So I (David) volunteered to write the next blog entry. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been contributing much so far. About a week later, I'm finally getting around to it (while watching the Phillies try to survive game 6)
Carving Pumpkins:
I don't remember ever carving pumpkins before. It's possible that we did and I just don't remember. But I'm going to go ahead and call this my first time. Lindsay, on the other hand, is a seasoned pro.
The first step (I learned) was getting a pumpkin. Now, getting a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch maximizes the pumpkin picking experience. A close second is the farmers market. Last on the list is the supermarket a block from your apartment. The cost of the actual pumpkins, of course, is inversely proportional to the experience absorbed on the trip. We went the route of going to farmers market, looking around at pumpkins, buying non-pumpkin produce, returning to the supermarket, and buying pumpkins at half the price. I think our way was best.
Prior to this experience, I was under the impression that carving pumpkins works the same way that I envision sculptures being created, namely, hacking away at it until you step back and voila! a masterpiece, or for someone with my artistic ability, a mutilated mess. But we used an easier method: searching the internet for pumpkin templates, printing one out, taping said template onto pumpkin, and using that to carve the image. I think they turned out pretty well actually. I'll let you judge for yourself though. If not, at least we had fun doing it.
Kudos to the first person who can guess what the pumpkins are supposed to be.
Trunk-or-Treat:
On halloween night we went to Trunk or Treat, Grace's halloween alternative where kids can get candy from people's decorated car trunks, play games, get balloon animals, faces painted, etc. You get the idea. It's just like the fall festival/harvest festival/whatever-it-was-called you grew up with. Linds and I had volunteered to help out wherever. We got assigned tug-of-war. Despite being located at the far end of the event and needing equal teams to be fun, our game was actually more popular than I thought it would be (thanks to some of our regulars). All in all, we had a good time hosting, and I think people had a good time getting dragged (drug?) through the grass.
And in case you're interested, I went as a tennis pro and Lindsay looked cute in her fall colors. (She would have done a costume, but I had been saying all along that I didn't want to dress up and only changed my mind 5 minutes before we left, which did not give her enough time to come up with something. My fault.)
Summary:
Halloween is much better when you get to spend it with the woman you love. =)
ps - I (Lindsay) made pumpkin seeds for the first time and they were delicious! Firsts for both of us I guess.
Getting off work at 3pm with a few hours of sunlight left is a dream come true for me, especially on such a gorgeous day. I couldn't help but get my husband, my scarf & our frisbee and head to the lake as fast as possible, to savor the last bits of the day. We ran around in the leaves, played some frisbee, found a swingset (it's hard for me to resist a swing) & watched the sun set over the water (while fighting off the nagging mosquitoes). I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon before thanksgiving. As a wise boss once said, my heart is full. So much to be thankful for.
