"It's Friday & I'm in Love" Halloween Party

Since the party hasn't happened yet, I figured I'd throw up some photos from Trick-or-Treat.  Because a post without photos is rather boring.


Halloween.  Oh Halloween.  I love & hate you.  Hate passing out candy.  But love watching other people smile when the kids scurrying  up to their door.  Hate how materialistic Halloween has become (the decorations have gotten more expensive in the past 3 years).  But love to see my favorite retailer's spin on the holiday.  Love having the Halloween party at our house because the kids can go to bed & we can keep scaring up a good time.  Hate the work & stress it brings.  However, the minute the first guest arrives the Hate dissipates like fog on Dracula's castle.

Since college ended, one of our friends have always had the Halloween party.  In the past 7 or 8 years, we & another couple take turns hosting it.  It appears the current cycle is two years on & two years off.  This works for me because Mark loves Halloween.  Actually, Mark loves making projects for Halloween.  Every single year, he promises "Nothing new."  And every year, we add a new zombie/coffin/green guy in a vat of crap/tombstone/etc. to our collection.  If the party is at our house, the projects are larger.  If the party is at their house, we put together a box of Halloween stuff.  It's our year & we got their stuff last night.  Today, he spent forever pulling & positioning cobwebs over a black trash bag covered wall.  He tilted the tombstones one way & tiled them another.  Our garage smells like a Laundromat because before he locked it down, he sprayed detergent on the walls.  In black light, it looks like eerie goo had been sprayed all over the place.  He loves Halloween & now so do I.  Today as I stomped off to work full of piss because I had a ton of errands for the party, I declared "No Party next year!"  He told me that we were only having the party because I OK'd it.  That he & our good friend were ready to let it go & I'm the reason we're having it.  First, that's bull-shit.  Second, he's sort of right.  Third, he'd miss it.  So I agreed & there I was pissed because I had one more grocery stop after work.  Enough bitching.  For the most part, we have everything down.  We know where stuff is & how to pull it all together.  Finding the time when work is at its peak & juggling two kids makes it more difficult/stressful than it actually is.

But there's one more aspect to the party that adds a monster amount of stress: the costume.  If I haven't mentioned it before, I have an extremely creative bunch of friends.  Almost every single one works in a creative field from marketing to design.  Many have a second income that comes from something artistic.  And every single one has a hobby that is such an important part of their personality.   We have friends that work in sales & engineering that were hiding their creativity.  And then one year, they came in costumes that were rental quality (an Oompa Loompa & Baby Stewie).  "I got out a sewing machine & just put it together" was the theme of the night.  There's never anything boring or cliche about the costumes.  If someone is a ghost, it's the best fucking ghost you've ever seen.  And every year people start saying in the middle of October something like, "Mine is so bad this year.  We got lazy."  But I've never seen one lazy year or one half-assed costume.  The end of summer is when Mark & I start throwing out ideas.  Sexy alien chick & sexy zombie are always first & never win.  And every year it ends with us saying, "Fine.  Let's just do that."  We suit up & wait for guest.  And when everyone strolls in, that's when having the Halloween party is all worth it.

The house & food are almost ready.  Cookies & bread have to be baked.  Veggies need to be chopped & candy set out.  The keg will be picked up tomorrow.  I'm debating on making mulled wine in the crock-pot.  I'm guessing the wine will win.  The costumes aren't quite finished because we ran out of ink, but they should come together quickly.  Rain isn't in the forecast, but a chill is.    I'd tell you our costumes, but I can't take the chance.

Right after I took this, he asked me to call a friend & ask if he had any extra fake blood.  Not many wives get to make that call.  I guess I'm lucky.

Check out the Other friend.  How were they going to let the Halloween party go?  How?!

Happy Halloween!
-Erika

It's that time of year

He had his mind set on this one.

I wish I had some good words for this post, but I really don't.  It's just that time of year.  We're hosting the Halloween party this year, so I'm in planning mode.  I thought I'd share some pictures from last night's pumpkin carving.  I'll whip up a Friday post explaining the party.  Until then, here's how we spent our night.

Dad had to start the pumpkin.

 

 

 

Pumpkin smell.

He's not sure about Halloween yet.  This was the "scary" pumpkin.

It's coming...

-Erika

Night and Day, You Are the One

I spent the whole day grading . . . I plan on spending the whole night knitting.
I spent the whole day listening to music . . . I plan on spending the whole night listening to a new Sherlock Holmes.
I spent the whole day wishing I had a new computer . . . I plan on spending the whole night hoping my sister's Mac is salvageable.

Day

Night

Jill, who sincerely hope that Cole Porter doesn't haunt her dreams for bastardizing his lovely tune

Here Jill...

Lately, I spend a good part of my day singing this song.  Jill hadn't heard it, so I was trying to sing for her before our movie started.  I'm sure the people around us did not enjoy my OOOo-ing.  There's something so Nineties about it.  I'm waiting for a young Drew Barrymore/Milla Jovovich/Moria Kelly (Toe pick.) to come running out of the party.  Instead of having my rendition stuck in her head, I thought I'd share it.

Will Knit For Beer

The Lehigh Valley Brew Fest and the New York Sheep and Wool Festival were on the same weekend this year. Lucky for me, I got to do both. Hopefully I can find a Sleeping Festival in the near future because I am lacking in that department. Enjoy!

Insert funny goat sound here

Gnome Homes

 Will Knit For Beer from Jill Greenwood on Vimeo. Music: "Sick Of Myself" by Matthew Sweet

Jill

I've Erased The Last Seven Titles

Must be the age . . .

Ten years ago, I never used the words:

• blog
• texting
• curriculum based assessment
• service learning
• Facebook
• Flickr
• merino
• K2tog, SSK, yo (well, maybe a variation on that one)
• high speed Internet
• HD

Twenty years ago, I never knew that:

• my bachelor's degree would be useless
• having an empty nest would be okay (or that I would even have a need for that term)
• being married to the same person for almost 20 years is doable
• I would live so far away from my family
• I might get back in contact with friends from high school
• meeting people from the Internet isn't always a set-up for involuntary organ donation

Thirty years ago, I never worried about:

• wrinkles
• terrorism
• the economy
• how many students would be on the autistic spectrum
• whether or not my children were okay
• my students and their high stakes testing
• my husband every time he leaves for a long flight
• if I would move away from Indiana

BAM . . . week one

Forty-one years ago, it all began.

- Jill

Waiting For My Face To Return To Normal

I chipped a tooth a year ago pulling a needle through a rather tight button (I know, Mom . . . you didn't spend all that money on braces for me to use my teeth as a pliers). So today, I had the front bonded, and now I am waiting to head into work for the second half of my day. The only problem? The novocaine is really messing with the left side of my face. I don't have cavities and have only had novocaine once when I was 12 . . . so this is really freaking me out.

So I'm distracting myself with some photos from our really quick trip to Philadelphia to see the Girls this weekend . . . and focusing on Brew Fest.

- Jill

Jordan at Ted's

Shelby at the Franklin Fountain

Olive (who hasn't changed a bit)

Pretty much how we live . . . and I kind of like it like that

Our 10.10.10

I'm about to be honest in the next sentence.  Don't get mad at me or think I'm a horrible mother.  But...

I've been finding that photographing my family is getting a little boring.  This doesn't mean I find my family boring.  Not at all.  Cooper's dances moves are nothing short of fantastic.  Becks talks in silly voices whenever he's playing with his Star Wars characters.  I just mean that shooting my family constantly all day long isn't as fun any more.  Sometimes even shooting a few frames isn't even fun.  I have hundreds of photos of them flashing a grin.  I've captured tons of frames of them doing ordinary things.  They still produce a million camera worthy shots.  I just don't feel the need to snap the shutter with them in my focus.  Maybe it's time to travel to another home.  Just to visit.  I can't walk out on the family.  How would they do the laundry?

But I miss that photography excitement in my house.  So on 10.10.10, I wanted to see if I could fall back into that pattern.  Snap all day long.  Create moments when it isn't technically a photo-worthy moment.  See what happens.  So I kept the camera close & never put the lens cap on.  We had a normal day.  It was actually pretty boring.  We didn't run into any celebrities.  We didn't see a rainbow or visit a gorgeous pumpkin patch which we totally should have.  We just went shopping, wrestled, had ice cream for lunch, had a nap melt-down (he won & then I won), did the dishes twice, dinner, & bedtime.  Nothing fantastic.  Just ordinary junk.  But what I learned was that the right song mixed with a frozen moment can make ordinary look pretty darn beautiful.

10.10.10 from Erika Ray on Vimeo.

-Erika
"Better Together"-Jack Johnsom & Paula Fuga
All frames are in order from our day.

101010

Go on & shoot something today.  And then share it. 

We started early.  I should probably feed my children before I let them hold the lens cap. 

Find more info here.

-erika

"It's Friday & I'm in Love" The Sun by Tip Top

I can't stop looking at these photos & I can't stop searching for this light.  While we were driving, it was so bright Jill was hoping that it was a green light.  It was & we arrived safely.  When you shoot into, it actually hurt & blinded you.  But it was worth the pain.

I can't bring myself to toss the blurry ones.

Or the ones that were accidental misfires & had to be rescued in ACR.

I want to hang out on this street & just hope the sun comes back.  It's a good pay-off for looking like a creepy homeless woman muttering about the sun.

Here's a slideshow from our Flickr Meet-up.  Next time, I'm going to do a better job of capturing everyone. We were supposed to do a larger walk with more friends before dinner, but it was raining. Next time...

Flickr Meet-up from Erika Ray on Vimeo.

Thanks, Xanthe for the tip!  This should be a shared "It's Friday & I'm in Love" post because I can't stop watching her video.  Can't stop.

Grateful because...

these women appreciate a good picture.
these women think it's funny to talk about fake sun flare.
these women know how to make Fart Putty explode.
these women don't flinch when you call said Fart Putty, "Pussy Putty."
these women know what to do when you're mobbed by co-eds.
these women know how to rock sun flare out of their asses.
these women love their families.
these women travel to meet their friends.
these women don't make first meetings awkward.
these women are already talking about the next time we walk.
these women feel like I've known them for a long time.
these women don't mind sharing their secrets.
these women don't mind dirty drinking glasses or don't mind cleaning them.
these women like wine & beer.
these women can't stop staring at Beyonce's thighs.
these women talk to strangers online & fly to their homes.
these women talk to strangers on campus & ask to take their picture.
these women are my friends.

-oxoxo
Erika.