Normal Service.....blah, blah, blah

I swear the phrase "normal service will be resumed as soon as possible" is a constant, running through my mind like white noise. I keep finding myself saying "When things have calmed down a little..". Problem is, I've been saying this for about ten years now. I can't be the only one who feels like a giant hamster on a wheel.

And, like a fool, I keep adding to the "to do" list. Not only am I sending hundreds of e-mails out per day alerting schools all over the world to the presence of my new, must-have book, I'm keeping the Facebook page packed full of handy dandy information about US colleges, and writing blog posts for my BBC America gig. Apart from that I've been tracing the Ball & Chain's family tree which is proving very interesting, but a lot of work. That guy has a lot of traceable ancestors. I have decided to give my in-laws a binder of information of their respective sides of the family, hopefully for Christmas if I can get the gaps in the trees filled, then print everything off in a decent (ie. senior-friendly) font.

Oh and then I went and suggested to the ten year old that we have a belated birthday party for him - in the form of a Halloween party. What was I thinking? I'm now knee deep in lists, recipes for bat cup cakes and witch's finger cookies, ideas for decorating the house and everything that goes with hosting a Halloween party. I was thinking of putting a marquee/tent out in the back in case it rains, but I've now decided that we can get the cars out of the garage and turn that into a spooky den. If you could see the state of our garage, you'd appreciate the work involved in emptying it.

So - any great Halloween ideas anyone? I need all the help I can get.

I'm replacing all out family photos with spooky ones like this. Good eh?