Having no social life to speak of, I got up late, made some eggs, and went to my office. I've been here doing extracurricular reading, and I'm about to start working on some figure/ground studies for practice. This is because I want to quit working as a land use code analyzer and work toward being more of an urban designer. Also, I re-posted my Buffalo State Hospital post to the blue.

Laundry and video games. We thought about going out, but ended up not doing it.

Kelly, your costume is great! Love it! Fantastic job! You really captured the essence of it. Actually, it's near well identical. What are the letters on the sash? Applique stick-on thingies? What a fun costume.

Boring details below. Read at your own risk:

Today the kid's baseball games were cancelled because of rain. Yay! I love a day off. By the way, the kid I was worried about is doing very well at baseball.

I actually showered early this morning because I thought there would be a game. Don't you love that? Bathed and dressed with a free day ahead of you?

The kids and I are doing a food drive for Thanksgiving. I thought today was the day to collect the bags for donations but I got my days mixed up. I was in an empty parking lot at 9am. Since we were out and about we went to Dunkin Donuts. The boys got a donut, I got a large coffee. Yum. Then I drove home and the boys and I painted for a while. The younger kid named one of his paintings "Vanilla Tower" which I thought was cute. Probably because I'm his mother. There wasn't a tower in sight. After we painted I wasted a lot of time on the computer. In the afternoon I got myself in gear again and took the kids to the planetarium. We watched a presentation about the space telescopes on Mauna Kea. Then we visited a watercolor exhibit that I saw a couple weeks ago, and loved, and wanted to see again. We also hung out in the children's wing and played and explored and saw the giant sloth fossil for the hundredth time. After the museum I called the chair guy and picked up the chairs.

Nothing! Glorious nothing!

I had an unexpected visitor yesterday, and was thinking that I was going to see another friend today, to talk about a web site she wants me to make for her... but I wasn't really in the mood to see anybody (I need a day between socializings), and so wasn't terribly disappointed that we had to reschedule.

I bought groceries and made fish chowder, watched a little television, spent a long time on online puzzles, thanks to this askme comment, and ate cookies. Woohoo.

Was invited to a costume party, but got hit by the Migraine Bus. I've been the only person on my floor for several hours now and nobody is coming back until at least 1.

That is a kick-ass costume, though.

We had the church Halloween party- got there at 9:30 to set up, party from noon to 4 (during which I lead the group games), cleanup until 5. It was great fun but I feel like I got hit by a bus!

Awesome costume, kelly! The mister and I have been looking for Beetle Juice dvd for ages and finally found it today!

kelly, I LOVE that costume!!

Wow, good costume, kellydamnit. Woman after my own heart there.

The boyfriend and I dressed as Redneck Wedding: I had a cheap wedding dress with batting for a pregnant belly, fake black eye. He wore overalls, stained Nascar tshirt and clipon tie with a mullet wig.

We had tickets to the musical Hair, which wasn't what I expected because I got it confused with Hairspray. And damn if those aren't two different musicals. Then to Mad Myrna's, which ended up being really lame with bad music and only one dance floor open. My stomach got a lot of attention, and for that I am pleased. But I didn't dance at all and it was a big Meh of a night. I should have stayed home and done laundry.

We've haven't Halloween over here yet. Did everyone in the states do it early or something?

WTF is up with my typing?

We have not had Halloween here yet.

Great costumes, kell! We thought about Spy vs Spy redux(costumes I made us a couple of years ago), but instead we went to drag bingo, which was terribly amusing! Then we went to an illegal bonfire in someone's backyard. It was small, actually, inside a 30" round steel grate. We had a hose nearby in case the cops showed up (it's a drought here).

I've probably posted these before, but here they are again:

≡ Click to see image ≡

≡ Click to see image ≡

I am going in the Halloween parade on Wednesday and as such have not celebrated Halloween yet.

Nothing much, we just won 2nd place in a costume contest.

We've haven't Halloween over here yet. Did everyone in the states do it early or something?

Halloween parties are usually the closest weekend to it around here, as well as on the day itself. A lot of people don't go out on halloween itself since they're working the next day, or taking their kids out for candy, etc. So the bar parties and contests are generally weekend before (or after, if that's closer).

chewatadistance, that is freaking awesome... how did you do the face shape?? A friend of mine's been wanting to do a plague doctor for a few years, and it's similarly shaped. We just couldn't quite figure out how in a way that would be wearable.

rhapsodie, any pics? I'm a sucker for cute couple costumes. My sister and her husband went as Wilma and Fred Flinstone for his firm's party (his mom's a pro costumer, so I'm dying to see the pics, I bet they look awesome.) I just laughed my butt off hearing that since my sister is a tiny, skinny thing and he's a big guy and about 6'6. My ex and I did Homer and Marge once. I saw just one couple last night, a bloody bride and groom. I was kinda disappointed, since last year there was a couple who did the movie the corpse bride, one who did jack and sally from Nightmare before xmas, and a few others.

TPS, did you dress up for your party?

Mike, that's freaking adorable! And congrats!! I only managed third at the contest I did last night. Which would have been more fun had the person who was eliminated right before me not [1] brought a large group of drunk men who then started throwing things at everyone else and yelling "get off the stage, fatass!".

The first prize was really clever. A girl wore white leggings and a little white sheath dress that said, in small letters at the bottom "I voted for Bush..." and then, across the back "... twice." She then cut a huuuuuge circle out of plywood, with a hole for her face, and painted it in rainbow swirls. She was "a sucker." I thought it was cute as hell.

Second place was a huge group of about fifteen people dressed as characters from 300. I thought they did a kind of lame job, since most just bought "spartin accessory kit" or whatever at party city and wore the helmet and plastic sword with boxers, but big group efforts usually win contests around here. And I think a lot of people got a kick out of seeing a bunch of hairy guys with potbellies wandering the bar screaming "THIS IS SPARTA" all night.
And there were so many people even when they got the $50 tab prize it worked out to a single drink for half of them.

One of the bands playing went religious. Girls as dead nuns, boys as dead priests. Except for the bass player, a guy, who went as the tallest dead flying nun I've ever seen.

And in retrospect I think I should have made "The handbook for the recently deceased", whipped it out on stage, and chastised the crowd because "they probably haven't even read through the manual yet." But I can do that before the big contest Wednesday at work. (cash prizes. Big ones. so I want to win. I even edited down the beetlejuice theme so I have an abbreviated version for when I walk on stage.

[1]her costume would have been a lousy thing to win, anyways. She was wearing a corset from a seller I know on ebay, black pants, and devil horns. Which, for a goth club, when it's the same outfit you wear every time you go to said goth club regularly, isn't really a costume so to speak. It's just wearing 99 cent devil horns and hoping your chest hanging out will win you the prize. A practice I am staunchly against in contests. Sure, flash all the boob you want... but do it in an actual costume, since unless it's "drag queen" they don't count as a costume in and of themselves.

What are the letters on the sash? Applique stick-on thingies? What a fun costume.

Thanks! They're cheap iron-on monogram letters. Pretty crap, actually, since one night out has given me two I need to replace (thankfully, two I have spares of.) I may have to reinforce them with thread before Wednesday since the iron adhesive isn't nearly as "permanent and washable!" as the package assured me. I think I may also stitch it in place on the dress on Wednesday so it covers the inappropriately-low-for-work neckline of the dress. It does fall right there when I stand, but not when I'm sitting.

And thanks everyone... I admit, I snagged the idea from here. I had to blast through it in about three days of sewing since it was month-end at work and I've been crazy-busy.

chewatadistance, that is freaking awesome... how did you do the face shape?? A friend of mine's been wanting to do a plague doctor for a few years, and it's similarly shaped. We just couldn't quite figure out how in a way that would be wearable.

I chopped the pointy part off a cheapo witch hat & used it as a template for white fabric. I trimmed the non pointy end until the diameter was the right size to go under the chin and barely over the top of the skull. I stuffed 'em with pillow stuffing, but not all the way up. I think I used some black screeny mesh fabric for the eyes.

Then I attached the beaks to white balaclavas with velcro (though sewing them would've worked better since velcro & sweat do not mix well, with maybe snaps or velcro for the edges by the jawbone), and we put on the hats and away we went.