It runs two weeks, beginning today and ending October 7th.

That's strange.  I'd have thought a two-week Oktoberfest could be contained completely within the 31 day month of October.  Why have a full 1/2 of it take place in September? 

Oh well.  It's Bavaria's festival (begun in 1810 upon the marriage of King Ludwig I to Princess Theresa of Saxony-Hildburghausen), so presumably they know best. 

Erst mach' dein' Sach
dann trink' und lach!
 
(First take care of business,
then drink and laugh!)

I've preferred to stick with the original Xanga format instead of the "themes" one, so I'm just now catching on that when one visits a "themes" Xanga and comments, the comment box allows for bolding, italics, smilies, and hotlinking. 

Just FYI. 

The song's official name is "Escape", though it tended to be known as the "pina colada song." Anyway, the point is that it concerned a couple who each answered a personal ad in the newspaper, only to show up at the appointment to find the other waiting:

So I waited with high hopes, then she walked in the place.
I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face.
It was my own lovely lady, and she said, "Oh, it's you."
And we laughed for a moment, and I said, "I never knew"..

"That you liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape."

Yes, well, believe it or not that basically happened to a couple, but it didn't have quite that happy ending; from Sydney's Daily Telegraph:

A married couple who didn't realise they were chatting each other up on the internet are divorcing.

Truth be told, I always figured the latter story was the most realistic ending.  

Today is the official Talk Like a Pirate Day!

This was a real pleasure, as I don't get to see him near often enough. 
He, Dmitry and I had a nice time playing with Lincoln logs, playing
ball (using plastic bowling pins as bats and a juggling ball as the
ball....we're big on improvisation around here), watching videos (Miss
Pattycake has another convert, and where the heck are all my Miss
Pattycake DVD's?  I could only find one), and in general just playing
around.

Dmitry's log cabin beat the socks off mine:

Cole liked whacking the ball better than most anything else....

Here's a short video of the two of them playing ball:

A whole bunch of family and friends assembled at Kirstin and Matt's house to eat, drink, whack a pinata and in general make merry.

Don and the birthday boy:

And Bryson all by himself:

We waited and waited and at last here came Jessica and her family;  here's Bethany with Bridgette:

And Bridgette with her mama:

Jonathan and Dmitry were present, but Charles couldn't make it due to his car suddenly refusing to allow its ignition key to turn.  Don went up to the Shell station and worked on it, too, jiggling the steering wheel, jiggling the key, all to no avail.  He said it was as if the key was set in stone.  Finally a wrecker had to be called to tow it down to the dealership (doubtless to the relief of the gas station, since Charles's car was blocking a pump but since it couldn't be moved out of park, it couldn't be pushed).  Cars are a nuisance and no mistake. 

Of course, we all enjoy ourselves different ways at these shindigs, don't we?  Don and Ben Ed (Matt's father) watched the golf tournament on TV, I took photos with my phone (I forgot my regular camera, can you believe it?) and sent them to Flickr, etc.  Dmitry wound up doing what he does best:

There was, as I mentioned, a pinata, and here's a very short video of the kids yelling "Happy birthday, Bryson" before getting started:

This one's a little longer, and is of him, the birthday cake, and the obligatory singing of "Happy birthday" by the assembled guests:

(Alex, if you'll go up to the Video link, there's another short one just of family mingling around in the kitchen.)

Hard to believe our Bryson bunny is already three years old! 

They rode the TRE (a train connecting Fort Worth and Dallas) to a drug store in Irving, which has the distinction of possessing an old-fashioned soda fountain.  As Mom and I noted over at Elaine's blog, when we went on field trips for school they never allowed for this type of refreshment:

I'd grin like a loon, too, had I such a hot fudge sundae in front of me! 

Y'know, Dmitry has never been to a drug store with a soda fountain, and I'm thinking it'd be remiss of me, as his mother, to deprive him of such a slice of disappearing Americana. 

They also went to look at a log cabin-type abode, which was closed, unfortunately. Still, the kids could poke around the outside and pose for photos on the porch:

That's darling Margaret in front.  Now there's a child who understands the principle of a photo op. 

WFAA has published a photo of the bomb squad robot approaching the "suspicious device", which was found to contain gunpowder and BB pellets:

Apparently a kid said he had a pipe bomb, but then, what's the robot doing outside?

I daresay it'll all be sorted out by the evening news.  ;^)

Still, it's scary that there actually WAS an explosive device found!  

Dmitry and I were making a Borders-Blockbuster run, which takes us on the I-30 access road north of Arlington Heights High School, when to our astonishment we saw multiple police cars in front of the school and blocking the street in front of it, plus a fire truck, plus a helicopter hovering in the air, well to the north.  IOW, not right over it.  Which is smart, if one thinks there's a chance a bomb might go off.  After our stop at Borders (in the shopping center across Hulen from the school) by golly if the police, etc. weren't still present, plus there were now at least three helicopters hovering up in the sky.  Exiting to the south we saw that the football field was full of students, obviously having been evacuated:

According to the news, a "suspicious device" had been found in front of the school by a student, who (foolishly, IMO) picked it up and carried it into the office.  What do you want to bet the memos will be flying fast and furious next week providing instructions about What To Do If a Suspicious Device Is Found, paramount among them being Do Not Bring It To The Office?