Pumpkin Season

We made a quick trip to the library this afternoon to get a few jigsaw puzzles.  I didn't realize that Maddie was that addicted to jigsaw puzzles!  We got home and she was already workin on it later on this afternoon.  But our primary reason for being there was to do some early voting.  This year was somewhat confusing because we're getting a whole lot of material for the primaries in the middle of next year, and yet none of those candidates in the ads and flyers we're getting in the mail are not on the ballot right now now.  Except for two.  It was those two that we voted for today, plus a local election issue.  The three of us cast our votes, and it was fairly quiet in there with the voting, although today was early voting for some sort of obscure offices on a really miserable day, weather-wise.  While there, we got to check out some of the pumpkins that got painted there, and they were actually pretty fun!  Check out No-Face, and the White Rabbit.

There was also a Mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas," which had faces painted on either side just like the mayor himself.  

It was a very cold and wet day outside, the sort of day that you want to be inside all day long.  It's the sort of day where you put a fire in the fire place or get under a bunch of blankets or take one of those long hot baths.  Maddie had college this morning, and things got out a little early for her there.  This afternoon was time to recover somewhat - I've been somewhat under the weather lately.  I started work on an Incredible Hulk pumpkin that I hope comes out okay - we've got some pumpkins to put out by Friday.  We had this green pumpkin that we picked up at Burt's a few weeks ago, and had this idea of converting it into the Hulk.  I was initially going to carve, and then I thought about just painting it, and so I used the wax pencil to sort of sketch out an idea.

And I like the end result enough really.  I might add some more hair in just a moment, but overall I think it looks pretty fun!  You lose the green a bit in this picture, so perhaps he's more "Grey Hulk" here.  But yeah, he's coming along.  I'll finish it up some tomorrow, probably.

The weather should clear out by then, and that sounds good, so all the kids can do some trick-or-treating.  Although... it will be cold.  Also, it could be the first year where Maddie hangs back at the house to help give out candy.  Also, I'll be hanging back too for the first time ever here at the neighborhood, and that will be nice for Mom to give her some rest.  We'll have the porch all decorated nicely, and it should be a fun night.  Just got to get some candy!

Speaking of Maddie hanging at home, here she is, working on yet another puzzle today.  When we went to the library, we got a couple puzzles, one of them a 500 piece puzzle.  And just to show you how much of an addict to puzzles Maddie can occasionally be...

She spent a good bit of time on that one today!

There were other things too, like taekwondo.  It's cold and rainy outside, but that's okay because we haven't seen rain in quite some time.  Everyone is oddly grateful for the miserable weather.  But taekwondo was fun, and Nate is back because he's feeling better.  I'm not entirely much better, but I still made progress along the Corpse Bride marathon - all indoors today, of course.  On the treadmill.  Only got a little over five miles to go until completion!

Tonight I selected a movie that I've never seen before, one that sort of terrified me as a kid - it's the last of the movies from that era of black and white movies that scared me.  Last year I finally got the courage to see "Dracula," "Wolfman," "The Mummy," and "Frankenstein." 

Tonight, at last I saw "The Creature from the Black Lagoon."  Mom's seen this before, a long time ago as an afternoon movie.  We were laughing a lot through it, but there was a great jump scare in there early on.  I was a little confused about the idea of peacefully getting along with something that just mauled two of your employees to death for no apparent reason, but one thing that translated pretty well was the terror of not knowing what's in the murky depths of the lagoon below, a boat full of passengers trapped and looking downward into the depths, all waiting nervously with rifles and a spear gun (which may not have been as useful as you'd think).  We enjoyed it for what it was, and I checked another box off the list of "old horror" movies that I was wanting to see.  Next is "Bride of Frankenstein," and I think I'll save the crazy Vincent Price movies until next year.  For some reason, those really freaked me out as a kid.

Anyway, afterwards we got some sleep.  We read from our recent book, "Jingo," and then said our prayers.  The rain is gently falling outside, and it's chilly out there.  It's nice getting under all those warm covers for a good night's rest.