Happy Halloween. . . Check out our great pumpkin (carved by the King of SusanLand, in fact!) What I like most about it is that, while one person might see it as a glowing recommendation, someone else might view it as terror personified.

And it looks like we weren’t the only ones with the election-y pumpkin idea. There is even a Sarah Palin version. Now that is spooky.

Incidentally, I’ve already voted, I’m working the polls, and, if you know me well enough, you know that I’m firmly planted on the side of glowing recommendation.

–S.

First, Happy Fourth to those who celebrate it! (This calls for jam!!) Allow me to explain.

Last year wasn’t a good berry year, but this year, well, I’ve never seen anything like this. The king and I have been picking black raspberries from the hedge I installed to keep trespassers away from the honey bees. We’ve been mashing them into jam and canning said jam. It would appear that we have enough to keep ourselves in jam for the next 10 years

By extension, everyone we know will be receiving jam, no matter the occasion. It’s your birthday? Jam. Your anniversary? Congratulations! Here is some delicious jam. New baby? Jam is the perfect gift for an infant boy or girl, no? . . .

Sure. As long as they aren’t too spooked by the labels we made for the jam jars, that is. What began as a play on words came to life as a disturbing nod to the bubonic plague. Good times!

So it’s like this. I just got married. Thought I never would, but there it is! Anyway, we hardly told a soul and had a teeny “wedding” in a romantic courtroom. And now I am really in the doghouse with some people for not sending out fancy invitations, for not alerting them to our plans, for not having a “proper” wedding in the first place. The funny part is, we’d hoped to minimize the drama often associated with weddings, but, in the process, I guess we made it worse? Hey, at least we tried.

So I have a new holiday to celebrate: June 13 marks the Coronation of the King of SusanLand. Here’s the best our imaginary wedding photographer could come up with. . .

–S.

Today is an S.N.H. — SusanLand National Holiday! It is officially “Birthing Day” for my mom. Here she is in her own words:

It was 35 years ago yesterday that I was making chocolate cupcakes for your dad to take to some teacher thingy.  That’s when my water broke!

We waited and waited all day, and nothing else happened.  Finally, we went to the hospital, and they began inducing my labor.  M-m-m-m-m-m, those pills were tasty!  It took about four hours, and then you decided it was time, but it was Tuesday, August 29th by then. Happy Birthday!

So, Happy Birthing Day, Mom.