Let someone else pick

When Nathan and I were dating, we were both working full-time -- well, Nathan was working double-time or something like that, but normal full-time for him -- and we often had the same conversation on date night.

N: Where do you want to go for dinner?

M: I don't care. Where do you want to go?

N: I don't care either.

M: I don't want to decide. It's your turn to pick.

N: I don't want to decide either! Let's play paper-rock-scissors.

M: I don't even want to pick paper, rock or scissors.

I'm not sure about the paper-rock-scissors, but definitely not choosing the restaurant was the preferred option. I think we were so tired after a long week, that we just couldn't stand making one more decision. Not so much of a problem now; I've settled into the mom job, and I like to make ALL the decisions. Ha. That's only sort-of a joke.

But I have recently started a no-decision activity -- letting someone else pick my produce. There's a produce delivery service in town, and twice now I've bought a fruit box and vegetable box from them. I've also bought some things I actually chose myself ... the ready-to-eat haas avocados are worth using the service all by themselves. (If you have access to California avocados, be grateful.) Having someone else choose for me has actually been really good -- tonight we had eggplant parmesan, garlic bread and pomegranate for dinner. Not something I would normally throw together, but since I had to use up the eggplant, here you go. M got really excited about the pomegranate and talked all about how they are used in Jewish feasts. I think. He didn't have my full attention. Of course, I now have to use up the other 3 eggplants in the fridge. I left 2 weeks between orders, and all that was left in the fridge were 2 eggplants when the second shipment arrived. Hm. I'm thinking Indian food for the next eggplant dish ...

The picture is our favorite house in the neighborhood, at least when we have autumn colors. In an old house in Prague, all covered with vines ...

Halloween

There is a neighborhood here, next to the American-style school, where many kids go for classic trick-or-treating. It seriously is just like my childhood, except with 10x as many children. Our biggest attention-getter this year was V, as Princess Leia. Star Wars was a popular theme, we saw several Darth Vaders and one other Leia. V also got to go to a friend's "fancy dress" birthday party (that means costume party). Very exciting. I chatted with her little friend's teenage sisters for a minute when I dropped her off. They questioned V about Star Wars and I was a little embarrassed about the depth of her knowledge. What's sad is that she doesn't even like Star Wars that much -- as she says, "I only like the movie with the Ewoks." She did love her costume.
M says that we made the baby Chewbacca because she chews on everything. Too true. She was a little bundle of joy on the trick-or-treating outing, as long as we held her. She didn't want to ride in the stroller, contrary to her normal preference. We even let her collect some Halloween candy. The loot was pretty amazing this year. The variety! Russian-labeled crumbly milk stuff, sour patch kids, 8-inch marshmallow sticks, lollipops, chocolate eyeballs, lots of hard candy no one likes, caramelized biscuits, snickers, soft fruity candy from many countries, and some plastic vampire teeth. M got points for offering to share his first piece of candy with his dad, since he heard that Daddy likes KitKats.
Daddy carved the pumpkins, and Mommy made the Halloween cookies. I roasted the pumpkin seeds this year for the first time, and they turned out OK. Not sure if I'll bother next time.
M is definitely going to get the most use out of his costume, as he wears it almost every day. He told me he was a mixed up Star Wars character. Dressed in Jedi costume, but carrying a red light saber (because the red one is the coolest we have). He's also going to get the longest enjoyment out of the candy. V's is nearly gone already, which partially explains why it took her 2 hours to go to sleep last night. She's been playing word games lately, making everything start with V or B. My favorites are Vommy (that's me) and Flabby (not sure how it morphed that much, but it got a good laugh so Daddy may use this for a while). Ha.