Topic: Happy Halloween!

I know it's a ways off, but things are slow here so I thought maybe this might stir up some discussion.

Anyone excited? I know I am!! It's so nice to see Halloween stuff at the store now. The costumes, the candy, the decorations. There's multi-colored lights this year so I can decorate my porch better! As usual the SW costumes are just suits with paint on them and plastic masks, and they're very overpriced. If I was going to spend 50 dollars on that kind of low quality kid's costume I'd just make it myself.

So far the only decorations I have up are some garland, a little ghost statue I put on the bookshelf, and some candles on the table. I plan to put up the lights at some point, and I have window clings I plan to put up sometime. And I have some other misc stuff, more garland, bat lights, etc.

As for my costumes, this year my husband is going as Michael Jackson in his black suit and red shirt Smooth Criminal outfit. And I'm making myself a blue sparklie flapper-style dress of my own design. I'm draping it, and it's on the bias cut. My first time doing something like that. So far I really like how it's turning out, my only worry is it won't fit in with the 30's-40's era. But it does look a lot like the red dress worn by one of the dancers in the Smooth Criminal portion of the movie Moonwalker, so I guess it fits. I got shoes yesterday and spent forever cutting up a metal shingle or two to make "steel toes" of sorts so I can do the tippy-toe stand, which I'm actually good at. I have white elbow gloves already, and I plan to get fishnets sometime. For my husband, we have a fedora (from when we did his Indiana Jones costume), the suit came yesterday, we have a black tie, so now we need a red shirt, and I need to see what kind of really small medical tape (for the fingers) I can find. Cause they don't really look like bandaids to me. I could be wrong, though. We also need to figure out how to do the spats. I figure I'll make a template, then get some plasticy white fabric and sew them myself, insert some black snaps. And he'll just wear his normal shoes.

And in general this is just one of my favorite times of year. The leaves are changing, the air is getting a tad chilly sometimes, there's that certain crisp smell. The days get shorter and the nights longer. Stupid kids and lawnmowers don't start making loud noises when I'm trying to sleep (cause of work I go to bed at 6:30 and hope to be asleep by 7:30). It makes driving to work a bit of a pain, but I can drive in the dark alright. And people start putting up their decorations, the bugs start going away, the heat starts going away. It's just a really nice time of year.

So who else is decorating? How do you plan to decorate? Any plans for Halloween yet? What are you guys wearing?

Well usually myself and some friends go out and collect cans instead of candy for the local food bank.  I went as Rorschach and got some interesting reactions from little kids.

But anyway, this year I'm going to a Skillet concert on Halloween.  So the only sort of that stuff will be the song "Monster".  :P

My friends and I are dressing up as the Ghostbusters this year. We also plan to somehow break into every major celebrity mansion on Long Island, not sure how that will go down.

You're like my sister Miba, Halloween was/is her favorite time of year too. Only now I don't think she goes much in for costumes like she did as a child. Around where I live people come from all over North Carolina to Franklin street in Chapel Hill to promenade around in costumes on Halloween night. They're trying to scale it down though because it was getting to big for the town of Chapel Hill. Ninth Street near duke University in Durham is hoping to pick up some the slack though.

I guess I'll carve the pumpkins as usual (since my family is too art impared to do anything better then an old fashioned triangle face XD), but I'm not sure what yet. And I'll...sit at home and work, I guess. If I have free time, being the Nintendork that I am, maybe I'll sit down and play Luigi's Mansion. It's got a Halloween atmosphere and its not so hard that I can't beat it in one evening.

I'm pretty excited. My Indy gear is coming along well, and now that I have a great whip its going to look good. I still need to get the holster and whip holder, which I should be doing within the week.

However, since Ive been Indy every Halloween since I was 13 (and several times before that. Although one year I was the Grail Knight from Last Crusade, does that count?) Im thinking of doing a Temple of Doom variant. Meaning my shirt sleeve would be ripped off, the back of the shirt would be ripped apart from the whipping he got, there would be alot of sweat and blood, and torn up pants as well. I would also be walking around with a machete. Thoughts?

(Note: Im prepared to start working out again to look that good.)

or

it's hard to get that jacked in the next 5-6 weeks. i suggest one more year of traditional indy, then next year for halloween or a convention you do the ToD variant.

Ooh I know what you could do! You could be a MELTING FACE NAZI. Well, I think that'd be awesome anyways.

Quick poll everyone; has anyone ever gotten those orange and black caramel with peanut butter candy on Halloween, and if so, do you like them? Call me crazy, but I, in fact, like those things.

you mean candy corn.

T_T Its not candy corn. I'm not crazy enough to ask if people like candy corn. What I'm talking about comes in orange and black wrappers, and its a caramel, but theres peanut butter in the center. And I've only met one person besides myself who likes them.

I think I know what you mean. Is it like taffy?

oh i know what you mean, but i don't know what it's called.

but i like candy corn. it's a good energy boost.

Candy corn makes me sick after a few. I prefer Reese's Pumpkins. The king sized ones are really good, but they're very hard to find.

Halloween is my family's favorite time of the year. We love haunted houses, corn mazes and all the fall activities. The neighborhood kids always come to my house first for trick or treating, I give them glow necklaces and lots of candy of course.  My husbands birthday is on Halloween. We always decorate and have a party, there is usually a keg and a band.

Wow, sounds awesome. I need to go Halloweenin' with you. :D

I'm a big baby at 32, still dress up for Halloween, my kids give me an excuse as I go trick or treating with them, and even spend my day at work/school wearing at least a face makeup. Been a KISS fan for a long time, and I've been Gene Simmons several, several times. I think I'm going to be my own version of Ace Frehley this year for a change.

Well, my costumes are nearly done being made, and they're looking very good! The only problem is that it might be too cold to wear them. I was going to find the weather thread but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, it was actually snowing a little yesterday and they're predicting snow for tonight and tomorrow morning. :( It's early October! I don't want winter already!

Also, on the halloween cereal, what does everyone like best? Between Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Booberry? My favorite is Count Chocula followed by Booberry. I don't like Frankenberry. The new Halloween Capn Crunch is cool cause it turns your milk green, but otherwise it's nothing special.

See now I loooove the new Captain Crunch.. and my order goes Boo Berry, Frankenberry, and then Count Chocula a distant third.  Speaking of, thanks for finding that other box of the Frankenberry.  Turns out I was wrong about his name, though.  Fruit Brute was a sort of werewolf themed citrus partner to the other cereals.

Mmmm.  Green milk.

Shocking news time: I've never ever had a bowl of Boo Berry, Franken Berry, or Count Chocula in my ENTIRE life. And I had my first bowl of Captain Crunch less then 6 months ago.

Same here. Although Ive had capn crunch a few times, its good. My favorite cereal of all time is Honey Nut Clusters. Its so ridiculously good i would have like 4 bowls a day, but naturally i can never find it in stores now... But Frosted Cheerios is also amazing. Berry Berry Kix was my life when i was growing up too.

Valthonin, try this: http://www.postcereals.com/cereals/honey_bunches_of_oats/#

Kix was the shiz when i grew up, but my #1 cereal of all time is Golden Grahams.

Had snow here too, Miba, today lol. It's WAYYY too early. I hope it warms up a bit at least for the next weeks. Not fun to look like a snowman under the Halloween costume.
:P

Count Chocula's are nice indeed. We have some similar ones here, "Nesquick"... not exactly the same, but I think they're still pretty good. When I was a kid I used to really like Cheerios and Alpha-bits, lol.

Not to eat, though, rather to be creative with them. I'd make necklaces with Cheerios cereals, and I don't know if you got them there, but Alpha-Bits cereals are shaped like alphabet letters. So I used to write all kinds of things all over my mom's table with them. When I couldn't find the letter I wanted, I'd break parts of other letters with my teeth and "cheat"-make them.
:P

I've had Alpha-bits, though I was never very fond of them. Due to...strict up-bringings though I would've been in major trouble to write with them like that, dry or not, so I never did so.

Ive tried it, everyone recommends that. Honey Nut Clusters is like, 10x that cereal. No joke.

Ah. Yeah I can understand. Forgot to mention mine were dry when I did that, lol.

Count Chocula he was my hero, but then again i was a little fatty for Franken Berry

On the subject of monster cereal, has anyone seen the Robot Chicken bit where the Creature from the Black Lagoon see's all the monster cereal and gets jealous because he doesn't have his own cereal line and therefore creates his own?

Admiral Ackbar cereal would make a good Halloween cereal.

lol. What flavor would that be?

I think it would be a big mistakie. :)

It'd be the NEW! rotting shrimp flavor. But don't forget to tear apart the box for the PRIZE INSIDE! Instead of those cheap little codes they print inside the box for you to use online, y'know?

On that note, you know what I always hated about going to fast food places in October as a kid? The prize, which was always this tiny ass pail your food would come in. And the idea behind that pail would be "well its to carry your candy in!", but you know what? Anyone above the age of 2 would just get beat up for having such a lame, little thing to put candy in.

I agree, lol. Even the plastic pumpkin wasn't enough back when I was a kid. We'd trick or treat so much, my bro and I, and our friends, that we'd end up with garbage bags full!
:P

Nowadays though, there's not as many people celebrating it and offering candy at their houses. And it's earlier too, and much shorter. I remember trick or treating for hours. Now it's like between 6 and 7 O'Clock. So sometimes it's not even dark outside. Trick or treating in the dark was part of the fun!

I miss that time. I'll have to go again when my little one is big enough to do it without being terrified, lol.

halloween's a saturday this year, so i'll definitely be doing stuff all night long.

Sounds great. Good idea.

It's fun to break the ordinary and do stuff until really late when you're not forced to wake up early the next day.
:D

The frost killed a lot of pumpkins, our store lost 300 dollars worth. The produce guys were hauling them back to throw them away by the cartload. I do hope there's some good ones left, I like carving pumpkins.

Good thing I don't have to worry about that here, we've only come close to freezing once this fall. Forecasts call for it to be 100 today, actually.

I still have no idea what I'm going to carve. I want it to be at least somewhat relevent for the kids to get, so my sister won't complain about me carving pumpkins no one else "gets". >.>;

Oh no! I hope it didn't do that here too. I was planning on having a dozen of them of all sizes, carved and lit, in a corner, for our Halloween Party.

The ones that were kept inside are still good. I dunno about your area or stores, but our store had an inside display. And I think some of the ones that were on the bottom/in the middle of the outside displays might still be good. Our produce manager didn't say they lost ALL the pumpkins, just a lot. Just to be sure though I'd buy them as soon as possible. I'm going to be looking for some next week, probably Monday.

Ah ok. My friends are each supposed to bring one, so I'll ask them to try to get them as early as they can. I get my first pay this week (new job), so I'll go check for my own pumpkins then. There's a little French bakery near my home too, they make the most awesome pumpkin pie. Probably awesome because filled with butter and sugar (and calories, awww), but it's sooooo good.

I never liked pumpkin pie. I mean I'll eat it if someone puts it on the table, but I don't really like it very much. Not unless it's still moist and there's a lot of cool whip, which is odd since I normally don't like cool whip. But it just seems to go with pumpkin pie.

Speaking of pumpkins, anyone like the pumpkin spice egg nog? It tends to grow on you after a while. It's alright, but the regular is better, and we sell more too. We sell regular about 4-1 against the pumpkin spice.

Around here we always buy one for Thanksgiving but really, no one ever hardly eats it. Everyone only has one slice and thats it (minus me, I really don't like the stuff). Its a big waste of money, but if we don't have it my sister will totally flip out and not even eat dinner with us.

Those totally rock and are yet one more thing that we don't get here in Japan! Halloween used to be my #1 favorite "holiday" but living here it just doesn't do it for me... actually most of the holidays stink here :(

It'd be pretty lame not to celebrate Halloween, so I feel for ya. Unfortunitly though, even here in the states Halloween is dissapearing. Ever since 9-11 theres been a steep decline of trick or treaters around here because its too "dangerous". 'Cause you know, the terrorists are going to start attacking residential areas next. @_@;

So these days parents just take their kids to parties, where I dunno if candy is even given out. If it is, it takes the fun out of going around to different places to get a large variety.

I must admit, up until a couple years ago when I still went out (in costume of course!) and begged for candy I always could make it last until Thanksgiving. I basically would ration it to myself on a day by day basis, which allowed me to get a candy fix, but not eat it all at once. Or get sick from it. XD

Last thing, out of curiousity, has anyone ever gotten an infamous lame treat? I actually have...a religious pamphlete. It was along the lines about how celebrating Halloween will make me go to Hell and I should instead go to church on Halloween and pray. I never got a can of tuna though, thankfully.

A sandwich. Most of our neighbors were also relatives. Our Aunt would make us come in and sit down and eat a sandwich. I guess that isn't a bad treat, but we were dying to be out Trick or Treating. We were not smart enough to skip her house. :)

pennies.

and yeah trick-or-treating has lost its effect, last year almost everyone in the neighborhood went by car. it wasn't even that cold out.

Trick or treating by car? Now that's different indeed... I really prefer to go by foot. It's too fun to see groups of people in different costumes, lol.

For bad surprises at Halloween I remember one year, I went trick or treating. I had braces and decided to try a toffee... The toffee stuck to my braces, broke part of them and the brace part cut my gum and was just planted there in my gum. Had to go to the dentist the next day to fix that.

That hurt bad. It was the last time I had braces or toffees, lol.
:P

i still went trick or treating with braces, but i managed to evade that scenario when eating stickier candies.

We went trick-or-treating lots and there were always lots of other people too. As far as I know there's been no decline. But then I haven't gone in about 5-6 years. I know the mall has a big thing where there's a line and the kids go store to store to get candy. I don't know if there's still a lot of trick-or-treating going around now though, I live kinda separate from a lot of other neighborhoods and the only kids we got last year were the neighbor kids. But they probably all go to the bigger neighborhoods. We did that, we'd go to the rich side of town.

I have a ton of siblings so after we were done trick-or-treating we'd lay out our candy and inventory it, then we'd trade. Of course the reeses and hersheys were always worth a lot. They were worth at least two or three sticks of gum or hard candies. Trading was fun. One of my brothers doesn't like chocolate so he'd trade them off for suckers and stuff.

I always hated that no one ever gave out lots of chocolate. It was all stupid stuff like toffee, hard candy, suckers, popcorn balls, gum. Hardly anyone ever gave out reeses or hersheys and those that did were my favorite people. So I decided that I would always be one of the good people and give out chocolate. I give out snickers, peanut butter cups, hersheys bars, butterfingers, crunch bars, etc.

I also loved the houses that really got into it. Set up the yard, dressed up for the door, etc. One house I remember even had a mini haunted house set up that you had to go through to get candy.

A few times we went to old people communities cause the old people were so happy to have kids come by.

lol, good. It's really not a pleasurable experience. :P

The mini haunted house setup sounds great. Wish I could do that. When you live at the 2nd floor in an apt building you dont have 56 options, lol.

One thing I decided to do once, was to walk around dressed and wearing makeup (I was one of the KISS guys of course) and GIVE candy to the other trick or treaters. It confused people a little but THAT was fun too, lol.

I totally forgot about apartment buildings. We never really went to those. In that case it is perfectly understandable not to do up the outside of the house as there isn't one.

Walking around giving out candy is an interesting idea. I think I'd be confused too at first, but I wouldn't have cared, the more candy the better. lol

I do remember seeing one guy wandering around holding a little box showing people the finger he'd found at the scene of an accident.... and then it would move like it was haunted or still alive or something. Took me a few minutes to figure out it was his finger poking through a hole in the bottom of the box.