My Pumpkin Beer Tasting Mascot

Ernie added cauliflower to his solid food repertoire.

Zoe came over and we had our annual pumpkin beer tasting. This time we even had a mascot.

New Belgium was the winner in my opinion with this Atomic Pumpkin spicy variation.

I also unveiled this beauty that I picked up from our recent stop in Nashville.

Power Washer Pumpkin Carving

I saw an amusing video somewhere of someone carving a jack-o-lantern with a power washer. This sounded both more convenient than laboriously sawing through a squash all night, and it also sounded very awesome. We pitched the idea to our friends Gabby and Derek as they are real adults with a house and the endless tools one needs to maintain said house, power washer included.

I made the mistake of wearing my nice Big Lebowski sweater outside and probably got pumpkin mist all over it. Sacrifices must be made for science.

I don't think it came out half bad if I do say so myself.

It was very amusing when the pumpkins became so full of pressurized water that pumpkin guts started spewing out is its eyes.

Lydia's kind of reminded me of an ogre for some reason. Or maybe even a secret scary Troll.

There was a bit of a trick to it. You had to move fast because if you lingered in one spot for too long the pressure of the water would punch a whole through the front of the pumpkin and out the back.

I think these look scarier than the normal cut pumpkins because they have an instability to them that makes them look like they were done by a scary person.

Derek and Gabby are fun because they appreciate a good beer. I like to bring weird stuff over for them to sample. This baby was hand imported by me from New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado.

"Let the holiday festivities begin! Inspired by warm spiced apple cider on a chilly night, we brewed a brown ale with apple and cranberry juice, along with orange and lemon peel, cinnamon, clove, mace, allspice, and ginger, and finally blended with foeder-aged dark sour. Best enjoyed with family and friends... cheers!"

We then posed next to our murdered vegetables.

I was excited to crack this baby open as well. We snagged this after the ice cream tasting at Tillamook. A pommeau is an alcoholic drink made in north-western France by mixing apple juice with apple brandy

I Did a Poo Poo

I showed Lydia some of the liquid treasures that I imported from New Belgium in the far away land of Colorado.

Fact: Poo Poo point is the best named geographical formation in the United States.

Things got very Poo Poo almost immediately.

And the Poo Poo quickly ratcheted up from there.

Apparently the area is perfect for paragliding because there was a lot of activity.

At the top you can see there's some fake grass which I assume the gliders use as their runway. The view was pretty solid. I was thoroughly wiped by the end but I'm glad I didn't give up on this Poo Poo.

Tasting a Taste

Covid never seems to be over, it just sort of fades but still has up and downs like the tides.

I've been working out of Keith's place during the days on this trip, but at night we hit the New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado.

I tasted a taste. The sad thing about tasting is I often forget the tastes and have to start all over again.

We attempted to hit some places in the cool kid area of downtown Fort Collins but just about everything was closed.

Hateful

We sat out on a patio that was open and had a beer or two. It was cold enough that I was putting my feet as close to this fire as possible. Later I realized they'd melted a little.

We got some calzones to win the evening.

Einstein is funny because he doesn't bark or get super aggressive. If he wants something he just looks at you soulfully.