Red red wine you make me feel so fine

I woke up this morning with this song pounding in my brain. I could pretend I didn’t know why, but that would be a misconception. I know that my brain is pounding because we went through 2 bottles of red wine last night…mind you I started the night off with a glass before my guests arrive. Then there were only 4 of us who “shared” the first bottle. Followed by two of us mostly sharing the second bottle (one person had a half of glass, so that doesn’t count.)

You may be wondering what fan fare took place last night that caused your’s truly to imbibe in drink. My annual Pumpkin Carving party of course. What other reason to drink wine is there except with good food and good friends? Of which I had plenty of both last night.

I spent the day cooking my much infamous – now famous – Spaghetti Bolognese. It was a hit as usual. God, I love cooking – and more importantly cooking for people who appreciate a good meal. Other viddles that were on hand for the night is Sherrie's famous shrimp appetizer - which we plowed through. Mark brought his required rice krispie treats, of which I told him had to be orange. But Mark, being an over achiever, went an extra mile and made them BLACK with little pumpkins on top. Very chic! Finally the food fanfare was finished off by my chocolate cupcakes (excuse the crumbs in this post since I'm having one for breakfast. What? Like you've never craved chocolate while hung over!)

The pumpkins came in all shapes and sizes. We had small ones, a tall one, and a couple pudgy ones. But as in the past, we dug in immediately to the guts and goo that was inside our pumpkins. Scraping and pulling out the insides so that we could start the real work of art. It was interesting to see how people proceed with the official carving. Some folks took their time and contemplated, then drawing their design, then carving. Others, myself included, just dug in. Now, the thing you need to know here is that my phrase for the evening was, “uh-oh!" Followed by, "hmm, that’s not right”. My pumpkin ended up with the endearing title of “Grampa Gums”. What? I can’t help it if I carved the bottom of the mouth forgetting it needed teeth until I had carved all the way across. I’m no professional. (Side note: The fastest pumpkin carving time according to Guinness is 24 seconds. The requirement was eyes, nose, mouth and ears. TWENTY FOUR SECONDS….WTF? And they had all their fingers left.)

By the time the evening winded down we had 6 masterfully carved pumpkins destined to go into the Scrapbook Hall of Fame for Pumpkin Carving. (Side note: no blood was shed in the carving of these pumpkins)

Yes, Yes. The Crush was there last night. No the red wine didn’t assist in any advancements by me, or him as he was sharing the second bottle with me. But I did discover a rather interesting thing about myself last night. The more I am myself the more comfortable I am. Sounds deep, I know. But the truth was, last night I didn’t have any expectations or pressures on me or my guests, which made for on bitchin’ evening. Oh and in case you're wondering what's on my head, I took it upon myself to wear my Black Cat dilly-bobbers all night.

Pookie took part in our adventures too. He came dressed in costume. First he came as a black cat (get it? he's already black...it's a joke). Anyhow, then I decided to put him in his pumpkin costume. He didn't appreciate it one bit, but endured the torture for our entertainment. Yah, no photos are available as the pumpkin hat stayed on for about one mila-second.


And here are our masterpieces. We're brillant I tell ya. We should all do this for a living. In order, starting from the left the pumpkins belong to: Gary, Claudia, Mark, Grampa Gums (mine), Claudia's gord, and Sherrie's Little Beek. (Mark commented on Sherrie's pumpkin looking like it had a beek for a mouth).