Another Successful Halloween

Fog slithered across the air, wrapping itself around tombstones for "Barry M. Deep" and "C. Dracula."  A lit skull illuminated the body parts spread across a rusty table. Lanterns cast shadows of bats and spiders. Chains dragged across a chair as the grunts and moans of the Frankenstein Monster filled the air.  As if on cue (!), on the loudest of all groans the monster sat up--to the squeals and delight of children watching him.

Frank was a success.  Adults loved him, teenagers laughed and said "cool!" and little kids were wary.  One little guy refused to come out of the car, even after I shut off the tape and assured him the monster was nice.  Other little ones took me at my word.  If they looked too scared, I would say, "Oh, but this is a nice monster."

"Nice monster?" they repeated, doubtfully.

"A very nice monster," I said.  "Would you like to pat him and tell him Happy Halloween?" I'd lead them to Frankenstein, and once they patted his shoe or his glove they would look immensely pleased with themselves and would wave goodbye, calling "Bye nice monster!"

I love this holiday.

Blair got home about 6 and ended up sitting hidden behind Frankenstein and pushing him up.  One teenager who thought he was being cool, bounded over to the monster to poke fun at it, but didn't see Blair.  Blair reached out and poked his leg, yelling "Raaahhh!"  and the kid jumped a mile.  It was great.

Neighbors stopped by to check us out.  "How long does it take you two to come up with this stuff?" one asked, shaking her head.

Sadly, the flow of trick-or-treaters slowed this year.  We packed up about 7:30 and went inside.  Usually we're out until at least 8pm.  So many parents take their kids to "trunk-or-treats" or church parties though, that it's just not like it used to be.  Plus, I'm sure it being a school/work night contributed.  All in all though, great fun.  Next year we're talking about doing a headless horseman theme and throwing an adult Halloween party after Trick-or-Treat. No costume, no admittance.

And now the bad news.  Somehow I made it through the night without (wince) taking one photo.  I know, I know!  We did get video and if I ever figure out how to post it on this site, I will.  But it was a creepy/fun setup.  The fog machine was well worth the twenty bucks.

Now the focus turns to Thanksgiving or, as we like to refer to it, Carbfest 2005.  Let the feasting begin.

Some Of Us Deal With Halloween Better Than Others...

Halloween Preparations

Halloween came early Thursday night when some people decided to egg the cars on our street.  I didn't even know about it until late Friday evening, when a neighbor called to tell me my car had been hit.  I'd been inside all day, still laid up with my cold, and hadn't left the house.  My neighbor said the car wash he took his car to "worked like the devil" to get the egg off his car.  I went outside with some Charlie's Soap and warm water and had 80% of the egg off in about four minutes.  That soap is worth it's weight in gold.

Mischief aside, Halloween preparations continue at the Harris household.  Blair unfortunately has a staff meeting Monday night and may be a bit late getting home, so he prepped a "Fake Frank" for me to use until he arrived.  He's awesome looking.  The photos here show him inside our home, but Blair has it rigged so that we'll lay Frank on a bale of straw (covered to look like an operating table) and then I can pull a wire that runs under Frank and he'll actually sit up.  I plan on having Blair make Frankenstein noises into a tape recorder ("Uuuungh") that I'll play as the monster comes to life. 

I'm most impressed with Frank's eyes.  The eyeballs you see here are part of the candy body parts Blair found, but they look realistic behind the mask. 

As you can see from our dining room table, other prep work is being done.  We're going to fill beakers with colored water and we'll head into GSO later today to buy a fogger machine from Target.  We made fake gravestones last night that we'll post in the yard.  The only thing left is to find me a white mad-scientist smock. 

Happy early Halloween to you and yours.  Uuuunnnnngh!!

Lessons In Stalking Book Launch - Invitation Preview

To the right you'll see a preview of the invitation I'm sending out for my book launch.  I asked Linda Santell, my illustrator, to make up a few 8 x 10 posters to hang around town and while she was at it, had her shrink down the posters to postcard size for mailing invitations.  I think they turned out cute.  I especially like the "Lattes & Beer 1/2 Price" part.  I'm under no illusions as to what will really draw people in.

I'm donating 20% of all book sale proceeds to the Happy Hills Animal Foundation.  They are a local no-kill shelter run by volunteers with seeming unending amounts of dedication.   I'm thrilled to partner with them for this and am actually going to start volunteering with them, as well. I'm not sure doing what.  I just don't know that I can emotionally take working with abandoned cats and dogs.  I think I might break down daily.  But I can do grant-writing, fund-raising, work at animal fairs, and the like.  Maybe build up to actually working on site.  Because I know if I go in now, allergies or not, I'll be coming home day one with twenty cats and at least three dogs in tow.  It breaks my heart to see animals in cages when they're so desperate for a family to love.

Anyway, as I said, I'll have to build up to that.  But I'm thrilled that Happy Hills is bringing two cats to the book launch, both available for adoption.  I would LOVE to see both cats go home with someone.  That would be so much better than just selling books.  I would love to be able to make that my "thing": Every time I hold a book signing, I bring cats for adoption that find homes. 

For those of you in the area, please consider the posting here an open invite.  I'd love to have you at the book launch and please introduce yourself as a reader of my blog.  And remember: LATTES & BEER 1/2 PRICE.