What do I do when I am

sad?

I watch Firefly. So, right now, I am watching the very safe, one season only (and a movie) Firefly series. I will not think about all the &^%^%* sons of ^%$ ( that messed up Doctor Who for me. )

I could go to Amazon UK and buy the episodes I have not seen on BBC America (cause I cursed myself with that PAL player!!!) But do I want to make myself anymore upset any sooner?

Back to watching Mal kick some goramm ....

Anyway, I hate TV, have I mentioned that today?

It all started with that goramm lolcat post, I thought it was harmless...maybe they are evil!!!! Good try, I am still going to post pointless LOLcat posts :)

Doctor Who?

Who the !*&$ is that?!

Seriously, have you seen the new actor they cast for the Doctor?

You are kidding right? Matt Smith!! M-a-t-t- S-m-i-t-h? I loved him in Queer as Folk (UK edition, before the US version, which like the US version of The Office, I have never seen.) He is a child!! And WAY too cute!!!(Someone wanted a younger audience and I can only guess..... you should not let the marketing people tell you who to cast!!!) This is madness!!!

As I am sure you have guessed, the Frog Queen does not like the new Doctor - no, no, no. For the record I did not like David Tennant either at first - but he grew on me and now I think he is/was better than Chris (who, was also a great Doctor and a much better match for the Rose(Billie Piper) character than David.) Back to, yeah, not sure I am going to be able to handle this new Doctor. We will see.

This might be my last season of Dr. Who.....sad, very sad.

BTW - DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE R-RATED LANGUAGE!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

Holloweenifing the living room

On that same note - if you check out the Davis House blog you will see my latest decorating idea to keep Halloween in the house all year long!

I like my new word :)

A Halloweenified Christmas

Yes, I am making up my own words - thank you very much :)

Anyway, always a fan of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow blog, but not good at keeping up on it. I discovered it again today and read a post from December that has inspired me to finally get my act together and do the Christmas display that husband and I have been talking about for years.

A Christmas Carol
A few years ago we took a grim reaper with a finger pointing down at an Ebenezer Scrooge tombstone we carved. You would be surprised how many people stopped for that one. In fact I can remember that Christmas morning sitting in the living room and seeing all these flashes. There were a group of people out in front of the house taking pictures.

Ah, warms the heart.

Anyway, husband and I have been talking about making a projection prop that is the talking door knocker for the front of the house. I just have to carve an oversized door knocker, get my talented voice actor friend to read it and film it, run it through the magic computer software...an viola! I will have the ultimate Christmas decoration.....for me :)

Then we could dress up our grave keeper in old-timey clothes and have him coming up to the door! Then I just need a ghost of Christmas present and past. This is going to be so cool.

And cold and rainy....it rains in October....but it really rains (and as of lately) snows a bit in December...this might be tricky :)

I guess I should tell husband before he finds out about this by reading my blog.

Although, so far, not the worst form of communication we have ever used :)

Looking for donations

As we mentioned we kinda rescued the haunt awards last year as they were in danger of extinction. At that time we tried to work with someone else last year on a form of the awards, that would include prizes, but that went horribly wrong (Lots of misunderstandings.) So we are just going to go our merry way and ask the people we purchase from for donations, and if any of the vendors they work with can donate.

Rather than actual donated items, I am asking vendors for gift certificates. Mostly to reduce the cost for us of having to send all the items out to the winners (Bucky's are heavy!) No promises yet of what winners will receive, but we are doing what we can.

If anyone knows a vendor that can donate 8 items, 4 for first place, and 4 for the runners up, please let me know. If you know of a company that you think might donate, just let me know and I would be happy to contact them.

I am contacting people we have a connection with

Skeleton Store

Mr. Skeleton

Haunted Attraction Magazine

Mini Spotlights

EFX TEK

Pale Eye Productions

Ghost Ride

Midnight Syndicate

Ghoulish Gallery

lithograph printer who wants to remain anonymous
(16x20 print of your haunt - provided you have a high res photo)

Home Depot (I work with them for my day job, knowing what I do, I would be very surprised if they donated, but I am giving it a try.)

Outside vendors (If anyone has an in with any of these vendors I would appreciate the help!)

The Spirit Store/Spencers

Buy Costumes

Dark Candles

Fright Catalog

Any other ideas? Just let me know, I will be sending letters and emails out next week and following up with phone calls. Wish me luck!

Pumpkin Heads!

So, this Xbox thing is not as bad as I thought.

The new (old) game husband is playing - Overlord - has minions that you can control. What is not to like about that!!!

But my favorite feature is that your minions can wear pumpkins on their heads! Look - they even carve them as jack-o-lanterns!! Oh so fun!

Every time we see a pumpkin patch I make husband stop and have them smash it and I laugh and laugh......

I think husband is getting annoyed with me........again.

春運

Welcome to the Year of the Ox

Per the fifteen day celebration custom, the third and fourth days are not good days to visit family, unless they are dead. That is right this is graveyard visiting time in China. They also take this time to clean up the grave sites, removing brush and cleaning the tombstones.









Picture of a Christian cemetery - Penang Heritage Trial

You know, lately this is a good general rule for me, usually safer to visit my graveyard dwelling family members than the livings ones. :) Lot less name calling and back biting :)

I cannot escape the word

"Awards"

So, I go to this fun work event where we all do the normal sit around and pretend we all like each other long enough to make a good impression to our bosses and then get the heck out.

Yeah, well at this one, we get awards. Not me....I mean, seriously, I used to, but then people started expecting me to do things....I could not take the pressure. I went into hiding and under the radar - worked for years. In fact I thought I was safe to go to these events, cause I was not going to get called up to the front to smile for the camera for with my certificate.

Oh, I was wrong.

am at the party and suddenly hear my name...what? No way, what did I win? Seems I got an award for doing stuff......and the first thing on there was that I helped my company get so many marketing awards. No way, not those again

Getting an award for getting awards seems a bit redundant. I noticed the award was for the 4th quarter - really? Does not the 4th quarter include October, the one month out of the year that I actually only work 40 hours a week? Plus don't the awards come out in July and September? Didn't I miss three days of work in December because of snow? Didn't I mess up a major ad in December?

I am confused.

And then I realize that this award thing is kind of arbitrary. It was a nice gesture and I appreciate it.

Discussing this in the group, a workmate said that I got it for just being alive after the 4th quarter. I answered to her "or that you all are still alive....." To which my boss gave me that "that was not funny" look. I am still trying to find out who "turned me in" so I can return the favor :)

Get out of my house

My sister and I are huge Kate Bush fans. We have always joked that one of the scariest songs we have heard is "Get Out of My House" (followed closely by "Leave it Open" and "Waking the Witch"). Listening to "The Dreaming" by candlelight, gives my house that warm possessed feeling I enjoy so much.

Unfortunately it also freaks out the cats. When she starts screaming they trip over each other to get out of the room, wait, husband does that too :)

So, here is my spooky/crazy/weird Kate playlist (most of these links are Youtube collages, because I can't find the songs for free to link to) Kate is not for the faint of heart. If top 40 radio is your thing....do not click the links, you cannot handle it, your brain will explode :)

Get Out of My House (not sure about the donkey bit...but still love this song) The song to clips of The Shinning movie as shown in the link is actually a bit creepy. :)

Leave it Open (Kate at her bizarre best)

Waking the Witch (LOVE this song - the arrangement is genius)

Under Ice (gives me chills)

Watching you without me (the muffled "ghost" voice effect is chilling)

Mother stands for comfort (right out the Psycho movie)

Coffee Home Ground (Tribute to Mr. Crippin)

The Wedding List (Worst wedding day ever, so I guess setting the song to Kill Bill is quite appropriate)

Experiment 4 (The effects in this video are laughable now...but at the time it was creepy)

The Red Shoes (death by dancing, based on the fairy tale - Miranda Richardson is in the video) This is very dark and bizarre mini movie - if you get a chance find it an watch it. The visuals are stunning.

Top of the City (First time I heard this song, I thought it would have been lovely in the first The Crow movie)

Kate is definitely an acquired taste. I don't play this list when I am working on props unless I have my iPod on....the rest of the crew would likely kill me.

Just get used to them, they are not going away

Here is another lolcat post.

Dr. Who and lolcats! Oh, happy red head girl!


moar funny pictures

I am going to miss David as The Doctor :(

Why do you do it?

Husband asks me this while I am running around the house, shop and basement for days trying to create awards for a work event. You could say it is because I am a people pleaser, but anyone who knows me, knows better. Do I love my work so much I will do anything to help? Ha, ha, ha - no.

As I am carving foam at 2:00 am on Friday night/Saturday morning I realize that it is January and I have not made any props for two months.....I don't think I can go that long without carving something and painting it black.

That's the story I am sticking to.

Oh, that, and the fact that I am crazy.

Well, that put it in perspective

My amazing brilliant, funny, good looking (and has great taste in spouses) friend Marc Acito spent his Sunday organizing and staging a rally in downtown Portland to support our Mayor Sam Adams. He managed to get a good chunk of people together in downtown Portland. A lot of work and it is inspiring to see people practicing the rights that we sometimes take for granted.

Where was the Frog Queen while this was going on?

A universe away ....husband and I supported one of our other friends..... by attending a beauty pageant.

Yes, yes we did.

I suddenly feel very, very small.

I knew I worked for the dark side

This is a fantastic idea for an ad, definitely shows advertising in its best light :) How evil!

An advertising campaign featuring a piggy bank with vampire fangs is urging Finns to continue spending despite fears of a recession and daily news of lay-offs and job cuts, on January 22, 2009 in Helsinki. On posters plastered around the Finnish capital, a pink piggy bank has a stern gaze and drops of blood dripping from its vampire fangs, with slogans such as "Don't feed depression by saving" or "Saving is not always a good thing."

Thanks to the Banshee for sharing the picture!

Conflicted

I have been updating my blog .....well, more than the Davis House blog and I feel bad about that. Not a whole lot going on right now.

When I posted the "Awards" post on this blog, husband said that I should have put it on the Davis House blog. Yeah, you are right. So, I am going to try to put Davis Graveyard stuff on the Davis House blog.

My conflict comes in my style of writing (if you can call it that) and husband's (the guy that does the bulk of the posts on the Davis House blog.) He is nicer, much nicer, way nicer (as a person and in writing) than me (all my friends reading this are nodding their heads in agreement, thank you) and, well, not quite as funny and not even as close to sarcastic as me. So our posts (and our separate blogs) are very different.

My point, yes, there is one, I finally remembered it, is that I have to tone down my Davis House posts. :(

Frog Queen "lite" in a sense. Scary, huh? Yeah, I agree. So I just posted a watered down version of the Mortimer story on the Davis House blog. How is it? Do I need to tone it down some more? I am not sure I am going to be able to pull this off.

BTW - I need to write an awards post for the Davis House blog.....watch for updates.

It's not all bad

at work all the time.

Today I got some flowers from my boss as thank you for working on the latest "ad from Hell."

To all the people that helped me. You don't get flowers, but enjoy this picture.....yes, I have pink tulips on my desk.

BTW - Why do most of the ads come from or arrive via Hell?

One more reminder that advertising is located very close to the dark side. Who am I kidding!! It is the dark side.

Isn't this perfect?

Example of a perfect logo that I wish I had done. As simple and brilliant as it is, I could have never come up with that. They did.

I don't do logos - as a rule, and I am just not good at them. I will help you with any other design project, but I will not design your logo.

Why?

Because you think you know what you want, and it is probably a not what you need. And when I tell you what I think you should do, you will still prefer your idea. This does not change the fact that my idea was/is better. Sorry, but it is true. Your idea will have any or all of these problems:

1. You think logo design is easy

2. You have too many ideas for one logo

3. Your logo idea has nothing to do with your company

4. You want a globe in there somewhere (especially fitting when your company is local)

5. Your logo idea is too specific and most consumers will not easily understand your idea

5. You think logo design is easy (yes, you still do, and you are still wrong :)

6. You want to mix too many elements

7. You want too many colors

8. Your logo idea is too complicated and will not only be hard to print/embroider/emboss/etc.

9. You will need a b&w version of your logo at some point, and your design idea relies on color

10. You think because I am your friend, I will design your logo for free.

I would refer you to someone who does a great job with logos (it is not my thing) but the points listed above will make them crazy and then they will no longer talk to me. And I like those people. And I can guarantee you will not believe how expensive it is. And because of the points listed above....they deserve every penny!

Because you are my friend, and I want to keep it that way, I will never do a logo for you. Never, don't even ask me. Go here.

I'm in!

The other Chris sent me this link this morning

http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/274/48/

He asked to borrow our truck and a few other items to get the job done, knowing that husband would not immediately go for it. I let Chris know that I do have keys to husbands truck and access to all the needed equipment. I am in.

I read the warning...yeah, I know. How irresponsible - but oh, my how funny. Any funny always wins!

Cleaning the basement (again)

This chore has been on my to do list for as long as I have owned the house.

I have to say I have completed it enough to cross it off the list for let's say....3 months. Then it is back on there.

I am only doing it now, because I have to find stuff for Fright Fest Northwest. I promised myself that this time I am going to make them separate boxes so that I don't mix their stuff with my Halloween stuff. Ha, ha, ha....I crack myself up sometimes.

Not only has Halloween taken up 80 percent of the two story shop outside, but it has migrated to the basement along with everything else......if husband would let me keep the Halloween decorations up all year, we would not have a problem.

:)

Visiting virtual graveyards

in Fable 2.

Had fun this weekend playing the game with husband, actually, he played the game I just watched and made LOTS of comments. We sat on separate couches, sitting together was going to cause a fight :)

Anyway. There are 3 cemetery/graveyards in the game (that I can think of right now) and some of them are extensive. They have some great imagery. Here are a few pictures that I could find on the web.

Had a baby

...this weekend!!!

Hum , you look confused :)

I managed to marry a zombie and have a zombie baby!!!

Hummmmm, you look more confused.....husband is not a zombie......did the redhead finally kill husband? Ah, we knew that was going to happen.......

No, no, no........let me explain.

The MANY graveyards alone is enough reason to play Fable 2, but the best one is that you can marry the zombie Lady Grey (who is bisexual by the way, fun for everyone. :) Anyway, you live in the Mansion in the cemetery and you can raise a family......of zombies!!!! A perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. (If you are a geek)

But by Monday night.....the bad guy killed my family. That is why he is dead now. :)

It was fun while it lasted.

Husband makes me laugh

One of the reasons I married and stay married to the bugger :)

I mention that the sign on the church on our way home from lunch (you know the ones that love to put little sayings every week) currently reads.

Don't worry about tomorrow, god is already there.

To which husband says

"So, god lives in Australia?"

I thought it was hysterical. Guess that is why we are still together.

Unlikely soundtrack

I enjoy music and each year has a soundtrack for me. But 2008 had a overwhelming and quite unique twist.


I would say I listed to the soundtrack to Dr. Horrible, 10 to 1 of anything else I played this year. Especially during the Halloween prop building season. Quite silly actually.



We even had a sing along at our Halloween party. The best group costume went to the "Bad Horse" crew. Three cowboys, walking around with a door frame so that they could hold it up and peer their heads in "frame" similar to what happens on the screen. It was brilliant. And of course, they brought Bad Horse himself who left clever calling cards with all the guests.


So no surprise when the DVD version came out just in time for Christmas. Made shopping for my friends (and white elephant gifts) just that much easier. :)


We watched the commentary (musical version of course) at our New Year's eve party. I have to say it is almost as brilliant as the original score.

To top it off, for Christmas my brilliant King friends got me the perfect present.


The Dr. Horrible "I just need to rule it" T-shirt. Not only is it a great line from the musical, it is also my general philosophy in life.

I tried to bring a ghost home

from the Edingburgh vaults, in my purse.

I was going to lump all the other Edinburgh ghost tours together...but, this one is too famous and needs its own space. And I just plain write too much.

Today, boys and girls, I will tell the tale of the Mercat Tour tours of the famous Edinburgh Vaults.

These vaults are creepy and the history just adds to the ambiance. These tours are worth every penny (if you are not claustrophobic :)

History

This 18th century the built South Bridge, a large bridge that spanned over 1,000 feet and had 19 arches for support, was cursed from its first crossing. The story goes that the lady that was promised to be the first person to cross the bridge died days before the opening. Because of the promise the powers that be decided that she would be the first "body" to cross the bridge, and she was, in a coffin.

This caused the locals to swear that the bridge was cursed and they did not use it for many years.

After a while, walking down and around the bridge wore them down and they started crossing. It because a popular place with shops along the top and tenement houses along both sides. They built floors and ceilings in the arches and used the space for workshops and the underground areas for storage.

As years passed the poor construction of the bridge became apparent and with water leaking in and the walls deteriorating. The shops abandoned the space and it then became home to squatters. After several years the bridge spaces became unusable and the everyone was evacuated and the bridge openings were filled with rubble.

In 1988 during and excavation project the remains of this bridge and the vaults underneath it were found. The already thriving Edinburgh ghost tour business now had a new main attraction.

What better place to tell ghost stories than in an dark, candle lit underground labyrinth?

These tours are worth the price just to see the history. But if you want ghost stories, they have plenty! Mr. Boots - named so because of the loud clomping he makes. There is also the ghost of a small boy. The tour guides are great, they tell you stories and warn you not to stand in certain places....which is where I B-line to and then for the rest of the tour, the group, somehow, does not seem to want to stand too close to me.

Cowards! :)

I was a bit creeped out being down there in candle light with a lot of scared (scary) people. That whole collective energy thing is quite powerful.

The coolest part about these tours is that they give you ghost hunting gear. Ghost hunting gear! Woohoo!!! Count me in!! Oh, knobs, lights and gauges, oh my!. (shake, shake, is this thing on?)  I have to admit I had a lot of fun with the handheld ghost detectors (EM devise) they give you.

BTW - I got the biggest reading from the machine when I pointed it at my purse. Looks like I found a ghost that was in neeed of loose change....or breath mints. Eitherway, I thought ....hummmmm, if I don't tell anyone, maybe I can take this ghost home?! Oh, my very own Scotish ghost!!! (Then I think...how do you get a ghost through customs? Is there VAT or duty on ghosts?) Well, you can imagine my disappointment when I got out of the vaults and did not find a ghost in my purse. :(

Important note. It is worth it to go on these tours more than once. (Actually I am just trying to validate to my husband why we have to go on a ghost tour every single night we are in town.) They have many tour guides and they all present the tour differently, that makes for unique experiences. One night you will get the "scary, spooky" guide who talks in a low voice and takes the whole tour VERY seriously. The next night you might get a guide that has a great sense of humor and knows just when to take it dead pan and scare the crap out of you.

Mercat offers other tours....but this one is my favorite.

Ah, I really need to start saving for my next trip :)

I need a better camera

And I am sure more than a few photograph lessons to take pictures like this.

This is a near infrared photo of a tree. All of the photos on this page are amazing. I think I need a new camera :) Using this type of camera setting changes how colors appear in the picture. Check here for more examples.

Here is a HDR image of a Stonehenge. I have taken picture of this fantastic location, mostly in the rain, I mean sideways hail, none of my pictures do the place justice as this photo does. Click here for more HDR photos.
















This is why I don't visit design sites too often, the rabbit trails are endless. But Smarshmagazine is one of my favorites..

It is all about the awards

For years I fought submitting awards for Marketing, but lost the battle a few years back. because, once you win a few, they expect you to keep winning. Which I have been able to do year after year since the creative team and staff I work with are brilliant.

The process requires that I dedicate at least a full work week several times a year to creating the binders that go out for the various award submissions. That is a lot of time, and you have to pay to submit (some of them are pretty spendy) your work, so it is time and money. So we can get shiny pieces of acrylic!!! (Bosses like shiny trophy's for their offices, they may say they don't care, but once they get one, they must have MORE.) Oh, and bragging rights, yeah, actually, the only useful thing I find is that they do look really good on a resume.

But each year as I get them ready to go at the last minute I ask myself, is it worth it? Really worth the time? The answer is probably no. But like I said, now there are expectations, we must win each year. And if we don't win, in whatever category we lost (and some we did not even enter), we must check out the winner and copy them for next year.

My favorite is when they come back to me and say, "Hey, I saw so n so's entry that won for the blah, blah category, our blah, blah is better, why did we not enter that category."

Time, people, time. I can only put together so many of these wretched binders!!! About six or seven is my limit - then if I did not care before, I really don't care at all by the seventh. The first few binders I will spend all kinds of time and creativity to make sure the are presented perfectly, with just a touch of cleverness...just enough to catch the judges eye (you have no idea how hard that is.) The first three are magic (and win quite often) but I lose momentum after that....my great idea to print small versions of our bus ads and place them on a toy bus, hand painted to match our local transit buses, is long gone by now.

At this point, I can barely be bothered to find the right size folder......can't I just staple them? (I don't by the way, I make some one go out and buy me a binder, cause you don't want me in public right now :)

Invariably some well meaning co-worker comes by my office to see what I am doing and makes all kinds of suggestions. Oh, you could do this, or you could do that. Wouldn't it be great if you did (blank)?! They are so proud of themselves. And to be honest, I would have been too, a few days back, but the closer we get to deadline, well, not so much so today.

Because after they are all away in their boxes and I have the FedEx tracking numbers, and I am running (driving actually) to the airport to make sure they go out today.

The next thing that is going to happen, come Monday is I am going to be asked where "this" or "that" is or" how am I coming along on that project, didn't you already do that?"

When? When did you think I had time to do that?

"Maybe we should not do the awards if they are going to cause such problems, or maybe if you started on them sooner.

Ah, now you are just getting my hopes up about not submitting the awards, I know you are, cause one year I skipped on set of submissions and when you came back from the show asking why we did not submit, I had to remind you that you said.....yeah, I knew I was losing that battle going in. Note to self, always submit for awards, no matter what is being said.

Start them sooner, you say? My gawd your a genius. So if I start sooner, time becomes more elastic? Really, I did not know that, and you think I would have figured where the stretchy place was when it came to "time" cause I have been pulling, bending, and squeezing time for years to try to get more of it. (especially in September and October.)

So I am at a reprieve, that is until the winners are announced. If we are on the list of winners, woohoo!!! If I am really lucky, I can get out of the awards ceremony! If we happen not to win.....oh, I will hear about that :)

So, I am confused, do I want to win or not? Actually, I just want to go back to my cave, and find the page with the word "award" in my dictionary, rip it out and burn it. :)

Hauntcon

Oooooh!!!!

Leonard updated his site with the latest Hauntcon info!

I FINALLY get to see Bad Boys Scenic Designs "Terror on the Fox"

I have seen their pictures. attending their seminars, drank with them :) for years. It will be great to get to see it up close!!!

Despite all the list chatter (sometimes the Lists make me crazy)......Hauntcon is the best place for home haunters (Leonard and his crew are great supporters of home and professional haunters). If you are in the area or can afford to, attend. You will not regret it.

Looking forward to seeing some friends and meeting some new ones!! Details to follow!

Our friends have a new site

with annoying music! ;)

http://www.hauntak.com/

You both know that I love you guys - music is great. Distracting, but great!

I have to say that I am honored to be your friends and to have been with you through the journey of meeting you at Hauntcon a few years ago to seeing you with your own haunt.

Fellow bloggers - this is living the (a) dream. When I met them a while ago they were "home haunters" that have taken it to the next level. I am envious in a way, and not....in a way I know you know.

Look forward to seeing you at Hauntcon in April (barring our budget - cross fingers) and hearing more about your adventure.

Death by slow meeting

An hour and a half of my life that I will never get back.

When something needs to be communicated, we like it to go through marketing. Just to make sure it has the right amount of sugar added and we packaged and polished nicely. It may be bad news, but it looks/sounds good :)

Anyway, there are some regulatory changes currently happening so, we need to send a letter to the people this affects, blah, blah, blah..... I can do that. Just need to know what we are going to say. That is what I went to the meeting for......I found that out in about the first 5 minutes.

Did I get to leave? Noooo, the meeting was an hour and a half longer and I was on some seriously sleepy cold medicine.

Here are some of the topics we discussed:

Rollovers of Airline Bankruptcy Settlements to Roth IRAs
PPA Technical Corrections
RPNBRs
EACAs
Vesting Reports
ERISA

I could continue, but I can't, I think I am losing the will to live:)

I wish I could tell you what all that meant, but I don't have no clue.

I do know this, it is all because George Bush signed something on December 23, cause they kept saying that over and over and over and over. Were they looking for someone to blame/praise? Or is that just how investment folk speak. When they asked for questions (good thing the filter was on and working) all I could think to ask is? Is there going to be a test after this, cause I the only question I can answer correctly is who signed the bill.

And when the meeting was over someone asked, "Well, having this meeting, I am not sure we need to send a letter."

(Filter runs in and shuts my mouth, immediately) Oh, wait buddy, you just made the Frog Queen sit through this boring meeting because you wanted a letter....you are going to get a letter and you are going to like it.

It gets better....... someone says that there is a letter template for this compliance issue out there that they can email me.

{stunned look and in my head I am chanting "must not kill coworker, must not kill coworker"}

It can't take the pressure, the filter overloads, and shuts down, mouth jumps at the chance and says "You mean there was already a letter? You have got to be kidding?" (filter kicks back on before I say "Seriously, you may love meetings but, I have many, many things I should be doing instead of this.")

He looked a bit shocked. Someone else (who knows me well) says "Don't worry, she is just kidding with you, she has a great sense of humor." (And the ablity to make your headstone! -oh filter was on for that, whew!)

Thanks for the compliment, but I an not 100% sure I was kidding.....I mean if you ask me, that is what I will say, but.....I am going back to the cave now.

Safely back in my shallow and less acronymed marketing department, I happened upon this lolcat (I know huge surprise.) Yes, this is about my speed.

Husband HATES, HATES, HATES (Part 1)

when I start conversations with complete strangers (losers) as he probably, rightly deems are useless........

But he says he can sculpt foam?

You saw my dreadful angel wings - didn't you? I mean who could miss them. They are all over our video submission as much as I say about every single shot that includes the angel (and the spider, just to be fair) needs to be REMOVED!! Show one wing.....not both wings!!! They do not match!!!! I am gonig to hide in the closet now.

Anyway, see, he has said it several times in the conversation, he can sculpt foam!.... and everyone is as good as their word, right?

oh yeah, and those other things about being a starving artists and almost being homeless and stuff.......

Someday I am going to run into someone who (Halloween wise) need me less than I need them :) And then husband will be happy.

I hate it when he is right :) If you need me, I am back in the closet.....

I usually don't do this

I saw this image on another blog and had to share it. It is amazing. I love cemetery pictures and this has to be one of my favorites.

Thanks to the Full Moon Industries blog for turning me on to this. Great blog, check it out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8760897@N02/2988090557/sizes/o/

Tolerable snow

This is what I was thinking the first time I put my tombstones out in the snow a week ago :) The night picture did not come out so good as that I had to wipe the snow off of the front of the tombstones so you could see them. After I see the pictures, I realize that was not the best idea.

These are the pictures from Friday morning.

Yeah., not too imperssed myself :( I have got to learn how to take photos!!!!

Awards

Once again the fantastic Propmaster (a very nice and very under appreciated fellow) is getting ready to ask for Halloween videos from all us home haunters.

And the question came up, as it did last year, will there be awards?

At the last minute Jeff and I kept the Haunt X awards going (otherwise there would be no awards for 2007...well, that is not entirely true...there was a rumor of another award, but that is a another story - that will NOT be on this blog) because we hated to see there be nothing. And we were happy to do it. Will (Owner of the Haunt X convention)was great about supporting our efforts and Micheal at Ghost Ride gave us a good deal on the awards, we had the plaques printed and mailed them out.

Oh, yeah, and then there was the voting website...that was fun :)

With Haunt X gone (for now?) it does not make sense to keep the name. So we are going to call them what Paul calls the videos - or something like that.

We are again working with Ghost Ride for the awards, who is even making a custom runner up award. But voting is going to be different.

Letting the haunters vote for their favorte was not what we hoped. Almost everyone (and I mean almost everyone) voted for themselves. Which means the winner were usually the haunts that got two votes. Seriously, I mean I love my yard too, but if someone is (and many of them are) better than me...they get my vote.

So a new plan is in the works.....How do you pick the best yard haunts?

Is it really

the right thing (in this case words) at the right time, or am I trying to make this fit. Cause I am a bit lost now and looking for something to "fit" :)

My friend Marc posted this quote on his blog:

"IF YOU CAN'T GET OUT OF IT, GET INTO IT." Sounds good, not too touchy-feely - I don't do the soft, warm, pink, motivatinal poster, fluffy stuff.....missing that part of the girl gene.

So, when I read this, the first thing that came to my mind (unfortunately) is that for a long while now I have found myself in a bad relationship that I cannot get out of

with my job.

You didn't think I would say husband did you? He is perfect as usual :)

I like most of it, I love what I do, but there are a few aspects, that when they are bad. It is almost unbearable. I remember talking to one of our staff motivating consultants about the work/life happiness idea. She said that everyone has their threshold of discomfort that they tolerate, depending on the situation.

She said to look at it on a scale of 1 to 10 1=happy, 10=hate. When the situation is bad, most people can live between 5-7 (at work) most of their lives. Sounds fair, I would put most days around 8, never lower than 6.

I don't believe the conversation helped, in fact, now that I could gauge it, well, I now understand the "ignorance is bliss" concept perfectly.The other day, I think I hit about 15 (and that was nowhere near the worst day.) Seriously wanted to run from the building screaming (I did in my mind) or sit in the bath room crying.

Funny Frog Queen quirk. I can get angry, stupidly angry - say dumb things I regret...the whole nine yards. Which is a bit scary - for me and everyone else around. (Okay, to be honest, husband says, I do have some scary violent tendencies.) I really hate when I let people make me angry. But I will REALLY hate you if you make so angry I want to cry. I hate when I do that crying thing....if you push me that far, I now loathe myself.

But I have a job, it pays okay and in this economy, I am lucky.

Knowing this, and that I have to live with the "get into it" part of the quote.

Because of who I am, I really have been as "into it" as I can for years. I have sacrificed getting things done in my personal life for my job, and it has made no difference - except that I get to keep my job.

In fact, this last year I completed a large, very complicated project - it was horrible. I put in many hours of overtime, but it still ran behind schedule. This did not even come up on my review. Not a mention. That day was about 20 on the scale - but most of my review days are :)

I know that just my bad attitude talking. Oh, and as husband (and friends) will tell you, my "bad attitude" loves to talk, even when no one is listening :)

I will make it work, I always do. It has taken me a while, but I know that compartmentalizing myself into the work me and the not work me has to improve. I know that I am part of this problem....if I could just keep my mouth shut, things would be a lot better.

It is always worse in the winter months when I am not creating anything for the yard.

So tonight husband and I are going to work on our plan of attack for the rest of the year to get ready for Halloween. We have a convention to attend, one to host, haunt awards to create and October 2009 to get ready for. I am feeling better already.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Haunting!

I put the question to my friends

At our New Year's Eve Party .......

"Do I forgive the person that gave me this"


(PINK frog pajamas!!!)
Pink is my least favorite color - frog pictures or not.....and they mentioned loving "snow" - you have got to be kidding!!!


"Because they gave me this"

Might have had something to do with the New Year's Eve cocktails :) But, the overwhelming response was - of course!

The next question was easier than I thought.....

"Who do you think gave me this?"

The Banshee.

Correct.

Seriously, that was fast.......

Somehow I thought that would be harder.

I have the coolest friends :)

BTW - I was joking with husband about taking a picture of me in these pajamas for the blog and he was "yeah, great idea!" Me, camera and PINK pajamas!!! That couch must be more comfortable than I thought :)

I didn't want to be

one of those people that have to approve their blog comments.

But I am now. That is what I get for leaving the system open :)

I don't like being spammed, even if the message is benign. I appreciate that you want to send a general message to blogs you post on...but be thoughtful. Call me silly (like everyone else does) but I appreciate my blog comments to be about the actual post....not a generic message.

I know the person was not being malicious, so I am not angry. Just making a change for the future.

So, I apologize in advance to those of you kind enough to post on my blog. Thanks - I promise to approve them as quick as I can.

Granted that they are on topic :)

Snow right now

I cannnot believe that it is snowing right now.......NOOOOOOOO!!!

It better be melted by morning :)

Crap, I should really go set my tombstones back up, just in case :)

Slainte Mhath

If you have read this blog, you know that I have visited the UK a few times, and Edinburgh Scotland (my real home....in my mind) is my favorite.

So on this Homany (which someday I hope to spend in that amazing country) I toast to you all:

Slainte Mhath

In case you don't know....

It is an expression used in some areas of Ireland and Scotland -- it's from the Gaelic language. The words are like a "toast" when you are saluting someone or something with a drink of alcohol -- like "cheers" or "skoal" or "prosit" or "salud."

Slainte Mhath means literally "Good Health" - slainte translates vaguely as health, "mhath" is the feminine form of "math" (pron. "maa"). In Scots Gaelic, we aspirate to make an adjective feminine. Thus the name "Mairi" (Marie) is given extra feminine emphasis by aspiration - "Mhairi" (pron. "Varry").

It is a Gaelic word. Irish, Gaelic
(Scottish), and Welsh are all related languages.

Pronounce "slainte mhath" as "Slanzh'va", and utter it
when someone buys you a drink!

A drink....some one is buying ME a drink :) That will be a Captian & diet by the way :)