Day 12: Pumpkin Palooza

I have a confession to make. Yes another one, pipe down. I, am crazy about pumpkins. I know I just got done telling you how leaves and fall magazines were the be all and end all of October, but I was wrong. It is all about pumpkins. I have a kind of pumpkin mania. Really I am the thing that keeps the retail industry open in October. I am a sucker for fall stuff. And if it has pumpkin taste, smell, appearance or anything remotely pumpkin like, I will buy it. I consume copious amounts of pumpkiny beverages, pumpkiny snacks and pumpkiny innards. It is a veritable pumpkin palooza over here. Which, coincidentally (I think not) is the name of our new fall festival this year. Pumpkin Palooza. Well you KNOW that I am going to attend that.
There are so many wonderful things to do with pumpkins. You can use them for bowling or as a bowl/serving dish. You can make scarecrows out of them, or carriages. You can pumpkin chuck them (which for the uninitiated means you basically catapult a pumpkin across a distance using a really big rubber band and your own arm power, it is so much fun). According to fairy tales, if you grow one big enough, you can live in it. Some people grow them incredibly large so that they can either air lift them and drop them on cars, or explode them in front of anxious spectators. What I mean to say is, pumpkins and most everything associated with them are wonderful.
Pumpkins come in a variety of colors, sizes and shapes. I myself prefer the oblong or round, but last year I found some that were shaped like a spaceship and I fell in love. I had no idea there were so many choices. But I guess that is what happens when you introduce a city girl to a farm stand. What, you mean they don't just spontaneously grown in the Albertsons produce bin? Mind blown.

Every year I carve a certain type of pumpkin. He has the same features as the year before. This tradition got started mostly because I am not the worlds greatest pumpkin carver and also because I sit around with so many ideas and can't decide which one to do. So every year I carve a Bob. I don't know why I named my pumpkin creation Bob and not Vlad or Frank, but Bob it was. If I am feeling especially creative I carve other things. Last year I was brave and bought a pumpkin body stocking. The end result did not look anything like the picture and it took forever to try to get the mesh over the gourd. Very disappointing.

This year, along with my Bob, I am going to attempt to paint my pumpkin creations. I have high expectations, so we shall see. But I am quite excited to try something new. Did I mention that I l LOVE October ;)