Tag: halloween

Belated Halloween Post

I’ve been meaning to get a Round Tuit to posting photos that I (and a few others) took at the Halloween party that my folks and I attended that night. And as I wait in the queue to get onto World of Warcrack (they just released a new expansion), I found the Tuit and it was, indeed, Round. So first photo is one of me and the camera outfit that I used for most of the photos. The theme of the party was 1920s/Great Gatsby and many of the attendees drezzed for the occasion. (As I’m not a fan of wearing dresses, I opted more for Marlene Dietrich in drag. She looked FINE in a suit or tux. Me… well, I’m cute at least. See?)

meandcam
Me and the camera that dad put together. He’s clever. 🙂

mumanddad
The party started at The Caroline, a restaurant in Troy. Here’s mom and dad entering the restaurant.

mumandme
Here’s mom and I at the restaurant.

groupshot
A group shot of the first of our group to arrive at the restaurant. Not all who attended the party at Tammy’s were able to come to the restaurant.

flappers
Some flappers at the Caroline.

champers
Now at Tammy’s, here’s dad getting the champagne bar ready. (Tammy also had a cocktail bar, a wine bar, and a cigar bar at the party. Though cigars were to be smoked outdoors.)

parents
Tammy’s front room had the perfect backdrop for 1920s style photos. Here’s my folks. I got many of the couples in front of this window.

dadandme
Awhile into the party and dad and I relax while one of the party-goers takes out photo.

mumwins
As the evening wore on, poker and pool were the entertainment. Here’s mom winning a hand!

poolshark
My dad, the pool shark.

actionshot
I was pleased when I saw that the camera captured the movement of the ball. Our host John shoots while two of the three Mikes at the party look on.

Wow, October’s nearly over!

Alas, one of my worst months ever as far as updating LJ. And it’s not as if I’m doing nothing. (Sadly, I suspect it’s the doing World of Warcrack which is preventing me from doing things like this, grading papers, cleaning house, etc… MMORPGs are bad, mmm’kay?)

Anyhoo, one of the most recent things that I’ve done (other than play video games) is attend a Halloween party. Friends invited my folks (and I crashed, which was actually OK with the hosts) to this party, with the invitation itself being a blank mask with instructions to decorate. I didn’t know what I was going to make mine into until the day of the party and opted for making it into a puppy dog, with a pair of socks for doggy ears.

doggytreen

I wound up winning the prize for most creative mask. Dad, meanwhile, had cut out his mask and had me print “Generic Mask” on it neatly. He glued it to a stick (ala Renaissance masks) and wound up winning the Funniest mask. Heh. Mom then topped us during the pumpkin carving competition by getting a special award for her puking pumpkin. A family of winners – woo! Tomorrow I’ll post punkin pix.

Oh, and this year will be my first year attempting National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo). Hoping it might jumpstart my blogging and possibly curb my gaming. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Anyone have a novel plot idea????

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween this year. Our county actually decided to let Beggar’s Night be on Halloween (not a regular occurrence, alas), so tonight I had kiddies a’visitin’.

Normally, I get around 40 kids. The most I’ve had in recent years was 49 in 2007 (and then 25 in 2008). So last month when Woot.com was selling glow-sticks one day, I decided to get those for giving out. I got 72 glow-sticks for under $13 including shipping. A deal, I thought. And when they arrived, they were actually pretty decent glow-sticks. (1 used, 71 to go!)

So I wasn’t too worried about running out tonight, seeing as the most kids I’d ever had was 49. But I think someone was busing them in this year. Beggar’s Night starts at 6pm. By 7pm I was giving away the one around my neck. And I had to turn one girl away without one – I felt so bad. (And of course, it was then that the senior girls who had promised they’d be there early arrived – sorry girls!)

71 kids (well, 72 + the senior girls) in an hour. Sheesh! If Woot.com does this deal again next year, I’ll call mom and have her order the max as well, then I’ll have a gross of glow-sticks to hand out.

So anyhoo, I’ve got the porch light off and most of the house lights off. I figure I can come out of hiding at 8pm when Beggar’s Night is over. Hope there’s not too much toilet paper on the house in the morning!!!

We Can Do It!

Today we could dress for Halloween. I decided on my costume a few weeks ago, and as with many of my previous costumes, it was rather inexpensive. Only purchase was a red with white polka-dot cloth. Mom was a great help – she suggested where to find the cloth (Jo Ann Fabrics), loaned & applied lipstick, and tied my head scarf on. Thanks mom!


We Can Do It!
We Can Do It!

Oh yes we can!
Alternate Pose
Alternate Pose

In order to avoid looking like I’m flipping people off, this was my usual “We can do it!” pose today at school.


BTW, the sheer number of people who asked if I was dressed as Aunt Jemimah… I know I’ve got the cheeks for it, but seriously….

I Aten’t Dead

Been ages since I last posted, so I figured I’d better pop a quick note in to say that all is well, I’m just a bit busy.

I’m working on my thesis proposal with a goal to have it done by Halloween – of this year. That would be, like, this Saturday. Ahem. So here I am, writing my literature review (or rather, taking a break from writing my literature review to give Lucy scritchies, comment on Twitter, and type this up).

Got my costume planned for Friday (dress up day at work) and should have photos this weekend. Tomorrow’s Beggar’s Night in our county, so I’ll be interested to see how many kids I get. I might wind up working on my proposal while I wait for the kiddies to pop by. The parental units are at their first party at their soon-to-be community tomorrow night, so no Beggar’s Night for them.

Last weekend was a Buy Music Weekend for me (and I partially blame gregmce for it) which I hope to write about soonish. I expanded my MP3 collection with the new purchases as well as with some older DW audios (the missing eps) finally ripped into my collection. And updated playlists. Etc.

This past weekend I also installed Winders 7 proper on my PC. Go me! Got it for the $30 college price. Yay for Masters program! (One of these days before my graduation I intend to get Adobe Web Premier for a reduced rate thanks to my scholarly ways. Heh.) Oh, and also related to college, I have registered for what I hope will be the final credit hour in my program. Yay!

OK, that’s enough procrastinating. I should get back to writing my literature review. (As I told the folks in Twitter, I’m not even done with my thesis proposal yet and I’ve already got 30 citations.)

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has (or had) a Happy Halloween!

We had Beggar’s Night last night, so tonight I’m free to do whatever I want. I think I’ll sleep or something. 😉 Only had 49 kids come for candy – which is 8 up from last year, but still pretty pathetic. The other side of the street got more action that my side did. Bummer. Still, my students were happy today – they got the leftover candy. 🙂

Jesus Seminar on the Road

The parental units and I are in Fort Wayne, IN for another Jesus Seminar on the Road. We left around 3pm and arrived about 15 minutes ago (aka 2.5 hour drive). When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express, our room was still occupied. The other rooms were full, so the desk lady upgraded us to a suite. And, despite what the desk lady told us, there IS free wireless in the rooms. Yay!

A short report on Trick or Treat this year. We actually had “Beggar’s Night” on Halloween (always a treat IMO). However, my numbers were way down on the previous year. Only 41 kids showed up during the night. So sad! I think the rainy day put some folks off (though it didn’t rain during the Trick or Treat time). In a break from my usual tradition, I watched episode 3 of Torchwood and 2 DT episodes of Doctor Who (Tooth & Claw and The Girl in the Fireplace).

Time to Vote! Pick my pumpkin’s Jack-O’-Lantern design!

I had 12 entries for this competition, and all of them are cute! (And, I think, carvable by me – woot!) Please look at the entries for the competition and vote for your top 3 favorites. (You can vote for less than three if you wish, just don’t vote for more than three.) The winning entry will be the one I attempt to carve tomorrow afternoon. Voting will be done by 4pm EST (which is around when I get home and when I can start on my pumpkin). Thanks to dark_pheonix and capriuni for their fabulous designs!

Design My Jack-O’-Lantern Contest!

I have purchased my pumpkin for this year’s Halloween Jack-O’-Lantern, but I was lost of ideas on its design. So I had this inspired idea – why not let my friends design it? I have many talented artists on my friend’s lists, and even not-so-good artists can design a decent Jack-O’-Lantern (witness my previous ones, for instance). I apologize that I haven’t given you much time for designing it. Rather than having Beggar’s Night (AKA Trick or Treat) on Oct 31st like any sensible town would, my town (indeed, most of the county towns) has Beggar’s Night another night. And for us, this year, it’s Thursday. In order to have my friends’ list vote on the entries, all entries will need to be in by Wednesday. And Thursday after school, I’ll see who won & carve my pumpkin to the best of my ability. Disclaimer: My carving skills are not all that honed, so the resulting Jack-O’-Lantern may have only a passing resemblance to the original design! But I’ll do my best to do it justice.

So, onto the contest rules:

  1. Check out the photo of my pumpkin below the LJ-cut. That will give you an idea of the shape. You can even use the photo to draw your design on (let’s hear it for Paint – yay!).

  2. Create your Jack-O’-Lantern design using whatever means necessary. Like I mentioned in the previous rule, you can use the original photo if you wish, or you can draw it on paper & scan it in, or use Photoshop or whatever software program you draw with. You can even cut it out in construction paper & glue it all together, but it still needs to be scanned in so I & the voters can see it.

  3. The design MUST be a face. I think the scenic ones are cool and everything, but for me, Jack’s gotta have a face.

  4. You can send me your entry a number of ways. E-mail it to me. Post it as a comment to this journal entry. Send it over IRC. Post it in your own journal. Do whatever you need to get the image to me.

  5. Wednesday morning (6:30am EDT) is the deadline for all entries. I will put them all together in a single post for that day and create a voting poll.

  6. Voting will continue until Thursday after work (4pm EDT). The most voted upon entry will be the winner. Remember to vote early & often! 😉

  7. I shall do my darnedest from 4pm until 6pm to carve the pumpkin to resemble the winning entry. See disclaimer above.

Contest pumpkin
This is the pumpkin to be carved. Design away!

You’re welcome to contribute more than one entry if you wish. If you have kids who want to do the design, that’s OK too. I’m looking forward to the designs you folks will come up with!