The family and I went out to Lake View Farms over the weekend to buy pumpkins. I'm now a convert and will be going there for all my pumpkin-related needs in the years to come. It has all the same attractions that can be found on Sauvie Island (corn maze, pumpkin patch, Honey Buckets, etc.) but without the traffic jams to get across the bridge. Plus, they've got pony rides (pony rides!), a small train that transports visitors to their pumpkin patch, an annual pumpkin "chuckin'" contest and a boat that cruises along the lake past a mechanical sea serpent.

This year I bought a green pumpkin. It took over two hours to carve. Thirty minutes of that was spent trying to get the top off. Maybe this was because green pumpkins are tougher than their more common orange cousins but the size probably had a lot to do with it. At 28 pounds, it was probably the largest piece of fruit I've ever eviscerated. I went with a Frankenstein face. Here's how it turned out. It's the one on the left.

Here's Shanna's effort: a double-sided pumpkin. A ball of flames on the front, Mrs. Pac-Man on the back.

I'm not sure what the juxtaposition of the two is meant to represent. I suspect it's something related to feminism and/or a desire to see Pac Man's wife shoot fireballs ala Mario. But could the digestive system of a yellow-ball-with-a-bow like her handle a fire flower?

Also: I took a picture of stuffed animals getting drunk on "Vampire" brand wine imported from a vineyard in the distant, mystical land of....California. Here's how that turned out:

Piglet? Total lush.

Que tengas un feliz Día de los Muertos, todos.

Labels: alcohol, Halloween, Piglet