handful of students sign up for the class which includes the opportunity to hone their material and then present it on stage at one of the best comedy clubs in the Northwest, the Comedy Underground (co-managed by the father of one of our teachers). To tell you how significant the Comedy Underground is, Ellen DeGeneres once performed there.

So, yes, tonight was comedy night and we just got back home (it’s about 11pm). My photo is of the three student comics who performed on stage, interspersed among some professional comics, including Ty Barnett who was a finalist on Last Comic Standing. Check out this video of Ty on YouTube. Regarding the students, that’s Maddie on the left, Spencer in the center and Joshua on the right.

So a year ago I had to chase little French kids around our neighborhood to get them to come trick or treating at our house in Nantes. Not so this year, although I must say that there weren’t as many trick or treaters in our neighborhood in Seattle this year as there were when Chloe and Ella were of trick or treating age.

Fortunately, though, we had a visit from the good witch in today’s photo. Yup, that’s Perrin and she made a special stop at our house tonight so we could see her in full costume. For full disclosure, this witch costume is one created by my mom some years ago for Ella, I believe. I’m glad to see it’s still getting good use.

Waxing nostalgic, I admit to feeling some sadness this year over not taking one of my “little” girls out trick or treating. When they were the “right” age, I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, them or me. I rank the trick or treat aspects of Halloween up there with birthdays and Christmas Eve for absolute childhood fun.

I mean just stop and think about it. You get to wear a costume. You go out at night. You knock on doors. You say a simple phrase. People give you candy.

If that’s not childhood perfection…

So I dipped into the family photo archive to find this photo, going back 5 years for it. According to the time stamp on this picture, Pumpkin Weekend came early in 2006, October 14. Now why might have Pumpkin Weekend come early in 2006? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Perrin was born on October 18, 2006?

That seems to be about as good of an explanation as there possibly could be.

A part of the PW (Pumpkin Weekend) tradition is to pose for photos with the pumpkins on Brenda’s & Greg’s back porch while sitting in the Adirondack chairs. Greg sets the timer on the camera and then makes a dash for his spot in the photo. This one came out pretty nice, I’d say.

Also of interest is Chloe’s pumpkin. She was studying Hindi at that time and had learned to write her name in Hindi. That’s it on the pumpkin nearest her. And, goodness, Chloe was just 13 back then and Ella was 9, soon to turn 10.

That must mean Melinda and I were younger, too. Probably in our 20’s or something, given how young the girls look.

Last weekend I wrote about Chloe’s attempts to duplicate Pumpkin Weekend at college. But there is nothing like the original, the real deal. And that one involves Brenda, Greg & Perrin.

Just before 5pm today, Melinda & I dropped off Ella at Brenda’s, Greg’s & Perrin’s house. Or, more accurately, we dropped off the Bride of Frankenstein. Upon our arrival, we were immediately greeted by a very attractive witch who looked a lot like Perrin. She cast a spell that allowed us to enter the house, whereupon we heard about her day at the Woodland Park Zoo, complete with some trick or treating there.

In case you need more context for the Bride of Frankenstein and the witch, I refer you to this important video. It was created by Brenda, er, I mean Frankenstein. I trust it is reasonably self-explanatory.

Meanwhile, back to Pumpkin Weekend, Ella arrived with three pumpkins to carve. And as I’ve reported, there is dinner to be had and movies to watch. Tomorrow morning includes breakfast before Ella returns home. It’s a family tradition.

I know what you’re thinking. Halloween isn’t until Monday so why the focus three days early? Well, Fridays at PSCS provide the most flexibility for activities like a HALLOWEEN PARTY. So members of the staff and many students took full advantage and threw a full-blown party, complete with costumes, a haunted house (or something like it), doughnuts on a string, pumpkin carving and pizza.

After four days on jury duty, it provided quite a contrast.

Ella (that’s her on the left with friend Chloe – note their fancy eyelashes) was responsible for the haunted house and received much appreciation for it. She claims she really didn’t know how to organize a haunted house so instead took people into a room lit only by candles, blindfolded them, then stuck their hands in disgusting concoctions. I found the most disgusting to be fruit pulp in a plastic bag. The most fascinating was an over-ripe banana with its peel. Blindfolded and primed for Halloween, I was ready to believe the peel was some kind of intestine or something.

Ok, so I got a little caught up in the festivities.

For a real fright, I refer you to the 2011 Texas Rangers and their fans. 1 strike away from a World Series title last night, they lose Game 7 tonight. Ouch.