NN slept over on Wednesday night, and on Thursday S's school had a Fall Festival and parade. No scary costumes allowed (what?!), so S decided that his character Rorschach was in fact Moo, the spirit of cows. I went along to help get the children ready for the parade and ended up staying for the whole thing, as what parents were actually needed for was putting the Fall Feast out on the classroom tables. The amount of food brought was incredible, and there'd been no coordination, so we ended up with a dozen doughnuts for 28 children and more grapes than could reasonably be eaten, to say nothing of about 3 Capri-Sun juice boxes a head. Anyway, they all had fun and I met a couple of mothers I had not met before.
Halloween itself was something of a letdown in the end. S went trick or treating with some other children, A had to go out alone (it seems that at his age trick or treating is no longer done) and I think he mainly enjoyed carving a jack-o-lantern. To our surprise, not a single trick or treater knocked on our door - and as I had bought a 100-piece bag of Hershey fun-sized treats, after nearly having a nervous breakdown in the supermarket, this was a disappointment. Both boys returned with good hauls, and they have been very cooperative in sharing nicely. We have allowed them to eat up to three treats a day since Halloween, and they still haven't finished. ADC eventually made chocolate chunk cookies this past weekend to get rid of some the plain Hershey chocolate bars, which are almost inedible in their natural state.
Last Saturday, we went to another Smithsonian Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum, which share a building. We did not have very high expectations, and were pleasantly surprised by how much there was to see and how enjoyable it was. This time we concentrated on the portraits, which at the moment have an emphasis on the Civil War, and we'll go back to see more of the art. There was one fantastic stained glass window made in the 1880s that we walked past on our way to an exhibition of Time Magazine covers from the Sixties, that you just had to stop and stare at, though. The boys did us proud - we were there for about four hours, not counting lunch, and I don't think there are many 10- and 13-year-olds who can spend as long as that in any art museum (a good sign for visiting the Met this weekend when we go to New York).
Sunday both last week and this past one were quiet days, going to the market and buying some of the 20 different varieties of apples in throning and A going to flag football in the afternoon. His team is not doing very well, so the season will not be extended into the play-offs, but he seems to be enjoying himself very much. S is having fun with his ukelele, and has learned his first actual tune: Swing Low Sweet Chariot. I have asked ADC to concentrate on the relevant tunes so that at the next Seder, we can be accompanied when we sing at the end.
Both boys received excellent reports at the end of the first quarter - A is a straight A student, including English! I am very happy that they are doing so well. S regaled us last night with the pecking order in the lunchroom, and while he is not particularly high on it, he seems happy where he is, and points out that because he is "new", he can't be at the top anyway. We hear less details from A, but he seems to be doing fine socially as well. Not that they have much time to go to friends or have them over in the afternoon, with homework and capoeira. S is going to the monthly comics jam at the library later today.
We continue to be more social here than in Jerusalem: On Friday we went to IP and HP for supper, and it turned out that all their family was there, to predictable chaotic results. It's nice having an adopted family, to provide us with a substitute for Friday night in Kfar Saba and Omer. On Sunday night we had M's ex RM who also lives in Takoma Park, over for supper. RMl lives on the other side of Takoma Park, and considering the detailed rundown of markets and other food shopping options she gave me before we arrived, I had been surprised that we had not yet run into each other at the weekly farmer's market. We had a very pleasant evening, and it was interesting hearing about the school system from a data analyst at an education NGO who doesn't herself have children in the system. It's rather sad how deeply the differences between blacks and whites have become ingrained - even middle-class black people seem to to visit museums.
On Saturday there was the first real cold snap. Luckily, we have all already for our winter coats - ADC and S at REI, and I at Land's End. ADC is very taken with Land's End, he has now bought three flannel shirts and two fleece sweaters, and has two pairs of flannel-lined pants on the way at the moment. I am experimenting with fleece-lined tights and boots under skirts, as I think that this will be warmer than just trousers, and have ordered very long socks from Sock Dreams for the depth of winter.
Despite the cold, it was very bright and sunny. We went to Georgetown, and wandered around - a practice run for Manhattan next week in a way, as the forecast is for much the same weather there. We started by walking along the towpath of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (the canal that was beaten by the railway in reaching Harpers Ferry), and then reached a busy shopping street, where people were standing in line up the block outside particularly trendy eateries.
I have been invited to give a talk at Rutgers, in New Jersey, in the first week of December, so am finally starting to work on research and not just editing. I will be giving a talk on the reception of Galen in medieval Arabic and Hebrew texts, and will have to make this as broad as possible, since I will be talking to the Medieval Studies Program and possibly the Classics Department, too. I can't be too philological, but will have to explain why this is an interesting and significant thing to be studying. (At the same time, further expanding my horizons, I am editing the dissertation of an archaeozoologist who did her MSc with ADC's late PhD supervisor, on the remains of equids [horses, asses and mules] found in Israeli medieval sites).
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