Flying and Dying

We'll begin with the dying - as in, dying of STRESS, first and foremost. Crazy deadlines at work plus three days at a conference plus Halloween party prep plus mad errands equals massive brain hemorrhage. And the weekend before last, we headed out to the Woodshed Halloween party... not good. Or maybe it was, but I can't remember half the night. All I know - Sunday the 31st was the worst day ever and I was soooo sick. All day sick. Dead sick. Can't get out of bed, embarrassed like crazy, missed taking my baby trick-or-treating, infuriated at my stoopid self sick.

Then I woke up at 5am Monday and had to go to the conference.... (And now we go with the flying...)
Got back Wednesday night and started editing for Thursday and Friday deadlines...
Managed my Friday deadline by the skin of my teeth - like done at 4pm skin of my teeth....
And rushed out of work like a rocket to do party errands....
Cut errands short because Mike was sick....
Put the baby to bed and went back out to the grocery store....
Came home and made jello shots until 10pm.
Woke up early and didn't stop party prep until the party officially started at 8pm Saturday eve...
Partied until 2am and had an awesome time.
Woke up at 10 and cleaned until 3pm....
Then collapsed on the couch and watched movies while hacking my lungs out.

Did I mention I've been sick with a cold since Wednesday?!

 Mini Mummy Pizzas

Snake Sandwiches

Decor - Note Peeps are Werewolves this year

I'm Goldilocks

Jello Shots going fast

Group Pics

Can Dance

I'm so pretty!

You all have no idea how glad I am that it's all over. And everything was a success at that! The party was a hit and still the talk of the town two days later. The clients are happy with their videos. Mike is feeling better. I'm still sick, but at least I don't have madness to deal with. The only complaint I received:

Not enough jello shots. And I knew that, but I had no time to run to the liquor store on Friday night. It was too late by the time I was back out running errands. It's sad, because I can remember the days when we made 10 boxes worth of jello shots and were stuffing them down people's throats all night.... next year.

But ASIDE from all of that, let's reverse the clock and head back to Sunday 10/31. Yes, I was sick as a dog, but be that as it may, Mike and the guys still managed to install 4 out of 5 railings. (The 5th couldn't be installed since the last pole hasn't been wrapped since the stairs haven't been done since we needed the temporary stairs for the party!)

This pic was taken post party - note that we also cleaned up and brought back the furniture for the occasion. The party also gave us an opportunity to test out the electrical with my collection of halloween icicle lights. It worked perfectly! Mike even picked up a bunch of small hooks, which we screwed into the trim, to hold up the lights. These hooks will stay in permanently for all future holiday lighting opportunities.

This weekend, we hope work will commence again! Stairs... here we come.

Another Fiesta

Me 'n Mike

The Creeps - Ghosts last year, Vampires This Year

Mummy Bread

The Girls

Mouths

Ahhh, the annual Halloween party is officially over. And may I be the first to say, thank god. I really do enjoy throwing this party - we only have one party a year and this is it - and I love it. But this year with the baby plus my co-hostess bowing out last minute due to swine flu, conflicts with my friend Anya's wedding, half the guests attending the wedding, three weeks of decorating and cleaning.... I'm just glad it's over and everyone had a fabulous time, including myself.

Of course now comes time for cleaning the house.... or, I should say unhalloweening. Such a pain! I have to neatly put away all the decorations, wash all the spooky dishware, and throw out anything broken, ripped, or otherwise unusable for next year.

After that I wish I could say we could return to our normal madness, however this whole vehicle thing is still looming over us. My yello truck is still hurting and the reason is still unknown. Mike has changed the spark plugs, the vacuum lines, the fuel pump, the fuel filter... checked the timing, switched computers with the green 4runner, switched the coil and various other electrical components trying to find the culprit. But still it's acting up - specifically, like it's getting no fuel - you put the petal to the metal and you're still only going about 30mph and not accelerating.

What is this, the 4th weekend he's been working on it? So frustrating for both of us. Mike's eager to move on to his other Dodge to Dodge project and I'm just eager to make progress of any kind. With only a few weeks until the start of the holiday madness, I'm hoping for a bit of good luck. Because you all know I have a big winter to-do list....

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HalloWeekend

Let me tell you - it's tough to throw a party pregnant. Especially one so involved as our 6th annual Halloween bash - think about it, 6 years worth of accumulated decorations, creepy-theme treats to make, a costume to get yourself into, and then of course there's all the normal party prep including cleaning, yard work, rearrangement of vehicles, shopping....

I've barely yet recovered. And honestly, I had trouble relaxing during the party because I was just so pooped by the time it got started! Not even the virgin jello shots could cheer me, but they did help.

Anyway, as promised, pictures!

Our graveyard tablescape featured spanish moss, gravetones, and creepy skulls and hands reaching out from the moss.

Ghosts in the graveyard - actually white chocolate covered strawberries decorated with black icing.

Mike made the cheez pumpkins - semi soft smoked cheddar shaped into balls with a pretzel stick stem and crushed peanut rocks underneath. The lines on the pumpkins were drawn with a toothpick.

The jello brain - substitute vodka for the cold water in the jello recipe and make sure to spray the brain mold with non-stick spray!

Me in my 40's girl costume, complete with victory rolls.
(All thanks to this great 40's hair in 5 minutes tutorial from You Tube!)

Mike in his zoot suit with John G

Best costume went to my girl Keely - she's a tree! Complete with bird, squirrel, and tire swing!

And here's some people out in the living room, dancing with jello shots. That bright light back there - that's the strobe.

Now that the party's done, I'm happy to be able to relax. As of yet I have no plans for the weekend either - and that's just fine with me.

Decisions Decisions

I happened to catch that deepHo commercial last night. You know, the woman paints her room to match her snazzy pink shoes for a party?

At the end of the spot I caught what I was looking for. It's that magical time when HD offers a rebate on paint. $5 off a gallon and $10 off 5 gallons, I believe.

So that kinda puts the nail in the should-i-get-paint coffin. Plus I have that $5 off $50 or more purchase coupon. Wow, double the savings, double the fun - double mint gum.

I hate gum. People stick it everywhere and I step in it or put my hand on it under a desk or a seat by chance. And then they chew it loudly while talking - or pop it. I find it just totally gross. What's the point? Get an altoid if you want fresh breath.

Ok - now that I got that outta my system.

I went out first thing this morning and bought five gallons of a very very very light almost white grey color and one gallon of green called "Patio Green" How ironic!


And then I spent today painting - honestly, I just finished up like an hour and a half ago. I'm exhausted! But the garage looks much improved. Of course I used the white for the body and trim, and the green for the side door, which was formerly that awful blue color that I nicknamed "Thompson Blue" after the previous owners of the home who seemed to love it so much.


I also painted the garage door - which I hadn't planned on doing since we're replacing it sooner or later. But it just looked so horrible. It was just a stain on a beautiful dress... well, not a beautiful dress. More like a comfy t-shirt that's been washed about a zillion times. Anyway, you still don't want a big 'ol stain on it that you can see from the main road. So I painted it. And that makes all the difference when you look at it from afar.

Now all that's left to do is the way-up-high portion of the garage that I can't reach with my famous little blue step stool. This part looks so horrible, it's worse than a stain. It's so bad, it defies all stupid metaphors. The problem - it's not made of wood. It seems like some sort of particle board and it's just falling apart, as you can well imagine. It can barely hold paint.

I primed it about a year ago and it's already back to its previous state of crapness. So, once again, I have to try to scrape all the crapness off of there and re-re paint. I'm not even going to bother with the primer this time because apparently, it doesn't do anything anyway.

Luckily, we still have the borrowed scaffolding we used to take the siding off the house. I'm hoping Mike has time to set it up for me tomorrow morning before he heads off to TJ's house. This way, I'll feel so much safer than being up on stupid ladders. (I'm not too balanced in general, nevermind an extra 6' in the air.)

Then, in the afternoon, I'll hopefully be getting a break for some much anticipated Halloween party planning! I can hardly believe it's nearly time to start putting together invitations again.

For those of you who haven't heard, our Halloween party is the end all be all must be there in costume event of the year! And, as always, I have a huge to-do list of stuff to do around the house before the party. Having the garage out of the way will be a huge relief.