But first, a word from our Sponser:
It feels like every other post for the past couple of months has involved an apology for my sudden disappearance. This one is no different. For the past 2 weeks I have had the joy of experiencing intermittent internet connectivity (this is a registered illness, I believe). Multiple unsuccessful calls to my ISP later I was finally able to access a real human at 1:30 in the morning last weekend to schedule an appt for a service call. They arrived on Thursday, the nice man gave me a sleek new black modem and all was well. For about 4 hours. At that time my “intermittent” connectivity changed to absolutely no connectivity. Thus it was that I didn’t get back up and running until late Friday evening, and as you will see from the following events, this has been a busy weekend!
With All Hallow’s Eve fast approaching I was really able to get into the spirit of the holiday because Friday night was the annual Tart’s Halloween Party, hosted in part by yours truly.
The Tarts…the Dancing Tarts…are a group of my wife’s friends from her place of employment who get together for a monthly meal/event. They are gracious enough to allow me to have Halloween every year.
This year I went with a bit of a Lisa Snellings-Clark theme, using my poppet collection as a part of the decore:
and I used the opening image of Red as part of my decorating ideas for each Tart’s goody bag:
I was thrilled on the previous evening’s shopping trip to find some of those candles that bleed:
The aftermath of the bleeding candles is actually quite interesting:
The night was filled with incredible food (including a return of the recent hit, pumpkin ice cream!) and, of course, the annual murder and ritual carving of pumpkins! This year’s results were very satisfying:
(the exercise bike in the background really makes this image pop! Ugh!)
My wife opted for the more traditional approach of our fruit carving ancesters:
While Laura went with this very intricate owl design (which I couldn’t get any better shots of):
Nick’s carving also sported and owl as well as some very creepy, sinister trees:
While yours truly chose an image which reflected my general mood over the past week:
All in all it was a wonderfully eerie evening!
Saturday found us cleaning up and getting ready for a visit from my parents. Charlie had been bathed by my daughter the day before and was all clean and fresh. But like any puppy, that simply wasn’t acceptable and so he decided to have a romp in the yard while we worked inside the house:
Needless to say, he received his second bath in as many days soon after this and was on house arrest for the remainder of the day.
On Sunday, in the midst of my Fantasy Football team, The Conqueror Worms, putting up the highest score in the league thus far while beating Browncoats into submission (sorry Jeff), we prepared ourselves for even more pumpkin carving.
The Smith family brought their round orange orbs over and the slaughter began anew! Tori carved a really cool batty pumpkin (sorry for the bad picture!):
Zach did a really cool creepy castle with a dragon guarding the entrance:
The women folk went all wolfman on us, with Ashley doing this one:
and Keri howling at the moon:
Mine may have been an indictment on my personality, as its title is Bats in the Belfrey:
The Smiths came bearing gifts fitting with the holiday season:
A bottle of Creepy Kooky Crypt Dirt (no mention was made as to whose crypt the “dirt” was from) and:
Yes, you are reading it correctly, Chocolate Pop Rocks! Let me tell you, it is a weird sensation to let chocolate melt in your mouth while the candy starts snapping, crackling, and popping! I haven’t had Pop Rocks in years, these were fun! Thanks Smiths!
It was a very spooktacular weekend, marred only by the Colorado Rockies not being able to do anything at all to stop this year’s World Series from being one of the most boring (unless you live in New England) in recent memory. What happened to 7 game series?!?!
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My lack of time and access to the internet means that I am overdue on announcing a winner of the Fright Night Prize Pack. The lucky winner is….
Chris@bookarama!!!
Congrats Chris. Shoot me an email with your addy and I’ll have this pack winging your way!
Now that I am back online I have access to the Tiny Stories entries and will be sending those to the judges within the next few days. I’m thrilled with the participation in this one!
And don’t forget, you have a few more days in which to submit an image, or images, for the Something Sinister contest. You also have a shot at the Venator Prize Pack if you manage to read and review one of Colleen Gleason’s books before midnight on Halloween. And, for one lucky person who finishes the challenge, a Grand Prize Pack (goodies not yet revealed) will be yours!!!
Happy, almost, Halloween everyone!!!
Update: Results of the winner of the Visitation Prize Pack on the way soon!!! 😉
Carl, you are going to have to come to Peoria and plan a Halloween party for me!! I LOVED the goody bags!!
Congrats to Chris!! Very cool prize pack!! I think I have successfully completed the challenge of hitting every single person’s blog for this challenge. And although I didn’t finish all the books I wanted, I did finish Fragile Things, and four others, to meet the requirements of the challenge. I am also hoping to finish another Gleason book by tomorrow….cause I REALLY want that stake!!
Wow! I won?! Crazy!
Thanks, Carl.
You’re a wicked host, btw and I’m not just saying that because I won something.
wow that’s a big package! congrats to Chris!!
Sorry to hear of all the internet problems.. when they start, they never seem to cease!!
You sure have been a busy monster boy!!
Those pumpkins are incredible! It amazes me what people do with pumpkins…it really does. It’s just so sad that they rot 🙁 At least you took pictures. The party sounds very cool and I love the goody bags that you made up!
Congrats to Chris! That’s an awesome prize pack!
I don’t know if I ever told you by the way, but I did indeed finish the RIP challenge, and then some! I was convinced that there wouldn’t be time to do this one with the new job, but I ended up reading something like 13 books, plus I’m hoping to finish another two in time for the end. Who’d a thunk it!
And how about that Drew Brees??? Nice to see him back! He had a hell of a game…I’m sure you were much happier with those stats 😉
Sounds like you’re not only a reading challenge host extraordinaire, but a real-life host extraordinaire as well! And wow…the talent with those pumpkins! I’m going to have to show Annie that wolf one…she’ll definitely want to “borrowing” that idea!
Congrats, Chris!
What fun! The pumpkins are super fantastic!
Fantastic pumpkins. Awesome. Not going to select a favorite, although my name-twin’s was pretty cool. Your porch is quite spooktacular.
The bloody candles? Divine!
Ummm…Chris (he says sheepishly)…I ummmm…dumped Brees last week. Hard to believe but I’m staking my claim with Cleveland’s QB Derek Anderson. He is a phenom this year. I feel really bad, but Brees was killing me!
It was an awesome weekend. I always have to go with the traditional jack-o-lantern face. He’s a happy Jack though.
For shame Carl!!!! Oh ye of weak faith! lol…like I have a right to talk. But damn he’s looking good again!
ooh ooh! I want to come to the party next year!!
I also finished the challenge with my four. just to let ya know. in case i can win again hee hee!
Those pumpkins are great! Just letting you know that I completed the challenge, Peril the First, and posted the wrap-up today.
http://tanabata.blogspot.com/2007/10/rip-ii-challenge-completed.html
Chris, You’ll be happy to know I was very pleased the Marques Colston got on track this past weekend. He was great on my FF team last year and I was happy to get him back again a few weeks ago when another owner dropped him.
Great fun last night my friend. We all had a wonderful time and your family are the best of hosts!
Ah well Chris, you made me feel so guilty I went back and picked him up just in case I need him down the stretch. He’s gonna have to show me more games like yesterday to earn the top spot back, however.
Jeff, A Colston fan! Yeah, he’s great…we’re starting to see more Colston jerseys down here than Bush jerseys and I’d say rightfully so!
Carl, LOL! Seriously, I don’t blame you for dropping him…I probably would’ve too…but I really think he’s back! His last 2 or 3 games have really been nice. I think the Saints may have finally gotten their groove back! I hope so :/
Those pumpkins are work of art. How did everyone learn to do that? I am especially fond of the wolves.
Congrats to Chris!
Carl, love that picture of the woman with the red heart & tears tattoo…I have a thing for hearts 🙂
You outside yourself with the table settings (there’s something about Little Pink…) and the pumpkins are fantastic! Where did you find those candles? how perfect!
I finally got my review up of Rises The Night, hope you enjoy!
wow, such amazing pumpkins! I love the whole decor, actually. It sounds like it was a great party 🙂
Love the candles and the pumpkins! Halloween looks to be a lot of fun at your house 🙂
I’ve completed the challenge and have posted about it here:
http://exlibris.typepad.com/ex_libris/2007/10/rip-ii-reading-.html
Mary, I love nostalgia, so yours gets a vote from me. We usually do a traditional carving each year. All the pumpkins are fantastic!!
For Anonymous, I found those candles at Walmart of all places.
The pumpkin designs come out of a book and aren’t that hard to do as long as one is patient in the carving process.
I can’t believe how good those pumpkins look!!!! With all the kids in my neighborhood, all the pumpkins look like sideways or upside down Jack faces….cute as they can be LOL! Your’s are great!! 🙂
Wow – I love those pumpkin carvings 🙂
congratulation chris@bookarama! wow!
and carl, that party looks (looked) amazing. like everyone said – i love love love the goodies!
Congrats to Chris, sorry about the lousy internet access, and love those pumpkins. We didn’t even buy a pumpkin, this year! Too hot for too long – it never really felt quite cool enough. But, I loved getting into the season with the RIP II. Many thanks for hosting, again. I’m working on my wrap-up post.