happy halloween

For Halloween this year, we dressed the kid up as a bony, naked space alien with transparent, waxy, sagging skin, and large black eye sockets. For added gore, we smeared him with blood and attached a fleshy grey feeding apparatus to the center of his stomach so it could trail around behind him.
Result: He's by far the scariest kid on the block. I will definitely feed him him candy as I don't want to risk him pulling any tricks.

(As a visual aid I have posted an image from Google. I also saw some freaky 3D ultrasound images of fetuses at 17 weeks yawning and making other scary faces, but those images were simply too frightening to post, Halloween or not. If you think you're up for a fright, click here.)

******************* UPDATE ************************

I thought I would add PROOF that my kid is the scariest on the block. Here's Aidan, from three doors down. He's a punk rocker and giving me his most intense, punk-rocker face. Yet you want to just KISS him. That's not scary. Good try, Aidan. But you just turned out adorable instead.

Insulating Sir Wilbur's Castle

It's been gorgeous during the day, but at night the temperature has been dropping significantly. I'd started to wonder how this was affecting my little, mostly nocturnal friend. He doesn't have much fur. I'd made him a little sweatshirt pouch to hide in, but that seemed to result in him never leaving the pouch. He hides all day, regardless, just because he likes dark places, but I'd noticed that I hadn't been hearing him at night, whereas normally he wakes me up at least a few times with his shenanigans.

THEN the other morning I got up to check on Wilbur and his little feet were cold! Even though he was curled up in the pouch! (Collectively now, "aaaaaawwww! Do something!!") So yes, I had to take action.

He now has his very own electric blanket wrapped around his cage. I turn it on the lowest setting at night, and it's just enough to take the chill out of the walls of the cage without really adding heat to the interior. He likes it lots. There's been PLENTY of racket the last couple nights.

Destruction!

Are you looking for a caption? An explanation?

Can't a girl just tear out some walls when she feels like it?

garden up close

a b

c d

e f

g h

i j

k l

just to clarify...

a. cucumber

b. cherry tomatoes (most are still green)

c. corn

d. mixed greens

e. tomatillos

f. arugula

g. some baby lettuce

h. don't know, but we eat the purple leaves in our salads

i. can't remember

j. bell pepper (he's also had other peppers, but I don't have pictures)

k. watermelon

l. squash

There are rows of other things that just look like more greens to me, so I didn't take pictures of all of it. For the record though, there are radishes, kale, onions, carrots, garlic and many others things all in there. Last season I kept track of what was what. This season he blew me away with the amount he planted and I gave up.

Disclaimer: No doubt Sean's going to find this post entirely inadequate; left up to him, a closer examination of his garden would have 5 times the photos I have here and entire essays (replete with charts and graphs) on the origins of the seeds, cultivation techniques, and expected produce outcomes. Left up to Sean, a closer examination of his garden would also likely never be shared because he probably won't ever have the time he requires to do the post justice. I figure a little something is better than nothing. But under no circumstances should viewers consider this to be anything other than a very cursory glance at his extensive and extravagant farm.

From Tears to Triumph

After a sleepless night of listening to the wind veritably demolish our brand new gutters with tree branches, I marched off to Lowes this morning with bloodshot eyes, trembling nerves, and nothing short of "DEATH TO THE BRANCHES" screaming in my head.

On his last visit, my dad had suggested that maybe one of the branches was too close to the second story gutter, and that it would scratch it in the wind. Little did we know (until last night) that the wind could lift and drop the branch INTO the gutter, and then as the branch attempted to spring back into place, it would streeeeetch out the key element of our rainwater harvesting system, and then eventually free itself, resulting in a loud THUD as the gutter snapped back to its original form.

With every thud I reached new levels of pained insanity I never dreamed could be caused by gutters. One might suggest that I'm a little too attached to the house/material possessions/etc. Maybe that is the case. But I tell you-- it was SICKENING to listen to the destruction and feel so helpless.

And now, sleep-deprived and yes, a little high on my recent victory over the branches, I am sharing photos. Thankfully, our other main investment into the house, new windows, made the success possible. They are double-hung and the sashes lift out, which means I could reach the branch with my newly purchased pole saw from the window.

BEFORE

AFTER

the tree I have forgiven

The squirrel* who supervised my progress from the chimney top.

*We call him Sammie. I made it our policy to call all the critters around our house Sammie, so that when visitors come over, we can say, "oh there goes Sammie" and they will think we're really one with nature and that we have given all the wildlife individual names and can distinguish one squirrel or lizard from another. (My theory is that rarely would the same guest catch us calling two different animals the same name. I am trusting that any Austinites reading this will not tell other Austinites whom we have yet to impress. Please give us a fair chance to seem cool).

Now on to the projects I was SUPPOSED to be doing today...