The Long-Awaited Pumpkin Photo

And the equally long-awaited pumpkin story.

I hadn't carved a pumpkin in years.  I think the last time I carved a pumpkin was, um, when I didn't carve it.  One year, when I was, oh, in junior high, I had a sleep-over party just after Halloween.  And all my friends had our sleeping bags stretched out in the living room, and we all got in the bags and went to sleep.

And, in the middle of the night, we heard something.  Something weird.  Something ... deflating.  In the darkness, I reached my hand over to a nearby shelf and felt something wet.  I screamed.  Turns out an uncarved pumpkin -- leftover from Halloween -- was giving up the ghost then and there.  It had sprung a leak and begun oozing out the bottom.  Scared the bejeezus out of us.  And it was pretty gross, too.

I don't think I carved a pumpkin since then.  There have been major improvements in pumpkin-carving technology in the interim.  My last jack-o-lantern had triangle eyes and a smile with three teeth.  (And my dad had to carve the round part of the smile.)  Now, kids use stencils and pumpkin-carving knives and end up making silhouettes of rock stars.

This year, I downloaded a stencil.  I still didn't have a pumpkin-carving knife, but I did have knives of different widths and other kitchen tools at my disposal.  And the product of my efforts ......

That's a cat, in case you can't tell.  I blame the photo and not my carving skills.  I tried to take the picture in the dark, so you could see the creepy orange glow in its eyes, but my camera has a very enthusiastic flash (and by the time I realized the problem, I'd already, um, tossed the pumpkin).

STILL, I am inordinately proud of it.  For my very first grown-up pumpkin, it's not bad.