This is my 100th post after 2 years and 5 months! The last time I blogged was 33 days ago… which was last year. Chuck out the 7 posts in 2008 and you could say last year was a non-blogging period. So, this being another comeback, one might assume I’d write something… special? Umm, no. But what’s really grand is this fine day! Today is MY BIRTHDAY and my pal Jim Caro celebrates his wedding anniversary as well as his cousin’s birthday. Oh, so maybe you’re wondering the post title’s relation to today’s festivities? Well, not much. Today, I’m going to turn you on to the humble… pumpkin. Did you know that in a botanical context, pumpkins are fruits? In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary - together with seeds - of a flowering plant. Pumpkins have seeds inside, so pumpkins are fruits. (I know, I know. Have patience. Read on, please.)

Don’t worry, “Barnyard” and “B-Cat” didn’t get their kitty paws on my sister’s yummy frosted Pumpkin Pocket Cookies and Pumpkin Pancakes (recipe by Martha Stewart)! They were outside in the backyard garden porch, behind the closed sliding glass door. (I prefer food photography done outdoors in natural lighting or near sunny windows.) Kitties always seem to know when I’m taking photos of food and come running, LOL.

Pumpkins… as food. You either love ‘em or hate ‘em! I mean… unless they’re mixed with spices or sugar or salt or cream or broth, who really wants to eat a steaming pile of plain pumpkins? Not me. But by the end of this post, I’ll turn you on… to pumpkins.

“Today is the greatest - Day I’ve ever known - Can’t live for tomorrow, - Tomorrow’s much too long - I’ll burn my eyes out - Before I get out - I want to turn you on”

The post title refers to the song “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins, but it’s mostly about the delicious parade of pumpkin porn in this post. I axed the original title “Pumpkin Porn” after imagining the search engine traffic from weirdos with deviant sexual proclivities for gourd smut. (Did you land here via those search terms? Congratulations, you’re a pervert.) The song sounds upbeat, but the dark lyrics actually tell a tale of depression. Lead vocalist Billy Corgan wrote the song about a day in which he was having suicidal thoughts. Oh, relax. I don’t mean I’m feeling depressed today. OK?

Hover your mouse cursor over any image to read its description. To cycle through all thumbnails, click on first thumbnail to view the full-size image. Pumpkin goodies:

Info on the last 10 photos of pumpkin desserts, etc. above (from top row, left to right):

1. B-Cat begs for my sister’s soft, moist cakey Pumpkin Pocket Cookies (with cream cheese vanilla frosting) and stalks a tin box of non-frosted cookies. Yum!
2. My sister’s Thanksgiving Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie (pumpkinlicious!) and a steaming hearty bowl of my delicious Jamaican Pumpkin Beef Noodle Soup.
3. Tim Hortons’ Pumpkin Spice Tea, Pumpkin Spice Donut, and Pumpkin Spice Muffin (seasonal items, sold for a limited time last Fall). Pumpkin Ice Cream from Ed’s Scoop ice cream store in Toronto (OMG, tastes like pumpkin pie)!
4. My sister and I went to a mall where this cute guy (Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!) flirted with sis while she ate her first ever A&W burger (long funny story), then we went to Bailey’s Farm in Caledon, Ontario (beautiful pumpkin patch).
5. More photos of my sister’s frosted Pumpkin Pocket Cookies! Nom nom nom!

Lastly, have you seen the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) ad called “Veggie Love” that NBC banned from airing during this Super Bowl Sunday? Racy! It features scantily-clad female models clutching, no… molesting various vegetables, promoting “STUDIES SHOW VEGETARIANS HAVE BETTER SEX. GO VEG.” Oh, really? NBC e-mailed PETA a list of reasons for AD FAIL, e.g. “licking pumpkin”. This video is NSFW (Not Safe for Work and Not Safe for Vegetables everywhere, LOL):

Oh yeah, did I mention that I’m going to return to writing more food porn memoirs?

Adieu,
fruity sugar ‘n spice ‘n everything nice

P.S. Happy New Year & Chinese New Year! *Smashes sad pumpkins of yesteryear.*

fruityÖaty.

This is my 99th post since my blog’s inception 2 years and 4 months ago. It’s also only my 7th this year. Ehrm, so I haven’t actually been churning ‘em out with great frequency and enthusiasm. Ho-hum. I meant to publish this entry on Christmas Day, but obviously that never happened. Ho-ho-hum. It’s late, but I still would like to greet y’all a belated Merry Christmas! I hope y’all had a nice Christmas like I did. I would also like to thank my few loyal readers for tolerating my frequent absences and shitty posts. Your continued support and comments give me the warm fuzzies (sometimes, nausea). You guys (should) know who you are, so I’ll skip the names and links love fest here. If you jump away from the rest of this post, you’ll miss 8 LOLcat pics of Max, a short YouTube video of Max with his reindeer antlers, and a photo of fruity me. If Max had his way, this blog wouldn’t exist and I’d be… dead, LOL.

Max with his reindeer antlers, purring (pump up the volume) and watching snow fall:

If YouTube is offline, download this QuickTime .mov video (29 sec., 992 KB).

Hover your mouse cursor over any image to read its description. To cycle through all thumbnails, click on the first thumbnail to view full-size image. Umm… Max demonstrates the themes of hatred, anonymity, prejudice, humour, futility, shame, intolerance and peace… the ingredients of an epic novel (yes, I am SO BAD):

I wanted to include a photo of me, but this grapefruit and cherries photo was less ugly:

Your comments which may or may not involve the themes of pride, hatred, anonymity, prejudice, humour, futility, shame, intolerance and peace are welcome. Wow, I do miss my blog, even the “you suck, you’re killing Max, get a life” hate mail. Whirligig.

All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games. (BRB next year with new games and 100th post!)

Adieu,
fruity

P.S. I have very little control over Max’s feeding schedule. My over-doting (overdosing) parents dish out the food. And telling my parents to ease the food overdose… is futile.

fruityÖaty.

Yesterday, Americans went to the polls to vote in an historic election that saw the first African-American man in U.S. history win the White House 232 years after the nation was founded under the idea that all men are created equal. Progress springs forward. According to a recent poll, if Canadians could vote in the U.S. election, we would have chosen Barack Obama over John McCain. So, thank you America for getting it right! Unfortunately, my fellow Canadians got it so wrong when they shooed in Conservative bonehead Stephen Harper as our leader. We’re often more interested in the American political carnival than the politics in our own country maybe because our gun-toting, war-happy neighbours to the south could nuke us one day. Sarah Palin, you scare me. But enough of this political talk! I don’t blog to use my brain, so why start now? Recent events have reminded me of how fast time has flown this year. November!

Regarding my recent Halloween post, a quick easy read in comparison to my usual long winding ones, it garnered only 4 comments whereas I’ve gotten loads for much more boring stories. Huh, interesting. Well, thanks Ann, Joyfulchicken, Scart, and Sash for leaving your mark on my blog! It’s been a battle for me to sustain my interest in public blogging. A huge part of me now just wants to blog privately. So when you drop a few words here, it strengthens the case for not closing up shop… not yet.

Hey, I’ve officially written more shit in the entire month of October than the combined total of 2 stinking entries from January to September! If you’ve been reading my so-called comeback posts, did you notice that I’ve been including more photos? Yeah, that’s the new format around here. Less words and more pics to tell part of the story.

Last Sunday, I had to set all my clocks one hour back because of Daylight Saving Time. Spring forward, Fall back? Bleah… DST adjustments throw off my internal space/time continuum. Getting one hour extra sleep actually makes me feel more sluggish… My body is still adjusting. Anyway, the clock thing reminded me that this year is almost at an end. A glum year of dashed hopes and disappointments (many were of my own making). So I tell myself that I must still try to salvage what I can of this year, but time flies too fast. Or it sneaks up on you and pounces. Sigh. So tired.

Ah, yes… the photos. The 1st photo above belongs to the first set of photos I snapped of B-Cat this past Spring. He has grown a bit since then. The 2nd photo is currently the last photo I shot of the frisky fella, just a few days ago. Isn’t he just so adorable?

Hover your mouse cursor over any image to read its description. To cycle through all thumbnails, click on the first thumbnail to view full-size image. Enjoy! The first 6 photos below were taken in the Spring. The last two were snapped a few days ago:

I know I probably come across as a Crazy Cat Chick. I really don’t care. He’s… cute!

Adieu,
fruity fell hard

P.S. For the record, I preferred Hillary Clinton based on the idea that all QUALIFIED men and women are created equal. But Sarah Palin… no. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, “I can see United States from my house in Canada!” And also those nukes.

fruityÖaty.

Happy Halloween, y’all! I wanted to post my Halloween entry much earlier, but I got home late tonight. I’m definitely not in the mood to write a super long entry, so I’m just posting a few photos that are self-explanatory. Pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns. Candy. Death. Death by candy. Feline and metal monsters on the prowl. Halloween basics.

In the last two years, I got stuck with dealing out the crack to the kiddies because my sister worked on Halloween nights. Luckily for me, she doled out most of the candy tonight, but she seemed to enjoy the task… unlike me. When I hear “trick-or-treat” yelled for the 100th time, the festive mood wears off. The spirit of Ebenezer Slacker surfaces when I have to drop really good chocolate for rude teens who don’t say “thank you”. (Jaded? Maybe a bit.) Anyway, how was your Halloween? Share your story?

I bought these yummy chocolate treats for myself. I ate them all BEFORE Halloween:

Next up, a photo of my neighbour who bought a new Hummer with a vanity license plate that says “PURRING“… like the sound a cat makes. Ehrm… frankly, I’m more scared of his gas-guzzling, greenhouse gas-emitting black metal monster than his Mr. Death costume. An Inconvenient Truth in the suburbs. Dude, watch the movie.

Hover your mouse cursor over any image to read its description. To cycle through all thumbnails, click on the first thumbnail to view full-size image. Spooky cat!!!

Two feline monsters, B-Cat and Barnyard aka “Lucky” hung around our front porch tonight. With his black fur and amber eyes, Barnyard scared a few kids away. Goody, more candy crack for me! (Actually, Barnyard is very friendly and gentle.)

Adieu,
fruity

fruityÖaty.

Marshall McLuhan, a dead Canadian communications theorist once wrote “When a thing is current, it creates currency.” OK, so that nugget of McLuhanism may not top his ubiquitous cliché “the medium is the message”, but that first quote popped in my mind when I started writing this post. This past July 11, I got the chance to see up close 2 big props straight from the set of the blockbuster movie The Dark Knight (2008). The Tumbler (Batmobile) which made its debut in Batman Begins (2005) and the new Batpod (Batcycle) went on an 11-city tour to promote The Dark Knight. They made an appearance at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto. So, here are some photos and thoughts on the event and… other stuff. Oh, the relevance of the quote? It dawned on me that I should have blogged about this when the movie was still a current hot topic.

Having an already self-indulgent personal blog and no longer caring too much about what others think of my blog is rather liberating. I dropped the photos here because I can. And my blog is a good junkyard for photos I don’t want to print at all, e.g. the failed attempt of Battygirl aka Bat Tard to use self-portrait mode on her Bat-Camera.

Oh, before I continue, Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my fellow Canucks! Turkey time!

I attempt to summarize my already fading memories of the nerdy event in just 4 lines:

1. A gaggle of 20+ wide-eyed kids led by adults on a day trip. Loud oohs and ahs.
2. Many 30-year old pale-skinned fanboys emerge from their parents’ basements.
3. 30-year old pale-skinned fanboys singing, “Transformers, robots in disguise!”
4. I’m not one to drool over cars, but even I had to say, “Holy Batman! Kickass!”

And now, let’s move on to the REAL STORY in this post! Hmm? My “Lolo” (my grandfather, my Mom’s father) was born on October 10, 1900. If he was still alive today, he would’ve turned 108 years old this past Friday. At approximately 11:45 PM last Thursday night, my Mom claimed that the TV in the basement turned on by itself. (Boo! Cue in ghost music!) Twenty minutes later at 12:05 A.M. (Friday), the radio in the basement turned on. And the song on the radio? “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner. Suddenly, my Mom remembered it was her beloved father’s birthday!

If you’ve ever watched the NBC TV series Medium starring Patricia Arquette as Allison DuBois, a ghost medium, then you’ll know what I mean when I say, “The medium is the message.” (No soap radio! No soap television. Wow, lame jokes.)

OK, easily explainable. The TV has an alarm clock setting and my Dad said the radio is broken. LOL, if my Lolo was really haunting my Mom, I would’ve been the first to ask him, “Hey Lolo, do you take song requests? Because I’m not digging the 80’s music. Could you please play the new song Elephants by Rachel Yamagata from her new album Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart?” Despite its dark, depressing as hell tone and lyrics, I’m digging the vocals, lush orchestra and piano.

Hover your mouse cursor over any image to read its description. To cycle through all thumbnails, click on the first thumbnail to view full-size image. Some cool pics:

Long, yup. Tune in next time, same bat time, same bat channel! In 6 months.

Adieu,

the fruit bat

fruityÖaty.