I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's

It’s Halloween. MY holiday. And what am I doing? Sitting at home by myself. No plans really – other than going to Matthew’s sister’s house tonight. Most importantly – today is Bijoux’s birthday! She is 4 years old. A most important day that brought that baby into this world and into my life.



That’s her modeling a mink coat I want to sell on Ebay. I should get on that.

Matthew was supposed to take today off, but something came up at work and he had to go in. I guess the entire air traffic control system would just shut down if he weren’t there. Oh well. They give us money every 2 weeks so I will shut up.

I wanna be Bob Dylan. (sorry. Listening to The Counting Crows)

The builder has finally approved our contract and they have drawn up the prints, so the house is a go. They even gave us hard hats the other day. Hopefully it will be finished by May. I would like to be in there by summer. Now we have to get this place fixed up and ready to sell. The master bathroom has to be painted and we need to remove some furniture. It’s WAY too cluttered in here. I want to have another yard sale, but I guess I will have to wait until spring. I have an entire set of Pfaltzgraff dishes to sell. I could try Ebay, but the shipping would be a pain in the ass.

Back to the house. I have been comparing this house to our house in Georgia and really we got a lot more for a lot less money in Georgia. This new house is about the same size and basically the same floorplan – but it costs $65,000 more! Can you believe that??? The cost of living up here is just ridiculous. Matthew got a pretty nice cost of living raise when we moved up here, but we never really saw it because things cost so much more.

I like having a glass block window in my bathroom and they came back with a price for it. $575. For real glass block. There’s a difference. In Georgia they charged us $900 for acrylic. This house does have some nicer features than our old house. Like all chrome fixtures and door knobs rather than that tacky brass shit.

There is no pain you are receding… (some Pink Floyd now)

We are doing our selections (carpet, cabinets, counters etc) next Friday so we have to get our ducks in a row by then. I am thinking of doing brown bricks – a nice mixture of light and dark brown with white trim. How does that sound? I notice a lot of tan trim with the brown bricks and I don’t like that. I like the contrast of white.

Freebase! Don’t you get too high baby. (Grandmaster Flash. My musical tastes really run the gamut eh?)

So in the time it took 2 songs to play, I typed a total of 5 sentences. Ok so I get sidetracked easily. Sometimes I have the attention span of a 4 year old.

I’m getting hungry. I guess I need to feed my mother today. Do I really want her to live with us? Can I handle that? So long freedom. When I was a teenager, I felt like I was in a prison. Do I really want to relive that? It’s bad enough now. But to have her in the same house? I don’t know. The money will be nice. That’s not nice is it? But really if she pays us a few hundy a month for rent, we can get the basement finished quickly. And she will still be able to save some money in case she needs it in the future.

What would an angel say; the devil wants to know. (Fiona Apple)

Anyway, I guess I should hop in the shower and go pick her up.

Happy Halloween all! I hope you enjoy it. And next year - party at my house! Big one. Halloween, Bijoux’s 5th birthday and my 30th. You will need to be there.

Halloween festivites

I’m a few days late with this – but I get busy. Doing nothing. What can I say?

So. Last Friday Oct 20. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando. We got there around 5:30, which was weird because it was still light outside. You need darkness for the proper atmosphere. So I really didn’t like that too much. The good part about it was that not many people realized the park opened at 5 so it was pretty deserted. We went through 4 of the 7 houses by ourselves – with no wait. We didn’t use our Express Pass. It was nice going through alone, but again weird because it was light outside.

We did hook up with a couple idiots in 2 of the houses. We kept running into them. The guy was a complete tool. He kept screaming at the scareactors and grabbed at a couple of the girls. Having worked in a house before, I knew what was going down when I saw them ducking into back passageways. I later saw the Tool outside talking to security. I hate people like that.

After watching the Bill & Ted show (I’m still amazed that show is so popular cuz the movie was what? 18 years ago? But it was good.) it was finally dark and we went through all the houses again using our Express Pass. So we did 4 of them twice. We had a good time and actually left before midnight.

Oh – our package gave us a free picture and I really wanted a picture with Albert the Caretaker (of Screamhouse – which was the BEST of the 7 this year IMO.) but Matthew likes Jack (the clown), so we threw The Director in for good measure and got a picture. But somehow Matthew ended up next to Albert and I was next to Jack. And I'm kinda scared of clowns.



We got about 3.5 hours of sleep before heading to the airport at 4:30am. Our flight left at 6 with no problems. For some reason, our connecting flight in Atlanta, which was supposed to have 99 empty seats, ended up being almost full. Weird. But we got on and that’s all that matters. We got home and stayed up the rest of the day. It was hard – but we did it.

Matthew and I look forward to Halloween every year and HOPE that we have someplace to go in costume. This year, I found a party on the Belle Of Cincinnati riverboat. $25 gets you free food and alcohol and unlimited access to the USS Nightmare. I have wanted to check out the Nightmare for the past couple years, so this seemed like the perfect combo.

Matthew loves his pirate costume and I wanted to be something to go with him. I didn’t really want to be a pirate though. I loved “Tia Dalma” in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 so I decided to be her – only sort of a “dead” version of her. I had to have rotting skin or something.

So here we are. This was taken before we entered the Nightmare



The party itself was pretty good. There were many people there without costumes though, which I just don’t understand. We were excited about the costume contest because, well, we just don’t do things and not win.

One new thing I discovered at the party was Vampire wine and vodka. The vodka is red and not too bad. I must find some for my birthday party. I’ll tell you something though – you know in haunted houses where you walk across a bridge through a spinning tube that makes you feel like the bridge is moving? Well…it feels totally different after about 5 shots of Vampire Vodka. Wow. It was really spinning.

Anyway – back to the contest. They narrowed it down to 5 finalists. Us, Steve Irwin and his girlfriend dressed up like a croc, a giant head gnome with a giant penis sticking out of his robe, 2 redneck dudes with mullets, trucker hats and a slutty girl in a racing suit, and 3 bimbos in tight outfits.

The gnome and his penis won 3rd place. (I don’t know what his prize was) We came in 2nd and Steve Irwin and his croc won. We got a $100 gift certificate to Vito’s Café and Steve Irwin got a Hilton gift cert – which we would have LOVED to have. Unless it was for just the Hilton here. If it were for any Hilton – we would be going to New York for Christmas. Damn! I can’t be mad at Steve Irwin, but damn…if he hadn’t died that guy probably would not have won. Oh well. We still won something.

One more thing before I go. Since we have nothing to do on actual Halloween night, we thought we would ask Julia if we could take Nicholas trick-or-treating. She is “against” Halloween, but said we could take him. So we took him to the costume store yesterday. He had no idea about any of it. He didn’t want a costume. He didn’t understand. We asked if he wanted to go trick-or-treating and get candy and he kept saying “We have candy at home”, which is obviously something his mother told him. So we just left. It’s not worth it. I feel sorry for him, but he just hasn’t been exposed to it. Yet. Give him a couple years in school and things will change I’m sure. He’s only 4, but I hear 4 year olds everyday talking about what they are going to be for Halloween. Whatever.

That’s it for now. Matthew wants to find another Halloween party on Saturday night with a costume contest. Maybe.

Bad to good

As much as I love to travel, I despise flying and I am afraid now that I will never fly again.

We arrived at the airport an hour before our flight. We had carefully packed all of our liquids into tiny containers that were less than 3 ounces. And put them all in a Ziplock bag.

When we got to the security line, the first Barney Fife told us that our liquids had to be in 2 quart size Ziplock bags, not a 1 gallon bag as we had. He told us that a supervisor would look at it when we got to the front of the line and since it was for both of us, it should be ok. The rules are not yet too clear on that whole issue.

Whatever.

When we get through security, Barney Fife #2 pulls out our bag and says it has to be a quart bag. I said “It’s for both of us”. Matthew claimed the TSA website did not say “quart” and it only had a picture of a ziplock bag. (but he was wrong) Barney #2 said he would get a supervisor to explain it to us. I told him I didn’t need it explained to me; I needed it to be taken care of. He said my options were to throw it away or go check it. We had 20 minutes before our flight! And we are being treated like criminals.

So of course I get mad and I have an unfortunate bad habit of cussing like a sailor even when I’m not mad, but it’s worse when I am mad. The supervisor (Barney #3) told me there was no need for bad language. Excuse me? Now you are going to try to censor my speech?

All of this over the SIZE OF A BAG! The stuff in it was legal and properly packed. It was just the SIZE OF A BAG!

I appreciate their commitment and dedication to being assholes, but we have a flight to catch.

We decided to check the bag so I reached for the ziplock to put in back in the bag to go back to the ticket counter. He said “You can’t touch it.” It’s my stuff motherfucker.

Why am I being treated like a terrorist in my own fucking country??

Matthew took the bag and along with Barney #2 went back to the ticket counter while I went on to the gate.

Well guess what? You can’t check a bag less than 30 minutes before departure. So when I walk all the way to the gate they tell me to go back because we have to take the next flight.

After all is said and done, Matthew tells me this all could have been avoided if he had used his ID to go through the airport employee line with the bag. Because everybody knows they are not terrorists.

So now we are on the nonstop to West Palm, which actually gets in 15 minutes before the connecting flight we were supposed to be on. Except now, karma is getting me back for being a bitch and the flight is delayed 30 minutes.

I am absolutely outraged over this. Maybe I should change my political party affiliation. If I become a Democrat, I can shout from the rooftops about my civil liberties being violated.

I will not travel again if I have to be treated like a criminal by the fucking Nazis in the TSA. I will not tolerate this in my own (fascist) country.

I would so love to move. I love France. I love Italy. How about Australia! Then I could dive! Matthew can stay here with this government he loves so much. He doesn’t mind bending over and taking it. How dare someone threaten to throw away all of my expensive Aveda hair products! By the way, I told Matthew when we were packing up that it would be much easier to just check the damn bag and not worry about it.

Enough of that.

We arrived in West Palm Beach around 1pm without further incidents. When we picked up our rental car, they tried to talk us into upgrading to the next level for “only $5 a day.” No thank you. I ALWAYS book the smallest available car (which everyone should do unless they need to be guaranteed a bigger car) because they only have a few of them and 9 times out of 10 you are going to end up with a bigger car. So anyway, I told her no I did not want to upgrade. She even made a big production of ordering the “Aveo” to be brought out for us. And she told us how tiny and cramped it was. That’s ok…really. We will be fine. Well guess what…we were dropped off next to a brand new PT Cruiser. I love driving different types of cars. And this one only had 4 miles on it, so we have enjoyed the “new car smell” while driving around.

We checked into the hotel and found a gorgeous pool with a rock waterfall. Very nice – I was not expecting that. We met Tammie at her house around 4:30 pm. I have not seen her in about 4 years. I hate that one of my oldest and best friends lives so far away from me. (we have been friends for 27 years! Isn’t that amazing?!) Good friends are hard to find and you should hold onto your old ones. Anyway, we spent a great evening with her, her son Dylan and daughter Abigail. Oh and Jasmine the super hyperactive puppy. Her children are so cute and so much fun. Her husband Rob, came home around 8:30 so we got to spend some time with him too. She has a beautiful family and I am so happy for her. Now if only she would move closer! Cuz I don’t think we will be moving to Florida. I like it down here in small doses, but I would not want to live here again.


Interesting side note: When we left Tammie’s house last night, Matthew said “I want a girl.” WHAT?!?!?!?! That was music to my ears! He has always wanted a boy, but only because he didn’t know any better. Last night was one of the few times he has spent time with a little girl. And he liked it. Well that’s it. If we get pregnant again…it will have to be a girl.

Before we left Port St. Lucie, we drove over to the beach. Since we were this close to Mother Ocean, we couldn’t leave without at least dipping our feet in and wishing we could DIVE.

We arrived in Orlando around 1:30 Friday afternoon and went directly to the Orlando Ale House. It’s sort of a tradition when we come here. We stay at the Sleep Inn across from Universal and we eat dinner at the Ale House. (I love traditions)

Right now it’s 4:15 pm. We are going to head across the street in about 30 minutes. I am excited. I love Halloween and I love this event. It’s not really scary to me anymore (even when I was 25 or so years old, I would get scared coming here…but I am jaded now) but I like to look at the production work that goes into the whole thing. The sets, the props, the costumes. It’s just a lot of fun for us. We may be geeks, but that’s what we like.

I am going to end this entry for now. I will review HHN in my next entry. And I know everyone wants pictures, but you will have to wait until I get back home!!!

So far this has been a great trip – in spite of how it started out. I am over that now, even though I was mighty pissed when it happened. I try not to let things like that bother me for too long.

MAD

Right now I am just....oh....UGH....pissed. So very very pissed. So here it is. I like my place to be clean right? And I am too lazy to clean it. So I pay money to have someone else clean it. We have been doing it off and on for YEARS and while some may think it's indulgent, it just can't be any other way because Matthew and I will not do it. At least not on a regular basis. We both despise cleaning. I will keep things straight and put away, but scrubbing the floors? Nope. And the dust has to be thick enough to make snow angels (dust angels) before Matthew will pick up a Swiffer.

ANYWAY...today was only Marilyn's 2nd time cleaning our place and maybe this wasn't her fault because I didn't specifically tell her to be careful dusting around the TV - but daaaayum. It's important! Oh. What did she do? She dusted the top of the cable box and knocked the wee infrared TiVo thingy off the top. It has to hang just so off the side of the cable box so that TiVo can change the channel.....and be on the right channel to RECORD "LOST" !!!!!!!!!

What makes me even more mad is - I was home around 9pm. But I didn't think to check the box cuz...well why should I? It has never been a problem before. When I called Matthew to tell him about this he said "Yeah, she did that last time and I fixed it." UGH! Had I known this, I would have checked it immediately.

Oh well. What can I do now? Rely on Television Without Pity for a good recap in a couple days. Hopefully that will keep me from being too "lost" to be able to follow the show last week.

But it's not just that. See I require a regular dose of beautiful mens each week. My own man is most beautiful, but I can handle a bit more.

Last night I had



But tonight....I missed.




Oh well....

My feet

Today was a day for the history books. I got my first ever pedicure. Can you believe that? Why did I wait 38 years...I mean....28 years to do this? Wonderful. My feet are so soft now. I think I was just never comfortable with the idea of someone messing with my feet. Dunno why. But that was stupid. My feet are clean. The nails aren't nasty. And now they are beautiful. I got this colour on my toes.



It's called "Lincoln Park After Dark". It looks purple in the bottle, but once it's on, it's almost black. I love it.

That was my exciting day.

2 weeks and 2 days until we leave for Orlando. Actually, I just changed all the plans tonight. We are now going to fly into West Palm Beach and visit Tammie and drive up to Orlando on Friday. That should be nice. I haven't seen her in about 3 years. We will take our chances flying out of Orlando on Saturday. Right now it looks like every other flight is negative. Oh well. We've done it before and that's the game you have to play. We would be better off flying out of West Palm on Saturday, but I don't really want to drive 2.5 hours to get back down there.

I am excited about Halloween Horror Nights. I love Fall and Halloween. It has really felt like fall the past few days. Until today. Today it was 86 degrees. Yuck. Not proper October weather for sure.

Now if only I can find a Halloween party. Matthew really wants to get dressed up and go to one. One thing I can promise you - next year will be the Mother of all Halloween parties at my house. Save the date. October 27, 2007