Halloween 2007

(Click on any picture to see it enlarged)

Halloween is still my FAVORITE holiday, but it came with some difficulties this year.  I'm sick again...my ear is acting up and it appears I may have another cholesteatoma in need of removal.  I'm on internal AND external antibiotics, which cause in me a secondary fungal infection that's not responding to the normal medications this time...so I'm sore, cranky, itchy and just sick.  My temp goes up then down, I have cold chills and then feel like I'm on FIRE!  It's a little like what your body goes through when you're on the way to becoming a zombie...so, given the time of the year and the holiday, that's strangely appropriate and (with some relief) amusing.  It did however keep me from really enjoying the usual festivities.  However, it did NOT keep me from burning through a few more "Benjamin Franklins" and do up the house this year with what has been described as the "loudest display ever"....LOL!  Forget last year, THIS year we went full on, cover your eyes and your ears, over-the-top-gaudy MEGA-HALLOWEEN!  I had one neighbor (who's a cop) threaten to "put a bullet in some of those damned things" and another neighbor come over and BEG me to AT LEAST turn off the really loud ones at night so his kids could sleep.  I complied - not without some consternation, but I complied.  Now, on Christmas, when the neighborhood is lit up like a UFO landing, perhaps they'll return the favor and turn OFF some of the BRIGHTEST ones at least at night....so my family can get some SLEEP!  *grin*

This year, Libby took the kids to another neighborhood to trick or treat (I think out of some sense of shame for having the house look just so un-Godly) and I stayed home and handed out the candies...in FULL uniform!  I felt like Death, so I dressed like Death...and it scared some of the kids so badly, even the OLDER kids, that they stopped half way up the driveway and wouldn't come the rest of the way without a lot of coaxing.  It was HILARIOUS!  Best Halloween EVER, Andrew even said so and said "he didn't never want it to end."  hee hee hee

All in all, everything went fine and we all had a super good time.  I did some repeat efforts of last year, got the landscape pictures and a full 360 Panoramic feature...as well as a home made movie I should get an academy award for.

ENJOY!

We began in the kitchen again, but I wanted to decorate our counter first, since it's usually just a repository for junk.	Next we did the table again and it came out even BETTER this year.  We miss Coin Robot, but the new floating head was a HUGE hit!	Then I went SHOPPING!  WOO!  SHOPPING!	Then it was time to get busy outside.  Some of the trick or treaters asked how long this took us - I said a coupla days, but it was more like a WEEK.	I'm taking night time photos here 'cause I wanted to catch everything with its true ambience.
Mr. Shakey Skull came back out, the kids last year snapped his stand but that's why God made tape.	This was a really cool graveyard scene I found.  SWEET!	Over here in the corner we put the faux fencing, an animated tombstone and a new edition - the "Moaning Lara"...her eyes turn red and she moans.  Kind of like Libby after I tell a joke.	Here's a close-up of her and her tomb stone.	This poor guy didn't survive.  Squirrels ate his wires and he died a "short death"...ha ha ha ha ha
LOTS of tomb stones this year.  The whole yard looked like a graveyard.	Another new edition.  Mr. Complainy Squalky Head on a Spike.	Here's our new, HUGE panoramic view of the house using a  Photostitch package and an executable compiler.  Neat!  Don't mind the install window you get after clicking on the image, PLEASE RUN IT...I wrote it so there's NO NASTY SPYWARE or anything...just ENJOY IT!	This is my new movie for this year.  Shot on Halloween Night.  Again, it's not Hollywood, but it sure is cool!	The view from the side of the driveway.  Notice our new pole lights this year!
Our lit sign had to be moved after the death of the glowing zombie.	But we replaced it with a motion sensor rock that glowed and yelled at passers by.	Now for some daytime photos.  Nice one of the entire yard.	The sign is already moved now and the final design is taking shape.	The piece in the middle has a Las Vegas style lighting arrangement around the red eyes.  VERY cool!
Up yonder you can see a new Pirate Zombie.	The skull here rotates different colors in the eyes at night.	Here's Mr. Spikey, Squalky head...a foot shorter after kids snapped yet another support rod.  They broke a LOT of stuff this year!	Here's a close-up of Moaning Lara.	and a close-up of the Zombie Pirate
We spared NO expense for the steps this year.	Pumpkins didn't work out well for us this year.  They rotted almost instantly.  So we got a fake, GIANT one instead.	This was a neat arrangement Andrew helped me with.	Now for the BIG NIGHT!  You'll notice I'm decked out in full gear - complete with my pimpin' bling from last year.  I looked so awesome.  So did the kids!	Here they are starting out with their friends at Ms. Debby's.
Lots of Ninjas, Star Wars villians and Grim Reapers this year!	Now THERE'S a crowd you don't want to run into in a dark alley!	I did have some competition this year for best decorated house.  They cheated though...lots of big bales of hay decorations from various, lame stores.	Death attempted to take away their candy....	But they ate him...and then their candy.
Meanwhile, I was stuck at home, handing out candy (this was taken just before everyone left me all alone in my dark, spooky house).	In between candy dispositions, I had some time to set up our webcam so we could broadcast the festivities all night.	So I started to play with some of the special effects and fed those up to our one-night-only, live Halloween webcast web site.	This one especially scared my viewing audience.  The site had a working chat room too so I got to meet and greet some VERY nice, interesting and completely psychotic individuals.  But eventually the night ended.  The kids came home and it was time to investigate the candy before mass consumption.	So I gave the viewing audience one last shot to remember me by, then shut down the web site, changed my IP address and entered an identity protection program.  LOL. HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2007 EVERYONE!!