It Works!

That little weather feed thingy from wunderground.com is pretty cool! We're hunkering down, waiting for Tropical Storm Ida to do it's thang and move along. Brian's clinic is letting out early. The elementary school I subbed at today was on its usual schedule (but 2:30 p.m. is late enough when you start at 6:25 a.m., and not much rest between the Weather Channel and MEMA (MS's FEMA) updates, I'm ready for a glass of wine and a nap!). My first class of the new semester would have started tonight, but thanks to Ida, it's been cancelled. This is as close as I'll get to a "snow day" and I'll admit, I miss it. All dark and windy, it actually feels like a "normal" November rainy day and reminds me how nostalgic I am for the "stay in/be cozy/craft/make shit in the crock pot" season. I could be happy with a winter that was a day or so a week like this. Oh, yeah, except this is nothing normal. It's the outer wisps of a massive storm, and just in case, I already had pulled all my important papers/photos to the side. Blows, man (hahahah, I'm punny).

Halloween Interlude

It wouldn't be Halloween without carving pumpkins. We just got back into town from being gone a week in San Antonio and had no clean laundry and no groceries. Walmart came through on groceries, but short on pumpkins. I had to barter to get the last pumpkin in the store on October 30 from a greeter lady who had already claimed it for her cart. I asked her, while pointing to her pumpkin, "How much you want for the pumpkin? Please. I'm desperate." She was very generous considering she hadn't paid for it yet. I gave her a spaghetti squash in exchange for her kindness and her pumpkin. It was a Halloween-Christmas miracle. But that was just one pumpkin. What were the girls going to carve when they came over?... (as if I was going to let the kids carve it...) Halloween morning, I stumbled upon a gloriously over-priced pumpkin at the local green house. I bargained the lady down $2 ($12 to $10) and came home victorious with my moderately over-priced pumpkin.

We had fun, carving, watching football. Danielle did the creepy scarecrow. I helped her clean up the stringy pulp and added the bat.

I improvised a "Go Gators" pumpkin. Now, I would have done a "Go Cats" pumpkin, but we were playing Penn State that day and the forecast for a Northwestern win was not so good. Cheering for my team is enough of an emotional commitment. And plus, I didn't have a giant Wildcat magnet I could trace. Lame excuses. Next year, I carve "Go Cats."

To pass out candy, I dressed up as "Spooky Kabuki." This was a recycled Elvira wig and costume, and with a couple tweaks, my blouse from China, and some chopsticks, I achieved a whole new look. I think it scared Brian a little.

Creepy, eh?!

I show you trick. Candy for you... Happy Harroween!... Candy for you... You no take candy from basket... I give to you. Waitchyo tern.

And whatchew costume?... You no dress up? You "hostage" for Harroween?... Ohhh, tha's very bad costume. You try 'gain nex' year, Okay?... (and then I broke character and said, "I'm just messing with you, here's your pretzels." Afterall, I didn't want to get egged by the hostage... but don't knock the pretzels shaped like bats and pumpkins.)