We live on a short block across the street from an elementary school. Being in close proximity to the school, one might think that we would get a lot of kids begging for candy. But, between the short block (surrounded by long city blocks) and the kids natural fear of the school, we really don't get that many beggars. So, we end up with a lot of excess candy. Living here for several years, one might think that we would learn.
We had 24 kids of various ages begging for candy. One of the kids was dressed in a 20's-style zoot suit, complete with a snazzy tie and fedora. He was walking home, passing by our house, and I invited him to come back for more. So, I guess we had 25 kids.
Some kids were walking by on a side street, ignoring our street, until The Wife[tm] yelled to them to come get our candy. While they were on our street, they visited 3 or 4 other homes before resuming their side street route.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A new spider head
After racquetball last night, I cut up another pumpkin for the spider head, and mounted it on the body. Here's what the finished product looks like:
The spotting on the top of the spider is the blood of its most recent victim. Curious that the blood tastes like Louisiana Hot Sauce. Hopefully that'll keep the squirrels away at least for a day or so.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Free pumpkin for squirrels
Last year, I made one of these pumpkin spiders that I found on MAKE magazine's website. It went over pretty well -- people thought it was cute, it was easy to build, etc.
This year, I took the PVC pieces and painted them: black for the elbows and florescent green for the legs. The florescent green really stands out, but it doesn't cover very well. So, it's been out in the yard for a week or so, with just the body in place. I didn't want to put the head on, as the pumpkin would just rot. Today, I took a smaller pumpkin, cut out some eyes and a small hole for an electrical wire, for use as the head. I took a Christmas light C7 string of bulbs, removed all the bulbs except for a purple and a green bulb at the end, and ran them into the head, and finally took some long screws and screwed the two pumpkins together. Since it wasn't possible to see it during the day, I was looking forward to seeing it at night.
Only problem is that shortly after putting the head on, the neighborhood squirrels said "Hey, free pumpkin!", and ate about half of the head. And, chewed the light string wire in two, as well. Since the lights weren't on, they didn't get electrocuted.
Sigh...
Ok, the next available time to fix up a new head is Tuesday. Hopefully, the squirrels will have had their fill. Pictures when I get it finished.
This year, I took the PVC pieces and painted them: black for the elbows and florescent green for the legs. The florescent green really stands out, but it doesn't cover very well. So, it's been out in the yard for a week or so, with just the body in place. I didn't want to put the head on, as the pumpkin would just rot. Today, I took a smaller pumpkin, cut out some eyes and a small hole for an electrical wire, for use as the head. I took a Christmas light C7 string of bulbs, removed all the bulbs except for a purple and a green bulb at the end, and ran them into the head, and finally took some long screws and screwed the two pumpkins together. Since it wasn't possible to see it during the day, I was looking forward to seeing it at night.
Only problem is that shortly after putting the head on, the neighborhood squirrels said "Hey, free pumpkin!", and ate about half of the head. And, chewed the light string wire in two, as well. Since the lights weren't on, they didn't get electrocuted.
Sigh...
Ok, the next available time to fix up a new head is Tuesday. Hopefully, the squirrels will have had their fill. Pictures when I get it finished.
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