Fun with Numbers

Number of people who have now contracted the stomach virus of death: 10

Number of trick-or-treaters we had tonight: 102

The quantity of trick-or-treaters has increased every year by about 20. Our first year here, we had 69. Last year, we had 86. And now 102! I'm quite excited about the impressive gains. I'd have to say that not many costumes were standouts. We did have two teenage guys in Speedos and sneakers. And a lot of witches and little boys wearing those bloody "Scream" masks. We did almost run out of candy at one point, but we ended up breaking into a box of fruit snacks from Costco we had in the pantry.

Here are our pumpkins. I did mine with a stencil. It's a bunch of little ghoul faces. Not my best work:

And this is Steve's fantastic work -- A vomiting pumpkin:


Speaking of vomiting, Steve was home sick from work today because of the stomach virus of death. I was feeling much better today, but I still have a really horrible headache. The initiator of the virus came trick-or-treating to our house wearing a cute little monkey costume, so I had to forgive him. Since we weren't feeling well, I heated up some butternut squash soup for dinner and tried to make jack-o-lantern faces with my roasted pumpkin seeds and some sour cream. The sour cream sunk, so my vision was ruined. These look kind of stupid, but they made me smile:

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween!!

Happy Barf-day to Me

Yesterday I mentioned that we spent part of the weekend at a beach house. Well, some of our friends came with their baby, who had been sent home from day care the day before because he was throwing up and had a bad case of diarrhea. He seemed to be doing better, so they brought him along to the festivities.

After dinner, the baby's parents both started throwing up and headed home.

Last night, at about 4:00 a.m., I woke up and started throwing up. That lasted through the rest of the night and continued into the morning. I called in sick to work and spent my birthday with my head in the toilet and my butt on the couch. I'm still a little nauseas and have the chills really bad. But I've been able to keep down some crackers and drink some ginger ale, so that's a good sign.

Steve started making some calls and it turns out there are six of us (so far) who were at the party and have fallen prey to this mysterious baby virus of death. I have a feeling that Steve is next, because he's been exhibiting some symptoms.

So, for my birthday, I will probably be dining on soup and crackers. My mom and dad came over earlier to drop off some supplies, including the soup, crackers, ginger ale, a bag of marshmallows and the newest copy of US Weekly. I was a very bad hostess and threw up during their visit :(

It was very nice to get a few birthday calls from friends, since that was my only interaction with the outside world today. Steve also came home at lunch to keep my company. My mom told me that when they were driving down my street, they saw some kids from a preschool around the corner walking around the neighborhood for a Halloween parade. I couldn't even make it up to look out the window and watch that cuteness!

I hope tomorrow will be better. Consensus is that Day Two of mysterious baby virus of death is a bit better, but not 100 percent.

Fall Fun

Lots going on lately!

Friday was our Halloween costume contest and other festivities at work. My team dressed up as mental hospital patients, driven there by our jobs. Friday night I went shopping and had dinner with some girlfriends to celebrate my birthday. When I came home, we watched "Friends with Money" from Netflix. It was OK.

Yesterday we slept in really late and went out for breakfast at The Original Pancake House. I enjoyed a delicious apple pancake. Then we drove to Capitola to spend the day at the beach with some friends. The weather was great. We went in with a bunch of people on a condo rental there for the night. It was a send-off party for two friends who are moving to Oregon. We barbecued, drank way too much and stayed up way too late, but it was lots of fun.

This morning, we were not feeling too hot -- I was especially thankful for the extra hour! We helped clean up the mess we made at the condo (that is the one really sucky part about rental places) and drove home. I spent a few hours playing with my new favorite toy: Karaoke Revolution for PlayStation 2! My sister bought it for me for my birthday. It is FABULOUS. I've already beaten the easy level of the game. We had In-N-Out for lunch and carved our pumpkins. I'll post pictures on Tuesday when they're all lit up. I roasted up the seeds and did a few other chores around the house.

Tonight, my parents are taking Steve and me to Le Papillon for our joint birthday dinner. I think I'll also get to open my presents from them tonight. Yay! Well, I must go get ready ...

Culinary Tip

Peeps taste very good in hot chocolate.

Bottle of Wine on the Wall

I heard about a new craft studio in Willow Glen. I'm not going to name it just yet, as I'm not sure about my feelings toward it. Anyway, I decided to check it out tonight cause they were having a class on stamping on glass. I was intrigued because, as far as I know, that is impossible.

Turns out I was right.

The teacher was a woman who makes these kind of cool glass pieces. The one I chose to work with was a wine bottle that had basically been flattened in a kiln and had a hook at the top for hanging. Oh, I should mention that I was THE ONLY PERSON who had signed up for this class. Anyway, the special inks that I had to use for this task were in very limited and ugly colors. And they did not work correctly with the foamy stamps provided. As I continued to work on it, it just got worse and worse. Two hours later, I brought home this monstrosity:


It's so bad, the picture doesn't do it justice.

The cool thing about the studio is that they have just about every craft supply imaginable that is available for you to use (at no extra cost). I tried to jazz the thing up with some embossing powder, metallic pens, various fibers and some beads. YUCK!

So, when I got home, I popped all the beads off, untied the fibers, and poured some acetone on it. (Yes, I happened to have a bottle of acetone lying around.) All the grossness came off. Yay! So I retied the fibers, and now I kind of like it:

The ladies there were very nice, and I'm willing to give it another chance, cause there's a very cute Christmas craft class coming up that I want to check out.

SURPRISE!

I threw a surprise party for Steve's 30th at Dave and Buster's last night! It's been in the works for quite some time and I'm really proud that I didn't blab!

I rented a room and had 25 people for dinner and drinks. We played a few party games in the room after dinner and had yummy cake from Icing on the Cake. Our room had three pool tables and two shuffle board tables, so people played on those for a while. And everyone got a Power Card to play in the arcade.

There were so many little details that I worked on -- favor pouches, game prizes, invitations, etc. -- that I wanted to share, but I didn't get any photos in fear that Steve would find them on the digital camera. Last night I was so nervous that things would go well, I didn't get the ton of pictures that I would have liked.

I'm just really happy that he was genuinely surprised and that everyone seemed to have a nice time.

EDIT: Oh my! I just checked my site meter and a bunch of people came to my site yesterday after searching for info on boo kits!!! Ha ha! I'm so glad they're getting popular!

Corny

I made the cookies pictured above this morning. Mine did not come out looking like those. This is the kind of recipe where I think you need to do a practice batch or two before perfecting it. The main problem was that the chocolate layer did not expand in proportion to the other layers when baked. I'm not sure of the science, but I bet there's a fix. Anyway, if you want to try it yourself, it's online here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/Recipes/Recipe.aspx?recipeId=42399.

My co-worker sent me this story yesterday: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15334972/page/2/

So exciting!! I might be able to enjoy Dunkin' Donuts on a regular basis by 2020!

"Nightmare 3-D" was good last night, though there weren't a lot of traditional 3-D things jumping out at you. Just a bit more dimension to the animation (or claymation, or whatever it is). The previews and the little cartoon beforehand were awesome. It looks like Disney has a bunch of new 3-D stuff up its sleeve.

Party Hat

It turns out that I didn't have to rake the leaves last night -- Steve took care of it when he got home from work. Yay!

Tonight I am heading to my mom's annual Halloween bunco party. She truly goes above and beyond with the decorations and the all-around happy and warm fall vibes. Her friends request that she host October bunco every year. One of the ladies can't make it tonight, so I'm the sub. The dress code is "festive," so I will be wearing my phenomenal witch hat. I'm sure it's going to be a hit!

Also, for all of you local "Nightmare Before Christmas" fans, I have some good news! The new 3-D release is playing at the Century theaters at Oakridge Mall starting tomorrow. You can bet that I'll be standing in line as soon as I get off work tomorrow. I'll be the one who's not in goth attire.

When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall

We have two big trees in front of our house that lose a TON of leaves in the fall. Yesterday they just started dropping like crazy, and we have a big mess to rake up.

To make matters worse, I believe we are the only house in a significant radius that doesn't have anyone home during the day. When we get home at night it's dark, and that makes it very easy to defer the raking. Everyone else's raking gets done on a daily basis, so our house looks really bad in comparison.

Last year, some neighbors raked our yard for us (without us knowing). I know they probably thought it was nice, but it really bothered me. Because, hello, we were going to do it if you could just give us a second. Anyway, in an effort to avoid that from happening again, I think I'm going to bust out the leaf blower tomorrow.

I figured I would feel accountable if I wrote it here, and that would make me actually do it.

Bad Sports

As Steve alluded in the comments of my previous post, we have reason to believe that one of our round-two boo recipients took the exact bag we thoughtfully filled, walked down the street, and left it on somebody else's porch. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Did he misunderstand the instructions? Did he just not want to participate? Is it better that he re-booed rather than just taking the bag and ending the chain? (And just to clarify, it wasn't a single guy, but the dad of a seemingly nice little family.)

The other family we booed never even took the bag in the house. The last we saw, the untouched bag was still sitting out on their porch. (Yes, we're sure that they're not on vacation.) Did they think it was a bomb or something? Were they leaving it there as evidence for the police?

People are so weird.

Boo Update

Not more than 24 hours after I initiated the "booing" in my neighborhood, I've been booed back! I'm so excited -- I guess that means the boo recipients enjoyed the surprise!

Whoever booed me took a big cue from my treat selections. I got some pumpkin Peeps, some little cans of Jones Berried Alive soda, Halloween Oreos and a pack of Reese's pumpkins.

We'll be back at Target tomorrow for round two.

Spooky Surprise

Steve and I just returned home from booing our neighbors. What is booing, you ask?

Well, what you do is fill a bag of Halloween treats and anonymously, in the dark of night, leave it on your neighbor's porch. Usually it includes a little note telling your neighbor to spread the fun and do the same to another neighbor. Does that make any sense? I'm not sure ... It's late.

In the past, I'd only encountered homemade boo bags. Well, while shopping in Target the other day, I came across an awesome boo bag kit. It includes two cute bags, some candy corn, a poem instructing your neighbor to go to Target and buy the same kit, and a little ghost sign to hang on your door to indicate that you've already been booed. That is genius, because it sucks when you keep getting booed back by the people you booed. I said boo way too many times in that sentence. Boo.

Anyway, when you buy the boo bag kit, you must stuff it with goodies. Lucky you: You're in Target. And they happen to have goodies. Here is what I bought for my bags:


Some Dove chocolates, Halloween Oreos (with orange cream), ghost Peeps, little cans of Jones Spooky Cider, and some little Halloween candles. Here's the finished product:

So, we just dropped them off on two of our neighbors' porches. I don't know if they'll suspect us.

The only problem with the boo kits is that they don't include a little ghost door sign for the person who initiates the booing (me). That means I'll probably get booed back. But I'm cool with that, cause it gives me an excuse to go back to Target and to spread more Halloween fun!

If it wasn't for bad luck ...

Happy Friday the 13th from my favorite black cat! (Well, he's not totally black, but you get the picture.)

This is Halloween

Fantastic news: "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is being re-released in 3-D!

Not so fantastic news: The closest theater playing it is at the Metreon in San Francisco.

Maybe *somebody* would like to take me for my birthday?! :)

20 Days

A few people have been on my case to make a birthday list, so I just wanted to mention that my Amazon Wish List has been updated (link is to the right).

I've included some "Karaoke Revolution" games for our PlayStation so I can start practicing for future karaoke engagements.

There are a few other things I want/need, so I'll fill you in personally if you're interested.

Bargain Bites

I read an article about this today, and I think it's fantastic. Amazon.com now sells restaurant gift certificates at a discounted price. For example, you pay $10 for a $25 gift certificate. It's e-mailed to you, you print it, and you're good to go. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/?%255Fencoding=UTF8&me=A2MDGNBFSCCZAG

It's organized by city. Several of the ones in the Bay Area are restaurants that I actually go to. Some I've never heard of before. I hope more establishments jump on the bandwagon!

Sunday Stamping

My friend (and fellow SU demonstrator) Gina had a bunch of girls over this afternoon for a "stamp and chat." It was quite fun, and I got to finish up these cocoa holders I'd been wanting to make for a swap I'm in on Splitcoast. As you can see below, when you pull the ribbon on the top of the card, a fun surprise pops out.


I think these are great little holiday gifts for friends/co-workers you don't want to buy something big for. I'm thinking about doing a workshop on how to make them.

Bombed

We went to a party at the diviest of dive bars last night with a bunch of Steve's friends from work.

I sampled my first Irish car bomb (a perennial Steve favorite), and it was actually good despite the gross combination: Bailey's Irish Creme and Guinness.

There was karaoke at the bar. I'm always sad when there's karaoke, because it seems like people have these great practiced routines. Afterwards, I say I'm going to commit myself to practicing a song and making a routine, but I never do. Maybe that'll be my New Year's resolution.

Fauch

Continuing with the old lady theme, I went to the DeAnza Flea Market this morning. I bought three exceptional "fauch" (or faux Coach) items. I also purchased a set of framed vintage Halloween postcards. I've started a little collection of vintage Halloween images.

When I checked out, the lady running that booth complemented my shirt. I just stupidly said "thank you" and walked away. Then I realized I was wearing a shirt that I made from one of the vintage Halloween postcards in my collection! So dumb!! I should have told her I made it, and then maybe she would have wanted to order up a batch to sell at her booth! Then maybe a famous celebrity would buy one, and there would be a massive demand for an original "Ashley Tee" (that's what I decided I'd call my line of apparel). Anyway, here's a picture of the shirt:

I'd explain how I made it if I didn't fear some blog troll would happen upon it, steal my idea, and make millions of dollars ;)

Penny Pincher

We had a really wild Friday night out.

We went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. I had a coupon.

Then we went to Target to buy some cat food. I had a coupon for that, too.

I think I'm becoming an old lady.

Smelly

I just got the new Yankee Candle catalog in the mail. It looks like they have some really delicious new holiday candles! And I have a coupon code to share! If you buy online and enter CAT610A when it asks for promotional codes, you'll get $15 off a $45 order.

I think I'll be stocking up!

The Rose

Oh my gosh -- I did NOT want to watch "The Bachelor: Rome." But it happens to be on the TV right now. And I happen to be sitting right in front of it.

I don't understand why they're still making this show. I mean, there have been like eight sequels, and only ONE has worked out. Actually, I bet Trista and Ryan broke up. I expected to hear about their babies a long time ago, and I haven't heard a thing. I want an update. Seriously.

Anyway, this bachelor is a prince. And he's totally dumb! There's a girl whose occupation is listed as "socialite." I can tell already that she is going to be fantastic!!

Yay! Now I have a Monday night show!!

EDIT: What the heck!?? ABC just went out on our DirecTV! It says they are "working to restore the signal." They better work a little faster!

Tickled

If you haven't heard yet, Tickle Me Elmo TMX is the hottest toy for the holidays. We heard about the frenzy last week, and Steve went on an Elmo search. Our local Toys 'R Us was sold out and didn't plan to receive its next shipment until mid October. But they did have a few of the Elmo TMX Barbies, so he bought two.

Steve sold the Barbies on eBay for over double the price he paid for them. So, yesterday we went out and found a bunch more to sell.

Our Sunday ads came early, and the Wal-Mart ad featured Elmo on the cover. So I called Wal-Mart and they guaranteed they would have some today, but recommended coming right when the doors open (7:00 a.m.) if I wanted one.

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. today and headed to Wal-Mart. We were the first in line. When they opened the doors, there were six of us. We scurried to the toy section and found NO ELMOS! The employees in the toy section said they didn't have any.

Needless to say, I was PISSED. Additional Wal-Mart employees confirmed that there were no Elmos to be had.

Now there were about a dozen shoppers looking for Elmo. We all gathered at the customer service desk and the angry mob mentality started to set in. After about 20 minutes of waiting, a manager came out and told us that they did actually have some Elmos, but they weren't supposed to sell them until 10:00 a.m. Obviously, that was not going to work for us.

She ended up having us line up, and we each got to buy one Elmo.

THANK GOD! Cause if I spent my precious sleep time standing outside of Wal-Mart for no reason, I was going to kick somebody.

Now we're just wondering if we should put them up on eBay now, or if we should wait until closer to the holidays. If anyone's in the market, just let me know and we can work something out ;)

October Flowers (and Showers!?)

After watching Martha last week, I learned that now is the time to plant bulbs to bloom in the sping. So I went to the nursery and bought a bunch of tulips and crocuses, which I planted in the front yard yesterday.

I also bought these pretty mums and planted them in a big pot. I think they're quite lovely!

And I'm excited that the newspaper predicts rain for tomorrow. Yay! Not only will I be able to fully embrace fall, but I'll get to skip a day of watering my new flowers.