FRIDAY!!! Oct. 29.

Well, I survived. Even made it into work (relatively) on time this morning. Unlike SOME people (CCB, ahem). Had a blast at the ABC event--danced and everything. I think you'll find that lowered inhibitions and a giant fruit suit go hand-in-hand.
 

Monkey and Banana: Like Bonnie and Clyde, only fruitier.

So much for insecurity...


Those crazy Asolo kids. (BTW, everyone see Antigone Now? Yeah, that's totally Antigone on the right.)

Bustin' (a move) makes me feel good.

Grey Gardens meets Chiquita Banana. (Casey Shea and Joey Panek as Little Edie and Jerry Torre.)

Of course, with all the craziness yesterday, I conveniently forgot about all the work still left to be done before our house party tomorrow night. When I left this morning, the living room was certainly scary, but not in the right way. (More in a "Wow, how long have you hobo squatters been into arts and crafts?" kind of way.) But we've got between work and a late-night hockey practice this evening to get things accomplished, then most of tomorrow to put the finishing touches on everything. And heck, last year we were out buying extra plastic wrap for our Dexter setup a couple hourse before partytime, so we're used to cutting it close.

Anyway, wish us luck! Festivities begin around 8; assuming I learn how to charge my new camera by then, there'll be plenty more pics on Monday. Happy Halloween, everybody!

Thursday, Oct. 28.

Whoo-boy, it's going to be a busy one. Last night, I went straight from work to the FSU Center to hammer out the placement of the larger props for tonight's ABC Halloween party. Got home at 8, in time to experiment with the placement of our "lightning" strobe light, put some spooky-colored gels in our various living room lights, start draping our 3 gazillion square inches of synthetic spider web, hollow and carve another pumpkin--oh, and pack cleats, uniform, pumps, earrings, toiletries and costume for today's work to kickball to Rockstar Kim's house (to shower) to ABC party marathon.

But it's all for a promising cause. Decorating for Halloween makes me feel all tingly inside--whether it's our own ghastly house-party decor, or the ABC party's Bonnie and Clyde bank-robbers-meet-Old-West-outlaws-with-cobwebs theme. So Wednesday night's session, which included a treasure trove of furniture and goodies from the Asolo's properties department, was plenty of fun. (Throw in a veggie pizza from Rico's and I was in heaven, right there.)
 

Mrs. Harrible, CCB and the Swedish Chef contemplate the beginnings with burlap.


Not your typical party sitting area--ready to be accessorized with props and dusted with cobwebs. (Esther Mertz approves.)


Photos of more props at our disposal.



Mysterious Moonshine--$2 a jar!

Wednesday, Oct. 27

Last night's pumpkin carving was quite productive...
 

...we still have a ways to go on the cleaning, however. (Oh, and we settled on Zombieland, if you couldn't tell from the pic.)

     

A cat and a rather large pumpkin--what could be more Halloween? (CCB tasked himself with lobotomizing the big 'un.)

   
A couple examples. I'm by no means the carving savant in my family, but hopefully the cumulative jack-o-lantern effect will still be impressive.


All the pretty pumpkins.
 

Tonight's all about decorating the lobby for tomorrow night's ABC party. I'm a little nervous about getting everything done--especially after seeing how much work just decorating our own house can be. But I'm told there will be beer and pizza, which, as you know, give me superpowers....


Tuesday, Oct. 26

I always wanted to be a boxer for Halloween...
 

...it seemed a great way to combine the stereotypical Halloween excuse to dress all sexy with my usual propensity for...not dressing all sexy. At this point, unfortunately, I'm definitely not comfortable enough in my midsection to go walking around in a sports bra all night. But based on last night's sparring session at Uppercut, my form's still decent, no?

Still haven't decided on a scary movie to watch tonight. We've got a whole lot of cleaning, decorating and pumpkin-carving to get done, and I want a flick to get us in the proper mood for fake blood and hacking things up with knives. Forgot we had Donnie Darko among our home library. Could certainly be some Jack-o-lantern inspiration:
 

Or we might go for Saw, which is kind of the exact opposite (virtually plotless, mindless gore), or we might Wii some Netflix and go for something we haven't seen before. Anybody got an opinion on Zombieland?

Also pondering treats for Saturday's party. Two possibilities:

                            

The candy corn Jello would, no doubt, incorporate some kind of adult beverage, but they are a bit complicated, even without the vodka. And last time I tried to make mini-sausage mummies they looked more like baby babushkas, and that's...just weird.

Monday, Oct. 25.

Halloween week! Halloween week! Yay! In honor of my favorite holiday, I’m going to update this blog every day throughout the week with photos and thoughts about the festivities—so much do I love the ‘ween. (Also, if I wait until next week, it’s going to be November, old news, and everybody’s going to have turkey on the brain.)

On the docket, we’ve got Thursday’s Asolo Balcony Club “Dynamic Duos” party. And because I am learning to be a good Sarasota citizen and do my committee time, we’ll be helping out with the decorating Wednesday night, tuning the FSU Center lobby into a Bonnie-and-Clyde-worthy party setting. Also, given the party’s twosome costume theme, CCB and I are…well, we’re going to make quite an entrance. Let’s just say, it’s a party geared toward successful young professionals, around whom I am not the most confident person in the world, and yet I’m stealing myself to be the jackass I always knew I could be. It’s all about the commitment.

(By the way, you can get your tickets here for $12, or pop on in Thursday night and pay $15 at the door. Among other things, they’re going to have “Mysterious Moonshine.” I don’t know what that is, but I’ll bet it’s tasty.)

Monday and Friday, we’ve got…boxing and hockey. I don’t yet know how I’m going to make those fit into the holiday spirit, but I’m going to figure something out. I wonder if I can skate in my skeleton mask…

This means Tuesday is our only night at home. So: scary movie and pumpkin carving it is. Can’t decide on a movie, though. Should I go with something I’ve seen before, that I’ve verified as good and creepy? 28 Days Later, The Descent, or Event Horizon? Something by Tim Burton—not-so-scary but still awesome? Nightmare Before Christmas or Beetlejuice? Or should I expand my Halloween repertoire with something unfamiliar—suggestions?

And because we’ve got our big Halloween party at home Saturday night, there’s a lot of decorating to be done. We’ve already decided we can’t top last year’s Dexter display, so we’re not even going to try. But we’re still committed to setting a good tone, so we’ve got our work cut out for us—so to speak.