Finally, the right weather for Halloween

It's pretty cold outside, for a southern California night. A San Fernando Valley night, to be specific. Alex carved two pumpkins, which I prepared with Sharpie faces - one a classic pumpkin face (boring), the other a floppy-eared dog (obsessive). Each has two tea lights and they look completely perfect outside. Even the people upstairs have a lit, carved pumpkin on their balcony. I think they used one of those intricate stencils. It may be Che Guevara. Or Carlos Santana. But, it's probably Cheech Marin.

We haven't had any trick-or-treaters and it's already 6:59pm, so I'm not sure we'll get any. We plan to drive out to our "new" neighborhood, where we have our eyes on a house. We want to check out the Halloween action over there. It's important to see how much holiday spirit a neighborhood has. Oh, man, like Candy Cane Lane in Woodland Hills, just east of Pierce College. You can turn in off Oxnard and there are about 10 blocks of large, sweeping lots, though kind of rustic, sprawling ranch houses, red front doors (my current fave), no sidewalks and everyone goes NUTS at Christmas - I mean nuts. It's totally over-the-top, and on weekends in December, the streets are packed with sightseers, teenagers sitting in flatbeds, kids sticking their heads out the sunroof of Dad's SUV. Some people even sell hot chocolate. Winter's answer to the lemonade stand. It's a slice of middle America in LA.

I love this time of year. November starts tomorrow and the trees are really starting to change now. I think I'll go put on a sweater.