Halloween comes early here

Since Halloween is this coming Fri, I would think that most bars and clubs would have their big Halloween parties on Fri or Sat night.  Glad I did a little research and found the contrary: this past Sat was the big night.  Maybe this was done to coincide with the increasingly popular Sea Witch Festival which took place this past weekend.

Spouse & I went to dinner Sat evening with Steven & Thad and Joe P, and then we headed over to the Blue Moon.  They "go all out" every year for Halloween, including a big costume party.  None of us were in costume but we figured we'd go anyway to see the clever, creative, and funny costumes of those who were (obviously) more into it than we were.  It was fun and we stayed for about an hour.

On Sun we met Steven & Thad, Robin, and Joe P for breakfast at the Crystal, and then tried on the costumes Spouse had purchased for Marvin & Walter.  I was a little surprised they kept them on, as I remember last year Marvin repeatedly pulled off the Santa hat we'd put on him.

Trying on their costumes at home

Once we had both of our hot dogs in their carriers we headed to the Sea Witch Festival's Costume Dog Parade where we met up with Steven & Thad, Robin, and Joe P.  It had probably been 10 or more years since we'd been to this, and I can't imagine why.  It was a blast!!  There were likely over 100 dogs in costumes, many of which were being walked or pushed in baby carriages or pulled in wagons or floats by their owners.  We didn't enter our guys in the parade as we didn't know how they'd react to being around so many dogs, but we stood along the parade route and enjoyed the show.  Of course Walter drew a lot of attention both before and after the parade as everyone commented on his size (3.5 lbs) and his overwhelming adorableness.  Being there took a lot out of both dogs (sensory overload anyone?) and both fell asleep in their carriers on the 15 minute drive back home. 

Joe P gets lots of puppy kisses from Walter

Weekend update

Fri evening we had a fun time at Liz & Justine's Halloween costume party/wedding reception.
There really weren't any physical references to the 'wedding reception' as I'd imagined. No white wedding bells or doves; just people in Halloween costumes. We didn't take our camera so I don't have any photos, but there were some clever costumes.

Since the theme was 'couples' many people were creative. One couple had added 'fins' to one of their outfits and bags of potato chips to the other. They were 'fish and chips'. There were two couples who came as an electric socket and plug. Apparently they shopped at the same costume store. Another couple came as Austin Powers and a shagalicious lady. As stated before, Spouse & I were Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. Our hostesses were black-eyed peas. Hmmm, sounds familiar.

One woman came as Nancy Pilosi and she looked exactly like her! When she walked in I was like "What is Nancy Pilosi doing here?" She had a color photo of Nancy Pilosi pinned to her lapel, carried a gavel and a small American flag, and encouraged everyone to vote Democratic on Tues. She was quite funny.

Sat we met up with our friends Robert & Liz, saw their house, and caught up on each others' news over lunch at a great Indian restaurant. We hadn't seen them since Dec so we had a good time. Then we returned to Spouse's mom's house and visited with her and his sister and kids. Then our friend Wendy came over and we went to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant The Taco House. It was absolutely delicious, and we enjoyed seeing Juan, Gloria, Sandy, and Neville.

Sun morning we met up with Kerry & Hugh, George, Kelly, Ana, Emily and Javier for breakfast. It was great to see them all, as it had been quite a while. We really didn't do much catching up, as the US Presidential election continued to overpower the conversation. I will be so happy on Nov 5th when that is over. Afterward we hung out at Spouse's mom's house again talking to her and Wendy until Spouse's sister and kids came over again. When they left around 2pm we were right behind them.

This will be a short work week for both of us. Spouse worked today, but has tomorrow off for the election (since he's a state employee). He works Wed but is off 1/2 day on Thurs for the election parade. Then he works on Fri. I work today, tomorrow, and Wed and then will be off Thurs and Fri for the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival. I'm so excited! As I did in past years, I will recap the films I see each day so you can add those you like to your Netflix queue.

Crush du Jour: Jon LaJoie

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, everyone!

You may recall I mentioned that last weekend when Mike & Clark and Bugs & Roger visited us we went to a Halloween costume party at our neighbor's house. The guys and Spouse weren't too thrilled about the idea when I first brought it up, but fortunately they were all 'good sports' and played along.

Just before we were about to walk the 2 blocks to our neighbor's house, it began to pour down raining! We decided to take a few pictures while we waited for the monsoon to pass. Here's me and Spouse as Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone. (All photos on this page may be clicked to enlarge.)
The Barney and Fred costume idea was Spouse's. I could have thought of at least 100 other (read: better) costume ideas, but acquiesced since I knew Spouse would be more apt to actually participate if he were happy and comfortable in his costume. We used fleece throws from Wal-Mart, sewn with the help of Bugs, and I used iron-on patches for the spots on Fred's tunic.

At the party people only seemed to 'get' my costume if I was standing with Spouse. Alone my costume appeared ambiguous, and I was asked if I was a monk (?) and John the Baptist. So I did my best to stand and sit near Spouse.

Mike & Clark and Bugs & Roger are pictured below. It took me a minute to 'get' their costume. How about you?
If you said "They're Black-eyed Peas!" then you'd be right. Bugs sewed the Ps onto their sweatshirts, and they used theatre make-up to give themselves black eyes. Clever!

Tonight Spouse & I are driving back to DC for the weekend. Our 1st stop is at our friends Justine & Liz's house in Silver Spring, MD. A few weeks ago they slipped up to MA and got married, and tonight they are having a Halloween costume party/wedding reception at their house. The theme is "couples", due to their recent wedding. So Fred & Barney will be reappearing there tonight.

On Sat and Sun we'll be meeting up with some friends and family. We decided to board Jordan since we'll be running around the entire weekend. We like to think of it as Jordan having a "spa weekend", complete with a bath, nail trim, and massage. Nothing but the best for our pooch.

Here's a photo of my Halloween 2006 costume, sandwiched between Richard Simmons and the Bride of Frankenstein.
The scary part of it is that I put together the Boy George costume completely from clothing Spouse & I already owned! The only thing I bought was the wig and the stick-on numbers. I won 1st runner up in a costume contest at Freddie's Beach Bar.

Back in 1996 I talked 5 of my female co-workers into dressing up with me as The Village People. I'm the Cowboy on the right. The other 5 are females! Check out the Leatherman with the huge mustache.

In this photo we're lip-syncing the song "Y.M.C.A." and doing simple choreography in the breakroom at work. I'm not sure I've ever laughed as hard or as long as I did that day. Good times!

In 1994 I dressed as a patient in a hospital bed.

I'm actually standing up in this picture. The 'bed' is made of cardboard, with a whole in the middle in which I'm standing. I have rope suspenders over my shoulders, holding the 'bed' up. The 'legs' are panty hose stuffed with plastic bags. I won 1st place in a costume contest with this.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. Don't forget to take pictures and post them on your blogs!

Crush du Jour: Ted Colunga