So here we are, on November 1st again. It’s getting close to 2 whole years that I have been blogging. Amazing huh, yeah I thought so too. The cool thing about it is that I can look back now and see what I was doing last year and compare it to this year. I should probably step back and go over the whole weekend. Believe me there is certainly a lot to cover.
Friday: When I got home we decided that it was time to carve the pumpkins that we bought. This year we each had our own pumpkins and set out to carve our own designs. Andrew picked a basic jack-o-lantern face, Amy actually drew her own pumpkin face, and I went with (of course) a Green Lantern symbol. At first we were going to do all this outside but it just got too cold. So instead we opted for the kitchen floor. After getting all of our basic designs down I remembered a trick that I had learned a while back. I had seen someone who had carved out a really cool Haunted house. In the back of the pumpkin they carved a few ghosts. When you put the light in, the ghosts would be projected onto the wall behind the pumpkin! So I decided to try this trick on mine. What’s the best comic symbol to be projected? The BAT SIGNAL! Andrew and Amy both liked the idea so they did projections of their own. Amy did some hearts and Andrew tried to do an S for his old baseball team. (He forgot about the reverse projection problem) You can see pictures of all of them in the gallery of course.
Saturday morning: Yes, I will need to separate out Saturday because of all that happened. We woke up very early (well, early for a Saturday) and grabbed all our gear. You see we had a parade to attend! The Annandale Fall Festival parade was going on and the 501st was asked to march in it. Andrew had never seen us do something like this so it was a new experience for him. We were meeting up at Lori’s place at 8ish to coordinate. When we got there, Lori offered to let Andrew mach in the parade dressed in a Spare TIE pilot outfit that she had. Andrew was very excited. We had close to 20 total troopers to march the 1 mile parade route. All along the route we were encouraged to toss out candy to the kids along the street. Lori had this roll around R2D2 which worked great for carrying all the candy, except when it started getting off its wheels. I was at the back so I grabbed R2 and kept going. Andrew had an absolute blast marching along in his Helmet. He sat and talked with some of the other TIE pilots afterwards as well. All in all, a good troop.
After the parade was over we darted home to take care of some other things. We had the annual Patton’s Halloween party that night and needed to prepare. I started making some of my world famous chili, Andrew took a break and played around on the PC, Amy took care of some school things. After I got the chili done, Amy and I curled up on the couch for a much needed cuddle nap. (Told you Saturday mornings are early for me.) After our little nap, we got up and started getting dressed. Amy got a really cute 50’s girl outfit, withy poodle skirt and everything. I got into a 50s Greaser costume, with the leather jacket and the rolled up jeans. And lastly, Andrew was dressed in a Grim reaper costume. To set the mood, on the way down to Fredericksburg we tuned into the XM channel 5 which is all 50s music.
The party was hopping already so we gladly joined in. Marc had set up quite a few things for the party. His house is always very well decorated. We of course had a wide array of costumed folks. Little Red Slaughter-hood came by, as well as HBO’s own Ali G. There were the ever popular Ghetto costumes. Marc got the chance to show off his latest creation, a total home theater in his basement! Andrew loved it, he got to sit down there in total darkness and watch a few movies that he hadn’t seen. The pinnacle of the party came with Marc’s, ever famous, Haunted Woods walk. Last year it really just consisted of a bunch of drunken people wandering lost in the woods trying to scare one another. This year he actually threw some effort into it and had the trail all laid out and decorated! We partied till close to 1am and about that time I was spent. This, of course, meant the hour long drive home. We had debated about staying the night there but decided to just head out instead.
Not too much to remark about for Sunday. Woke up late and tried to find a new comic store. Amy had an errand to run in Manassas so we thought we would find one of the comic stores down there. No luck of course. Apparently some of the smaller stores are just turning belly up! The rest of Sunday was spent recovering. I am not sure why, but I was exhausted all day on Sunday. For a special Halloween treat, Sunday morning we watched Nightmare before Christmas, and to round out the evening we finished with Hellboy. Sunday was an early night.
Halloween!!! Monday was Halloween. Since I normally dress in jeans and a polo for work, and they don’t really let us dress up in costumes, I decided to spice it up a bit and threw on the ol Suit and Tie for Halloween. I don’t know how many people asked if I had an interview lined up. The evening time was a little more hectic then usual though. Andrew had asked earlier in the weekend if he could go Trick or Treating with one of his friends from school. I was excited that he was making friends around the area so I thought it as a great idea. The problem was that I needed to pick up Amy at around 6:15. So I started the run around of trying to buy some candy for the trick or treaters, get my Son out the door around 5:30ish and then at 6ish go get Amy and be back in time to give candy out at the door. Amazingly I got it all accomplished! Not only that, but this year I had TWICE as many kids at the door as last year!!! (Yes I know that means only two people, but hey, improvement is improvement!)
One last bit of good news before I wrap up this post. I got my ring!! The Green Lantern costume is finally coming together! I believe it was Friday that I received the mask in the mail and then yesterday evening I got the ring. Only thing missing now is the actual costume! The mask is amazing! I picked it up from Xtreeme Design FX. It’s a very thick latex type material painted a bright strong green color. It fits really well. The ring was purchased from one of the Ebay sellers. Apparently they deal in a lot of silver type stuff. It came out really good. As soon as I get the full costume you can bet there will be pictures here.
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