Seven Quick Takes for Friday: Pink Tutus, Uprooted Trees and a Suggestion of Arson

1. This is how our oldest son celebrated Halloween. The day before he raced cyclocross, wearing a pink tutu he bought on the Upper West Side. He also bought a tiara, but couldn't figure out how to attach it to his helmut.


2. That same young man this weekend is with his classmates at the Rutgers University Model UN. When I dropped him and a friend off at the New Brunswick Hyatt,  a lovely girl greets them warmly at the entrance and I am thinking - Gee she doesn't look familiar. Maybe she's a senior? From another high school? I ask the friend. Who is that girl?  "Ms. M. Our history teacher. "

3. For Model UN, most of the boys wear suits. Our son's had a button that had fallen off a weekend before at a Bar Mitzvah. Yesterday, I was battling a stomach bug upstairs when he called out from the family room: "Hey Mom. I just sewed on my own button. Really easy."

4. The sidewalks of our neighborhood, like so many in New Jersey, are still strewn with broken branches and uprooted trees, the byproduct of the freak October storm that passed through here. I hope our borough comes through soon, before another storm hits.

5. Our boys have started to refer to our dog as "fun sized." I like it!

6. We still are coping with no oven and no washing machine. But car repairs are slowly happening.
Our minivan is back today, $2,200 and a new engine later.

7.  Now to fix the 18-year-old Saturn. Gas leaks as it goes from the tank into the engine. Our mechanic's "suggestion?"
1. Fill the tank with gas. 
2. Let car sit until all the gas drains out. 
3. Light a match under the car.