Happy Halloween!!

In honor of this spooky autumn day I an going to share some fun facts that I found today about pumpkins.  
1. The only continent where pumpkins can't grow is Antarctica. No surprise there.
2.  Pumpkin flowers are edible. I think I'll add some to my next pumpkin pie.  
3. Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites. No instructions on how to use the pumpkin were included with this statement. Do you rub pumpkin goo on a snake bite or throw a pumpkin at the snake?  While that last option might not cure the snake bite, it would feel empowering to smash that snake.
4. Eighty percent of the pumpkin supply in the U.S. is available in October?  Could that possibly have something to do with the natural growing cycle of pumpkins?
5.  The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds.  No info about how many pies were made from that pumpkin.  
And speaking of pies, my brother is pastor of a church that has a unique fund raiser each year.  They make and sell home-made, or actually church kitchen made, pie crusts. They are really good.  I've ordered 4 and at least 2 of them will be used for pumpkin pie.
And here's something I learned last year while mixing up pumpkin pie filling.  I had enough pie filling left over after baking 2 pies for another one so I froze the remaining filling in a zip loc bag.  Two months later I needed a pie so I thawed and baked the filling I had frozen in one of the church pie crusts (talk about lazy baking) and it tasted wonderful. Happy pumpkins, happy fall everyone.

It's Decision time.

I watched the televised debate this evening between Mike Braun, Joe Donnelly and Lucy Brenton, all running for US Senate.  I started watching the debate pretty sure who I will vote for but the more I listened, the more conflicted I became.  I hadn't given much thought to the Libertarian candidate but I must admit I was impressed with much of what she had to say.  It's not just because she's a woman or because we share the same first name (although I did note those things).  I would like to vote for her just to make a staements but I know I need to vote for the candidate I had already decided on.  It looks like it will be a tight race.  Interestingly, this was one of the better, more civil debates I have seen during this campaign, as opposed to the never ending commercials which spend all their time slamming the opponents.  I think the tone of the debate was set when all three candidates agreed to actually answer the questions asked without digressing.  They all did a pretty good job of it.  

Sheep and giraffe and princesses, oh my!

This evening First Pres held it's second annual children's Halloween festival.  Last year I participated by helping with set-up and running one of the games.  The game I oversaw involved pingpong balls being tossed into little red buckets.  It also involved lots of balls missing the buckets and bouncing all over the floor. After chasing bouncing balls for a little while last year I decided to change the rules of the game.  In addition to getting one piece of candy for trying and one for each ball they got in a bucket, they got an additional piece for picking up the balls.  This year our youth pastor was refering to it as the "Luci" and encouraging everyone to bribe the littles to pick up.  He also made sure each of us (we were a lot of senior citizen volunteers) had a chair so we weren't standing for the whole two hours.  All in all it was an easy evening of watching costumed children have a good time and take home lots of candy.  I enjoyed seeing the costumes. There were several princesses, a tiny incredible hulk, a little wooly sheep, a giraffe and a wonder woman among others.  All great fun and everything a children's Halloween party should be.  The only thing missing was bobbing for apples and that would have just made for a lot of soggy costumes.

They're getting closer

I mentioned a week or so ago that there is a crane on a barge in the river near the Spy Run  bridge over the St. Mary's River.  They have been busily clearing inderbrush along the banks of the river and now the stretch that I can see is quite bare along the stretch where Hall's Gas House and the Deck are located. except for a few large trees that they left standing.  I think this is all part of the ongoing effort to reinforce the banks and reduce runoff but it isn't very pretty.  Now I'm wondering (1) how will they get their equpment to my side of the bridge and (2) how much are they going to clear away?  There are actually two old half-dead cottonwoods that I expect will fall in the river sometime soon.  They can go, but there is also a lot of very pretty shrub and tree growth along both banks.  Honestly, I wish they would just leave my view of the riverbank alone. Ah well, time will tell. At least it's an interesting (if slow moving) show that I can tune into from time to time.

music at the Embassy

I attended a performance of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic at the Embassy Theater this evening.  It's hard to beat the combination of beautiful music and a beautiful setting.  The program will be broadcast on WBNI 94.1 FM on Thursday, November 8 at 7:00pm.  To be honest, I probably won't listen to it again.  I really enjoy going to concerts but I find that I enjoy the visuals as much as the music. I like to see the orchestra members perform.  This evening the piano was placed so that I could see the pianist play and that was amazing.  The special guest pianist was a young lady named Lise de la Salle.  She's from France in case the name didn't give you a clue. Not only was she an outstanding pianist she was wearing "the sexiest outfit I've ever seen at the Philharmonic" to quote the lady sitting next to me.  I will admit it isn't common to see a concert pianist wearing a bare mid-drift outfit. See what I mean?  You miss out on a lot if you don't see the visuals.

You can thank me later.

I like my apartment very much but it does have its flaws.  My least favorite feature is the electric heating system.  I do like the fact that each of the three major areas has its own heating unit so I can shut off the heat in rooms I'm not using.  What bothers me though is the fan noise especially in the livingroom unit.  It's just loud enough that, to hear TV over it, I have to turn up the TV volumn to a level I don't enjoy.  My other option, and the one I usually choose, is to turn off the heat while I'm watching TV.  I can bundle up in blankets and I really don't suffer, but sometimes I notice my nose getting cold.  We are having a rather chilly October right now and that got me thinking about the cold months ahead.  So today I did something about the situation.  I bought a small radiant heat space heater. I am happy to report that it has a nice even heat and a very quiet fan.  As I was bringing the heater into the building I met one of my favorite maintenance men here.  He saw what I was carrying and assured me it was a very good idea.  In fact he said many tenants use small space heaters and he predicts that it will save me money on my electric bill.  That sounds like a positive plus.  What I anticipate will really happen is that, now that I'm prepared for really cold weather, we will have a very mild winter.  You can tahnk me in April.

Chicken anyone?

Once a month, on the 4th Thursday, some other church ladies and I get together at First Pres to prepare a meal and feed people who live and/or work around the church.  Some live in adjusted rent apartments across the street while others are evidently homeless and a few work in the area.  They start coming in about 9:30am and we serve lunch at 11:30.  We serve good nutritious food which is generally well received but, once a year, in October we serve Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I'm not sure how the word spreads but we always have many more people eating when we serve chicken.  Today it was close to 100 people.  Many people had seconds, sone had third helpings and nothing was wasted.  The mashed potatoes rran out first, then the biscuits, then the gravy and coleslaw and finally the chicken.  Of course the cookies set out for dessert went in a flash.  One of the unexpectedly popular items was boxes.  KFC delivers their large orders in aluminum foil containers and these are brought in in very nice, sturdy boxes, about 18" x 24' x 12" deep, with attached lids,  Our order was contained in eight boxes and every box was claimed by the end of the morning. People also carried away the aluinum pans for recycling.  It was a bit like locusts cleaning out the place.  Then we played BINGO. I was the caller.  People get very excited about winning $1 prizes.  Much better odds than the mega-million lottery and it doesn't cost anything to play  All in all a very good day.