The day before Halloweeeeen

So I'm updating this on the morning of Halloween itself, but I think everyone will get over that.

So yesterday was Halloween, and after a bit of shopping, Kristy and I went to have some fun.

In the form of pumpkin carving!

Seriously, it isn't as easy as I thought, and it's actually really physically demanding! My arms got a good work out, that's for sure... We made two jack o' lanterns each. To see how easy it 'sounds', here are the steps:

1. Cut a hole at the top of the pumpkin, make sure you cut it at an angle so the lid can go back on. As I discovered from my first pumpkin, you should also make it big enough to easily get your hand in and out of, otherwise the next step and lighting the candle are going to be difficult.

2. Get a spoon and scrape all the edges. This step is really messy, because sometimes you can't get the spoon to grab enough and often it's just easier to stick your hand in and grab the stuff out yourself. Now is not a good time to decide you don't like the smell of pumpkin, because your hands up to your elbows are going to be covered in it.

3. Clean up the bits that didn't quite make it to the bin and wash off.

4. Get a sharpie or some other marker that you can draw on pumpkins with, and draw a face on it. Smoother pumpkins make this a lot easier, and while you can skip this step it makes your pumpkin look a lot better.

6. Get a knife and start cutting. Make sure it's real sharp, because as it is it's gonna get stuck in there and a sharp knife is easier to pull out of pumpkin rind. It's also hard to cut in any thing but a straight line, but it is possible. Be careful carving pointed teeth, they don't tend to stay on very well when you're pushing the cut up rind off the pumpkin.

7. Either drip wax down the bottom of the pumpkin for a perfect fit, or just shove a candle in there if you can manage to make them stand up straight.

8. Put the lids back on them and put them outside. Now your pumpkins are done!

So there you go. After making pumpkins, Kristy made jack o' lantern gingerbread cookies, which looked and tasted really good. Especially while watching The Mothman Prophesies with Richard Gere (a movie which is made all the more scary by the fact that it is based on a real story).

After that movie was over we settled down to watch a lovely movie known as Ringu. While I thought the American version of The Ring was actually scarier... It was pretty damn scary! For those of you who don't know, Ringu is the original Japanese movie that inspired the American movie. The plot is pretty much the same, but it has changed a fair bit. Either way, I'm surprised I was able to sleep so easy last night!

I have photos of the pumpkins coming too, so far I haven't made much progress on the photo album, but I'm getting there! I'm adjusting levels and resizing them before I put them up, and it's taking a little while longer than expected. Password is oranges in case it has been forgotten.

Halloween is tonight! I'll be dressing up and trick or treating! More details later!