13 Days of Halloween - Day 1

I was debating whether or not I was going to do the 13 Days of Halloween this year, but I think I can swing it without having a nervous breakdown. We're starting off slow today with some crazy looking pumpkins and gourds. Mark loves crazy looking pumpkins. He's trying to grow some of his own this year, but these are from a local garden center. The unique varieties of pumpkins and gourds have really caught on over the past couple of years. The garden center where this photo was taken was way ahead of it's time. We used to go there years ago because it was practically the only place that sold white pumpkins, goose neck gourds, and bird house gourds. Now even the grocery store down the street has a big display similar to this one.

 

I wonder what happens to all the unsold pumpkins after Halloween. They can last for a very long time if they're unbruised and you keep them in a cool, dry place. I know it's always a quandary at our house. Usually the uncarved ones that we use for display are still around at Christmas. Maybe I should paint them green and red. Hmm....

In search of the Great Pumpkin.

Also last weekend, we visited Soergel's Orchards for their annual fall festival.

 

 



In addition to a pumpkin patch, they had lots of games and activities for kids. Lauren really liked the hay maze, except when her flashlight went out in the middle of it.

 

While Lauren was hanging out with her grandparents, I went and checked out the horses in the neighboring pasture.

 

This one was really friendly. He came right up to me and posed!



Then we took a walk up to the pumpkin patch. Lauren wanted to get one, but I was a party pooper and did my best to talk her out it. For some reason, even though the pumpkins were coming straight from the source, they were pretty expensive. It was really putting a damper on the sincerity level at the patch. Linus would have been very disappointed. Oh Great Pumpkin, where are you!



No worries - this story still has a happy ending. Later, daddy would buy three pumpkins for the less price we would have paid for one at the patch. All hail, Great Pumpkin!

Homecoming 2013

Last weekend was our district's annual Homecoming celebration. We pack a parade, football game and dance all in one day. And what a gorgeous day it was this year! Our team may not have won a game since 2011, but we know how to throw one heck of parade anyway! You'll probably experience some deja vu here. This is the third time I've blogged about the parade, and it's pretty much the same every year.



It's always nice to see the alumni. The oldest group this year was from 1947, but in the recent past I think that they've had some folks as far back as the 30's.



Our football team may be in a slump, but our girl's lacrosse team were the champs this year. 



Here comes Lauren's school. You won't see her in this crowd because she chose to collect candy by the side of the road rather than march in parade.



And you won't see her in this group either. Not only because she's collecting candy by the side of the road, but because she also retired this year from playing soccer.

 

These guys are always my favorite part of the parade.

 

I wonder how you become a bag piper? It wasn't offered as an extracurricular activity when I went to school.

 

There's always lots of dogs at the parade. Maybe next year, we'll bring Cookie!

 

Big man in a very little car.



The Shriners use these mini vehicles to raise money for local charities.

 

Once again, here's theVolkswagon Club. They sure get around. Every year, I say to Mark that we should offer up our MINI convertible as transportation for one of the homecoming queens (Yes, that's plural. There is a queen for each class, plus the band and the chorus), but I always forget to look into it.

 

All the local volunteer fire departments turn out for the parade.



And these horses turn out every year as well.



This year's homecoming theme was "Game On." The students really outdid themselves. I think this year's floats were the best I've seen.



Mario Kart.



And my favorite Pac-man. The ghosts behind Pac-man even rotated!

 

And the grand finale - the marching band!

 

 

 

These guys had it easy.  They were tossing t-shirts to the crowd.

 

Finally, here's Lauren with one of her BFFs and fellow candy hoarder.

 

More BBFs. Everyone in town comes to the parade, so we got to see all of our friends too.


That does it for another year. Hopefully our football team will win a game before Lauren graduates!

Let's go Bucs (and Ducks)!!

It's a very exciting time to live in the city of Pittsburgh right now.  For the first time in 21 years, the Pittsburgh Pirates have made the play-offs. Baseball has always been my favorite sport. When I was five years old, I had a little gold Pirates hat. That was during the late 70's and early 80's when the Bucs won multiple championships. When the game was on television, I would put on my little hat and pretend I was a pitcher just like Kent Tekulve. I remember my grandparents sitting outside listening to the games on the radio. I remember standing in line with a gazillion people during Piratefest in the early 90's so I could get Tim Wakefield's autograph (I didn't). I also sadly remember that fateful night in 1992 when, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, former Pirate Sid Bream was on second base for the Atlanta Braves when he was batted in and scored the winning run.

That's when I stopped following professional sports.

Now I'm not going to say that I'm ready to don that little gold hat again, but it's awfully nice to see baseball is actually meaningful once again around these parts.



Now onto the duck. This past weekend was a blur of one event after another, including Homecoming and a visit to the pumpkin patch (photos of both to come). Since I spent last night decompressing, and will spend tomorrow night going through my bi-monthly 2.5 hour ordeal of getting my hair done, then followed by curriculum night at Lauren's school on Thursday, I had to make time prior to tonight's big game to write about The Rubber Duck before he's old news (which really, he already is.).

The Rubber Duck Project is a creation of Dutch artist, Florentijn Hofman. I've known about it from photos that I've seen of the Rubber Duck in Hong Kong. When I heard that the Cultural Trust was bringing the Rubber Duck Project to Pittsburgh as part of the International Festival of Firsts, I was beside myself. It was a photographer's dream come true!

Our duck is the first to be displayed in the United States. It's about 5 stories high, quite a bit smaller than the 18 story ducks displayed in other cities, but our duck had to be small enough to fit under the city's many bridges. His purpose is simple - to make people happy. There's no heavy, artistic message here. Everyone can relate to a rubber duck, no matter your race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, socioeconomic status, or political affiliation (whew!).

So when the Cultural District announced they were throwing a party to herald the duck's arrival on September 27th, I had to be there and convinced Mel C. that she had to be there too!

The duck was going to sail down the Allegheny River from the West End and arrive at the Roberto Clemente bridge around 6 o'clock. Mel C., Lauren and I arrived early so that we could claim our spot on the North Shore right in front of PNC Park. Mark came straight from work and found us shortly thereafter. Soon, people packed behind us along the river walk, so much that I thought for certain one of us was going for a unplanned swim.

After about an hour of waiting, this little golden head could finally be seen on the horizon.



He was absolutely adorable.

And very, very slow.



Eventually, he did make his way closer, so we could see him in all his glory.



The giant rubber duck certainly didn't intimidate anyone from enjoying boating or water sports.

 

At one point, they turned him around so we could see his cute tail feathers.



Finally, he settled in beside the bridge so he could enjoy the party in his honor. By this point, Lauren was all ducked out, so Mark took her home while Mel C and I stayed behind to check out the scene. As it happened, the press tent was nearby.



Meet the man behind the duck. The very fine man behind the duck. As we stood there ogling Florentijn Hofman, his handler from the Cultural Trust told us, "He's really nice too...and married."



Of course, we had to get pics of ourselves with the duck. Me...



and Mel C.



Time to join the rest of the city on the bridge.

 

 

It was absolutely nuts up there. There were around 70 food and craft vendors on the bridge peddling their wares. Not that we got anywhere near them.



But we did get near these guys - lol. They were happy to pose when I asked if I could take their photo. Considering they were laboring in front of a hot, greasy grill while the rest of the city partied with a giant rubber duck, they were really good sports.

After getting a few last glimpses, it was time to duck out.



 

For duck's sake, I hope the Bucs win tonight...

11.

So today is our 11 year wedding anniversary. It's been pouring rain, so obviously this photo wasn't taken today. Although it was taken by Lauren earlier this summer at the Zoar Harvest Festival. I wish I had something more exciting to report, but basically we've spent the entire day at home with just about every kid in the neighborhood, boys and girls from ages 7 to 13, in the house (Good thing I've stocked up on antibacterial wipes). I told Mark that the parallel universe version of us must be having an epic day. Actually, our plans for the rest of the evening including eating pizza and watching the movie Epic. So there you go.