Nicole’s a witch and Danny’s a vampire.

Ted & Nancy invited a bunch of people over for an impromptu cookout. We showed up after church. There were more people there than at most things we plan.

Bob cooked the hamburgers. Paul Barr brought his girlfriend over. It was unusual seeing Paul with a girl. She seems very nice. I think her name is Linda or Susan or Heather???

***

Kathy earned $35 for a marketing survey that she didn’t have to do. She showed up, and they didn’t need her but gave her the money anyway. So we all went out for ice cream at Gorin’s.

We loaded up Danny’s scooter and Nick’s bike and stopped off at Holy Cross to let the kids ride into the sunset. I was surprised at some of the daring turns Danny could make on his scooter. As it got dark, I told the kids it was time to switch. I just wondered what Danny would say.

Danny took it very seriously, put down his scooter, and walked over to get Nicole’s bike. I helped him on it, and ran behind him with my hands under his arms as he road Nicole’s bike! He got going stable enough that I could hold my hands away from him, letting him solo. Kathy and Nicole cracked up! I thought he might be able to do it, since the scooter has similar balance and feel as a bike.

We’ll get Nicole a new bike for her birthday, I guess, and paint Nicole’s pink bike green. That’s the color Danny wants to paint it.

[Claire would beat Danny’s record when she learned at 3 and a half.]

Stayed home from work with a bad cold and Danny. Learned the maxim: “Black holes have no hair” in Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Ted let me borrow it.

As Nicole came to tell me good night, I told her not to kiss me because I was sick. “I’m going to hug you good night,” she said, giving me a germ-free hug.

And this made her think.

“Dad, if you’re sick, and a well person drinks from a cup, then you drink from that cup, will you get better?”

“I’m afraid not. You can get germs from a sick person’s cup, but you can’t get cured from a well person’s cup.”

She was a little disappointed, because it seemed like a good idea.

And of course, it was a terrific idea. In fact, as she sleeps in the other room, I wish I had said, “Let’s try it and see!” I think she would have enjoyed curing her Dad.

She’s thinking a lot. Good sign. The other day she asked me if I had ever flown in a spaceship. How could I resist letting her down. “Sure,” I said. (“In books,” I didn’t say.)

“Wow! What kind?” she asked.

“I’ve been in several, but my favorite was the Millineum Falcon.”

“Have you been on planets?”

“Some,” I said. I had just taught her the song, My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza Pies (Swanee River), to help remember the order of the planets. She had been to Fernbank and learned about some of the planets. That’s where I learned the song.

So she went through the list asking had I been on each planet and what was it like. Kathy was grinning in the corner of the dining room. Nicole’ eyes just got bigger and bigger. She even acknowledged that Pluto would be too cold to go to.

“I wish I could go to other planets,” she said.

“You can. Do you know what you have to do?”

“Oh yes, you have to spin around in one of those big spinning things. Right?”

“Well, astronauts do that. But all you really have to do is read. That’s how I went to the other planets. I read about them in stories and books.”

She didn’t seem as disappointed as I thought she would. Instead, she just asked more questions.

Maybe you can get better drinking out of a well person’s cup.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a day to get together with family and give thanks for all that we have.

Only, Mom and Dad went to Destin, and Carol and Bob went to Cincinnati. So we had Thanksgiving breakfast here. Grant and Ted came over for eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, coffee cake, and cereal. Nicole was thankful that she made all A’s this quarter. Ted was thankful that he has two job offers, an engineering company in Tampa and the Georgia D.O.T. Grant was thankful that Mom let him use his car to drive up to Rome to celebrate Thanksgiving with Sue and her family. Kathy, Danny, and I were not specifically thankful, but thankful in general.

Then we got ready to go to Grandpa’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. We brought Cassie whom we were dogsitting for Carol and Bob. Tom and Chris were there. After a delicious feast, Tom, Chris, Kathy, and I hung around in Chris’s room as we took turns talking to Gammie in Ft. Lauderdale who has the flu and is about to lose her job, she’s afraid. Michele lends a balance to every holiday, especially for Kathy.

Tom showed Nicole, Danny and me some snapdragons that he had planted eight months ago in the front yard. We pulled off the pods, cracked them open, and collected the tiny black seeds on a paper towel. Danny was fascinated. Tom pointed out what a good deal this was. A new package of seeds would cost 78??, and the paper towel already had ten times the number of seeds you would get in a package. Tom is a sensitive tycoon.

Later, Kathy fell asleep as I watched Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Unlike Arnold Schwartzenagor’s “Predator,” Woody Allen left me thinking. It must be fun to peddle your art for a living.

9:05 am. Have to go help clean up the house for some prospects that are due around noon.