Halloween Haters

Here's a quiz for you; what's the difference between these two photos taken 1 hour apart from each other??

6:30 pm:
and at 7:30 pm:

I was robbed!!! My pumpkin was so awesome somebody just had to have it! I think it was either the 2 year old dinosaur or the group of 6 teenage ninjas.....I'm just not sure....

Oh! There's the door bell! Don't throw candy at them in anger...don't throw candy at them in anger...

Next year I'm giving out raisins.

Halloweenies

There's nothing like waiting until Halloween before carving pumpkins, right? You just can't trust these punk kids in the neighborhood not the kick them in or drop kick them down the street. So, after lunch we laid claim to which pumpkin we each wanted and sketched out our designs. Chris decided this was just the event that called for the use of power tools to cuts the tops off the pumpkins.
Those pumpkins were no match the power of an electric hole saw. Then we hauled them out back and got busy with a steak knife and spoon.
My pumpkin was full of seeds which we saved in a bowl to roast later. Chris' was just stringy inside. A short while later our masterpieces were done.
Since I knew we'd be up answering the door numerous times this evening, I went the easy route and got a jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner.
While the pizza cooked we seasoned our pumpkin seeds. I seasoned my batch with cinnamon and sugar.
Chris did a savory batch with salt and paprika and other spices.
After ten minutes under the broiler, mine looked like this:
Apparently sugar burns very quickly under the broiler. Good to know. I made Chris take them outside because they were smoking up the kitchen. After we ate our pizza I got our candy ready for the little beggars. I have a mix of baby ruths, kit kats, and butterfingers. We'd bought Take 5's too, but we actually like those ones too much to give away.
At about 6:30 it got dark enough for Chris to go out and light the pumpkins. They look pretty good and we've had three trick-or-treaters so far so I guess they're doing their job.
It says 'it's nighttime and look, there's a Canadian that lives here'.

AARP calling

This weekend we celebrated the passing of Chris' youth. We did so by drinking lots of beer, eating fondue and watching football and racing. You know, old people activities.
Since Chris' birthday was really on Monday, I let him open his presents on Sunday so he didn't have to wait all day.
He loved his Mark Donohue book and Allman Brothers CD from Mom.
I just got him boring clothes and a boatload of candy.
Monday night we went to the 'rents for homemade apple pie and presents. They got Chris some tools, beer and a plaid shirt (gasp!).
I didn't do a lot of scrapbooking over the weekend, but I did manage to squeak out two more pages.
Now I need to crack down and get a new calendar put together for Mum for Christmas. She's been hinting at how much she misses her last one.

Poop Class

Friday I accompanied Chris to two job sites, one by Mt. Shasta City and one outside of Redding. The one outside of Redding, in Happy Valley, was at an elementary school. We got there in the middle of their school day so there was a group of kids out for recess while we were checking on their septic system.
"What are you doing?"
"We're checking the system"
"What system?"
"The system where all your poop goes"
"Eeewwwww" (Yet nobody could tear themselves away from the fence)

We had met a local Chico company out there who was actually servicing the system and they agreed, they had never had such a captive audience before. It was the most interesting thing they'd ever seen. They'll be able to trace their prolific careers in wastewater back to this one defining moment.

When we got home I got busy in my craft room to make a birthday card for a co-worker who's birthday is Monday, like Chris'.
I used my new birthday stamps, from Jessica. On the company's website they made mention that these stamps coordinated with the large Fiscars punches, so I picked up the star punch last weekend at Joann's. Perfect cut!

Today was our Fall Festival at church. I had volunteered to help so I was there from 2-5pm manning the ring toss in the kiddie pool.
It you got a ring around one of the floating plastic ducks you got to pick out a stylish rubber duckie as your prize.
Most of the kids were dressed up in costumes and were fairly on the young side.
My friend Katherine was working too, and also wore her finest Halloween shirt.
As a special treat, Chris cooked dinner tonight when I got home. He's been wanting to make some chicken and dumplings so that's exactly what he whipped up.
It was so stinking delicious and he did it all freehand. Unbelievable. Even when I follow recipes it doesn't end up this good. Thankfully there were lots of leftovers so we'll be munching on it again this week. Lucky me.

New Goodies

To finish up some of my scrapbook pages this weekend I went to Joanne's and Michael's in search of some new goodies. I found three new punches at Joanne's that I just had to have.
Michael's had their cricut cartridges on sale this week so I picked up a new one that I'd had my eye on with my Michael's gift card.
After picking up my new goodies I got to work and finished up two new pages.
My other accomplishment this weekend was making some sourdough waffles with my sourdough starter. It's a two day process so I haven't been up to trying them until now.
It made a lot so I made them all and refrigerated the extras for breakfast the next morning.
They were so tasty. Just like sourdough, but in waffle form.

Chris and I were on Izzy duty this weekend since the 'rents were back in Oregon. On our way over there today we stopped at Kohl's since I had a $10 of $20 purchase coupon from the paper and I found a new pair of running shoes. Mine are over two years old and are starting to hurt my toes when I run.
They're so new and squishy it's like walking on cushions. I love it.

We're watching Sunshine Cleaning right now. It's got Amy Adams and Emily Blunt in it. They're maids that clean up crime scenes. It's okay so far. I'll reserve final verdict until it's over.

Special Bunko Guests

Bunko was at my house this month, but because of the stormy weather and other problems I had five of the twelve members call and cancel so I had to scramble to find some last minute substitutes. The problem being that we only have two regular subs and only one would come down the hill to Chico so I had to do a little begging and get Mum and Chris to agree to play, too. At first Chris was less than thrilled to spend his evening playing games with a bunch of old ladies, but soon he got into the bunko smack talkin' groove and started to enjoy himself.
Chris actually tied for most wins, but I wouldn't let him roll off for the prize. Not because I'm mean like he claims, but because what would he possibly want with some Halloween gift I picked out? Don't bring it up though, it's still a sore point!

Birthday Blowout

I may be 32, but I don't look a day over 39. Wait, is that how that goes?? Since it was my day I got to call all the shots starting with breakfast at The Golden Waffle after opening my gift from Jessica that has been taunting me for days.
After a huge birthday breakfast we headed up the hill to bring little Connor his birthday present for his 2nd birthday party. At first Connor hid from Uncle Chris, but Andrew was excited to see him.
If Andrew was okay with Uncle Chris then Connor figured he must be okay and invited him to play race cars with him.
After a little persuasion we convinced Connor to come out and open his present.
It was a car race book that teaches Connor colors. Andrew and Connor gave us their best race car impersonations. They're pretty good! After presents were opened, Andrew taught Uncle Chris how to play Mario Cart on the Wii while Susan and I chatted and made the train cake in the kitchen.
Andrew handed Uncle Chris an ass whoppin' the first couple of games, but eventually Chris got a handle on how the game worked and turned the tides.
Back in the kitchen, Susan was trying to piece together a Thomas the Train cake from scratch.
Chris and Connor were helping out the best way boys know how, by playing in the frosting.
We finally had to say goodbye around 2:00 pm so that we could get back to Chico and grab the 'rents for our 3:00 lunch/dinner date at The Bear.
Back in Chico we grabbed the 'rents and headed over to The Bear where I've been waiting to try the Jiffy Burger, a burger with peanut butter, mayo, bacon and jack cheese.
And the verdict is....
Oddly tasty! I tried to offer Chris some, but he wanted to stay pure for his basket o' hot wings.
The 'rents had the California Peep sandwich which is a chicken breast sandwich with avocado. They both enjoyed it and like the decor of The Bear (Applebees on steroids). After dinner we rolled ourselves down a couple of blocks to Jon & Bon's where we had some frozen yogurt. Mum wanted to take us out to ice cream, but that was after I inadvertently crapped all over Shuberts when she asked about it not realizing that she wanted to take us there. Doh! But Chris recovered nicely by remembering Jon & Bon's. We shared a Cafe Mocha and Cookies and Cream yogurt cup. Back at their house I opened my gift which was a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a beaded scarf all from Chico's (clothing store in the old Men's Warehouse). They're really pretty and in shades of gray which will go great with the four black and gray dresses I now own.

When we got home we were both so tired and full that we crashed on the couch. I took a nice little nap while the Canadian watched the 17th showing of some Bond movie. Around 8:00 pm we peeled ourselves off the couch and went for a walk through a neighborhood a few streets down where they were all decorated for Halloween.
The Rolling Bones.
I'm so jealous. I want a yard full of tacky Halloween decorations, too!