The Obligatory Halloween Post

I've got another post to instant blog at some point, but in interest of keeping things timely, I'll do this first, the Halloween post!!!

Since I had nothing in mind in particular this year, I was going to reprise my Karkat costume again for this year... if I could find my candy corns headband!!! It's been several years since I had them out, and figured once again I'd have many new people at work to admire it. Don't think I ever posted a picture of it here, but after the first two years I ran that one, I found a white headband and a white glove and went as High Five Ghost from The Regular Show. That costume, while well received by my co-workers, was very top heavy and wanted to fall forward or backward all day. Anyway, the Friday before we were at the 99 Cent store and they had these eyeball antennas, and I was sold!!! As you can see, I also had one of my favorite shirts, the eyeball surfing through a ring of fire to go with it. One of my co-workers said, "Great costume, I almost didn't recognize you!!!"

The younger had the plan to go as Kevin from Welcome to Night Vale, a fairly easy costume in the clothing area, a lot trickier in the make-up department. I didn't get a day or even a half day off this year, so I had none of that, but lady friend stepped up and did an AMAZING job!!! I figured the older and her would go out to WeHo or somewhere like that for Halloween, (which sounds like a nightmare to me, but like something they'd do) but they didn't do anything. A few weeks before they'd gone to the Universal Studios event and taken the R.I.P. tour, so they got in on some anyway.

Of course, it was late by the time I got home, so the younger already had gone around the block behind us, and had a decent bag going.

I'd noticed that the street at the base of our hill is relatively flat and has a lot of houses on the way home, so we went down there to try our luck there. It wasn't that good, a lot of houses with no lights on, but we did get to go by one house we knew had a couple dogs that bark at everyone. We walk by, and the smaller one comes out barking, and he turns his scary face towards it, and it backs way off, that was hilarious. On the way back we took a video of it, but it's kind of dark.

One of the houses we went to told of a street I'd never heard of they'd taken their kid to that was hopping and pretty flat. We drove over, and it was pretty late by then, but we still did better there!!!

Farewell

Much has happened I haven't blogged of. I should do more of that, it helps chronicle things.

The older boy and his lady split up, I want to say around the end of last summer. I don't know what happened, and he hasn't been forthcoming with any information, so guess it's none of my business.

Sometime just a bit prior to that, while both of them had been out job hunting, he'd stopped in at the Navy recruiter's office. Good move, those guys are always hiring!!! They told him signing bonus this and hazard pay that and maybe even G.I. Bill, and he was all like, "Where do I sign???"

He scored quite high on the Asvab test, and they always like that!!! I'm writing this one the eve of his departure. He's signed up for a 4 year hitch, and 4 years of reserves. I have a feeling once they get him trained they'll make him good offers to stay active duty after the first 4 years.

A couple weeks back we had a get-together with my parents and sister & her kids. Last chance to get everyone together before he leaves, and he'll be gone on his birthday, so an early celebration. Went to John's Incredible Pizza. Good times.

It was on Good Friday, so the younger was out of school. He wanted to do SOMETHING since he had the day off. I suggested going to the beach for a bit before we met up with everyone. It was a good day for it, albeit the surf was tiny.

Make note of all that hair. It's as good as gone. Actually, he 'skinned himself tonight.

Every time we go to the beach, we end up digging a fairly epic hole.

It's gonna be strange without him around. He's been here for almost 19 years now. He came out pretty good in spite of our haphazard parenting. I took him out for dinner last night, just the two of us. Gave him what little fatherly advice I could come up with before he goes. I don't think he needs that much.

Anchors aweigh, my boy!!!

What if...

What if instead of Nathan Fillion being cast as Malcolm Reynolds, they went with Patrick Stewart instead???

Renaissance, Man!!!

Last weekend the boys and I did something I think about most every year, but until then never managed to do. We went to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire!!! It was a great time!!!

It gave us a chance to geek it up a little, too. I had a white shirt with a black and white pattern on either side of the opening that was plausible. The older broke out his ninja gauntlets and boots, tied bandannas around the ankles (they're kinda small now...) and found a black shirt with white on either side of the opening, kinda opposite to mine. The younger had the shoulder guard and cape from last year's Halloween, this time with a dark hoodie, that came out pretty good!!!

First place we saw right after entering was an eatery. However, they had a helmet on the table that the younger wanted to try on. Went pretty good with his outfit, actually!!!

Next place we stopped in at was a couple of brothers doing a juggling act!!! They were great, both at juggling and at the routine and theatrics!!! As witness to their juggling skills, the wooden battle ax wasn't part of their props, but something the kid in the front row was holding!!!

But THIS was one of the main attractions for the older boy!!!

Turkey leg!!! I bought myself a bratwurst with sauteed onions.

Down to the bone!!! Which he saved, originally thinking to give it to the neighbor's dog, but now he's thinking knife handle.

The younger had wanted to bring a bow and arrows... This worked out better, I think!!!

Aye, the only picture I got of myself!!!

Geese and goslings in the pond there. Another first, the grounds there I've been driving by for more than 20 years, probably, and this was the first time I've actually been in!!! I've got more pictures I may do as another post...

And there's the older, wearing the younger's shoulder guard & cape arrangement. Works nicely, huh???

The younger had to take it off, to go on the trampoline-bungee cord rig there!!!

Dr. Who reference FTW!!! There was a tad of that other places here and there, too. In fact, the older had been considering going as the Dr. to this event, too.

One of the other things we were impressed by was the falconry show.

Owls, hawks, and a peregrine falcon. The peregrine falcon went off on a little tangent a couple of times, going after other birds flying through the area!!!

The joust "to the death" was a great spectacle, too. Hint for photography, though, don't get a seat directly behind a pole!!!

After one was knocked from his steed, various other combat ensued. Not only implementing a bullwhip, but lighting it on fire!!! The first few cracks after dousing and igniting it produced impressive balls of fire!!!

What, exactly, are you proposing here???

Fairly late in the afternoon... he wasn't just putting it on, he was OUT!!!

Confused???

Steampunk goes just fine at the faire, too!!!

And one (well, two) last things as an attraction...

Pushed up,

pushed together,

and displayed nicely!!!

Christmas Shirts

One of the things I did up for both my boys for Christmas were several shirts.

Since the older boy is quite about the Homestuck these days, I made him up a couple with that theme. He uses the "§" §ection sign in his online dealings, so I incorporated that in two of the three shirts I made up for him.

The first one pictured here has the Homestuck logo with the word "SBURB" beneath it, only of course I changed out the "S" to "§". Interestingly, the logo somehow mirrored, so true Homestuck fans will notice it's hinky.

The next one is John Egbert's "Ghostbuster" shirt. He's already got the glasses. If you look close, you can see him on his monitor. Now he's the Cosplay kid, too!!!

For the younger, he wanted a Minecraft Creeper hoodie, but those are expensive!!! I made him up a shirt, and he loves it!!! Unfortunately, the iron on transfers I used, it said to wash it after applying to make it relax and not be so stiff. Well, it made the unprinted area really show up on this particular one. Might be because it's a cheap T-shirt, none of the others had that problem. Trust me, it looked a lot better before it was laundered. Oh yea, there's the much searched for Diamond Sword again!!!

I didn't get a shot of the actual shirt, but here's the design I did up for the older boy, Fluttershy, with the word "Shy", once again modified. I put it on a yellow shirt, and it kind of bled through a little.

For the younger, he wanted DJ Pon3 and her bass cannon. Again, the color of the shirt affected the transfer some, but it works OK.

Lastly, one of his friends gave him the Yoda shirt.

The Halloween Post

We interrupt our vacation pictures series to bring you the Halloween post!!!

So, a couple weeks back, my firstborn was telling me about one of the characters from Homestuck. "He's got candy corn horns..." Enough said!!! I'm going as Karkat Vantas!!! He's also got a sideways "69" on his shirt (the symbol for cancer) and types in all gray caps (I CONSIDERED DOING THIS POST IN ALL CAPS & CHANGING MY COLOR, BUT THOUGHT I WOULD QUICKLY TIRE OF THAT.) I used a couple of yellow cake decorating tips for the horns, with Chevy orange for the middle color. I was going to paint the tips white, but at the same time was still looking for a headband to put 'em on, as well as trying to figure out how to mount them. First plausible one I found was antennas, so I clipped them off and held the rig together with wire nuts on the ends, painted white. Will Karkat play at work??? No one knew who I was supposed to be (or what Homestuck was, for that matter), but everyone recognized 'em as candy corns and loved 'em!!!

In keeping with the theme, I made horrorterror dogs for dinner, from the Eat Mesa cookbook. Interesting and makes for quite a visual.

The firstborn had been talking about going as Indiana Jones, which surprised me a bit that Indy would still play today. Didn't get it together, so he wore a wig he'd picked up, and took my sledge hammer and was Thor. I was asking him if he was going to do anything else with his clothing. He answered while I was taking a drink of water... "No, it's casual Thors-day." I about died choking on my water!!!

The younger had the idea for his costume since early summer. He got a white hoodie, and wanted a red cape added to one arm. His brother asks him, "Are you going to be cosplaying as Enzo from Assassin's Creed??? Yes, that was what he had in mind!!! I took a closer look at the design, and sacrificed a threadbare, falling apart leather jacket and an old belt to make the shoulder guard, with the cape attached. Over the weekend, we stopped by the 99 cent store for some wrist blades (of course, they weren't wrist blades when we bought them, some modification was necessary) and as a bonus they had some wrist gauntlets. I think his came out the best!!! He's the cosplay kid!!!

Pretty geeky this year, too!!!