These are a few of my favorite things...

I love Halloween. I love all things spooky. I love dressing up and telling ghost stories. I love big pots full of soup and pumpkin muffins. I love scary movies. I love the feeling of being connected, somehow, to a spiritual world where logic and contrived structure do not apply.

It's my favorite holiday.

At my current day job, they are having a pumpkin carving contest. Even though I have a flair for that kind of thing, I was pretty "meh" on the whole idea -- that is until friend and co-worker Nancy Mensch mentioned that she had seen internet posts of people carving jack-o-lanterns with pressure washers. "Oh," I said, "That sounds like something we need to do." "Hell yes, it is," was her answer.

Friday, Nancy walked in with a pumpkin and a big smile on her face. Moments

later, there were pumpkin guts everywhere and two grown adults cackling like Halloween witches on a bender.

I was surprised at how well it worked. The entire carving took about 30 seconds and it blew most of the seeds/pulp out the backside. Maybe you don't get the detail of a scalpel, but the entertainment value is huge. You could also churn out a dozen of these in less than 10 minutes.

I guess that sometimes, NOT using the right tool for the job is just a lot more fun!