Spooky Hood-o-ween

Happy Halloween! In our neighborhood with sweet old craftsman houses, some people really take advantage of the small yard and all their creature-features. I didn’t get too close to that haunted tree. Riding by on my bicycle, it was the perfect setting-sun time of day where the light was the only thing caught in the spider web.

A William Tell Halloween

Our neighbor up the street has a rather large stone gargoyle by their front porch. For Halloween, they balanced a small pumpkin on top. Images of William Tell shooting an apple off the top of a head. Would an arrow split the pumpkin in half? Any risk of the gargoyle being damaged? Mmm, pumpkin seeds. The secret to roasting them is to not wash them. For a tactile treat, just squeeze them through your fingers, trying to remove most of the yummy squash goop. I just pop them in the toaster oven and toast them, two or three times and stirring them up each time.

Little Italy Chalka Festa

We went down for an infusion of art, San Diego style, to Corso degli Artisti (Street of the Artists): Little Italy’s Street Painting Festival. Per their website, the Little Italy Precious Festa “is known to be one of the largest single-day Italian American festivals West of the Mississippi.”

Professional artists and high school students display their talent at sponsored locations on Beech and Cedar streets. One artist had to contend with a strip of tire burn-out where chalk would not adhere. Thankfully the streets were closed to traffic and they didn’t have more to contend with.

Flamin' Cats

At midnight, we woke to the sound of “click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-” (continue with this sound until I drop out of bed to investigate.) What has that cat done now? Wooster took his usual route from the stove to the top of the refrigerator, but this time he ignited the burner. click-click-click-! As he jumped up, he must have turned the knob and simultaneously pressed it in. Pressing it in with a slight turn engages the flinty-clicky-lighter built into the stove. I got up and saw Wooster decending from the stove and the burner on high, flaming bright. click-click-click-OFF



Which would you prefer? (A) The burner on high, burning bright, with a sound to alert you, (B) The burner on high, silently pumping gas into the kitchen, (C) A cat-proof stove. Actually, I’d like to know your second choice. Larry came up with the clever solution of shoving refrigerator magnets behind the knobs so that you would have to slide the magnets away to use the stove burners. We talked about finding something official in the child-proofing department. Then it dawned on me to just remove the knobs. So now we’re Wooster-the-cat-proof, child-proof, and stove-less if we manage to lose all four interchangeable knobs.