People have asked me...

How my Halloween turned out.

It was very fun. I had 98 kids - which is a lot for my neighborhood - most people say they get about 30 to 50 kids. But a lot of cars stopped to let the kids come to the door. I did one ghost to look like St. Catherine of Bolgna's in-corrupt body - only all in white. The kids loved it. Despite the windy conditions, all of the candles stayed lit. (It was too windy for the dry ice.)

One little kid yelled to his friends as he left the door - "Hey! He's giving out candy by the handful!" Then screams and kids running up the steps. Kids and their parents all remarked about how cool the decorations were, and what a nice house I have. The next day I saw one of the kids walking by the house, pointing out all the architectural details to his friend.

All of the kids were well behaved and very polite, and all of them said "thank you", and a few said, "I love your house!" The costumes were mostly fairy princesses for girls, or vampires and super heroes for the boys. No one was dressed as a sexual object - as most blogs were decrying before the holiday - no Brittneys or Lindseys. Even the teenagers without costumes were well behaved and polite.

It was great fun - just as Halloween should be. Wait until they see what I do next year.

Why?

The reasons why I may not always post comments on your blog:

A) You have word verification on. Sometimes I have trouble with that.

B) If you are not on blogger, I may not want to go through all the steps of posting my email and all the other hoops you have to go through.

C) The post was too long to read.

D) The post did not interest me.

E) I don't visit your blog.

F) I was pressed for time.

G) I didn't feel like it.

H) You never comment on my blog.

Seriously, if you use comment moderation, you don't really need to use word verification. Word verification is just annoying.

Crazy Halloween stories...

To read some crazy Halloween stories, visit Spirit Daily - the Catholic tabloid is busting with weird stories today. LOL!

[Photo: In-corrupt/mummified remains of a man from the Capuchin Ossuary at Palermo. I mention it in this post here.]

An incorrupt saint...

Photo of the incorrupt body of St. Catherine of Bologna, seated upright on a throne.

Spooky...

I'm so freakin' pumped!

I worked on my ghosts out front today. They are huge billowing gauze creations, topped with realistic skulls - they loom 10 to 15 feet in the air. One flies from the house as if he is emerging through the wall. Another floats above the Tina Crab tree, while the other hovers above the ivy hedge. It is really dramatic. Vans with kids stop and look, kids on bikes are in awe, even seniors slow down and chuckle, a couple of guys in pick-ups stopped to ask how I did it. People are liking it. Wait until tomorrow night when the white jack-o-lanterns go out, and the luminaries - 18 of them are lighted! Omigosh - and the dry-ice fog! I'm so scared!!!

Okay! I'm really into it! It is so Day of the Dead!

I'm a Halloweenie!

Hollowed out already.

I went to Target to get props - they had no fake cobwebs - just about everything was sold out. So I bought a fogger and a strobe "lightning" machine. I took it all back - the fogger had too many warnings and the strobe was just too disco.

I did buy some skulls to mount on my stakes. I bought white bags and Shabat candles for the luminaries, and Wednesday morning I will probably go out to buy the dry ice to make my own fog. Oh - I bought real pumpkins too - white ones. Of course I bought candy - but I capitulated and bought the normal stuff most people buy, Snickers, Hersheys, Mounds, etc. I was going to give out holy cards of the saints as well, but considered everyone may not be Catholic. Plus, this isn't my old job. (I had an All-Saints party each year at the store and gave out candy and holy cards and religious trinkets - people loved it. Kids would come in costumes of their favorite saint and we had a coloring contest with prizes. I don't think they did it this year.)

I'm no longer in the mood to give out candy. I'll do it, but maybe I'll just throw the candy out the window as the kids come up the stairs. That way I won't have to talk to them and say how cute they are and all that crap.

The World Series

BOSTON WINS THE WORLD SERIES AGAIN!!!!!!!!

I didn't even know they were playing. Is that why the Vikings lost yesterday? (Now how did I know that? Where's Cathy when you need her?)

Blog hiatus... yeah, right.

Cathy said she's on blog hiatus. Yet here she is, standing on the bar when she was out and about last night - she's in the black dress - I have no idea who the other woman is. Cathy - get some help!