Fifty sacks of rice
fifty petit fours
fifty dancing Ganeshas
fifty sun salutes plus another fifty plus eight
fifty great novels to read
fifty massages
fifty Cadbury’s fruit and nut bars
fifty Chocoloves with sea salt
fifty full moons
fifty new moons
fifty brand new comic books
fifty acres of farmland
fifty new episodes of “House”
fifty jasmine buds
fifty pieces of magenta chalk
fifty friendship bracelets

After ridiculously hosting that poor pumpkin, the squirrels finally found a way to eat the thing, and they did.
I carved a Jack O’ Lantern, tried to light it without luck, but it did survive for a day. Halloween having passed, I took it out to the compost where the squirrels aren’t interested.
Meanwhile, there’s a mouse in my house. Black, velvety, fast. Now I’m obsessed with the idea the place smells like mouse. And it’s the reason I’m still up at 2:30am.

I received a pumpkin from one of the realtors who always delivers pumpkins to the neighborhood.  Mine is a small, lovely green stripy orange one,  and true to form, a squirrel already nibbled a bit.

A little nibble that must have been interrupted.  I took the pumpkin in, cut out the bitten part, set it in the yard for the squirrel to finish, while I hoarded the pumpkin in the fridge.  Eating the Halloween pumpkin seemed rude, somehow–so I went on the internet to see what measures to take to guard against squirrels.  The first time I got the gift pumpkin, a nice sized one, the squirrels demolished it in minutes, leaving only bits and the stem.  Same thing the next year, even as my neighbor’s pumpkin remained unscathed.  The third year, I don’t think I got a pumpkin.

I applied vaseline over the orange flesh & applied Hot Sauce, after duct taping the hole from the bite.  Here’s what it looks like:

I’m not sure it really works. What do you think?