The Fire House, the Pink Panties and the Pumpkins

Nicole has been in town from Chicago this week and so has her Dude. She stayed with Mini Red and I while he stayed at the fire house. Friday night Mini Red and I picked up Nicole from the metro and went to the fire house for a visit.

Mini Red got a, detailed, personal tour of the firehouse and couldn't have been happier.

We got home and Nicole and I started working on dinner. As the beef was browning I pulled out all that was needed for the Pink Panties**, which is the drink I recently discovered at the crab feast last month. I whipped up the first batch and poured Nicole and I each a glass. It tasted like we were drinking Sweet Tarts and it was so tart you couldn't taste the vodka. Two glasses each, the first batch was gone and we were feeling the alcohol. I still wanted more because it was so damn good so I whipped up another batch.

We put on "The Break Up" but my DVD player was having issues, which happens a little too often. So Nicole, Mini Red and I climbed into my bed to watch the DVD there. Between my exhaustion of the week and the alcohol I couldn't stay awake. Nicole was dozing too so we decided to try and watch the movie another time and she went to her room and I crashed while Mini Red continued to watch the movie. It's such a shame the second batch of Pink Panties went to waste.

The next morning I didn't feel so well but I had to get up for a 10:30 physical therapy appointment. So I took some Excedrin showered and got Mini Red up and was feeling better... At least for the time being.

We were planning to go to the Butlers Orchard to the Pumpkin Festival but I felt so exhausted and all I wanted to do was lay down. So we went home and I didn't get much rest because there's always so much to do. So as exhausted as I was I couldn't rest and as the day went on I felt worse and worse.

I got to bed early and was glad to wake up on Sunday feeling much better. I promised Mini Red we would go to the orchard after her religion classes. At the Orchard we went on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and got ourselves a 35 lb pumpkin. Last year a grandpa with tattoos up his neck was hitting on me on the hay ride. This year I couldn't help but look around and realize my world as a single mom did not offer many opportunities for dates. The orchard was a family place not many single dudes there. We went through several mazes, down the hay slide, petting the animals, jumping in the moon bounce and eating caramel apples. Mini Red got one more treat when we went over to the punkin chunkin machine and she got to participate in shooting a pumpkin across a field.

As we left Mini Red asked if she could go down the slide one more time. I said, "Sure. Wait for me, I'm coming too!" It was the highest spot at the orchard and absolutely beautiful from up there. Next year I'm hitting the slide first.

**Pink Panties Recipe: In blender mix frozen pink lemonade mix, reuse lemonade container and fill half way with vodka, a big dollop of cool whip and ice as needed. Blend and enjoy.