happy halloween!

Happy Halloween!

So, I'm waiting for trick or treaters. I want to write TREATORS because that looks better to me, although maybe a little too close to traitor. Which is right? Spell check thinks treaters, but spell check is always harshing my mellow. (it doesn't like harshing either.)

Speaking of hippies and harshed mellows, today at work I had to spend 5 minutes de-stinking a Carlos Castaneda book (the one with the hand on it). Someone - a hippie, I presume - got hippie oil (sandalwood or similar) all over it, which you may or may not be surprised to know is not uncommon with New Age or witchy books. I got it off and managed to avoid my usual hippie oil headache - a Halloween miracle!

My street is not good for trick or treating. It's on a long block, there's a bar on the corner, and there aren't that many kids who live on it - although there are more now than just a few years ago. But there've been a few little goblins so far. Hard to beat the first ones (probably about 4-5 y.o.): a ghost in an old-school tablecloth and sharpie eyes costume along with an adorable lion. There was also a baby dressed as something but I couldn't tell what. I gave them a LOT of candy (so much so that one of the two dads with them said "woah -that's enough" what a buzz kill - I bet your kid was okay with it!)

UPDATE: There have been many more! Including a spiderman who waltzed into the house wanting to know if I had a dog, and barring that did I have any cats? ("he likes animals," said his mom as she redirected him out of the doorway and down the driveway.) Now I'm putting my favorite candy at the bottom of the bowl so I give out the other stuff first. Ha ha! Take that, small children! I'm turning off the light when Sherlock comes on, though. (I love the new Sherlock! Mostly for Watson, but even so...)

Just had a toddler tigger, a sparkle witch, and another little bear or lion. I'm digging all the homemade outfits.

In Other News...let's see. This month has been bananas! I know I say that every month, but it's true. Maybe I have a low bananas threshold, although I think all Americans during this election cycle are having a bananas month. (Banana! now that would be a costume.) I can't wait till the end of these ridiculous political advertisements. Maybe I should just enjoy the spectacle and stop getting so wound up about the complete lack of logic or sense-making. It's not like I'm demanding irrefutable vulcan logic or anything, just garden variety common sense and basic human kindness. Too much to ask? Apparently!


Let's get back to Halloween, shall we? This card was my Halloween card a few years ago. I was too bananas/lazy to make any this year, even though they are 10000x more fun to make than Christmas cards. (The central image is a rubber stamp from Zettiology.)

Last night my sister and I watched spooky movies over at Martina's house. We went with more of an old fashioned spooky rather than new fangled horror - unless it's also a comedy, the latter is so scary to me I can't sleep for one million years. One million years! It was my sister (Rebecca)'s birthday last week, so we watched Rebecca by Hitchcock. So good! Mrs. Danvers would be a great halloween costume, I tell you what. But I almost think it would have to be a tandem costume, with young blonde Mrs. de Winter II cringing away from dark haired personal bubble buster Danvers. They make more sense as a set. ANYWAY. It was really good! I hadn't seen it in years and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I forgot how funny some of the first part is.

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Then we watched The Others with Nicole Kidman. I think this was the last movie she made before her forehead froze! I enjoyed this one too, although it's not as good as Rebecca. The Others is full of classy creepiness and building suspense. Of course I spent the whole time convinced that the little girl in the movie was Evan Rachel Wood, but dun dun DUN... she was not. Anyway - it's got old fashioned gothic spookiness to spare. It does get a little slow and hokey in parts, but you can use that downtime to admire the costumes.

For the enjoyment of all, Kate Beaton's Halloween Dracula comic. Turnips! ha ha ha. I can't believe I've never read Dracula.

okay, now it's after 8 and I haven't had any candy seekers in about an hour. So endeth the candy dispensing portion of the evening. The candy eating may now commence!