Alas, it’s countdown time! There’s only one day left before Halloween…the perfect time to grab a pumpkin from the local pumpkin patch, farm, or supermarket! If you’re lucky, they may even offer discounted prices because they’re trying to get rid of all of them!

The art of carving pumpkins has gotten quite elaborate these days with the use of fancy stencils and tools. It’s a fun and festive way to decorate your home.

But what else can you do with these pumpkins? How about making mouth-watering dishes like: Japanese Pumpkin Soup, sweet pumpkin raviolis with sage butter, pumpkin soufflés, butternut squash risotto, or pumpkin bread with sweet butter? Check out different recipes on how to turn these plump, ripe squashes into something delicious and interesting! There are also cooking classes that can help walk you through the steps! Don’t let these great big veggies revered by Charlie Brown go to waste!!!

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Halloween is less than a week away! If you’re like most people, you’ll probably:

• Visit the local pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin and carve out a jack-o-lantern
• Eat too much candy (Um…yea…it WAS intended to give away to those trick-or-treaters — oops!)
• Dress up in costume (Remember! You don’t want to be too last minute because you’ll end up scrounging through the remnants at the Halloween stores after all the good stuff gets taken!)
• Admire the local neighborhood decorations (Wow! Black lights, projectors, and strobes?!!)
• Go to a Halloween Party with your friends

But, if you’re interested in doing something unusual, there are some very cool (and freaky) things out there to make this year’s Halloween stand out from all of the rest!

• Venture out for a ghost hunt or paranormal investigation! The Haunted Mortuary in New Orleans leads expeditions, guided tours, and metaphysical workshops. Could be creepy, but intriguing!
• Take a thrilling ride on the Murder Mystery Train from Tacoma, Washington’s Freighthouse Square and play a “who-done-it” murder mystery while dining on a luxury vintage rail car.
• Sail around the Bay on a ghoulish pirate ship for an adventurous cruise with haunting ghost stories, hosted by The Red and White Fleet.
• Take a BOO! tour through the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood in Boston, where you can visit the home of murdered Bostonian Dr. George Parkman and learn what happened to his dismembered body. Discover where murderers walk in their sleep, why James Allen was buried with no skin, and where Quakers were hanged! (Yikes!)
• Witness “The Pageant of the Monsters - Night of the Living Art,” hosted by The Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts and Pageant of the Masters to watch a theatrical spectacle showing a ghostly seance, a torture chamber, an alien autopsy and more.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

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Today, the sunny weather was perfect for running the Nike Women’s Marathon ‘07, a Marathon and Half Marathon, in San Francisco, California. The race kicked off at Union Square with participants traversing across the city past major landmarks, such as Coit Tower, The TransAmerica Building, Fisherman’s Wharf, Aquatic Park, Fort Mason, and The Ghiradelli Square. The typical fog was absent so that runners could enjoy clear and scenic views of the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the Pacific Ocean.

This year’s event, which signed up about 20,000 participants, benefited The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. For runners, crossing the marathon’s finishing line meant conquering a feat of endurance. Once they had passed the finishing line, they were congratulated and rewarded with a 2007 Finisher Necklace designed by Tiffany & Co. The streets of downtown were later flooded with participants proudly touting their signature pink Nike Finisher tees.

This year’s Nike Women’s Marathon was a major event displaying fun, fitness, and health awareness. If you missed this one, there are plenty of other opportunities hosted by Nike to build both physical strength and show support for your favorite charity/health organizations. Check out the upcoming Nike events offered nation-wide!

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What a weekend for college football in the San Francisco Bay Area!

• The Cal Bears are have the top-ranked team for the first time since Truman was president.
• Stanford follows up the biggest upset in college football history (over #1 USC last week) with a big win over TCU at beautiful new Stanford Stadium.
• San Jose State upsets undefeated Hawaii in front of a national TV audience (and frenzied Spartan Stadium crowd), derailing golden-armed Warrior WB Colt Brennan’s Heisman hopes.

Well… almost. Those are three things that almost happened this weekend. Instead, Cal blew a chance to complete a miracle late-game comeback in front of their Memorial Stadium fans by letting time expire without managing to kick a game-tying field goal, Stanford gave up a two-touchdown second half lead to lose by two, and San Jose State squandered a 14-point advantage in only the last four minutes, losing in overtime (by the way, Brennan finished 44-for-75 for 545 yards, 4 TDs, and 4 INTs - a busy day, to be sure).

Even with the disappointment, this is an exciting time for football in the Bay Area. Cal is on the verge of being a perennial national power, Stanford is showing signs of rapid improvement under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh, and San Jose State is always competitive in the WAC.

Next week, all three teams take their show on the road: Cal travels south to take on in-state rival UCLA, Stanford heads to Tucson for a matchup with the Arizona Wildcats, and San Jose State is off to Fresno State for a fight with the Bulldogs.

By the way, if you’re a Bay Area football fan, it’s never too early to start making your plans for Big Game!

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Where can one escape the stresses of daily life?

The sanctuary of the yoga mat is a place where over-stimulated minds clouded with anxiety can finally relax. It’s where you can create an environment in which your concentration can shift from disarray to calmness, through an awareness of breath, poses, and body alignment. Tension resulting from long commutes and sitting at a desk for countless hours at work can gently fade away with the rhythmic patterns of yogic flow.

There are many different styles of yoga, some of which include:
- Hatha
- Vinyasa
- Ashtanga
- Iyengar
- Kundalini
- Bikram (Hot Yoga)

There are all sorts of ways to practice yoga across the country - independently or with a community at a studio or retreat…and even on the beach! Specialized forms are also offered particular to your needs, such as prenatal yoga, family yoga, senior yoga, meditative yoga, just to name a few.

Why not give it a try and see what it can do for you?

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