Poker Chick wishes this new line of "couture canine fragrance products" were a Halloween prank. Sadly, it's real.

Happy Halloween

The first trick-or-treating for the mini reminded Poker Chick of her own first experience. 8 years old, she went with her mother. Remember the mother in this case is a foreigner with no concept of Halloween. It was laughable. She didn't know what houses to go to, didn't know what to say when knocking on the door, and didn't leave the driveway light on and then wondered why no kids came to their house. Poker Chick felt a bit like that trying to get her kid to say "trick or treat". It came out great before the door opened, but the mini went shy once a stranger appeared. So Poker Chick was saying the "trick or treat" and putting the candy in the pumpkin. Two floors later and we get "I want to go home, Mommy." History sure does repeat itself in bizarre ways.*

Still, Halloween does have its strong points. Candy. Mmmm, candy. Cute kids at your door. Entertaining teenagers. And the best part? Getting to add to the pet peeve list.

*A hint to the mini's costume: repeat the second half of "bizarrrrre"

Poker Chick is thinking of joining Mensa, just for a year. What do y'all think? Waste of $50 tax-deductible bucks? Yes, she knows this is a random question.

Personalities For Sale

OK, Poker Chick reads BusinessWeek. And she's finally come to the conclusion that half the world's gone meshuggah. This article is a perfect example. People pay this woman more than a salary per year to "get" their kid into college. Not appropriately outraged? Perhaps it sounds benign to you that she would "advise" a child to give up track instead of music for the school of their dreams. The dreams they're told to have.

"Year After Year, 95-100% of Dr. Hernandez's Students Receive Acceptance Letters to their Top Choice Colleges!"

Of course they do. It's much easier to have a good rate when you tell kids what their top choice is in advance. These are middle school kids having their future personalities handed to them on silver platters. What happens when they get into the "perfect school", perhaps even graduate and realize they're ill-prepared to handle life without someone telling them what to do and how to feel about it all? What happened to the freedom to explore who you are on your own? Does nobody else have a problem with this?

The Power of Facebook

DinDin left an odd message today that he had news and Poker Chick should call him soon, even if it was late. She did but must have messed up the time zone thing and got him too late anyway. Still, she did not have to spend the night in suspense! While DinDin was peacefully sleeping across the pond, yours truly logged on to Facebook and there it was, right on her homepage. "Friend Updates: Linster is proud of her hubby who graduated his masters with honors!"
Guess we know what his news was, huh? Congrats, squirt.