Punkin update

Just gotta tell y'all that I wish I'd have known about or had these items when the kids were all carving Jack O'Lanterns.

What a breeze the first one was!

My previous post talked about an electric knife for carving. It's actually a battery powered thing, cost less than $3.00 at the grocery store - I figured if it didn't work, well, I can waste more money than that on stuff, so it wouldn't be a great financial disaster if I ended up throwing it away. It has a tiny, serrated blade and it really allows for some delicate carving, such as star points and corners.

The second thing I wish I'd have known about is the trick of using an ice cream scoop to dig out the punkin guts. It does a great job of getting the sides scraped, too.

Seriously, folks, the first pumpkin was finished in under 35 minutes. I'm not kidding. Himself was out walking the dogs and could not believe it when he headed back in and found me almost finished with the project when I hadn't even started when he left.

Jack #2 is a bit more intricate in its design, so I'm going to wait till tomorrow to do that one.

We're going to go out and contribute some money to the "stupid tax" tonight. Tomorrow is SIL Jared's birthday and he decided he wanted to go out to dinner, than head down to check out the new casino which opened about a month ago. It's only about 20 miles from us - probably way too close when the urge is there to pound money down the proverbial rat hole. But, I do have a fondness for those penny slots! *laughs* One of my co-workers won $200 bucks on one of them a couple of weeks ago.

I should be so lucky.

She's going to be there tonight and she offered to give me some pointers, because she does a reasonable amount of winning on slots. I'm just not familiar with how to read the machines for optimum betting, and I know there are things that might give me a better clue with a little instruction. At the very least, she'll probably be able to go to a machine I may have just vacated and win - I told her if that happened, she'd damn well better share!

I'm definitely not one of those who could be considered a hard core gambler. When we were in Vegas last year, I gambled for 4 hours on the penny slots and only spent $8.00. But, it was fun. I like the noise and the anticipation of seeing if I *might* win. Maybe not the best attitude, but I can be easily and cheaply amused sometimes. (Don't let that get around though!)

Anyway, I'll let you know if there are any big winnings, and will let you know how the other pumpkin surgery went.