The Most Sincere Pumpkin Patch

 Quarta has been busy with the pumpkin carving tools.  This cheerful, but topless, guy is perched on the front porch.

And this gruesome Cyclops greets any trick-or-treaters who walk by on the front sidewalk.  We are on a busy street so we don't usually get that many.  The girls are waiting around to give out candy.  We may just have to eat a lot of it ourselves.

I've been a rather negligent blogger for several days.  It's not that I haven't had ideas to write about at all, but I lack the willpower and energy to develop them into a full blog post.  Also, for me, a blog post needs pictures, and I haven't taken many pictures for the last week.  That's partly because of parent-teacher conferences, and partly because of going into Finals week, and partly because of family pressures, and partly because Pinterest no longer makes it easy or pleasant to embed a picture from a pin, and partly because I'm afraid my rambling thoughts are really quite rambling and incoherent and nobody wants rambling and incoherent.  But anyway.  Stay tuned for more random ramblings, on Randomday or whenever I get around to it!

Randomday with Pumpkin Aliens

Quarta went to a Halloween party with her friend Sonata.  Silliness ensued, and creepy alien pumpkins with mustachios of doom were the result.

Quarta's original costume design.  She promised she will never be embarrassed by this photo.

 I myself spent a productive part of the morning darning three pairs of Steve's jeans.  Here's the tutorial for how I do it.  For some reason he always wears out his jeans on the left knee first.

For some of them it was the second time darning them.  That gives them a new lease on life, although they are probably best used for garden and work pants, and are no longer dressy enough to wear to auctions or recitals or other social events.  Sorry, dear.  The dirt stains should have told you that anyway.

The rest of the day I frittered away playing Civ IV, newly reinstalled on my laptop.  The Indians have a firm grasp on the Indian subcontinent and also have founded cities in Denmark and Australia.  In the scenario I'm playing, I was the first civilization to discover the new world and was awarded multiple military units with which I imperialistically conquered the Maya and Aztecs, so I also have a promising foothold in Central America, and the year is 1750 or so.  I always find that subjugating barbarians is quite refreshing after an intensive week of teaching and hosting parent-teacher conferences.  But I'm going to bed now, unless I succumb to the temptation to play the proverbial "just one more turn."

WIP Wednesday and Yarn-Along

 Quilting on the Farmer's Wife Quilt continues.  This is block #22, Corn and Beans.

 #67, Pine Tree.  Some of the blocks I'm going to do a little special quilting in, but a lot will probably be stitch in the ditch.

 #27, Darting Birds.  Because of the narrow range on my Megaquilter setup, I can only quilt a little over half a block at a time, then I will have to scroll the quilt.  Slow and steady, though.

In other quilting news, Bonnie Hunter has suggested colors for her upcoming mystery quiltalong, Celtic Solstice.  I think this will be a fun one, something to look forward to over the holiday season.

Knitting on Rosalind continues slowly (I'm now at the beginning of the left front), but I want to cast on a new socks project: argyles for Secundus.  He wants blue for the backgound, brown diamonds and that light green for the diagonal lines.  I am reading Fyre, the 7th book in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage.  I've reviewed the previous books (link to the first 2) in the series, and by interesting coincidence, Redeemed Reader has a review recently.  Great series of middle-school appropriate fantasy.  I really want to get back into book reviews, but it's parent-teacher conferences this week.  Sigh.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Yarn-Along.

Down Syndrome Awareness Month

October is Down syndrome Awareness month.  Well, there are a lot of different issues competing for awareness each month, and Down syndrome is one of them this month.  Now, a big part of me wants to get sidetracked about why we should be more aware some months than others, and whether "awareness" is really all that helpful or just politically correct jargon.  But the truth is, there is a diminishing number of people who have Down syndrome in the world, and civilized people should be more aware than they are about some of the special concerns facing them, and should remember that awareness the rest of the year.  Sometimes a little thing, a kind action or a bit of effort to slow down and include someone, can make all the difference.

Sometimes Down syndrome awareness means combatting negative stereotypes, like the "r-word," the self-fulfilling half-baked prophecy that "they'll never amount to anything," or the demeaning language that would describe Tertia as "a Down syndrome child" instead of "a child with Down syndrome.  But I prefer to be a little more positive in focus, and sometimes awareness means embracing a stereotype that is actually true.  Like the one I've been thinking about a lot lately: people with Down syndrome really love to dance.

 The world's cutest zombie, all ready for the "Thriller performance at her school.  There have been three performances of "Thriller" in the last week, actually; there was also Zumba last Saturday and the high school dance last night:

at which she was honored with the "prettiest costume" award.  It was a cool experience, and I got to see that Down syndrome/dancing stereotype in action, not just with her.  But she did say, yesterday evening, "That's enough Thriller."

(By the way, the Hermione hat came out pretty well for having been sewn together in 5 minutes yesterday afternoon.  The pieces were already cut out of polarfleece and were in that $5 Massive Bin of UFOs and Scraps from the Epic Estate Sale last summer).

Design Wall Monday and Stash Report

Instead of growing quilt tops on my actual design wall, I'm gradually working on quilting the Farmer's Wife Quilt, mounted on my Megaquilter frame.  It's a short/mid-arm rather than a long-arm, so it has a limited range of motion and I can only quilt about half of a diagonal-set block at a time before having to roll.  Today I finished the first bit of blue sashing and began working on the actual blocks in the top row.  This is #106, Wild Rose and Square.

Stash Report:

Fabric:
Fabric used this week: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 53 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 49 yards
Net used for 2013: 4 yards

Knitting yarn:
Yarn used this week: 350 yards for Quarta's purple socks
Yarn used year to date: 10,900 yards
Yarn added this week: 0 yards
Yarn added year to date: 5800 yards
Net used for 2013: 5100 yards

Randomday, with Mushrooms

 Because nothing says "random" like pictures of mushrooms.  They're in our yard.  They're helping to decompose old logs and stumps.  They're forming a fairy ring of sorts around the house.  It rains a lot here.  I keep expecting to see Smurfs in the yard.

 We went to the Portland Farmer's Market today, hoping to find Winesap or Arkansas Black apples, but it was a little too early.  So we bought Spitzenberg (Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple) and Belle de Boskoop and Gala and unpasteurized apple cider and pear cider, and Starkrimson pears and Asian pears.

On the way back we had an almost front-row seat for a bridge lift, which was kind of cool.  The girls and I were slightly late for the Zumba fundraiser at the Hazel Dell Grange for Down syndrome.  I had never done Zumba before.  It is a little like fast-paced aerobics with a salsa beat.  White Presbyterian girls don't wiggle their hips naturally, I've decided -- unless they have Down syndrome, because Tertia is a natural.

 Steve dug around in the yard some and planted daffodil bulbs under the spruce tree.  In the process, he disturbed a few bumblebee nests, and one stung him on the finger.  Bumblebee stings apparently aren't as bad as other kinds of stings, but they do make your finger swell a bit.  I gave him some Benadryl.

This week, Steve made me watch the Monty Python "Silly Walks" skit, because I displayed my ignorance about a poster that Daniel has on his dorm wall.  I could really have lived my entire life quite happily without seeing that.

The Quick and the Undead

 Secundus has had a great season in Cross-Country.  For most of the season he has been running varsity.

 He's not at the top of the pack but he's solid.  After Tuesday's meet at Vancouver Lake Park, he was told he will get to go to Districts, as an alternate.

 It would embarrass him to tell him so, but he has beautiful form.  He ran the 5K in a personal best of 18:13.

It was a beautiful day for a sporting event at the park, too. The girls and I were able to go and watch for the first time this season.

Today's meet was an invitational and Secundus ran with the JV.  He placed second overall and got a medal!  Steve was able to be there and took this picture.  Secundus came home long enough to shower and change for the dance at Cedar Tree this evening.  It's got to be challenging running with the public high school while keeping up with the workload at Cedar Tree.  Hard to believe he will be a senior next year.  He's made good friends in both worlds.

 Speaking of otherworldly, it's that time of year once again, when Tertia's middle school dance class puts on the annual "Thriller" extravaganza.  Steve got to be the involved Dad again and went to her assembly (I was giving Latin quizzes).  It was great of him to take pictures for me.  I think it's great how Tertia sits with such good posture... that's her early physical therapy showing.

 I somehow missed the Michael Jackson craze in the '80's, growing up as a sheltered and geeky preacher's kid.  I think "Thriller" has something to do with zombies.

Cute zombies, who know how to accessorize.