Confessions and Jack O' Lanterns

Confession 1:

I am 34 and yesterday i went on my first ever Hay Ride!! We have visitors and decided to treat them to the delights of activities in New England in the fall and a few free bruises to boot. So we piled onto a tractor full of hay and went to "pick" -that is the use of the word pick in the sense of just select, not actually pick off the plant! their pumpkins from a field full of them. Rules of selection were: Pick whichever one you want, as long as you can carry it!! Huh! Some adults are such a pushover. We now have three pumpkins that are at least twice the size of a head and weigh probably 4 times as much!! Today's task is to carve them. There is going to be a LOT of pumpkin pie, so forthcoming visitors, be warned!

Last night we went into the city to the India Arie concert. It was a great concert by her, however, her support act left a LOT to be desired. I cannot abide artists that are confused and don't emit a strong sense of who they are and what they believe. This poor bloke didn't know if he was Ricky Martin, New Order, Gloria Gaynor or a Thanksgiving Turkey! We were treated to half an hour (so that's half an hour too long!) of falsetto, groin thrusting, "woo!" and knee skidding whilst R and I couldn't contain ourselves laughing. Sadly he appeared to have a pretty strong fan base within the audience - and I even later spotted two young girls carrying around prized signed photos. Perhaps it is a sign of old age??!! India herself was fabulous. Such a performer! The sound wasn't great, probably just where we were, but these old theatres were never designed for modern day acoustics so she was occasionally lost by the reverberation of the band.

Confession 2:

My second first was a ride in a yellow NYC cab. I know, I know, tis sad, but I have never hailed or ridden a yellow cab. Okay, so that's it, there is nothing more to say, it was no more or less an experience that taking a cab anywhere else in the world, but I just thought I would confess to having done that!

Today I need to go and prepare my carving arm! We have three pumpkins and to, obviously complete our guests' experience, we are going to make these lanterns. That link tells you all about our bizarre choice to name these pumpkin carvings for children after a stingy thieving folklorist. Hence I won't type anymore for today (RSI and all that!!) It is amazing though these days how much things have changed from my childhood (all together = aaaahhhh!) but gone are the days of pleasure in simple faces dug lovingly out of sugar beet (Dad! I'm soooo sorry, pumpkins are a doddle in the face of solid beet!!) these days children are only content with the best

"I am not my hair"

This made me laugh - tell me I have a poor sense of humour, but over here we get the BBC world news. Most of the time this is the rare flicker of sanity there is within the US television network, but yesterday was priceless! Toward the end of the news they always end with the more "lighthearted" pieces. A British man, holidaying in Spain, had set up the most elaborate burglar detection and security system in his home. Basically he had cameras that triggered an alarm which then sent a phone call to his cell phone telling him of the current burglary (or maybe false alarm) anyway, he can then go online and watch all this happening. What was his response when asked about his recent break in that he was able to watch from Spain from his PC? - I was totally shocked !! Eh? Surely if you set up such an elaborate system and it goes off, it can't be that much of a shock to watch people burgle your house after all, that is what it is there for isn't it?

We are sitting amidst torrential rain yet again! Today I had to purchase a rain jacket, I have lightweight jackets and I have heavy fleeces and snow coats, but since we arrived here, we haven't had weather like this. It is still warm, so not snow jacket weather by all accounts, but it is way to wet for a denim or other jacket. I need something that I can fling over a t-shirt to do the school run. However, being me, this "fling" has to be the right kinda "fling" baby! so good old North Face came up trumps this morning. In the meantime, the darned scout cookout for which I was in such a hurry to be suitably attired, has been cancelled. It might sound obvious, but e-mails were sent earlier in the day to say that, in true scouting spirit, we would meet rain or shine.....so I was practising my "I really want to be here" smile. However, obviously by 5.30pm and no let up in the rain, sense actually got the better of them, much to W's disappointment. TBH, they are both pretty shattered from a week back at school and they have swimming tomorrow. Not wanting to "hot house" them this is gratefully postponed until Sunday.

R is still not right, we are working on a theory right now that his food is causing a back up progressively over the day, hence the fact the attacks are worse in the evening after his evening meal. He is currently trying the theory that by eating his main meal at lunchtime and snacking in the evening, perhaps the backlog won't be so bad so his stomach, intestine, gut, whatever it is that is causing these spasms won't react so badly. So far, not bad, but he is still suffering. His tests are lined up for this week, so maybe, maybe we will get some results and answers.

Excitingly, we are hoping to get tickets to go and see India Arie in NYC in October. I have a really selective amount of people of whose music I really like, I tend to like tracks from different musicians and my choices are quite eclectic, that said, India Arie is one of those who really hits the spot, her lyrics are just so powerful, so I am excited that we might be able to go, as long as we can get a sitter!

Well, it is time to go and tend to the needs of a bottle of "three blind moose" that has been delightfully chillin' since about 4pm, that is when the need hits of a Friday evening - the weekend starts to seep in and weave it's wicked way hoorah - I wonder if I am going to have to share??!!