Chicken butt!
If you would have told me, at any point in my life, that there would come a time when I brought a chicken into my house to wash and blow-dry her tush, I'd have looked at you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears. Sure, I've washed a lot of chicken in my time, but never the live variety..and I've never blow-dried one, live or otherwise. Well, this afternoon, I did just that.
Poor Esther had made a mess of herself. If it were a chicken like Pearl, I'd have just waited until she cleaned herself up during one of the million and two dust (mud) baths she gives herself everyday. She's a pretty white chicken when she's all cleaned up but she prefers the bad girl biker look. Esther, however, is sort of like Miss Prissy on Foghorn Leghorn and I was sure she must have been horrified having other chickens looking at her in that condition. Kind of like when we went to DeWitte's snobby aunts house and she hadn't done the dishes yet so she wouldn't let us in the house.
So, this afternoon, I let the other girls out into their portable run and brought Miss Esther into the house. I put a warm wet rag on her nether regions, while Nathan held her and said "Gross!" a lot..I can't wait till he's a parent, that kid doesn't know from gross, and put her in a cage on the kitchen floor to give the gunk time to loosen up. We enjoyed the interaction between Esther and the cat. Esther acted like the cat must have been a ferocious chicken eating tiger, even though she's now twice the size of the cat and would surely win in a head to head match. Don't tell her, though, she thinks she's dainty. We evenutally locked the cat in the bathroom because it seemed like she was starting to believe the ferocious chicken eating tiger hype.
After that, it was time to really get in there and clean her up. I was kind of worried..the last time we tried to give an animal a bath that doesn't usually receive baths with the warmest of welcomes, was Cleo. DeWitte put a leash on her and attached it to the faucet, so she couldn't jump out, and she ended up flying around the tub in mid air like a cartoon cat and we had to replace the shower curtain. Esther didn't seem to mind, though. Throughout her back-end bath she seemed to kind of purr. I thought the blow drier would be a fight, too. My chickens are so chicken that they're eremikophobic, which means that if you put new sand in their run, they think it's gonna eat their face off. But, no, Esther just sat there and let me blow dry her like it was a five star feather salon. She even offered me a tip but I didn't take it, I just cleaned it up with a paper towel and washed my hands.
After she was dry, I took her back out and put her back with the other hens, who were all fighting over a three inch plot of mud. She just looked down her nose at them, turned around and shook her clean, fluffy butt.
I'm done shopping and I think I covered all the basics but want to make sure I didn't forget something obvious. (I've been known to do that.)
It's so tiny..and green!
She's probably tripping Saint Peter down the stairs as we speak!
While it's sad, it's not surprising. She was 536 years old. Strangely enough, DeWitte and I were talking about it and neither one of us has ever had a cat die of old age before. That's probably because we always had indoor/outdoor cats growing up and they'd either get hit by a car or run away. They only let you dress them up in your doll clothes so many times before they feel the need to take up residence in a less humiliating household.
She was a mean old grouchy bat of a cat who attempted to murder me often but I'll miss her anyway. Now we've gotta tell Nathan. This isn't gonna be pretty. He's never known a life without Cleo and he's a major cat person so this is just gonna kill him. Too bad they don't let you take time off for the death of a pet...I'll have to wait until after homework and piano then maybe DeWitte and I can do it together.
So, around 5:30, I asked DeWitte where his fancy "see in the dark" video camera, that I bought him just for Halloween night, I might add, was so that I'd be ready. He said that the battery was dead and he didn't know where the charger was. He was too busy to stop to look for it and I looked where he thought it might be but no luck...so I used the Flip video camera instead. It does not see in the dark so I followed one of my Mom's from school through because her kids all have on glow necklaces. There's kind of a dead spot right in the middle, they were going down a dead end and I didn't follow and can't figure out how to edit that part out to save my life because I'm tech-savvy like that. Anyway, so you can't see much but you can hear it.
It was the best year ever. 364 people came in about 2 1/2 hours. That's a hundred more than last year.
My neighbor kid painted this on the front because he's awesome like that!
The view from my bedroom window
Nathan (the clown) and my niece (the beast) heading out trick or treating. The other two kids were part of the crew.
Various rooms in the maze
It was a very Happy Halloween!
It's true, I had my own Halloween Miracle occur this very morning and it happened right in my very own bedroom! (No worries..this is very rated G) For weeks I've been looking for my Jack mask (Latex prosthetic masks are really expensive or I wouldn't care). Somehow, I didn't put it away with the rest of the stuff last year. I'd known where it was..and I remember when I moved it, I just couldn't remember where I moved it to. We went through every box in the garage, the studio next to the garage and the apartment over the garage (DeWitte keeps a lot of boxes of stuff)..nothing. This morning, I woke up and saw Nathan's see-thru engine model box in the corner of my room..which got moved the same time my mask did..and sure enough, there it was! Now Nathan can wear a big boy mask this year after all! :D
Speaking of Nathan, he wanted to be my Spider Man..I thought he just wanted to be in the maze but no. He figured he'd get to keep all the left over silly string and if he was the Spider, he could conserve it and keep the rest for himself. "A little squirt for you, a little squirt for you, 35 cans of silly string for me!" I don't think so, Clark.
We've got a cool new thing we're trying this year. We're having a moving wall on one of the dead ends that can close after someone goes down that path. When they come back the way they came, it'll seem like they're stuck...and hopefully a little panicky.
Half a dozen Fire Fighters came down to our house last night and asked if they could go through the maze. I was kinda worried they'd be looking for fire code infractions but no, they just wanted to play. I turned all the effects back on and turned them loose. They had a ball running around scaring each other and getting lost. Afterward, they told me we should charge admission..which we can't do because then we would have to comply with the fire codes and that many extension cords can't be legal! I planned to ask for donations, though, to give to my PTA.
Hope everyone has a great Halloween!
I don't think I showed you guys this last year..I couldn't find the video of if I did anyway. This is our Jack-In-The Box..he's the distraction in the room that gets your attention while the real Jack sneaks up behind you. (He's not so scary in the light but glowing under the black lights with creepy Monkey Chased the Weasel music..he is.)
DeWitte made him work with the air compressor, a screen door closer and a switch. How he did that, I have no idea..I just tell him what I need and he makes it for me because DeWitte's awesome like that.
but what we encountered when we got to Kmart at 11am on that Saturday morning..every preconceived notion about what to expect went right out the window. It wasn't a Hot Wheel's car show in the living room type of thing, it was a Pixar Car's Collectable Event! and Nathan was the only child. Mostly it was a bunch of old men standing around waiting for I didn't know what. It was our first ever Pixar Car's Collectable Event..our naivety was apparent. There was a man who must have gotten up late for the "Event" and so he didn't have time to put pants on. I guess if you're gonna miss out because you might be late, sweats are the next best thing. Two other men stood there talking about the merits of getting their collectable Maters off EBay..The movie was about McQueen but Mater seems to get all the glory! And one man stood there popping his false teeth in and out of his mouth. I don't usually mention race but he was a white man and his false teeth were clearly not. I think he must have gotten them from a thrift store.
Sorry I haven't been boring you to tears with talk about Halloween this year..I know you're heart broken! :P
Actually, we're using the same Carnevil theme so there's not a lot to do other than put it up. The couple of things that are new haven't really taken a lot of time (which is good..I don't have a lot of time!)
We have a friend for Jack (He's our theme clown)..he glows in the dark but sadly, doesn't have a name yet..
I added a new freak room "The real Spider-man!"..none of that other fluffy Spider-man for us! Before and after..
So, that's what I did today..shopped for treat bag loot for school, cut plastic sheeting (we use that for walls) and painted masks..which equals a pretty fantastic day!
Yesterday, we (That's the royal We..I just got people iced tea and cooked dinner) did this..
