Raptors in the Mist.

This morning, when we woke up, there was a beautiful falcon hanging out on a limb clearly visible from the back porch. We're not sure why she chose that particular branch. She was definitely awake; every once in a while her head would turn or she fluff her wings. We watched her while we ate breakfast, but eventually cleaning the kitchen and doing the laundry came to our attention.

Later that day, she was still there. I went outside and used the tripod to try and get a much better photo of her. She wasn't very helpful; I kept hoping she'd fluff a wing again or something, but other than turning her head every time a smaller bird flew by, she was very impassive, just perching there. Anyway, it was kinda cool to have a raptor so clearly nearby.

More evil!

Sinister purposes!

This is probably one of the most terrifying buildings in Seattle. It's on Capitol Hill, sharing it's block with a funeral home. Only the array of four satellite dishes on the roof give away its location and its nefarious purpose.

This is the building from which Muzak is distributed to the Pacific Northwest.

Picking the pumpkin.

Doing family stuff.

In the annual tradition of American families everywhere, we drove out to the farm country just south of Seattle and picked our pumpkins for the annual sacrifice. Soon, we found ourselves at Carpinito farms, where Yamaraashi-chan insisted on pulling the cart even though it was much too heavy for her. After Omaha had bought some kettle corn, we walked out into the fields and started to look for the perfect pumpkin.

After picking our three pumpkins, the girls wanted to do the corn maze. There were two, one with the suggestive outline of a pterodactyl, the other a tyrannosaurus rex. We did the T-Rex. Inside there are six stations where you can punch a hole into the map you're given, so you can acknowledge that you've been to all six. We got lost at one point and ended up in the dinosaur's toes before finding out way back to the backridge where post #2 was, so we did them out of order. Kouryou-chan was great about finding our way through the maze, but Yamaraashi-chan couldn't get into the spirit of it. "Why do you look at the map?" she said. "That's no fun." I don't think she quite got the point, or she had a different one from the rest of us.

Pullin' the cart

Anyway, we had a good time and took our hauls home.

Yamaraashi-chan gives a sacrifice to the Halloween Spirits.

Brains!

That evening, the three of us who had pumpkins (Omaha decided she didn't want to carve up some poor gourd) sat down on our tiny kitchen floor and proceeded to sacrifice our kills to the Great Pumpkin Gods. Armed only with small saws specially sold for the purpose, things designed to carve pumpkins but not childish fingers, we opened up the scalps of our victims and reached in and tore out their brains. Yamaraashi-chan took this further than the rest of us, as in the wont of a ten year old.

Kouryou-chan, in contrast, was so disgusted by the whole process that she wouldn't decerebrate her pumpkin without first putting on latex gloves. Once she had done so, the task was much easier. We pulled out about four gallons of pumpkin guts which are now sitting nicely in the non-yard-waste composter out back. We cleaned and polished our pumpkins. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be until Sunday when we'll have time to carve them up properly. The kids needed a shower after all that. And I needed to mop the floor.

Carving the pumkins: the results

Mine, Kouryou-chan's, Yamaraashi-chan's

So, this is what the pumpkins looked like after all the effort. Mine was a lot of work, but it really turned out well. Kouryou-chan was devastated when she broke the tail off hers, but I think it looks just fine. And Yamaraashi-chan's really is as spooky as she'd hoped.