It’s that time of year again.  Many people anticipate the children dressed up looking for candy.  Some of the children happen to be in their 20s and 30s.

We look forward to the latest pumpkin carving challenge… this year, we go for a Trek.

I’ve always enjoyed Halloween.  The activity of exploring new areas of your personality via costume fascinates me.  Probably one of the things that drew me to role playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons® when I was a kid… okay, so I continued playing DnD and similar games through college, too.  Anyway, carving pumpkins offered a way for my creative side to come out for a few hours a year without much investment of time or effort.

A few years ago I suggested I could carve a pumpkin better than a friend of mine. This turned into an annual challenge. After I carved Yoda a couple years ago (the picture above), we started to get more serious. Last year involved a Lord of the Rings theme. My Balrog fighting Gandalf tribute failed miserably. It turns out that carving a creature described as “shadow and flame” is rather difficult. This year we went for a Star Trek theme. Unfortunately, Matt’s pumpkin was rotten when we started carving, so I was the only one able to finish. I have only one word to describe it, “KHAAAAAN!”

Wrath of Khan pumpkin, 2007 - by Josh

We’ll probably go for a fantasy theme again next year. Possibly Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, or Marvel comics. Then again, we might just as easily go for a Monty Python theme, because “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

Here is the complete gallery of pumpkins we have created over the last few years.