It is Halloween, and we are sitting on our couch, watching various shows on HGTV, and occasionally hopping up to go toss Tootsie Rolls into bags held out by various costumed children. Our screaming doormat died on us last year, so this year we must make do with a marvelous skull that says clever and witty things when it senses shadows. This has the advantage of acting like an early warning system – if the stomping of small feet climbing the steps to the porch wasn't warning enough. With few exceptions they are usually sidetracked by the talking skull and quite often spent a few moments trying to figure out how it works – giving us a few extra seconds to drag ourselves out of the couch and make our way over to the huge bowl of candy and open the door.

I played the piano in church today and although I very much wanted to play Danse Macabre at some point during the service I managed to find enough maturity to realize it would probably not be appropriate, and so successfully refrained.

Yesterday went to the kick-off party for Nanowrimo, which was held in an apartment in Sacramento surrounded by streets where you cannot make u-turns. It took us a while to eventually figure out just where the heck it was, but we finally made it. We recognized a few of the faces from last year's Thank God It's Over party, so we weren't the only ones insane enough to try it again.

The coordinator had a few little games to play, ending with a contest for who could write the worst starting sentence. It came down to another woman and I – she eventually won because she pulled in the hamster sex card – but I think if it had been judged on sheer number of words in one sentence alone I would have swept it without any difficulties at all. I am nothing if not good at writing extremely long sentences if I put my mind to it. I'm sure it's a skill that will serve me well at some point in my life. Or not.

This afternoon we voted. We're both permanent absentee, which means if we were actually on top of things we could fill out our ballots and mail them in. But last year and this year we have left it to the last minute, and so instead of relying on the mail and hoping it gets postmarked on the right date, we're just going to drop them off at the polling booth on Tuesday instead. So many issues to consider. So many ballot measures to ponder. So many things that reiterate just how incredibly close-minded and stupid the general public can be.