Rambling O' Lantern

This post is mostly an excuse for pumpkin photos, but I might as well babble about the tail end of my birthday weekend too. Saturday when we went to get my books it rained, and today it's been miserable and rainy, but Sunday was fortunately gorgeous and that's the day we went to the Highland games. Bridgie got horribly sunburned just to prove it. I didn't buy a sword, not so much because of money concerns because people gave me lots of birhtday money, but because everything I'm interested in lately has a basket hilt and of course I have yet to find one that's left handed. There were a few decent ones that felt like they had a good tang, and they're damn cheap there, but alas... I changed my mind on Sunday morning and didn't dress up with my own sword, but there's a group of swordfighting performers there that I sometimes get mistaken for being with. Doesn't happen in jeans and a t-shirt though. We watched them but their skit this year didn't have as much swordplay, but we stayed for the ferret legging.
If you don't know what that is, it's about what it sounds like. Sticking a live ferret down your pants. Keep in mind this was a game invented by drunken Scotsmen. They used audience volunteers, and had them change into sweatpants. One poor sod ended up with two ferrets. The white one didn't want to stay in, and kept popping up through the waistband, both in front and in back.
For the record, even if they were willing to take women for it, I wouldn't do it for money. Ever since being bitten by a ferret as a child, I've distrusted them.
Oh, I also got some fencing practice against a guy, it was mostly little kids going against him which was just cute, but they had right and left gloves, a mask that was too big even on me, and it was sabre instead of foil. I always did better at sabre. I'm badly out of practice but he was going easy on me, and I think we came out about even on valid hits.
( Okay, on to photos. )

That's all I got.