Halloween: Pumpkin CARVING Time!

Hey All,

Tonight is Halloween. We carved our pumpkins last night for the all hallow's eve and watched Jaws, a terrifying movie. The last time I had seen it was on our honeymoon so it was fun to revisit Amity. No trick or treaters, but we don't exactly live on a neighborhoody street. And that just means more candy for us!

Disneyland with Thais!

So my best friend, Thais, was here in Los Angeles, in early October and had some free time between her San Francisco Convention and her Los Angeles Convention for work. It had been her birthday the week before while she was in San Fran, so once she got here, I thought it was appropriate to take her to the happiest place on earth for a belated b-day celebration. I love you, Thai!

On the Astro Orbitor!

Our first stop on the tour, the Princess' Castle!

I'm all about the stationary tea cup, the spinning ones make me sick!

We're fantastic in our Fantasia hats!

Thais sporting a birthday cake hat for her birthday at the Mad Hatter. I thought they should've had Un-birthday hats, too!

"The Happiest Birthday On Earth"

Pumpkin Time!

So last Sunday after trying out a new church (which we are really hopeful about/more on church visits later), Tyler and I went pumpkin shopping. I love fall because you get to do things like this. There were SO MANY to choose from and there was a little petting zoo there as well. It was just good plain relaxing fun. We got two orange ones for ourselves and white one for Charlie because we are yuppies like that. Stay tuned for the "before" and "after" photos in a later Carving the Pumpkins blog. We aren't going to do it until the last second because we want them to last for our bbq in two weeks, but Halloween is this week so we need to carve them before then. We are super stoked that we may actually get trick or treaters this year. We never have before because we've always been in a building, so we are holding our breathe to see if kids come to us now. We're still in a building, but the door is accessed from the outside and it's on the ground floor so we'll see.

BBQ Test Run

Here you'll see photos of our trial run with the bbq before we attempt to entertain others. It went okay after the first try an burn out. Getting the whole thing situated was an ordeal. First we got a dented bbq, then we broke the handle of the next one less than 10 minutes after getting home. The one you see here is our 3rd. And we got coals for a gas stove. Why would such a thing exist, you say? We had no idea either except to confuse the people who can only afford coal ones and for nostalgia for the rich. Anyway, we made steaks and corn on the cob. Yum. Tip of the day: read the manual for how to light the coals, then just douse the shit out of them.

carnival!!

So there is this carnival that travels around California and makes frequent stops at the park two blocks away from our house. This has been it's third visit since we moved here, so we once again decided to go and to bring a camera along for the ride as well this time. Tyler counts down the days until the carnival is here. He gets so excited which is really awesome and cute. We went on the ferris wheel (go Chicago), the swings and did the fun house this time. Here are the pics of our evening out:

Mac Daddy of Spiders...

Tyler fears spiders. I think he acts like a little girl about them. And now I know why. When you grow up in California, you have legitimate reasons to scream like a girl when you see a spider. But me, being the lifelong Girl Scout, outdoorsy woman that I am, I get as close as possible and put the spider in a tupperware container for closer inspection. Idiot. Ignorance is bliss my friend. Because yesterday I found a very large black spider hanging out on our patio wall as I was raking. I had the brains to get Charlie inside and as far away from it as possible. And that's when all smarts stopped. I found a tupperware container and went back to the site. I flicked, yes flicked said spider from the lid to the container (both in my bare hands I might add). Tyler was in the shower during this whole stupid parade. And when he got out I showed him my prize. Well his jaw dropped and he got really really pale. "Do you know what that is?" he breathed. "It's just a spider," I replied. Yea, it was a BLACK WIDOW!!!! Not just a spider! Only one with venom 15 times as powerful as a rattle snake or cobra. Let me repeat. 15 times!!! I didn't think it was one because the red marks were only on the bottom, not the top, as I have been told at every zoo on the west coast! Grrr.

So we wikipedia-ed black widows and learned some things that are not really reassuring since hearing anything after venom 15 times as strong as a rattle snake or cobra was useless. But apparently adult females (which this one was) are the biggest and nastiest. The have a territory and eat all other spiders in their territory, so it's likely that there are no more out there. Also, they don't attack (thank God for me and my stupidity). They just hang out in their thick web and wait. So the only way you are going to get bitten is if it accidentally lands on you or you destroy its web and it fear bites you.

The exterminator is coming tomorrow with something specifically for black widows because they are resistant to many insecticides! Needless to say all excitement about our fake lawn has been dashed by one of the deadliest spider in the world. And they do lay about 1000 eggs, so we are on a mission to find its web and the little cotton ball fuckers (after the exterminator does his thing).

Oh yea, and we taped the tupperware shut for good measure and threw it in the dumpster.