Pumpkin Carving Party

Last Friday, we had some people over from the Supreme Court to carve pumpkins. Here are 4 of the resulting jack-o-lanterns.


Here I am, in the middle of carving out all the teeth on my skull. We cleared out a lot of the family room (easier because we don't have our couch yet) and put down newspaper. Then everyone sat on the floor to carve.


Here you can see Brian getting into the detail work on his second pumpkin.


Brian's coworker, Vincent, had never carved a pumpkin before. Here is his first jack-o-lantern ever. It was a little scary to watch him with the knife (I guess I didn't describe the proper technique very well) and I thought he might cut open his hand, but there was no blood spilt.

Pumpkin Patch

Before our pumpkin party, we had to get ourselves some pumpkins. There were some at the grocery store and Walmart, but I really wanted to get our pumpkins at a pumpkin patch (better atmosphere).


The pumpkin patch we found was to the north of town a little (on the way to Tim and Carla's, for those of you who know where that is). It was on the large lawn of a church, and the proceeds were going to their youth group (which is good, b/c they were a little expensive). They had the pumpkins grouped on the lawn and there were wagons you could use to gather your pumpkins in.


Once we chose our pumpkins, we took them up to the tent and they were compared to the priced pumpkins in front to determine their cost (by size). Overall, it was nice to get outside and select our pumpkins from a big field.

The tank is here!

This fish tank is in our house (pause for applause). It took us many hours, since we had to drive out to Pensacola to pick it up, but it was a lot cheaper to buy a used one than to buy a new one. It is currently sitting in our house with some tap water in it, to make sure there are no leaks. Brian has plans for this tank that include a lot of invertebrates and a few actual swimmy things. I'm sure he will update as things progress.

Dog et al.

This weekend, Brian and I had the chance to finally go to a restaurant we had been meaning to try for a while now: Dog et al. It is a hot dog restaurant close to our house that boasts many different types of hot dogs (diff. sizes and meats) and lots of free toppings (mustard, ketchup, mayo, relish, onions, chili, cheese, sauerkraut, etc). Brian especially likes hot dogs, so it was cool to go and get some special hot dogs. They also have fries, chips, and apple pie.

http://www.dogetal.com/Home/tabid/294/Default.aspx

Gardening

Today Brian and I headed to Home Depot to start spending his birthday gift card and find some things for our garden area. Brian insists that these bulbs he is holding up will look really cool in our yard.


Although we already have solar lights outside, we still stop by to look at the selection and compare different models.


As we headed to the car to go to Home Depot, I noticed that the bulbs I planted a couple weeks ago had come up! This was unexpected, to say the least. Here you can see the bulb plants.


Brian is planting the bulbs he got at the store, behind the bulbs that have already sprouted.


One major item we bought was soil to raise the level of the yard up to the level of the driveway (there is a major drop in most places. We just wanted to get started in the area closest to our front garden, since the rest will be done when our yard gets sodded (or so our landlady says). We also removed the assorted rock border and experimented with brick placement for a new border between the garden area and the area that will one day be a lawn. To finish it off, we got some mulch to go around the bulbs in an attempt to discourage the weeds. This is the finished scene, at least for today.

Bye bye TV

Over the past couple months, we realized that many of the bugs in our house lived inside our TV. To (hopefully) cut down on this problem, we have gotten rid of the old TV (which came from Brian's parent's house) and replaced it with a thinner version (much less room for bugs to live). Brian was a little sad to see his old TV go, since he has had it for so long. Here he is waving goodbye to the old (which went to Goodwill), and then below, considering the new model.

Disney Trip

Last weekend, we went to Disney to celebrate Brian's birthday. It was overcast a lot of the time, but it did not rain on us, which was very nice. Dave flew down for the occasion, and we were happy to see him. The pictures below were taken in the Magic Kingdom (that's the park with the big castle). The park was decorated for the fall, and I thought it was really pretty (check out the last couple pictures and you'll see what I mean).

Happy Birthday Brian!

who doesn't like pictures of ferrets?

I don't know anybody who doesn't appreciate a ferret picture or two every now and then. Here are three recent ones: Chewbacca, Brussels, and Rex.

Horray Camera!

As you can see, our camera is working again. The battery was dead and the battery charger lost, so we finally caved and bought a new charger. It came in the mail yesterday, so today, we have some new photos!

The first shot is of Brussels looking out the window. Our temperatures have been getting cooler, especially at night, so we can have the windows open and turn the AC off (finally). I think it gets into the 60s in the evening, so we have been enjoying the cool temperatures. The ferrets are really interested in the windows when they are open. They like to sit in the window sill and look out (lots of new sights, smells, and sounds).


This picture shows the ferrets' newest toy, which came in a box from David and Rachel on Thursday. The ferrets enjoy playing with their new toy a lot! We are supervising their play to make sure they don't chew the hamster figure off the rope, though. :)


Here you can see Rex and Eve playing tug of rope with me and their newest toy. Thanks D&R!


I know I posted a picture of the new ferret cage, but this picture actually has our ferrets in it. Two ferrets are in the top level, one is in the second level, and one is in the very bottom. Brian is just opening the doors to let them out. As usual, Rex is awake and waiting to come out, while the others are still asleep.


Here you can see the ferret gate we got for the ferret's playroom so we could get rid of the door. The gate opens and closes, so we can have it open when they are in their cage and closed when they are out (it looks like we have an escapee in this shot). We had to put linoleum on the front of the gate because the ferrets could use the holes to easily climb the gate otherwise.


This last picture shows our front yard. Brian got some nice copper lights that are solar powered to line the front area. Also, we got a hose so we can now water the yard. We watered today because I planted some bulbs that I hope will bloom in the spring. The bulbs are planted behind Brian, between the large plant and the railing. The next step is to get some top soil and grass, which our landlady wants to do this fall, now that it is getting cool (you can see in the picture that there are some patchy areas).

Sickness

I have been sick since the first day of October, and it is getting really old. For the first week, my head was foggy and so I didn't get a lot of work done. Now I am thinking a lot clearer, and I have been teaching, but I still have a cough that makes people think I am dying.

Sadly, I gave this sickness to Brian. He started feeling sick about 3 days after I did, so he is a few days behind me. His boss made him go home on Tuesday (which was probably a good idea, since he looked really pale), but in general, his schedule does not allow as much flexibility as mine for recovery. So I have been taking it easy and not going into the lab (I can just see myself contaminating a whole group of samples, or blowing away the sample powder with a sneeze), but Brian cannot do this.

Hopefully, we will have the chance to fully recover this weekend. It will be really great when this sickness is out of our house.

So it continues

I'm told this is not supposed to be the norm, but, well, it is for now.

Though I finished my prior life-consuming project at work (after spending most of every day at the Court for two weeks), I am not back to normal. My colleagues are also being buried by projects assigned to them (long story) and as a result, one of their projects was reassigned to me. So, for the next three weeks, I will probably be spending a lot of time at the Court.

That is all. I miss the northern fall season.