25 november '25: tina tuesday, too!

Such a busy day it has been... and that's been great!

My outing ended with dinner at Olive Garden with my first niece and her two daughters! 

Kayleigh was along, too, but she made sure Christina sat across from me - thank you!

I had the eggplant parmigiana, in honor of my friend Roy Wood.

That's always his favorite. 

That really hit the spot, along with two bowls of Pasta e Fagiole soup.

We came for dinner straight from the AMC and we were all pretty hungry after the long movie.

Comcast rewarded me with two free tickets to be "Wicked For Good", so I used those for Christina and Miyah.

Mine was with my A*List and Chloe's was from my AMC Rewards, which also paid for some of our cameo specials!

Then Kayleigh used my A*List membership to get her ticket for the musical, and the cameo special, too.

At dinner, I sat right beside Chloe, but not for the movie.

In the cinema, I sat right between Christina and Miyah.

Everybody wanted to sit by me! 

But Miyah did something extra special: she had drawn and colored a picture of a loggerhead turtle for me!

Magnificient, isn't it?

That piece of art wasn't the only gift I received today, either.

I made a special trip to Grayson Stadium earlier, following the explicit map sent by the Savannah Bananas.

Because I had a season ticket package this year, they gave me a free pie for Thanksgiving.

I'll be taking that pumpkin pie to Tony's, as well as the Cool Whip they included.

Very nice, even though I have left Banana Nation.

As for other gift transactions, I gave Christina the 99 items for her school store.

The gift bags with the twins' birthday gifts stayed at home.

I want to see their faces when they open them, to give them big hugs and let them see my face, too.

Soon, I hope!

bwah ha ha!!! Count Pumpkinula!

I think I may be getting the hang of this pumpkin-carving thing.
Today, I attended my second party to do so this month.
I seem to be leaning toward lopsided grins, with or without fangs.
Probably because I have I have one of those.
Lopsided grins, that is.
No fangs...yet.
BWAH ha HA!

got pumpkin?

At first, it was simply a pumpkin, growing in a sandy patch of ground, soaking up sunshine and drinking sweet rain. It was a pumpkin in the wild, not yet separated from its tether to the great Earth on which it grew. It was living the good life, unaware that a change was coming with the crisp coolness in the air and the lengthening nights.

One sunny fall day, change came. No more would the pumpkin bask in sunshine and wake to morning dew. Workers arrived with blades and severed the pumpkin from its strong green lifeline. They gently placed it into the harvest truck, mindful that pumpkins have tender flesh which, like that of all living things, will bruise if treated roughly.

As soon as the truck arrived to the hillside by the highway, the workers quickly, and ever so gently, tossed the pumpkin and others like it onto the ground, forming neat rows, much like those in which the pumpkin once grew. The pumpkin felt more at home, especially as the sun was still warm on its firm rind. People admired its warm color, too.

The woman had sought The Great Pumpkin, but had not found it. She spotted the pumpkin with its deep orange skin and warty veins. Only five dollars? She picked it up, careful of its remnant of a stem. She cradled the bas-relief flesh close to her side, then stowed the unique pumpkin into a cloth bag. Soon, it was the belle of the ball at a carving party.

Carving?!? The pumpkin's rind was pierced repeatedly near its stem until finally the stem could be used to lift the separated circlet away. Pumpkin innards streamed down, entangled pumpkin seeds gleaming whitely in the sudden light of the afternoon sun. The creamsicle-hued inner flesh was firm and moist.

As the pumpkin was divested of its seeds and the stringy goop in which they existed, another woman was already at work on its companion from Burt's Farm. The pale, green-tinted skin had hidden a deeply orange interior, which was now being revealed by the deft strokes of the knife. A ghost kitty face was in the making.

What design would be carved into, and through, its flesh? The purchaser started with one design, but changed to better accommodate the quirks of the warts on this shapely pumpkin. Some slow cuts through the rind, some quicker knife scrapes to the spongy inner flesh, and the work was done. A rotund face with one eye open and one eye gone, wearing a crooked, narrow-lipped grin, now animated the pumpkin's surface.
And when the lights go out... Boo!

he flies through the air and brings toys to all the good girls and boys

No, not Santa! I'm talking about The Great Pumpkin!!!
You know about The Great Pumpkin, don't you?
Well, this morning, bright and early, we set out for Dawsonville, Georgia, to find it.
Sadly, we had no success in our venture.
It wasn't in the patch of picked pumpkins.
Sure, there were some humdingers there, as you can see above.
But none had wings or were able to fly. In fact, they were quite Earthbound and very heavy. Apparently, they were easily bruised, too, as signs let us know. "You sit on the pumpkin, you must BUY the pumpkin."
We did not not sit on the pumpkins.
And what a gracious many there were! So many sizes, too!
Burt's Farm did not only have the huge, dark orange-skinned versions. Oh, no! The normal-sized pumpkins had a wide variety of appearances. Pale, ghostly green ones! Perfectly shell-pink ones! Green-as-a-cucumber pumpkins! Pumpkins with warts and pumpkins without! Then there were the teeny tiny ones with dark vertical striping!
But not THE Great Pumpkin.
So we all boarded the wagon for a hay ride. Perhaps we might espy The Great Pumpkin amongst the pumpkins in the wild!
Sadly, no such sighting was to be had.
Let me rephrase that. We did see quite a few pumpkins in the wild. Oh, yes! All were the traditional variety with the dark orange shouting its presence on the white sand slopes of the pumpkin homesteads. They were closely guarded by a ragtag crew of scarecrows, some with pigtails, some clad in overalls, even some disguised as crows. There were also two animatronic pumpkins who spoke to us on our travels.
But The Great Pumpkin was nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps it is hiding in the shadows, waiting for the night when it will fly through the sky, rewarding good behavior. Perhaps it is still growing in the wild, gaining mass and volume day by day.
We'll find out in another month or so.
Meanwhile, try to behave until then.