Happy Halloween from Moi-bacca!

Well, even with Uber being down all day and adding in that extra fun level of suspense (Will we get a cab? Will we have to wait for the bus? Where is the bus? Cabs? Anywhere? Will we get there in time? Basically it stinks when Uber is down, grrr- though I did, luckily, avoid silly surge pricing for my efforts), it was great day! And it all worked out for the most part. And it was fun, not just for me but for Moira too!

Thursday night we just had a quiet family dinner of delicious stuffed sugar pumpkin. And since I keep getting recipe requests it's:

1 small sugar pumpkin, lid cut off and scraped clean inside
2 mexican chorizo sausages, with casings removed
1 c. monterey jack cheese
1 roasted poblano- de-seeded and diced
1 c. hashbrowns (can also use cubed bread or roasted potatoes)
1/4 c. cream
1/2 c. chicken stock
s&p

1. Preheat oven to 350. Shake salt and pepper all inside the pumpkin.

2. Cook chorizo until done. Layer inside pumpkin 1/2 the hashbrowns, chorizo, cheese, poblanos and then the remaining hashbrowns. Add in cream and stock. Top with the cut out pumpkin top.

3. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Should easily be able to slice with a knife.

You can easily skip the chorizo and add in more veggies (spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, etc) but I'd suggest adding in some spices too- chili powder, cumin, smoked papika, garlic to make up for the omitted sausage).

I picked up Mo on Friday and we headed down to meet Melissa and Jaz for lunch. I also found out that her class won the pumpkin decorating contest and was having a pizza party later for the parents Halloween party, but oh well. Melissa and I dined outside at Stone Street then changed into our costumes and hit up Trinity, literally right down the block from her apartment. Mo had her nap interrupted so the whole time she was a little out of it, but good thing it was all stroller accessible, for the most part. We were in a bit of a rush to get to music at 4p that we completely missed seeing Cousin Katy and JJ, though we did run into Col on our way out which was nice. I thought the acting effort was much better this year. Each stop put on a mini play (complete with what had to be a high school drama club) but they were fun and interesting (who knew there was a gravestone of a fictional character at Trinity?!).

Princess Leia, Moi-bacca, Daenerys Targaryen and her Dragon!

Charlotte Temple and her jilting lover

John Jacob Astor and his wife

And then we made it for music. It was pretty fun since there were a ton of Moms who I hadn't seen since Mo was little, so it was nice to reconnect. Mo was also pretty pooped from her interrupted nap so she was clingy and didn't warm up to the music, but with music moved to 4pm every Friday I'm going to make my best effort to get her there as often as possible.  Several of these mom's are the same ones we keep hanging out with so it'd be nice to connect even more when possible.

And then, with Uber still down, no cars available and time running out to get home to pass out candy, I waited on the side of the street for a good old fashioned cab... and got one! Easily within 2 minutes. A true NYC cab fairy tale! We made it home right in time for our 6pm time slot and what turned out to easily be the best part of the night!

Mo perked up while having dinner at home and then really got into it with the kids answering the door. I'd usually go first and the parents and kids would exclaim over my costume... and then they'd see Mo and lose it. And she really hammed it up too, with the smiling and waving, even a few high 5's. There was one little boy who couldn't have been that much older who she really connected with and I almost thought we'd have an impromptu playdate on our hands. The sweetest was when the kids would leave for the apartment and she'd walk out following them. I can't even begin to imagine what she thought was going on but it was seriously the cutest!

Robin came over too and we enjoyed catching up and having some quality girl time over a few glasses of wine. Next time Bill is out on a weekend night I'm definitely going to have the girls over, since just chatting and relaxing was so much fun and therapeutic, especially after a long, stressful and somewhat disappointing work-week. But the good news for work is that I may interviewed for a documentary vignette for these gap-funding projects I helped negotiate for my clients! And I'm heading to the Bronx on Wednesday to do a tour of a school where one of the projects is taking place with my CMO and CFO (I negotiated a project where my client is providing the funding to turn an unhealthy meal into a healthy one for 800 students over the course of a year). For mostly negotiating with sales reps and dealing in numbers all day, it's nice to do something out of the box like this that helps so many people!

In other news, Mo loves brushing her teeth!

Upcoming:

• Spin tonight. Getting back in the saddle (spin pun there) of working out before the holiday's hit.
• I take my first trip to the Bronx that doesn't include a Yankee game in... well it's been years, on Wednesday. Here's hoping Uber works then.
• There's a Chocolate and Wine night out with the Moms I've been hanging out with on Thursday.
• Tia Teresa comes up next weekend for the Rural Alberta Advantage show. Hoping we can get in our traditional ramen outing and maybe a few other fun things.
• Then... the holidays hit. Bill's also been painting to get the apt ready to put on the market. It just seems so daunting now that it's finally here and I just can't help having a "dragging my feet" feeling. It's not that I don't want to move at all, but it's the process of selling our place, finding a place, packing, moving, lots of signing on dotted lines, lots of spending lots of money, commutes, daycare hunting (or do we keep her where she is and we all just do one long commute together), cars, trains, etc. Ugh. So if I don't have to think about this for another week or month, I'm all for it. But it is an eventuality that I hope will go smoother than everyone makes it seem. In the meantime, let's not discuss unless you're pouring me a glass of wine and planning to stick around to hear my moving woes.
• Thanksgiving at Aunt Joanie's with Bill Sr. and Eileen (aka Grandpa and Grandma McKinney), Bill and I have a date night, Aunt Joanie's Christmas on Dec 6th, then real Christmas in Florida. New Years presumably in our apartment again this year. And then it's 2015.