Another year, another scare

Another successful Halloween party is behind me (phew). There were decorations, there was snow (yikes), there were great costumes (as usual), there was scaring, and there was a wee bit of drinking as the ice luge was used and abused.

This year's decorating began two weeks before the party - I cleaned the basement and began "building" the haunted house. Using my entire basement was the biggest challenge since I've never had such a large space in which to send my apprehensive guests. We had two separate rooms to send people so there was room for a winding section with lots of places for the "actors" to hide and a whole room with a strobe light and people jumping out of closets. Heehee - I do get a kick out of frightening folks.

Some notable costumes:
*a sparkly pig and her chef
*a farmer and her tall, effeminate pig
*a tool bag
*GI Joe
*Scrabble pieces spelling B-O-O, complete with the correct values (they equal 5 points)
*Hooter girls
*"the one who didn't get away" - a man with the ugliest "woman" just over his right shoulder
*a waist/waste of time
*a deviled egg
*spongebob squarepants (completely homemade) and crabby Patty
*the Avian flu
*the holy ghost/ghost from Charlie Brown
*nun for you
*two peas and a pod (Bryan and I in my first ever "couple costume" - try to hold down the vomit please, we were cute)

There was also a collection of girls with ears of one variety or another, men with masks/robes, doctors, angels, and mechanics.

The winners of the contest this year:
tied for 3rd: the Pope (though a store-bought costume, it was well-executed by a man eerily resembling Pope "Saint's name, roman numeral whatever" currently ruling Vatican City)
an ipod and a mini ipod - Bryan's cousin and his girlfriend whose costumes were so accurate they even had dangling earphones
2nd: mermaid and Neptune - my mom once again came up in a big way, transforming herself and Bill into two amazing seafolk
1st: bug zapper - some black netting, a bike tire tube, rubber bugs, and lights attached to an outlet from which Kate didn't move for two hours all earned for her the big prize and the title of defending champion for next year's party - no pressure or anything...

Every year, I worry that the party will be a dud, that no one will show up, and well, anything everything else I can worry about. But, all that worry was for naught. More people than ever showed up, people laughed and mingled, and as one guest left, sitting in the back seat of her friend's car, I heard, "that was the best, best, best, party ever". Three bests. Not bad.

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So much news about which to comment today: Theo Epstein's resignation, the new SCJ nominee, Bush's plan for the bird flu - wouldn't surprise me if he was suggesting chicken noodle soup as a remedy, and the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis is no longer accepting acting work. Since I don't possibly have time to comment on all of it, I'll just leave you with this fact: When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.

Happy Birthday Joe - how the heck are you in your late 20s??

Happy Birthday Kristen!