A litte bit of this and a little bit of that...

First let's get the tough part out of the way.

Today is BigBro's birthday - or would be if he was still with us.  I miss that guy with every fiber of my being.  I didn't really understand grief like this. When the DadUnit died, I hurt. I miss him too. But that was "an expected" death. The DadUnit had lived his life, fully and lovingly. Doing all the things he could and wanted.

BigBro got jipped. As did we all. And as I sit here today and think about it being his birthday, it hurts. All the things I won't get to celebrate with him. All the things he won't get to do for his daughters. All the places he and Seattle SIL won't get to experience. It just kills me and breaks my heart.

I do know with great certainty that wherever he is he's totally rolling his eyes over the emotional fuss we all make over him.

So BigBro, wherever you are...I send you a happy birthday and I miss you bro.

In happier news, this past weekend was my annual pumpkin carving party.  It was THE biggest Sunday dinner I've had to date.  Generally speaking 14 is the max my place really allows for comfortably.  And even then, it's tight.  We had 15 this year.

Some attendees didn't follow the rules and didn't bring a pumpkin. Those attendees have been put on warning and depending on my mood (or more likely my memory) may or may not be invited back next year.

You see what I see right? 6 carved pumpkins for 15 people!

This year we had prizes. Sorta. I got ribbons for the top 3 pumpkins. I have some pretty creative friends and so the competition was tight. We did the "hold the pumpkin up and everyone cheer" to determine who won. Turns out my friends suck at that because they cheered for each one with the same energy.

Alas, we had three winners...

 

In first place was...oh no I need a nickname for him....um...for  now we'll call him Mr. D.  He carved a beautiful deer with antlers.  I think he was also the last one done.

In second place we have the crab hat.  Mrs. Braspir did an excellent job carving the crab. And she gets extra credit for carving into her finger too.

In third place we had PhotoGirl with, I think, a skeleton or was it a cat...I can't remember and the photo isn't helping.

At the end of the night we had a great time. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, as if I'd expect anything else from this crowd.