Behind you!

                               (Happy Hallowe'en!)

It's not dead yet!

Why is the post-office like a serial killer?

You know how at the end of the movie the heroine stupidly thinks the killer is dead, so she turns her back on him and closes her eyes in relief? And that's when he pops up again with knife in hand?

Well, I can't tell you how many times over the years I've heard that the post-office is dead or will be soon, but I'm here to tell you that it's not.

Earlier this month, the owner/author of Love Manor graciously offered to send out  Halloween greetings to his readers, and I got my card yesterday:

I was so excited; it came in a black envelope with white ink, and a ribbon with a wax seal on it! (I managed to keep the seal intact, as you can see.)

Now, I can read Love Manor and leave comments instantaneously anytime I want, but it's just not the same as getting an actual letter or thing that can be touched and displayed.

So the moral of the story is: Don't turn your back on the post-office or it will stab you in the back. (Think they might want to use that as an ad campaign?)

Hallowe'en Eve-eve

Can you tell I'm getting a little burnt-out on posing for photos every day?

I've been perusing my iphoto library for pictures taken throughout the year that could be considered scary, and I came across this little gem:

It's a friend of my son peering through the mail slot. She's really a cute girl, but you wouldn't know it from this disturbing view.

Me and my boyfriend

Halloween link of the day: Crumpkin's Pumpkins song

Nice, creepy little addition for a holiday playlist. It's from an interactive website about an evil pumpkin patch inhabited by soul-stealing pumpkins.

Perhaps you thought I ran out of seasonal t-shirts? Not quite:

The Wicked West

Last night we went to the other side of town to see a neighborhood display called The Wicked West. Very impressive. You can't see the house at all; it's totally covered. This is in the middle of a block of regular tract housing.

Here's a town hanging, complete with body twitching and jiggling:

Another execution; this time it's the electric chair:

And a walk through the jail, filled with lots of hanging things, people jumping at us, and an evil clown who insisted on silently stalking me and creeping me out.

Pretty cool, huh?

I'll leave you with a link I've been meaning to post that I enjoyed greatly:
13 Steps

I'M C-C-COLD

I will be very sad when Halloween is over, but my consolation will be on November 4, when we have our appointment with PG&E to have the pilot light of our floor heater turned back on.

I'm running out of Halloween decor, so you wanna see the scariest thing that happened to me this year?

That's my poor ankle that I broke on March 31. To make a long story short...I can't walk on air. (Helpful hint: If you're ever shaking out a rug at the top of some stairs, don't forget that you're at the top of the stairs.)

And here's the shirt-of-the-day shot, along with my li'l pumpkin-head pal:

BOO!

That's Karny, my son's rat. OK, she's not exactly terrifying, but she's trying her darndest.

Here I am coming back from the gym in the rain. Yep, I actually go out in public like this. (Can you see my Frankenstein monster socks?)

Kitchen Goddess

When the weather is cold, nothing tastes better than a hot bowl of stew. Here I am being all domestic-like fixing my pot of bandito stew. (Ground beef, onions, yams, beans and enchilada sauce.)

Got some time to waste? Here's a good link to several corny old Halloween cartoons plus a 3 Stooges short: Halloween cartoons.

Lights Out

A couple of weeks ago I bought this intriguing looking linzer cookie-cutter set for making fancy, Martha-Stewart-perfect Halloween cookies:

Unfortunately, my date-nut ball recipe was just a wee bit too sticky and they didn't come out looking even remotely like the cookies on the package. Which is not to say that the product is a piece of junk; it just requires a drier recipe.

Anyway, no food was wasted in the process. I was able to shape the balls into rough skull-shapes and decorate them with white chocolate chips. I had barely begun when I heard a couple of loud THUMPS and the lights went out, which had the amazing effect of bringing my long-lost son out of his room! I actually talked him into decorating some of the balls with me. Which is why the one at the bottom of the plate is an owl instead of a skull.

Long-lost son. I think he was four years old the last time I saw him.

Turns out a transformer pole around the corner caught on fire, and all the struts had to be replaced. (That's what the PG&E guy told me; I really have no idea what that means.) Lights were out from 11:30am to 11:00pm. Time to break out the candles:

Break out the umbrellas

Needed my umbrella for the first time in ages. It's not a raging storm, but it's definitely rain. Hope it doesn't ruin anybody's Halloween displays.

T-shirt of the day:

As an added bonus, today you get to see my ghost socks!

In case you're interested, my desktop picture is from the Devil's Tramping Ground, an interactive website that's pretty cool: http://darkartsmedia.com/DevilsTrampingGround.com.html

Last Squash of the Season

This is it. The plants are rotting, but I was able to salvage these adorable, tasty little ones. What a change from a couple of months ago, when I would turn my back on them and they'd be the size of a bowling pin.

Halloween t-shirt of the day:

 

Holiday Pics of the Day

Also known as the bedroom. Uh-oh, we escaped. Bwa-ha-ha!

Halloween T's, continued

Halloween t-shirt #2:

Here's what our letter carrier gets to see when he delivers our mail every day:

They don't bother him at all, but he does claim to be terrified of the coffin by the front door; he thinks that some day something will pop out of it. He's lucky that it's only about 4 feet tall, otherwise I'd consider it.

Only 12 Days Left

The Favorite Things Guy wrote a post about getting funny looks for being an adult and wearing a Halloween t-shirt: the favorite things guy

Heck, people think I'm nuts no matter what I wear, so I wear what I like, which means a full month of nothing but Halloween t-shirts for the entire month. So my husband is going to take pics of me everyday until I go through my entire collection. I haven't counted them, but I think I have 9 or 10. Here's the first:

It's sad that the stores are already having clearance sales on Halloween decor to make room for Christmas merchandise. No fair. The Christmas people get to see their stuff for twice as long, plus they have about 100 times the selection. Even the thrift stores are down to the bare bones, but I found these two little items at the Salvation Army store that wanted to come home with me:

After the thrift store, I went to See's Candy to use a couple of gift certificates that Rob got from his customers last Christmas:

Mmmm, good chocolate! Unlike the items on my mantelpiece that I bought for their looks alone and probably taste like crap, these will most definitely be eaten.

One last picture to round out the post. This is a stocking mask that is meant to be worn as a costume, but I think it looks pretty cool wrapped around a jar of my zucchini chips:

Have you figured out the theme for the month?

Hope you're not sick of looking at my Halloween decorations, because I'm probably not done yet.

The Decorating Continues

I add to my Halloween decor every year. This year I decided that what I really needed was a murder of crows. (Yes, that is the actual collective term.)

I also like to arrange my old stuff in a different way, just to keep things fresh. This time I'm clumping all my "witch" items on the fireplace mantel. I had no idea I had this many witches.

Rob got me some chocolate monsters I had seen at World Market, and I needed a way to display them. So I took some old cardboard castle blocks and Halloweenified them with black paint. I think they came out pretty good.

Then I had to replace a non-Halloween picture in the dining room. I repainted a picture box black and made this with a scrapbook page and some chenille pipe-cleaners:

I had to figure out where to put Clyde. This year he's sitting on top of the DVD shelves. That's a lady's shawl he's wearing, but I think he pulls it off quite well. I tried out a purple boa on his head, but he looked like he was in drag.

Happy 52nd Birthday to Me!

Exactly what I wanted: A personal best and a 1st place win in my age division at the Harvest Fair Run. My goal was to break a 10 minute pace, and I did: 5K in 29:01. (That's a 9:20 pace.)

My favorite part of the whole event: Doggedly passing up all the young whipper-snappers who zipped by me at the beginning of the race.