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Monday, November 08, 2010

end of fall

We've had our first hard frost here. We thought about covering sensitive plants. And, in fact, we did cover them for one of the freezes. But, the added week wasn't worth it. (The large bowl is filled with mostly green tomatoes. To the side are a couple eggplant and another tomato.)

So, all the members of the nightshade family are gone from the garden now -- tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. What's left is broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I'm amazed that the broccoli is still bearing. And, I'm told that sprouts shouldn't be harvested until after the first hard frost -- which may mean I should harvest them now --. But, since the broccoli is still bearing, I'll wait.

I haven't decided whether to turn the tree leaves over into the garden or rake them out. We did remove all the tomato vines and eggplant and pepper stems.

I think the only kind of tomatoes we'll plant next year will be Big Boy tomatoes or something similar. I found that I really don't care for cherry or roma tomatoes. And, we'll probably not plant Brussels sprouts. The plants sort of took over the garden. Maybe, we'll plant cauliflower instead. If cauliflower is even half as good as the brocolli we had this year, I'll be happy.

We went to see the "Lion King" in Chicago on Saturday. The play was fantastic! Somehow, we'd never gotten around to seeing it before. And, the theater is was playing in was fantastic, as well. The Cadillac Palace Theater was built in 1926 and still has a lot of the gorgeous ornateness of that period.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Halloween

We had 219 Trick-or-Treaters come to our house yesterday. (The official hours were from 2 to 6. The last 2 came at 6:05.) My DS2 wore his bunny hat, which he knit himself, to hand out candy. His hat was a hit with just about everyone who came to the door. (The only exception was one 2- or 3-yr-old who was scared of a tall bunny-like creature handing out candy.)

The bunny hat link (above) tells which patterns we combined to produce the hat and why he decided to knit it in the first place. (And, as you can see, it fits over his glasses. It would be pretty hard to play a video game in the mask if it didn't.)

edited (Jan 2011) to add link: speed demos charity marathon January 6 - 11.

We handed out candy from a multi-bag, actually several. The kids mostly liked Hershey's, Reese's, and KitKat -- but not Almond Joy or Whoppers -- which is all right with me. Almond Joy is my third favorite candy. (Snickers is my favorite. Hershey's is my second favorite.)

We were one of the least decorated places in the neighborhood. This is the most decorated place. At night, there's even a ghostly apparition in an upstairs window. It took them over a week to complete the display.