Happy Halloween! I didn’t get her a costume, but Jazzy (and friends) got in the spirit of things earlier today with a canine tribute to Charlie’s Angels (the original, not the dumb movies).

As I've been contemplating my next career move, it suddenly dawned on me... who better to take advice from than a poorly animated, computer generated, shoddily composited and very vague fox on TV! Obviously, I can make a ton of money from my own home - I'd have to be “crazy” not to! He's obviously a serious businessfox - look, he's got papers in front of him, a computer, a ton of books and even a desk in his office! I did a little digging (a very little), and it turns out that it’s some sort of semi-legal pyramid scam for Herbalife products. The only question now is, am I “crazy” or “crazy like a fox!”

You’re probably thinking you’re about to read another post about one of my kitchen adventures, but that’s not the case. This time, we’re combining food and showering (but not like when Kramer had the garbage disposal installed in his tub). I recently ran out of my favorite shampoo, Cinnamon Bun by Philosophy. This stuff is amazing - it really does smell just like cinnamon buns. It’s uncanny. There’s even a recipe on the bottle since it’s guaranteed to make you hungry (no, I haven’t tried the recipe). I also had a banana scented one that I liked, but this time I decided to try another “flavor” as my secondary shampoo and went with Lime. After recently buying a coffee maker I was inspired to check to see if there was a coffee scented version, and low and behold I found a cafe latte shampoo and ordered that one too. So at the rate I use shampoo, I figure I should be all set until 2011 or so.

Have you ever been to a Building #19? Well, if you’re like me and enjoy trying to find a diamond in the cluttered aisles of a junky store, you should go to one. Think of it as a less ritzy Ocean State Job Lot. I went to the store in Cranston a few days ago looking for a foam pad for Jazzy’s bed. I had bought one for her before but she destroyed it a few months later. Those of you who know Jazzy well are probably surprised by that. She’s very rarely destructive, but she went through a phase where she would toss her stuff around when I would leave for a decent length of time. One day she decided to go one step further and destroy her bed completely. The foam pad was in about 1,000 pieces! Fortunately that phase ended and I decided that it was time to snazzify her bed again. So I bought the foam pad, which is about five inches thick, and placed that inside her current bed, which was a stuffing filled one. The stuffing I rolled up to form the “back” and added a rolled up pillow to form a side. Another pillow sits flat in front of the pad to fill out the large zippered bed covering. Finally, her Miami Dolphins blanket goes on top of the whole thing to make it easy to keep clean (I wash it weekly with a touch of bleach). She seems very happy with the new setup and sometimes just stays in the bedroom even when I’m downstairs.

Halloween is coming, and I’m already getting ready. My iPhone-o-lantern is set up, and well, that’s about it so far. It’s a free program that’s pretty cool - you just swip across the eyes, nose or mouth to change it’s shape, and shaking the phone results in a change of colors and scary sounds. Geeky cool. So I’m starting to think about maybe throwing a costume party, unless someone else does so first. Then I have to think about a costume. Any suggestions?

Yup, we’re heading back into the kitchen for this post. This time I’m showing off my new coffee maker, which has allowed me to cut back on those grueling 5-minute trips to Dunkin Donuts. In addition to making hot coffee first thing in the morning to fight off the cool weather I don’t have to venture out into, I also use it to make a convincing replica of a DD iced coffee. In order to do so, I had to special order an ice tray that makes little cubes (actually they’re more gumdrop shaped). But as much as I’m enjoying both beverages, I have to admit that my favorite part of the whole experience is smelling the coffee grounds when I open the container. Best. Smell. Ever.

Ugh. That was one long baseball game last night. It was past midnight at this point, but the game was still far from over. Jazzy and I stayed up again for the whole thing (actually this is one of the few moments that Jaz didn’t snore her way through) to witness the Sox finally lose one to the Angels. Unfortunately that means they play again tonight, so my usually Monday TV dilemma is even worse than usual. I’m still loving the playoffs, but I like having a day off between games so that I have time to wash the Jacoby Ellsbury shirt I wear for every game.

Here I am with a donkey. Believe it or not, this isn’t a photo from Albania, where the donkey-to-human ratio is sky high. Nope, this donkey lives only a couple of miles from me. There’s this little petting zoo I’ve driven by a million times on the way to the driving range, and today I finally stopped on the way back. Not only do they have this donkey, but he has a few friends. And in another pen they have ducks, chickens, sheep and goats. Some of the goats are miniature goats, and all the animals are obviously very well fed by all the children who stop there. The goats are the fattest goats I’ve ever seen (which I guess isn’t that impressive since I really haven’t really seen that many goats in my life). That doesn’t stop them from wanting more food though. Go anywhere near the fence and they converge upon you looking for food with a crazy look in their eyes.