VaaaaaaaaaaaGINA! Oh, Hank... I did it!

Hey..what's on your Thanksgiving menu?

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:18:26 -0500

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.)

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Finally! Got an egg. YAY

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:00:58 -0500

It's so tiny..and green!

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RIP Cleo..

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:16:42 -0500

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.

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Halloween 2009

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:26:25 -0500

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.

Halloween 2009

It was the best year ever. 364 people came in about 2 1/2 hours. That's a hundred more than last year.

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My neighbor kid painted this on the front because he's awesome like that!

Carnevil

The view from my bedroom window

All-Ready

Nathan (the clown) and my niece (the beast) heading out trick or treating. The other two kids were part of the crew.

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Various rooms in the maze

I didn't have anyone to wear one of my new masks. I paid $50 for that thing, someone was gonna wear it so DeWitte wore it in the chain saw room. :)

DeWitte

My awesome inside the maze crew..I didn't get a picture of all the people that worked so hard outside

My--Crew

It was a very Happy Halloween!

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A Halloween Miracle

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:21:53 -0400

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!

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He's A Handy Man!

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:09:26 -0400

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.)

Video 42

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.

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Think I got enough silly string?

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:22:09 -0400

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A Cautionary Tale..

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:17 -0400

DeWitte and Nathan do a lot of things for me they'd never do on their own, like set foot into fabric stores, watch chick flicks, attend arts and craft shows and put the seat down. I'm almost a sadist, I know. So, when they ask me to do something like go traipsing through mosquito and briar filled woods (that's just asking for an infection and malaria.) Geocaching or attend Hot Wheel Car Shows, I usually comply.

A couple weeks ago, Radio Disney, which is the only radio station Nathan's allowed to listen to at night after I went up to tuck him in and the station we usually listen to was filling him in on the pros and cons of booty calls, not that I don't think it's important information..at least the cons, I just think it might be a smidge early...anyway, Radio Disney had a commercial on that said they were having a Hot Wheels Car Show at Kmart..11 am on Sat. and Nathan went ape shoot. Could we pppllleeeaaaassseeeee go? I didn't see why not.

Now, I've gotta tell you, I've been to lots of car shows..we've even held Hot Wheel Car Shows in our living room..

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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.

Finally, a Kmart employee came by to get the party started. He told us all to take a box, open it up, get the collectables we wanted out of that box and then put our box on another table, where we were then given the opportunity to go through boxes that other people had opened. I passed with a no thanks but those collectable guys went crazy! They took their boxes into little dark corners, went through them and hid their stash under their coats or in other boxes. While DeWitte and Nathan were going through their box I started to wonder how much these things cost. I mean, Nathan only had the $10 of the $15 he got for mowing the neighbors grass and those guys were acting so weird, maybe they were really expensive. We asked..and in only a short half hour later we had the answer..$3.69. Nathan had found three cars he wanted. While he and DeWitte were negotiating the money thing (DeWitte owed Nathan $10 for a birthday check that didn't get cashed) Collector Event guys were asking the Kmart dude about the "auction".

The auction went like this..the Kmart guy takes a scrap of paper, writes two #1's, 2's, 3's..you get the picture..gives you one and puts the other in a box (Collectors Events apparently involve a crap load of boxes!). If he calls your number, you get one of the unopened boxes left on the table. He called all three of our numbers. I'm thinking that this might turn out to be a pretty sweet deal if we get to keep entire boxes of cars! But, sadly, no..you win the opportunity to look through those boxes and pick out what you want before any other collection people can accidentally drop their false teeth into them, there by contaminating them for all of eternity. They were supposed to auction off the free posters the collector guys kept eyeballing like they were Penthouse centerfolds but thankfully, they had enough for everyone so nobody had to get into a fist fight.

So, now you know what to expect should you ever find yourself at a Collectors Event...expect the need to bring Fixodent.

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Finally...Halloween Progress!

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:11:03 -0400

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..

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I added a new freak room "The real Spider-man!"..none of that other fluffy Spider-man for us! Before and after..

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Whoever (whomever..sorry, can't be bothered to look it up!) will shoot silly string..which is gonna be awesome.

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..

They done good! :-D

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Nathan's cat is so weird..

nobody@vox.com(Jamie) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:38:20 -0400

She follows me around the house all day until Nathan gets home from school. No matter where I go, there she is. She hates it when I talk on the phone because I pace from the kitchen, through the laundry room, into the living room over and over. After about 2 min. she gets tired of pacing with me so she attacks as if to say would I please sit down! All of that is pretty normal, at least for her..but this morning, not only did she follow me into the bathroom..she followed me into the shower! She perched herself in a tiny bit of corner where she wouldn't get wet. That's weird!

Ok..I'm off, it's Library Wednesday. I love Library Wednesday! :-D

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