Tuesday, October 31, 2006

In Thedianaverse Halloween is not costume optional


The Tex Witch Project

Princess Daisy
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Posted by Picasa
Not Just Kid Stuff anymore


The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore. Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs.

Fuller story here


Vote these jackasses out. Remember any vote for any Republican at any level will allow these people into your bedroom. All Republicans are suspect and they are all bad guys. Every single one of them. There are no "good" Republicans - no matter a nice or normal they seem, there isn't any Republican running for any office at any level that is not a danger to you. Vote a straight Democratic ticket and contact your local Democrats to find out the score on races such as local School Board races, City Council races, Clerk of Court, Judges - any race where they do not run with party identification. It matters. The little guy running for City Council will effect you much more than the big guy running for Senate.

For my local Wake County Readers: The Democrats Running on November 7
Happy Halloween!!

Baby, its cold outside or how I learned that start time is a nebulous concept at best

The much overthought costume

(with thanks to Alphagal who gave the most useful bridesmaids' gift any bride ever gave to her attendants. Totally. Alphagal looked after her girls bigtime)

I wanted to make sure that I got to the event on time. When I left at a quarter to six I was afraid I might be late. I went to where I was pretty sure the venue was and discovered that it was not where I thought it was at all, it was a bar but it was the wrong bar! Damn it. Did you know downtown Raleigh has a lot of bars? I was shocked too.

Now, I was not going to get out of the car, I would have driven around all night before I got out and went in someplace to ask. There is nothing sadder than an orphaned, costume wearer in a sea of people not dressed in costume. I’m dumb I’m not daft. I finally got my shite together and found the street where the event was actually located but then turned the wrong way on it when I found it and ended up not where I wanted to be. I felt in my heart it was a right hand turn and that the venue could only be in that direction. It wasn’t. Not even kind of. I am not very bright and I was driving around in a little red riding hood costume. In broad daylight.

I smartened up fast though. I was thinking “Damn, this thing is going to be under way and there is going to be nowhere to park and I’m going to wind up parking a million miles away and probably going to end up mugged. . When I finally rolled up at ten after I was able to park at the gate. I was the first one there. I was so early the cops milling around the entry had the time to check my ID. I haven’t had my ID checked in years. I’m old and I look old. I’m not going to pass for under twenty-one again in this life time. I’m pretty sure I was older than the cop IDing me.

Okay. 6:10 pm. nobody doing nothing. The first of the three bands hadn’t started warming up and a quick look around turned up me, myself and I. Did they even bother to advertise this? I learned about it from a random guy at the dog park. I never saw any official notice of it out in the world until I searched for it online.

I was the first person to sign up for the costume contest. I then decided that instead of wandering around by my lonesome in broad daylight in a little red riding hood costume that I and my costume should eat something over priced. I went into one of the hosting establishments and after having to admit I was there by myself, was seated. I was waited on by The Littlest Angel. While I was waiting for my food I watched a muted, ancient Dracula movie. I idly wondered why the Whedonverse vamps never wore tuxedos.

I over tipped the Littlest Angel and went on my way. At least by now it was darker and I noticed a few more costumed people milling around outside.

Darth Vader and Leia

The Power Plant needs closer over sight!

Rome lives.

He's game!



I had repeated moments of panic because I would suddenly notice I could not see through the mask. I could but it was a matter of training myself to focus in the right place, actually through and X shape in the mask where the eye holes were supposed to be.

Suffering for my art

The Village People didn’t hit the stage until close to ten; I did not win the costume contest: I should have though. Some bimbo in an acid washed mini skirt stuffed a pillow up her top and called herself Brittany made the cut instead. This guy was the big winner:



I had a great time, my costume got a lot of compliments and the Village People still rawk. Go HERE for the rest of the pixs.

The Village People!

Monday, October 30, 2006

Two views one story

FAUX News.com

The British Government is preparing to fire a new round of global warming alarmism at the U.S. next week.

CNN.com

What is not in doubt is that at the scienctific evidence of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is now overwhelming.


It's front page above the fold news at CNN.com, at the FAUX.com it's hidden the very bottom of their "science" page. Along with the story about big foot.
Weekend

I’m going to talk about the whole Village People Halloweenpoloza, but I’ll do it tomorrow on ya know, Halloween.

When did weekends turn into forty-eight hours of errands and chores? I thought about that while I was running up and down the stairs to do the laundry and cleaning the bathroom and emptying the dishwasher. I spend the whole week looking forward to this?. I mean TGIF and all but damn, Yay its’ Friday!! Wooooo! I get to rake the yard! Woo-Hoooo!

My whole weekend was spent moving from one chore to the other. Do the laundry, clean the bathroom, do the grocery shopping, run errands, rake the leaves, mow the lawn, wash the dog and when you finished with that, carve the pumpkin, don’t forget to take the trash out and deal with the recycling and walk the dog.

I recognized that every single person over the age of about 19 does all of this and more every weekend and I should whine less but dayum.

You know I was actually kind of disappointed to wake up Sunday morning and find it sunny and warm and glorious. It mean because “Wow I can now do all those outdoor things!!” I have been able to avoid because it’s been raining and or cold for the last couple of weekends. I really didn’t want to mow or rake the yard. I thought I could get away with a just little light raking but some of the leaves where way up at the “top” of the yard and when I tried to rake them to the curb they just sort of spread out and made the yard look worse than before and it was taking a long time and seemed to be taking way more energy to complete the task then it really needed to ... so I decided that what I really should so is just mow it - another job I have been happy to not do while it was raining.

I have to say though, mowing the yard when its coolish and there is a nice cool breeze blowing is a much better experience than mowing that same yard when its 95 degrees and calm. I think that it is mostly due to the lack of sweat getting in my eyes. Dealing with discomfort bordering on pain does make you complete the job with a song in your heart. Even though the weather is nicer for mowing, I can’t wait for the neighborhood yard man to finally throw in the towel and give me a break. I might pay him though to scalp the yard for me, he has a really good lawn mower that doesn’t seem to take it personally when he lowers the setting. Mine hates it when I touch it like that. I suck at scalping the yard anayway, and it takes a while to make sure all the wheels are on the same height and the mower is level. I never do it without ending up with a few weird yard circles from the uneven, unbalanced blade - oddly no UK UFO seekers have come to check them out. It always appears to me from the street, at least that the circles are at least visible from the moon.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

HAPPY SUNDAY !!!!!!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

HAPPY SATURDAY !!!!!

Friday, October 27, 2006

Friday Pre-Halloween Cat Blogging

He knew AKA Republicans are Evil

If you do not vote a straight democratic ticket this will happen again and it will happen on a smaller scale in your town. You must find out the party affiliation of every candidate up for election, it doesn't matter if it is a non-partisan race oh, right, there is no such thing as "non-partisan" race any longer. You must not vote for any Republican for any position for any reason. Dog catcher, Clerk of Court, City Manager. It doesn't matter. The Republican Party is the party of torture and lies and corruption. If the candidate is running as a Republican they have given tacit approval to these methods. Pray for Them, Do Not Vote For Them.

The VP of torture...

Cheney was asked in an interview with conservative radio host Scott Henning on Tuesday whether he agreed "a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives."
"It's a no-brainer for me," the vice president replied.


definition of Waterboarding

The subject is strapped to a board and either tipped back or lowered into a body of water until he or she believed that drowning was imminent. The tortured person then is removed from the water and revived. If deemed necessary, the routine is repeated.


White House denies Cheney hailed 'water boarding'

President Bush said of Cheney's comments, said, "This country doesn't torture. We're not going to torture." He spoke at an Oval Office meeting Friday>


Bush Signs Terrorism Measure


the new law imposes tight limits on defendants' traditional courtroom rights, including restrictions on their ability to examine the evidence against them, to challenge their incarceration and to exclude evidence gained through witness coercion.
Doh!

After consulted my fashion adviser AKA Alphagal about LRRH accessories, I made tracks to Wallyworld to do a little shoe shopping. I was following up on her suggestion that maryjanes would be an advisable shoe choice for the costume - and she was right, in my "research" I saw many LRRH images and in almost all of them the character was portrayed as wearing maryjanes.

So I went shopping. I pulled into Wallworld and headed to the shoe department and lo and behold actually found maryjanes! Woo-Hoo, not in my size and as it turned out they were children's shoes, but still. maryjanes in the hizzahouse! I soldiered on and found actual adult sized maryjanes! Still not my size, Damn. So I wandered around some more thinking I could find something close in my size. No, that was not to be. I did get to over hear some woman whining loudly and repeatedly in a very annoying tone (she totally had the voice and inflection of a two year old who needed a nap) about wanting to find snow boots and a random guy addressing her from several isles over "It ain't even gonna snow for months if it does at all, you won't find them now anyways". She shut up.

Okay, so I looked around Wallyworld some more. I found some tights. I put the tights down somewhere and lost them. I found some more tights. I also went to the Halloween section to see if they might have a rubber wolf mask, because I could wear that and achieve actual scariness while not having to over think hair and make up. Sadly, no rubber wolf masks or much of anything at all.

I went back to the shoe department and found the wrong sized shoes again and decided I wasn't going to be wearing them for long anyway and I got ready to leave, I was now running late. I was almost up to the check out when I remembered - I all ready have a pair of maryjanes and they fit! And all my wandering around was for not and I was now really late. Damn it.
The Dixie Chicks

Have a new movie, a documentory called Shut Up and Sing go here to watch the trailor.
Question

I will use the men's restroom if it is the only one open - if I have to go I have to go. I have no problem useing the room marks as Men's and I deride other woman who turn up their noses at the prospect. I decided that I will need to wear heavy tights or something under my costume, the question is, I know where I can get cheap long john pants that would be perfect, color, texture, the whole thing ,the problem being they are mens cheap long john pants.

The woman's long johns pants selection at the that store are in pink, blue, yellow or flowered. Also most come only in "Olsen Twin" or 3x. The men's long johns are closer to my size (neither "Olsen Twin" or 3x) but they are men's long johns! And all that that entails. Am I being too precious about a minor detail?

The alternate is buying heavy tights that may cost more and will not double as emergency long john pants. Yes, in the past I have had "long john pants" emergencies.
TGIF

Have you carved your pumpkin yet? Of course you have all ready brought yours home by now and are no doubt just trying to narrow down your design choices. I am here to help. Go HERE and experiment with your designs to your little hearts desire. It has two settings “free hand” and “straight edge”. Both will give you results that are startling close to what you would get free handing it on your own pumpkin. The site gives you the chance to experiment with your ideas before you have to take a knife in hand. I’m been practicing a lot. I think I’ll just print out the design that works the best and tape it to the front of my pumpkin. I suck as a pumpkin carver and my jack-o’-lanterns always turn out looking like I lent the knife to a toddler, pointed him in the right direction and then left the room.

But. Yay! Halloween! The gateway to the holiday season. Like it or not.

The office is all ready swimming in Halloween candy. I decided that I’m not going to hand out candy this year again. I have been handing out coupons for Wendy’s milkshakes, but I’m over that and I end up with a lot of coupons I can’t use because as it turns out that Wendy’s milkshakes kind of suck and the kiddy size that the coupons are for, are just a pain in the ass. So. What to give out? I don’t want to hand out candy because I never end up with that many trick or treaters and so I have candy to eat and that is a bad thing and if I buy candy I won’t eat, yes, it exists a candy I won’t eat, I end up having to throw the left overs away and that just seems wasteful. I came up with a better idea:



Not only not candy! But almost good for you, almost because it does come pre-buttered with some sort of likely petroleum based butter flavored popcorn topping. The box I picked up at Sam’s Club has 40 single serve bags and there is no way I’m going to get 40 kids at my door. In preparation, I have been sampling the popcorn prior to Halloween… I wouldn’t want to dump bad popcorn on the kids! That would be wrong.

I suggest the little bags though. They are exactly the right size for one person sitting down to eat popcorn and because there isn’t much of it, you finish it quickly and it stays hot till the end. It’s really good.

Speaking of Halloween. I have plans!, well, not for the day itself. It’s a school night, but this weekend, Attention Local Raleigh Readers!! - Saturday, The Village People are coming to Raleigh for a free* (provided it doesn’t rain, if it’s a rain out its going to be held inside and then there is a charge) concert!

The real live Village People! are playing! In person! I’m giddy and I’m not even an actual fan. But they are going to be here and I am going to see them! Anyway. I’m going to dress up and go, disounts for those in costume! I’m going to be Little Red Riding Hood.



A quick GIS educated me to more modern costuming for the prospective adult ‘Hood


Yeah. Not really me. I need something between Little Red child 'hood and Little Red Riding 'Ho. I’m going to be old fashioned. I’m going for a more theatrical version of Little Red… it’s all about achieving vermisilitude. I may dress Dogger up as The Wolf. For more info about The Village People and the whole to-do - Monsterbash