I just randomly came across a note on my phone where I had saved this. I'm not sure what year this is from, though...
Ellen: do you think, when I grow up, I could be a director?
Me: you can be anything you want.
Ellen: when I grow up, then, can I be a dragon?
Katie: when I grow up, I want to be a caterpillar.
Let's see if dreams really can come true...
It appears, after careful searching (read: not that careful), that I never blogged our pumpkin effort from last year. Odds are it was because we were stuck in Minneapolis due to Superstorm Sandy, but it could be just because I'm lazy (quiet, you.)
So, after a really nice effort this year, I've decided on a MEGAPOST of both years' accomplishments!
Without further ado, we'll start with 2012's editions:
Katie's "Nyan Pumpkin"
Chris's "Celtic Pride" unlit and lit
And my "Super Mario" unlit and lit.
Linda did not participate in the 2012 festivities, preferring to take a more advisory post. However, she did a wonderful job with her "Jack Skellington" head this year:
Katie followed up her lovely Nyan cat with an even geekier effort, the robots from Portal 2 "high fiving".
Chris outdid himself with the Psycho from Borderlands 2. I'm posting a picture from their website this is based on, and his freehand pumpkin version.
I did the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, looking angry.
About 3 months ago, I moved into a cool new place with Linda and her kids. Kim and I are officially divorced. It happened. I moved away from my kids, but, happily, only 3 blocks.
But as life goes on, things return to "normal." Tonight I spend most of the evening with Chris on one couch, me and Katie snuggled up on the other watching The Avengers. You know, I love playing video games, and I love going out and having fun, but there's something special about snuggling my kids and just watching a movie. Katie's spending the night for the second time, and Ellen's spent a few nights here. It's...life. It's odd, it's all over the place, and it's a bit chaotic at times, but there was no disaster. No tidal wave when I moved out. I see my kids all the time now, during the week, on weekends, at random times, just like before, but now I have another full time kid, and one in college. I am with Linda every day, I see Kim often, my parents come to dinner or whatever often.
As they say, the more that things change, the more they stay the same. And I think I kinda like it.
Anyone who knows me knows that I've love seeing live events. Concerts or sporting events, even if it's not my favorite team or my favorite band, I just really love seeing them live. Thanks to StubHub it's so easy to get seats for things I'd never have gotten to before. These days, one kick of mine is to go to see a bad team but with great seats. I went with Chris a few weeks ago to a Wizards game, and we sat in the all-you-can-eat-buffet Acela ledge seats, where they took care of us all evening, we watched some pathetic Wizards basketball, and ate and just had a great time:
Tonight, I convinced/cajoled Katie to come with me into Newark to see the even more lowly Nets (who, coincidentally, played, and got crushed by, the above mentioned lowly Wizards). We got a nice burger before the game and wandered in a bit late down down down to our center court, 3rd row seats that were mine for an absolute song. The obvious plus is that I'd never buy seats that were face value $250/seat. No way. The downside is that the Nets A, suck and B, suck. But, we still had a great time:
Today, Katie performed at the Livingston Mall with her school chorus. She had a wonderful solo during the song "Stand By Me", by Ben E. King. Here's the video of her - hopefully the sound is good as we're in the middle of a mall!
(double click on video to play)
It's time again for da carving to commence. This year, we did all our carving on sunday after I was away at the Sea Witch Festival, in Rehoboth Beach, DE. For the first time in years, I dressed up for halloween. When I get some of the good pictures from others, I'll post a few.
However, this post is all about pumpkins! We sort of went into this year with vague ideas at best. Ellen and I planned a Portal pumpkin, which i envisioned as a 3D thing with cutout sides. She did almost all the actual work--I just designed it. I thought it came out pretty well, as you can see below (unlit and lit versions):
Katie did everything herself. She found a Yatsuba picture of the girl holding her hands over her head and yelling. Unfortunately, the hands are indistinct, so it's hard to see them as hands, but I still liked it. She did do the entire thing herself, though, so she gets lots of credit for that (lit only):
Finally, I wasn't actually sure I'd do a pumpkin this year, but discussing an idea with Katie made me want to try to do a completely carved out, bas-relief pumpkin. Essentially, letting the shape of the thing come out from the pumpkin. I'm not sure it really worked, but it came out reasonably well anyway (and didn't take the 8-hours the Matrix one did last year...)
So, my entry this year, Katie had named "Identity Crisis", which I loved (several angles of unlit, and one lit):
So, there's this years crop. Hope you enjoy!
I facebooked these, but I should have blogged them and then had them post to facebook, but regardless, these two were too funny to not post on the blog for future reference.
Both of these were tonight at dinner.
Katie Conversation:
Katie: "what movie are you talking about?"
Me: "silence of the lambs"
Katie: "what's it about?"
Me: "a serial killer."
Katie: "poor lambs"
Ellen Conversation:
We were discussing a meat dish that was very tender (a slow-cooked mexican pork dish). She pronounced that "meat was the only thing that got better with entropy", and ultimately therefore "slow cooking was chaos theory in action."
Wow.
We got Katie a new phone for her birthday, complete with texting ability. She has taken full advantage of it...
"Okay. On the bus. Better day today. people punching the back of my seat and screaming in my ear. Nicky's hand groping, trying to recover her umbrella which i confiscated in an attempt to keep her from bopping me on the head. then, when i get home i have to go get two needles filled with germ injected into my arm to keep me immune from diseases not even native to this country. after that, i must come home, set the table, clear the table, get ready for school, and go to sleep finally, exhausted and an hour later than i had planned. Hmmmmmmm. no thanks, i think i'll stay at school."
That was just one text from today. Oh, boy.
Katie: Hey dad, why don't you sell your cocoa next time we have a garage sale?
Me: Well, because garage sales are usually in the spring and people don't want cocoa in warm weather.
Katie (not missing a beat): Why don't you sell hot dogs?
Me: You're just going with anything here aren't you...
Katie: Yup!
The other day, we're sitting at dinner, and I look behind katie to the windowsill, whereupon I see a small box-shaped thing.
Me (to Katie): What's that thing on the sill behind you?
Katie: Oh, that's just the box to my eraser. Pay it no heed.
Consider it done.
