weekend recap

This weekend was full of friends, Halloween prep, delicious food, and snow. Yes, snow. In October. In Virginia.

Snow in October is one of the top reasons I vowed never again to live in the town of my alma mater after graduating. Dear Syracuse, please take your snow back, we don't want it here!



I refuse to bust out my winter parka in October, so I spent the weekend in an oh-so-fashionable get-up that consisted of a puffy vest over a fleece over a thermal shirt. Stylish.

Despite the craptastic weather (and my lack of style), I made it downtown (thanks to a ride from Karin!) to meet up for brunch with local bloggers. Spending the afternoon cozied up in Kramerbooks, eating delicious breakfast food, and chatting with Sarah, Lisa, Lauren, Karin, and Tessica was the perfect way to spend a snowy Saturday. We swapped nailpolish and photographed our food and discussed tattoos - pretty sure the waiter thought we were crazy. Though he did offer to take a group photo of us and we forgot to take him up on it.

I love that a monthly brunch with these girls seems to be becoming a tradition.



Social Saturday continued that evening when Larry and I went to hang out with old friends over a delicious dinner and some autumn ales. Tattoos were also a topic of discussion, and we decided that a friend of ours needs to get "mud flap" tattoos - that is, the silhouette of a naked woman tattooed on each butt cheek...

On Sunday, we made some eleventh hour purchases of pumpkins and Halloween candy, then went home and gathered our supplies for our second annual backyard carving party.

Supplies = two pumpkin saws (which both broke during the carving), two beers, and two pumpkin-eating pups.

Seriously, Gravy and Banjo are obsessed with eating pumpkin flesh. Larry and I sat at the picnic table working on carving our masterpieces, but we might as well have been sitting in a shark tank wearing suits made of chum. The dogs circled the table swiping chunks of pumpkin whenever they could. I almost lost a finger several times, and not because of the useless pumpkin saws...

"Hey Dad, you gonna eat that?"

(.03 seconds after this photo was taken, Banjo jumped up doing his best Cujo impersonation and I nearly lost my hand.)

"Mmmm! I found a pumpkin lid!"

(Gravy attempting to stealthily thieve the other pumpkin lid.)

They managed to get their snouts in every picture...

Me: "Ewww! Pumpkin guts!" Gravy: "Mmmm! Pumpkin guts!"

Our tradition is that we don't show each other our jack-o-lanterns until we're finished carving. Oh, the suspense...

Her view:

His view:

(Stay tuned for photos of our finished masterpieces.)

We ended the weekend with a delicious meal of, what else? G(h)oulash! (This recipe was awesome, and so spicy - thanks, Hungarian Hot Paprika -  it nearly melted my face off. In a good way.)

And for dessert...Halloween candy, of course!

I hope we still have enough to hand out to the four trick-or-treaters we usually get on Halloween night...

Happy Halloween!