HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I wore a skeleton costume to work today - big black mock turtleneck and black leggings with white bones painted on them. I whipped this costume up when I was a preschool teacher coz I needed something comfortable enough to work with kiddos, that could take a beating or a boogering, and didn't scare the bajeezus out of 'em. But I had to leave early coz I was basically a biohazardous skeleton. Filling the Kleenex continues as we speak...

I plundered my pumpkins this evening. I scooped guts to get the seeds, turned on the oven to pre-heat, and buttered/salted the seeds (after some major OCD washing of them) on a cookie tray. Opening the oven, I discovered I had forgotten the leftover bread I'd made and stored in the oven so the cats didn't rip thru the plastic. Yeah, I'm so smart. Now you know why I'm not interested in having children - I'm going to end the world someday and I don't want to be responsible for killing my own offspring. I melted the plastic bag nicely onto the rack and snugly around the pan. Let's just say a disaster of major proportions was VERY narrowly averted... but the seeds got in safely and were baked to purr-fection.

I carved my pumpkins this year instead of just chopping them up and putting them in the compost for the backyard wildlife. I'll do that tomorrow. I had lots of compliments on the cat pumpkin.

I had 30 trick or treaters, same as last year, but more bigger kids/college kids (all in fancy costumes, I'll give them credit for that) than last year. Damn town Rec Center party! I miss seeing the little ones staggering up my steps in some super-detailed creation their over-achieving parents stuffed them into.

Enjoy the witching hour!

BoogerFest 2007

I have a cold, damnit.

I guess it didn't matter that I changed from all natural high fructose orange juice to V8 Fusion.

My body has surrendered to germ warfare and now I'm creating piles of wet juicy tissues full of brave little white blood cells at every nesting location in my house.

I didn't think I was sick while I was at work today, I thought it was an intense allergy session due to high winds and wet leaves. But while watching abysmal TV tonight, I've come to the realization that I do indeed have a cold and I will need to take biohazard measures with all the tissues in my wastebasket at work.

So I guess this means I'm going to spend Halloween handing out not only candy treats but each child will also be getting a germified trick. Misery loves company!

On a less germy note... Project Runway starts Nov 14. I'm looking forward to doing my Nutshells again.

Oh, and I completed a recent project... I made this for one of my very good friends, K, in celebration of her Oct birthday and her father who she lost to pancreatic cancer in 2004. I attended his memorial service and K handed out to each person a package of Mammoth Sunflower seeds that had a little typed-up memory attached to each one. I kept the package, the typed memory, the bandana that was also handed out, and took pictures at each stage of the sunflowers' (from the package she gave us) growth this summer. Then I printed off the pictures in three different sizes so I could play around to find the best configuration. The frame is from Target and has three layers of glass but I could only do two layers as the top glass is the protective layer. I added a friendship touch (the Mary Engelbreit sticker to the right) and dated the pictures. I like to think the sunflower is K and the bumblebee is her dad zooming in for a visit. She was very touched and told me it was one of the best presents she's ever received. It's one of the projects I feel extremely proud of and it's also amongst the few where the reality matches the vision in my head.

Thanks to Verizon McHottiePants...

I am now up and running on the Internet at home. It's been a Murphy's Law filled experience. I get my package right away and "Easy as 1-2-3", my ass. I did everything the CD said to do, not once, not twice, but 4 times and then the CD told me I needed to call for assistance, which I did, which involved an hour long phone trip, on a connection that only let me hear every third word, to India, to be put on hold many times by "Sherwin" (who picks that as their "typical American" name?), to learn that a Verizon tech cannot be pinned down to a certain time to come out and check that my phone lines are DSL compatible and there is a slight, "slight" possibility that my computer may not be able to support DSL.

I have to give "kudos" to the Verizon guy that managed to come out after work Friday and help me thru the dreck, let me know exactly what my computer needed to be dragged kicking and screamingly up-to-date (an Ethernet card which is apparently the "super highway for computers to access the Internet where the USB is the backroads with many offshoots"), and arranged to come back today to insert said Ethernet card and get my computer all booted up and Internet ready. WHEEE!

Now my next adventure is to change from the $19.99 offer to the $14.99 that is only offered via the Internet. The reason for the pricing difference? Get this... It's because I spoke with a real person who signed me up. Apparently even tho I only talked to the signer-upper once, I get punished for wanting to do business with a real person. I think the voice recognition program also registers stress because I got connected to a "representative" quite quickly once I got majorly irritated.

But it's done and I'm aboard again...

Now I just need a mouse with a scrolly thing.