Halloween Tally

TJ and I handed out the Halloween treats again this year.  Pickles celebrated by not hiding under the bed.

Since I have nothing better to do tonight, here is the final tally of our Halloween guests:

6:10  First guest arrives. 1 little boy with his parents and grandparents - it must be his very first Halloween.  TJ almost knocks him over in an attempt to eat his stuffed crocodile head.

6:45  TJ scares the next 4 little kids with his Halloween spirit.  If only he didn't look so hungry.

6:50  2 boys trick-or-treating for the "Food Shelf".  Right.  I give them Suddenly Salad and Krusteaz Bread Mix.  After leaving, I realize that there is a good possibility that both items may be expired.

Massive Halloween Action: 3 kids + 4 kids + 4 girls + 3 boys who liked our political pumpkins and flashed me a peace sign (I think)

1 girl + dad (neighbors)

2 kids + dad (1 kid with pinkeye, I learn, as TJ again tries to eat child)

2 little girls ("Big puppy!")

7:38  TJ takes a bathroom break and pees on football jersey for the second year in a row.  I thought we had learned our lesson from last year, but I guess we did not.

More Halloween Action:  2 girls + 3 boys + 3 kids + 2 guys (1 dressed as Dunn Bros coffee, 1 dressed as Ketchup...I asked how they came up with their idea and the answer for both was "It's tasty") + 3 girls + 1 girl 

8:36  6 kids - the littlest one put his hand in the candy bowl and tried to take about 8 candies.  The oldest one received a Snickers but stated that she preferred Nerds.  The second oldest one received Nerds, but apparently only liked Twix.  Seriously.

2 more little girls 

9:03  1 boy and 1 girl

9:16  Lights off.  Only 8 pieces of candy remain, and I will eat all of those myself.

9:22  TJ's jersey enters the spin cycle on the wash machine.  Maybe next year he won't pee on himself.  I declare Halloween 2008 a relatively phenomenal success.

Yes We Carve!

Ours is mostly a house of optimistic Democrats, with one feline exception.  We had our suspicions that Pickles was a conservative the day we brought her home from the Humane Society; there, slipped into her adoption papers, was a Republican National Committee membership card.  Since that day she has regularly given us bored, unsympathetic glances before gliding down the hallway to her room, and the television is always tuned to Fox News when we come home from work.  The funny thing is that she is always ready to cry "Socialists!" when we talk about universal health care, but she is surprisingly quiet when we subsidize her catnip and litter removal services.  It truly is a divided, but loving, home. 

No matter!  We choose to fight on, and our weapons are pumpkins.

TJ is the most liberal member of our family. Always ready for a handout.

Julie Bunn is running for re-election for state house. She'll totally win.

Pickles attempted to carve "Maverick!" into one of the pumpkins, but gave up when she realized that her claws had been conveniently clipped the day before.  Oops!

"Landscaping"

Adam and I have spent the last 2 or 3 weekends "landscaping".  So far, we have completed Stage One: Search and Destroy.  The end result is a messy, muddy, barren landscape of possibilities.  

In case you doubted the necessity of our project, here are the before photos.  Our front entry was just an overgrown jumble of shrubs and sumacs, and a monster vine overtook the kitchen window.  If you look closely, you may even see our bird feeder hidden among the sumacs.  

The sumacs were the first to go.  Their roots were creeping up into the siding and pushing through the driveway, and neighborhood cats were staking out forest territories in their canopy. 

Next up were the snowberry shrubs (I'm not sure if snowberry is their real name - that's just what I'm calling them).  We chopped these down to the ground, but left the roots intact.  If they return next spring in a more minimalist state, then they can stay.  If not, then too bad.  I doubt we'll miss them.  

Please send us your landscaping ideas and concept diagrams (with Zone 4 species clearly labeled according to seasonal color, mature height, and nutritional requirements) before Stage Two: Suburban Renewal begins next spring.  

TJ thanks you for your help.    

Fall at the Farm, Part 2 - The Ride Home

Adam took the utmost care with our new charges.  If that isn't proper parenting, then I don't know what is.  (Although, we did neglect to bring the booster seats.)

Pickles the cat approves, for now.  It may be a different story when she sees what we have done to the pumpkins.    

Fall at the Farm

We went to Axdahl's Tourist Farm to pick out our great pumpkins yesterday.  It was also a good time to catch up with the baby farm animals, none of which appeared to have been fed lately, judging by their insatiable appetites for dusty old corn pellets.

Tourist Farm is also great for the children's corn maze.  Trust me - it is more complicated than it would first appear.  We actually could not find the way out, and thus had to forge our own exit strategy.  This is when we discovered that not all pumpkins are adopted.  

Race for a Safe Place

Adam, Rob and Jess participated in a 5K Race for a Safe Place on Saturday morning.  The run swept through the Liberty neighborhood in Stillwater.  Nice place - very idyllic, very safe.  

Rob breezed in first, followed soon by Adam and frisbee friend Jeff.  

Congratulations on your finish!  Time for breakfast and coffee.

This Johnson Life

Welcome to This Johnson Life, an awesome news source for all things Adam, Nicole, TJ, and Pickles.  Adam picked the name.  I offered a well-rounded variety of great blog names, but Adam refused to publish if we went with my choices of Baby Honeybear, TJ Honeybear, or Mr. TJ Honeybear Snow Dog.  Also, SuperFunActionBlog seemed a little vague.  Enjoy!