Pumpkin Carving and Cemetery Walks

Rita and Fred were visiting for a few days and we suggested that they do what every Rochester visitor has to do at least once: visit the Mount Hope Cemetery. And, given that it was Halloween, such a trek seemed even more apropos. In addition to visiting some of the cemetery's most famous residents, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, we wandered around and enjoyed the beautiful fall landscape.


Because the week before Halloween was so busy, Aviva and I neglected to complete one very important item on our to-do list: carve pumpkins. Last year, Aviva bought three or four beautiful pumpkins for carving but someone stole them off our front porch before we had a chance to unleash our artistic sides. Too disgusted to go out and buy new ones that year, we saved the carving kits and vowed to revisit the task in 2005. Unfortunately, real-life obligations prevented us we from getting around to the actual carving until Halloween evening. So there we were, at about 6pm, just getting started on the carving. And we decided to pursue lofty goals--carving elaborate stencil designs using this set of tiny carving tools purchased at Target. Kids tend to come to the door in droves in our neighbourhood and we were determined to get the work done before all the trick-or-treaters had come and gone. We finished just in time to put the jack-o-lanterns out on the step to greet the last few bunches of kids. Mine is the witch one on the left; Aviva, surprise surprise, insisted on the horse design.

Rita got into the spirit of things, donning a harlequin costume that earned her the title of "scary lady" from a few visitors. Word quickly spread about her costume and one girl expressed her severe disappointment when I appeared at the door. She asked, "where's the scary lady," like my jeans and tank top (covered in pumpkin guts, I might add) were a total rip off.

Although Fred decided not to wear his costume, he got the brilliant idea of making Fargo wear it; unfortunately, Fargo didn't like the clown shirt, in large part because the sleeves were too long and prevented him from walking. He didn't seem to mind the clown neck ruffle, however, so he greeted trick-or-treaters as "clown dog" until we turned out the lights and shut down the candy buffet at about 8:00pm.

After distributing four five-pound bags of candy, we decided it was time to call it a night. By that time, Fargo was exhausted and we managed to catch a shot of my dog looking more lethargic than I ever thought possible. Here he is after what looks like a long night of saving the world as "super dog."