Home And Hungry

I got the greatest gift when I walked in the door this evening: my family was home. Pablo was wearing his black knit winter cap with skulls on it. Jo Ann was cooking dinner. Grady was glued to the TV, watching the Phillies clobber that other team I didn't even know existed until last week—what are the called, the Rays? The dogs were running around playing, and sniffing impossible-for-the-human-eye-to-see food crumbs all over the kitchen. Sometimes our dawgs act like shell-shocked war vets. War vets with snappy tails that whack Pablo in the face.

Jo Ann, Pablo and Polly got home from CHLA late this morning. This hospital stay went by very quickly. They checked in around 3 p.m. Monday, and got home before noon today—less than 48 hours. Not bad, considering some of the long and unexpected stays we've had recently. After a tough Monday night of vomiting and interrupted sleep, Jo Ann put her exec producer hard hat back on on Tuesday, and got a plan together with the nurses. When she woke up Tuesday, she realized that the night nurse hadn't administered Pablo's Zofran (anti-nausea) meds at the proper intervals. Once she got the Z doses sorted, everything fell into place. He hasn't thrown up since Monday night.

Right now, Pablo is happy, alert and h.u.n.g.r.y. The dude has pulled me into the kitchen twice in the past 30 minutes to eat more food. When Pablo eats, the whole family feels good. Nothing tells us that P is doing well more than a fat appetite.

Back to Grady. He lost it when the Phillies won. Jimmy was on the phone with him two seconds after the final pitch. Jimmy's from P-town, so the World Series was serious business to him. Pablo recognized the Phillies' jerseys from one of Grady's old little league pictures. There was almost a TV war, but the last pitch of the game went off just as Pablo was starting to whine about turning the channel. Everyone won that game.

Trick or Treat is Friday night. Pablo's silver robot costume is ready to go. He's already broken in the mask. We live in the hills, and nobody trick or treats around here. There are no sidewalks, cars drive waaaay too fast to have kiddies prowling around in the dark, and the street lamps around here are spaced oddly, leaving giant dark patches in between over-luminescent ones. In our neighborhood, we hit up Armstrong Avenue, a quaint residential street a few blocks from here, at the end of the reservoir. The scene on Armstrong is insane. A cross between being at an all-school skate party and an all ages Goth night back in the day. The cops barricade the street so kids can safely cruise the pavement in the dark.

Every year for as far back as I can remember (read: two years lol), we have been late on the scene on Armstrong. One or two years before Pablo was born, we hit the pumpkin patch walk at Grady's old school, Pasadena Waldorf. By the time we got back to Sizzlerlake, the candy catch on Armstrong was weeeeeeaaaaak. I remember it being rough.

This year, we are doing the exact opposite. Our twin goals of giving Pablo the Halloween experience he has been fiending for and keeping his body safe are guiding us to a whole new plan. We gotta be the first people on Armstrong. We don't even know what time that is, but we'll figure it out. We gotta prep Pablo for the reality that we're gonna hit, like, only a dozen houses. And then we gotta get the heck outta there and go home. Halloween is the ultimate in hand-to-hand candy combat, so I've been rapping to Jo Ann about adding some industrial gloves to the robot costume, to keep his hands away from germs. I think we could get him to wear rubber gloves—he understands the need to keep his hands free of funk, and some sweet green rubber CHLA gloves would look kinda cool with that costume. We've also been talking about replacing his candy loot with fresh, sterile candy once we get home. Yknow, a switcheroo when he's not looking.

Our friends Murray and Natalia from the Dears (they are on Dangerbird Records and Management) are going to be joining us, with their beyond-cute daughter Neptune. They're from Montreal, and we are psyched to have an international angle to this year's festivities. By the way, the Dears are playing live tomorrow at 11:15 a.m. on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. If you have ears and enjoy using them to listen to cool rock music, tune in and check it out.

Awwwwright, that's a wrap. TTYL.