Hannoween!

We hardly noticed Halloween last year, because it fell three days after we brought Hannah home from the hospital on oxygen, heart and lung monitors, five medications, and two breathing treatments. We were a little preoccupied, to say the least. Hannah had a Halloween hat and binkie, but both too big for her (they fit perfectly now).

This year, we're a little more relaxed. I've even had time to carve a pumpkin.



Since someone always asks "How'd you do that?" (usually while thinking " . . . and why would you do that?"), here's the general approach:

First, I convert a photo of the subject into a black-and-white, high-contrast image using a photo editing program, then reduce it down to just 3 or 4 shades of gray. For amateurs like me, you have three shades to work with; bright where you cut all the way through, medium where you only scrape away the skin, and dark where you leave the skin intact.



Usually, I print this gray-shaded image, tack it on the pumpkin, and poke holes along the outlines so I can see where to cut after I remove the paper (same way Michelangelo transferred his fresco outlines to the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, I kid you not). This year I went all space-age and projected the image onto the pumpkin with my Texas Instruments DLP digital projector (a charming intersection of the low-tech organic artsy world, and the high-tech geeky electronics world) and traced the outlines with a sharpie marker.



From there, it's just a matter of carving all the way through for the bright spots, scraping the skin for the gray spots, and leaving the dark spots alone. All while trying to keep Hannah from eating the pumpkin, which she immediately identified as a potential food source and proceeded to gnaw upon. You can see some of my past pumpkin carvings, and other Halloween shenanigans by clicking here.

Speaking of Hannah and food, I put together this seasonal video clip, which Carla and my mother will hate but that Aunt Cat will love. Click here for a movie preview you probably won't see anywhere else.

For a few cuter videos, in case that one left you spooked, click here, here, and here.

We went into Louisiana last weekend for a visit, and so Hannah could get a little attention for a change. In case you thought I was the only weirdo in the Minor family, it was my sister Rena, not me, who noticed the adhesive properties of Hannah's rice puffs (see below). I hope for her sake that Hannah doesn't turn out to be the vengeful type.





In other news, our friend Carter is doing amazingly well after a bad spell back in ICU. He's now out of ICU and in a regular room, laughing and smiling and getting ready to get out of the hospital, hopefully for good this time. You can check out Carter's blog to get all the latest news and pics, but I couldn't resist stealing this picture and posting it here:

Carter