Halloween left-overs...

They were all so pretty once...but a week and a half later, look at them...










And look at the culprit. Sigh. Well...I hope he had a good dinner, at least.

HARVEST DECOR

This marks the first year that I have decorated with a harvest theme. Here are the results.









I took some of the "candy corn" lights that I bought for the dressing room at the theatre, and put them on my window sills and top of my entertainment center. I put fake fall leaves and put them on top of the lights. The pumpkin is also fake.

5th of November

Yes, I realize that by the time I write this, it is the 6th, however, I watched "V is for Vendetta" for the first time tonight.
One of the best films I have seen this year.
Perfect for an election day warm-up.
Very well written, smartly filmed, and thought prvoking.
Netflix it!

I also had the pleasure of watching "The Prairie Home Companion" Saturday. I have to say that as a fan of bluegrass, I was totally into this film. Also, it is the most accurate depiction of the "half hour" call at a theatre that I have ever seen.
Hysterical!
So there...two quick rental recomendations for your work week.
VOTE!

An Arlington Parable

Yesterday I walked an old favorite dog up in North Arlington. I brought Lucky Spinster with me, to catch up with her on the half hour walk through a civil war park.
It was a gorgeous walk, discussing the events of her MacDowell experience. Getting her up to speed on my MFL life, ect. We were walking through a forest path that was colored by God himself. It was gorgeous.
I got a call at the 15 minute mark of the walk (it was a 30 minute walk). I was exactly 15 minutes from the house. My boss called me and said that apparently the driveway I parked in is a shared driveway. I was blocking a woman in.
I had parked in the same place for the past year that I walked the dog, and never knew any different.
I was never told not to park in a certain place.
I told her that I would be back in 15 minutes...I could not hurry this dog (as it has cancer, and I would not run, as I have a bum knee).
Spinster and I reach the turn off street to the neighborhood, and the woman is at the top of the street, screaming "HURRY UP!!!"
Spinster and I speculate that this might be a good source of inspiration for future plays as we approach the "crime scene".
As I draw near the "scene of the crime", the woman yells at me, "You just won the Stupid award of the day".
"Pardon Me?" I ask in disbelief.
"Any Idiot can see that this is a shared driveway" she clucks.
"I am so sorry, and I did NOT realize this. It will never happen again." I say.
That is not good enough to her.
She asks why I did not hurry more.
I explain that I am walking an 8 year old dog with Cancer, and that I have a bum knee.
She protests that "That dog doesn't have Cancer"...
"Yes," I say, "it does"...
"Well, you could have hurried him anyway!", she says.
This happened on Lorcam Lane.
One of the richest areas in our commonwealth. Funny term, that in itself, "commonwealth".
This is the same sort of woman who would come to the theatre and tell me how wonderful she thought I was.
I ask you as a reader, and will try to do so myself...be nice to people.
Understand that everyone is trying to do the best that they can possibly do in their circumstance.
Do not be hateful. If you are a hateful person, do not continue to read this blog. Spend the time that you do reading this blog and work on yourself.
No one deserves this kind of treatment.
I need a new job.

The Last of Halloween

Jess Speaker always carves ANYTHING BUT a pumpkin for Halloween. This year he carved a coconut.
Here it is, in it's former glory, before it was spirited away by a squirrel who thought he found heaven.

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES: Everyone Else

My secondary costume, after Kip... I cannot spend a Halloween without being a zombie.
















My Devlish Dog...


















More Shots from the party...

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES: The Girls

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES:Matt as Mr. Hanky (The Christmas Poo)

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES: Me and Eleasha-LaFawnduh and Kip from Napoleon Dynamite

Pumpkin Winners...

1st Place: Harry Winter's "Pacific Overtures" pumpkin...








2nd Place: Stevie Cupo's "Minimalist Pumpkin"









3rd Place: MY Cannabalistic Pumpkin







4th Place, Matt's Pumpkin Flower Basket...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Enjoy the posts below.
Stay tuned tomorrow for coverage of the Pumpkin Carving contest and the Halloween Party!
Luv,
SGS

A 3-D NIGHTMARE!

We went to see Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D last night, and it was gorgeous! I loved every second of it.
I even cried a little bit at the end, as it was SO beautiful. If you have no other plans tonight, it is totally worth a trip to go and see it!

Other Arlington Yards seem to be haunted, too...

I call this, "The Headless Hillside"...many different creations...no heads!




A very creepy and effective scarecrow. Nice.

Final product...My backyard, 2006

I put up my last ghoul yesterday, a ghostly spirit in the tree, that has a spooky strobe light on it.
I also put a black light under Pete the Zombie. Here are some pictures.

BREAKING NEWS: I'm NOT my mother.

So, I really wanted to be little Suzy Homemaker this year and make 2 pumpkin pies for our theatre's Halloween Party. I set out for the ingredients at the Safeway, got it all, ooh-even a graham cracker crust! Who knew! It all seemed so simple. I thought to myself, I'll just whip these up Monday afternoon.
Hmmm.
I mixed it all up as directed, even added a pinch of Paprika ( a tip from Martha ). As I was mixing the pumpkin ingredients, I was simultaneously cooking my dinner, steaks with marinade and spices. I felt like a domestic god. Not only that, but I had done several loads of laundry, straightened up the trailer a bit, AND managed to add my last Halloween ghoul of the year to my yard. (More on that later.)
I was on top of it all. I felt amazing.
Then came the smoke.
Slowly, at first, then in torrents. I didn't understand...it had only been 20 minutes? The crust was blacker than pitch. I quickly realized that the crust was not mean to be cooked longer than 5 minutes. Ugh. I emptied out the perfectly good pumpkin, which I rationalized would still be fine...Matt advised me against it.
*sigh*
Back to Safeway. More pumpkin, ect. Crusts that were meant to be cooked. Mixed it up, but waited to pour and cook...(we went to the movies tonight...more an that later as well). Got back from the movies, poured and stuck in the oven.
35 minutes later, the smoke came again.
I don't know what happened.


Mom never seemed to have these problems..Dad either... Now, it is after midnight on All Hallows Eve, and 4 burnt pies later, I am 2 pies short of the 2 pies I promised. I suppose that I will venture back to Safeway again tomorrow, but not for ingredients...for the pumpkin pies sold in their bakery.
While I aspire to be the domestic wonder that my mother is, I sometimes have to try to remember that she had a bit more time to practice than I have.
I only wish that I could get rid of the burnt pumpkin smell that is pervading the premises...
Mom and Dad, you made it look so easy...
Luv,
SGS

Happy Haunting!

This is Post 500! Happy Haunting everyone!

MFL...Pumpkin Carving Night!

Tonight, Harry Winter and I organized a pumpkin carving extravaganza! All were invited, yet not all turned out...the turn out was still impressive, though.












These pumpkins will be on display Tuesday night in the lobby for the Halloween audience to vote on their favorite pumpkins. (Listed by title and number, not cast member's name).
There are still plenty of available tickets for Halloween night's performance of MFL, so if you haven't seen it yet, come and buy a ticket, and vote on America's Next Top Pumpkin!
Two teasers...

Current Haloween Joys...

Other ghastly creations this year...