An American Werewolf in Lakeville

And speaking of Lakeville, Nate pointed out that it made number 19 on Money Magazine's 2012 list of top 100 best small cities to live in in the U.S.  One of 5 MN cities to make the top 25, so I guess somebody here knew who to pay off (just joking, Money Mag spies).

Had a little more fun with masks last night, just like last year around this time.  It wasn't as fun as last year though...in particular, when we went outside to take pics of me riding a scooter with the werewolf mask.  See, we were surprised to see a skunk lumbering around the cul-de-sac, so Nate threw rocks in it's general direction to scare it away.  Too funny.  "Be gone you skunk, we have big important things to do like take pictures of ourselves scootering around in a werewolf mask for pete's sake."

No skunks were harmed in the making of this photo

We're just doing our part to put Lakeville in the top 100 weird cities to live in.  We'd be in the top 100 skunk-filled cities, if somebody made a list of that, too. Three times in the last couple months, we had to shut the windows when some virulent skunky odor started pouring in at night.  Not to mention all the skunky roadkill around here.  Ewww.

Zachisms

Zach had us chuckling during supper last week.  When he was told to eat something besides grapes, he scooped up a forkful of meat and said "I'm going to regret this!" and then "Oh, I'm gonna panic!"  Nicky took the 'blame' for Z's expanded vocabulary.

Red Wing was cool and misty on Saturday and the kids grumbled as we moseyed our way through the street vendors, but just like every year, Godfather's cinnamon streusel* pizza was flippin' marvelous.  When we got home Michael disappeared for about ten minutes and then reappeared with a K'nex* tower he'd just assembled. 

Not sure where his sudden architectural enthusiasm came from, but he was proud enough to smile with minimal prompting.

*suggested corrections are cinnamon 'stressful' pizza and 'Kleenex' tower

Okra is slimy

Disclaimer:  you probably shouldn't read this post before eating.  That's probably a good rule of thumb for my whole blog, actually.  Recently I bought a new veggie to try out.  Maybe I'm sheltered, but I had no experience with okra before today.  Turns out it emits some kind of snotty substance as it cooks.  We all managed to choke some down somehow.  It doesn't have a strong or offensive flavor per se, but it gets negative points for presentation.  Poor Nicky sat at the table the longest.  His attempt to eat one stinking piece provided some good video footage.

This is not my photo of okra

It reminded me of the one time my mom decided to make split pea soup when I was a kid.  Chris and I came to the table and thought it was some bizarre joke.  It was not.

"I mean, if we only had a wheelbarrow, that would be something!"

That was one heck of a gorgeous fall weekend.  Snapped a photo of this wheelbarrow my multi-talented hubby made me this summer.  Now if we can lay our hands on a giant and a holocaust cloak, we're all set to storm the castle.  If we can find a castle to storm.  Maybe Nate can build me one, after he finishes the wooden bench he's making for the entryway.

Blogger doesn't like my use of multi-talented.  It suggests mulch-talented, mufti-talented (what the sam hill are those?), and multifaceted.  Removing the hyphen or space doesn't help.  Strange.  After computers take over the world it'll be fun to hear them talk to each other.  If they haven't done away with us organic critters, that is.