So we forgot why we swore two years ago no more Halloween parties and some idiot, me, didn’t pay attention and 45 kids got invited but luckily a couple didn’t come but I still spent a few days hanging black plastic tarps and fakey spiderwebs in the cellar and more webs in the kitchen and one little girl came early and told us “Gamma is the best reader in class!” and so we fell in love with her and let her put on one of Gamma’s Disney princess outfits, the pink one, what, Cinderella I suppose, but for trick-or-treating I think she changed into dark streetclothes, because here in Austria Halloween is relatively new, dating roughly to 1995 at most, and still entirely witch/vampire at this point; the costume party season here is the Carneval season in, what, February I guess, mardi gras and all that. So we had a lot of 6 year old and 14-15 year old vampires etc. And they had fun. And a few kids came trick-or-treating, fewer than last year, very polite, and a conservative Catholic bishop condemned the holiday celebrations as heathen so a good time was had by all except I got really tired because 8 hours is just too much for a Halloween party – we started early so the big kids could take care of the little kids, and then still have time for their own stuff later on; of course it just mushed into one long chaotic mess, but like I said, turned out well. Nothing broken, only one little boy pooped his pants because all bathrooms were occupied, a little glitter on one cat, that was it.

The next day was the big holiday here in Austria. All Souls. Radio traffic advisories warned people to take public transportation to the big cemeteries, because the parking lots were full. It began to rain.