A Ho-Hum Halloween

Trick-or-treating was tonight, and I dare say, it was a bit of a bust. My neighbors must despise children dressed as ghouls, because I could only see one other house on my street with its front light on. I almost hesitated turning mine on because I didn't want to go against the grain. I ended up having only a handful of trick-or-treaters. Maybe a dozen altogether which leaves me with one very full bowl of candy. Good thing I made sure to buy the treats I like (Twix and Skittles. Had I known I would have this much left, I would have gotten Green and Black dark chocolate bars to hand out.) I feel a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she tries to go shopping on Rodeo Dr. but is turned away by the snooty sales women. She ends up back in the hotel concierge's office pulling fistfuls of cash from her pocket, "I have all this money now and no dress." Likewise, "I have all of this candy now and no trick-or-treaters."

The Sexy Sleuth

Halloween out on the town proved to be very fun. I was also quite pleased with my costume, a sexy sleuth, if you will. (Psst...just in case you think you're getting a sneak peak at my house in these pics, guess again. The first two were taken at Josh and Lora's lovely new home).

Me

Me as a sleuth, Josh as Beer Bear the Care Bear, Joel (who looks like he was Photoshopped into this shot) as Tobias from "Arrested Development" trying out for Blue Man Group and Lora as Daria.

Daria and sleuth

Get your spooky on!

For most of my childhood Halloweens, year after year, I dressed up as a ballerina. And by ballerina, I mean I wore a tutu skirt (handmade with love by my mom) over a pair of jeans, with a heavy winter coat and tennis shoes. My sister Becky often went as a witch, wrapped in heavy black plastic for the dress. My brother Brian once went as a pirate because he already had to wear an eye patch to correct his lazy eye and it made for an easy costume. I actually think my mom made him go as the pirate. Like I said, it was an easy costume.

Once I hit college, I really started to branch out with my Halloween ensembles. Unbeknownst to me at the time, scary was not, and still is not, "in" for a young 20-something's costume. So, for my first college Halloween party, I went as a scary inmate, complete with teardrop tattoo that I've heard represents you've killed someone. Since then, I've made it my mission to up the (shall we say) girlishness/femininity/cuteness of my costumes. This year, I'm going as a vixen Sherlock Holmes type of detective. Should be a good one. Photos to come!

Here's the past several Halloweens in review.

2002 - Scary inmate, Avril Lavigne, and a chipper sailor

2003 - Cowgirl, a '60s inspired get-up (some would say I was a flight attendant), and Asian beetle (get it?)

2004 - Construction worker, firefighter (not pictured: knee-high boots, flouncy little skirt and plush dalmatian), and Oriental rug (get it?)

2005 - Road construction worker, UPS delivery girl (my favorite costume of all time! I got a lot of "what can brown do for you?" while I was out), and pirate

2006 - Jem and geisha (that little obi is now a part of my piecemeal coffee table)

Picture This

This picture strip, taken from a photo booth in Vegas, is my latest favorite addition to my home. I want to get a bunch more, but I don't know if we even have any photo booths around here.

Chad and me, livin' it up.

P.S. About Vegas, I ended up wearing my hair in a chignon.

Sudsy-Wudsy Pudding and Pie

It was a full house this weekend! Chad and his friend Matt came to stay so that they could tailgate on Saturday and my friend Jessie came to stay just so we could chat and catch up with one another. I had agreed to dog-sit for my friends Lora and Josh, so their new Great Dane puppy, Suds, came to stay with me as well.

Suds was definitely the star of the weekend. His overall puppy-ness, mild temperament and lovable face caused a lot of baby talk*, empty threats to kidnap him and incessant petting from my house guests and me. He was just so good (except for one minor slip-up when he attempt to poop on a pair of my jeans, but all is forgiven. It had been raining and I just don't think he quite knew how to handle that.) and such a little lover, sleeping on my lap and cuddling up next to my feet. I even started to teach him how to shake. He did quite well, although I think he thinks that a shake is a combination of giving me his paw and licking my hand.

I drove everyone mad with this ridiculous baby talk phrase: "Sudsy-wudsy, pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry. When the boys came out to play, Sudsy-wudsy ran away."

Suds and Suds with cool-dude rabbit ears.

Tuckered out from a day of fun and learning.

*My friend Kelly is solely responsible for spawning canine baby talk amongst my circle of friends. She pioneered this trend with her dog Foxy, using phrases like, "Hez-wo!" "What chu shink about wife?" "Aww, shank you for da kisshes." Translation: Hello. What do you think about life? Aww, thank you for the kisses.

Happy Birthday to My Favorite Handyman!

Chad's birthday was actually at the beginning of the month, but we haven't had a chance to celebrate yet. I rushed around last week gathering presents and an ice cream cake thinking we'd do a little celebrating this weekend, but too many other things were going on and we just never got around to it. His birthday is now on the agenda for next weekend. In the meantime, his cake is being obnoxious and taking up half my freezer and his presents are sitting pretty in my living room.

I don't think Chad reads my "blah-g"(as he calls it), but still, I'm not sure I should say what these presents are. OK, one's a pizza stone. The other two are secret.

My favorite handyman...in disguise.

The teacher

This post isn't home related, but I need to give a big shout out to my coworkers Amanda, Diana and Laura for saving me from the teacher last night!

We'd just left the bar after a night of celebrating the success of our work's annual charity event - the Haunted Tower. Our cars were parked in different directions; mine was only about a block and a half away so I insisted I could go it alone. Well, I hadn't gone more than twenty feet when a well-spoken, bespectacled gentleman in a Carhartt jacket embroidered with the phrase, 'expect the unexpected,' wheeled his bike next to me asking me for funds with a string of sob stories.

1. He had a been a college teacher who'd lost his job.
2. He'd been working odd lawn care jobs, but those jobs had dwindled recently.
3. He has a new job starting on Monday with Remax.
4. His car had been taken away (hence the bike), but he would get it back Monday.
5. Whilst he'd been roaming around downtown with his bike, some guys had jumped him and broke his jaw.
6. He needs to go see an oral surgeon to take care of his jaw.
7. He has a cavity on one of his way back molars (which he cleverly pointed out).
8. He had been to church and asked forgiveness.
9. He hates having to ask people for charity, but he'd fallen on hard times.
10. He only has nine dollars in his pocket (again, emphasis on the need for oral surgery)
11. His dad has Parkinson's Disease

Three things to note: (1) I tend to be quite jaded, so I wasn't picking up what he was putting down, (2) I tend to be chronically nice to strangers, so I couldn't think of a good escape aside from repeatedly saying, "No, sorry," (3) I didn't know if this was the kind of guy who'd follow me to my car, causing even more trouble, so while he rambled I brainstormed different ways to protect myself (e.g., head back inside, channel the skills of late, great martial arts masters)

Luckily for me, I didn't have to worry about item number 3 above, because just as the teacher was spinning his yarn about his ill father, my coworkers appeared as if out of nowhere and yelled at me to get in the car. I quickly obliged.

I have never been so relieved in my life. Thank you, ladies!

Your Mission: Be Neighborly

My neighbor Charley and his wife Gladys are my one hope for a neighborly relationship. They are the only neighbors I've interacted with more than once since moving into my house. I've tried to find ways to get to know my other neighbors, but no good opportunities ever seem to present themselves. So, I've set my neighborly sights on Charley, a retired Marine who may or may not be the president of the local NRA, and Gladys, who hasn't ever said a word to me but I figure the two are a package deal.

About a month ago, Chad borrowed a ladder from Charley to fix my leaky roof. When he returned the ladder, Charley gave him a jar of homemade pickled peppers in a sign of good will and overall neighborly-ness with the stipulation that we needed to give the jar back. Well, just last week as I finished off the peppers, it hit me - the returning of the jar was my opportunity to win Charley and Gladys over. The way I saw it, if they would appreciate getting their empty jar back, certainly they would appreciate getting a full jar back even more.

So, yesterday, I filled the jar with the fruits of the season: candy corn and peanuts. I even affixed a little thank you label. Then, tonight I laid in wait, clutching the jar, ready to ambush them with kindness. I kept a constant watch, peeping through my blinds every few minutes to see if their lights were on, but alas, there was no sign of life across the street whatsoever. Once I thought I caught a glimmer of something, but it turned out to just be the lights from my house reflecting in their windows. Bummer. Eventually, I gave up my watch for the night, but I haven't given up my quest. I'll return to my post tomorrow night and the day after that and the day after that and so on and so forth - I won't rest until I've returned their jar and succeeded at building that neighborly relationship! :-)