Picture Sunday

Hello, end of weekenders, and welcome to a very late indeed round of Picture Sunday.

This is because I've wasted my entire day! And I wanted to waste my entire day. Because I'm celebrating two very special things. Oktoberfest is over, and my vacation from work has begun.

Yes, last night was the last night of Oktoberfest, and now I get my life back for awhile. You know, I always whine about the Oktoberfest season, how it kicks my ass, and then I have my nervous breakdown, and at the end I get all sentimental and talk about how much I'm going to miss it. I don't think I'm going to miss it this time around. It wasn't particularly fun, it was more of a job than ever before, and frankly, after Friday night's performance by the band, I was ready to drive down the mountain never to return.

In other words, I love my Sauerkraut Band buddies dearly, but sometimes a little of our schtick goes a very long way, and Friday was long on schtick and short on musicality. I left the mountain and got home in a very foul demeanor. I got to thinking about how hard the season had been. How I didn't have any band quotes for the guys to vote on for Quote of the Year. (I'm the quote keeper all season.) How I wasn't going to have a final night gift for the other band members like I've had in years past. I don't know. Odd, but I suppose I'll get over it.

Anyway, that said, let's go to a picture or two just to show you that I did in fact this year to go Oktoberfest.

Sherman made a special friend one week when a table of revelers brought their snake. His name was Sneak. Sneak the snake.

























Sneak must have been a Hokie snake, judging by his colors.

The two most fun weekends were, of course, the weekends we got a visit from the one, the only, the vivacious SB. SB is now teaching in Michigan, but still made the effort to come and spend a couple of weekends Sauerkrauting with us.

The trumpets, needless to say, were happy to have her back.




















Not to be outdone, however, Mr M had the final word on being photographed as a pin-up girl.




















You know what people are always saying to me about Picture Sunday? "More pictures of you!"

Actually, that's a total blatant lie, I don't think anyone has ever said that to me. I just felt like I needed some justification for these next three pictures.

First of all, here's me and our Fearless Leader, Ed, on the final night of Oktoberfest. Look at the relief on my face knowing it's just about over.























Now here's a picture of me and a big chicken.

























That was Hans, by the way. Hans the trumpeter, former Sauerkraut Band member who now lives in California but comes to visit us once a year on the mountain. The chicken suit, however, was a new wrinkle, but it gave a little oomph to the Chicken Dance.

And finally, here's me and a giant bottle of beer.

























This was also the last night. One of the guys who works up on the mountain decided to celebrate Halloween a little early, and when you're at a Sauerkraut Band gig, what costume would make you more beloved than a giant bottle of beer.

He was a nice guy. He didn't even seem to mind that I spent the entire night calling him "Mr Giant Bottle of Beer."

And so it's over. And I'm on vacation!

Oh, wait - you don't want to hear about that, do you? You want me to start talking about the recipe du jour! Well, your wish is my command.

You know, Halloween is in a scant few days. I hope everyone's gotten their candy together to give to the trick or treaters. If you haven't, I have a suggestion for you, by way of cardland. It's from the "Halloween ... Treats?" file, and say a scary hello if you will to Candy Eggs.





















Candy eggs are simple to make. They're just potato slices with a Lemonhead stuffed in the middle as the yoke. Be daring, like me, serve them in a cast iron skillet! Yes, just hold that skillet out when the trick or treaters come to your house, then proceed to watch the toilet paper fly into your tree limbs. And hope the little ones aren't strong enough to wrestle the cast iron skillet away from you. If they are, I suggest running away.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update
* As I'm typing this, I have no fucking internet! Comcast went out about 30 minutes into things, and never came back. I finally hauled it to bed, and came back to check things at 11 am Monday, and still no service