Chicago Bound -- and Pumpkin advice

We leave tomorrow for Chicago to take in the King Tut exhibit at the Field museum and a production of the Pirate Queen. All told, a royal weekend!

So, a lighter post for you this morning -- a post about our Halloween Pumpkin.

You see last year, we had three beautiful Jack O Lanterns -- and then a few smaller decorative pumpkins. It was a lovely display -- until the blasted squirrels got hold of them. These infernal critters gnawed the faces off our pumpkins. It looked like a vegetable slasher flick had been filmed. I tell you, these creatures are products of the Fall -- they're rats with good publicity -- they're evil, pure evil.

Well Tammy calmed me down -- she reassured me that squirrels were God's creatures as well and that they were doing what comes naturally.

But so can I.

While Mom and Dad were up for a visit during this time, Dad and Sarah Grace were joking about keeping the squirrels away -- he was talking about sprinkling hot pepper on the pumpkins and when they came to take a bite, the squirrels would run away, yelling "EEEEEEEE". Sarah Grace thought this was very funny. I thought it was brilliant.

So, this year, we put our Jack O Lantern out, and then I went into the kitchen, retrieved my bottle of Texas Pete, poured a generous helping into a bowl, adding a heap of additional red pepper powder (no poisons -- I didn't want to hurt the critters, just shoo them away). Then I mixed in a little water and dishsoap to help the concoction adhere. Soon I was spongeing the mixture all over our Jack O Lantern, even down into the holes cut for eyes, nose and mouth.

The next morning I came out to check. There was evidence of one squirrel bite in the corner of an eye.

One bite.

Now we're 1 and 1.

Excelsior
Russell