Was working on a video

and was reminded how much I love this bit from Halloween III, Season of the Witch



Hee! Had to share.

I can't find

checks with skeletons....or anything that is not "cute" Halloween - anywhere.

But, oh my friends, there is something far scarier out there. shudder

Don't click on this link unless you are in good health and are sitting down. Remember, what has been seen cannot be unseen.

Stop, no, don't click here!

Actually, don't use many checks these days, with online bill paying ....wait, are you okay? You don't look well.......

Ah, you clicked on it anyway didn't you? You will likely never recover. I warned you. :)

I am pure evil I know, and I am fine with that.

Happy Birthday Husband

It's just a feeling

moar funny pictures

I still can't read

the small print.

I tell the doctor that is fitting me with my first pair of glasses -reading glasses. Yes, I am getting old :(

Anyway, most of my family wears them, so it was not big surprise.

When I was picking frames I asked if there were any with skulls on them, the guy thought I was kidding and was not amused when I told him I was not.

They did not have any. So cute "librarian" black rimmed glasses for me.

So I am there in the office picking them up, and the big surprise was putting them on yesterday and looking at the small type and said,

"Is it supposed to be moving?"

"What is moving?" she says.

"The text, it is moving a little and it seems fuzzier than without the glasses."

She looks confused.

"Look over in the distance and then look at it again."

I turn my head and then turn back to the page and go "Whoa! I the world just got all wobbly."

"Oh, these are reading glasses, don't walk with them on. "

"I don't believe I could if I wanted to."

"Look back down at the page, does it look better?"

"No, still fuzzy, looks like there is a shadow behind all the letters, and the shadow appears to be dancing." (I think it might be the Barry Manilow Copacabana song coming through on Muzak, which by the way should never be played before noon.)

"Well, maybe your eyes need a chance to adjust. You can return them within 30 days" and then she proceeds to hand me a coupon for $75 off another pair. I am thinking why, would I want another pair of glasses that make it hard to read?

"But I have a pair of those cheap reading glasses (the ones the doctor told me to try) that are 1.25+ magnification and they work fine."

She looks at my chart and says "they shouldn't" and proceeds to tell me some technical information about my vision, which eye is +20 or - 1,000 - I don't know, made no sense to me.

I tell her that I don't understand what she just said.

She gives me more technical information, and I am thinking I did not know I needed to study Ophthalmology terms before this visit. I want to tell her that in the future, to avoid confusion, mention that to your patients when you set up the appointment.

Fine. I guess my other reading glasses are magic.

I really need (not want) to get back to work, so I grab the glasses and book out of the office.

As I stop to get some tea I think.....didn't I get glasses so that I could read the small print? Why did they not work when I put them on? Didn't I get glasses to "adjust" my vision? Why do my eyes have to adjust to my glasses?

Just another example of how I picked the wrong career. I would love to tell someone when I give them a marketing proposal that they don't like that they will "have to adjust to it." :)

Take a moment

Sadly, it is the one year anniversary of the death of Cody Reuswaat.

I wanted to say more here, tell some story about Cody at Frightfest, or the memorial service at Transworld in Las Vegas, but not today.

My thoughts are with my friends, Tim, Tina, Jarad and Cody's son, Ian.

Forgot to mention

See, I am getting so used to winning marketing awards, that I forget to post that we won some more!!! WooHoo - also don't know which ones, won't know until my boss calls me from the convention to let me know. :)

Why you should go to Hauntcon, Part 2

Our first trip to Hauntcon and we are on the preshow tour where we got to several haunts in Denver and a special trip to Salt Lake City to Rocky Pointe (before it closed.) We were standing in line to visit the world famous Reinke Bros store and haunt and we overheard some people saying something about "Ashland, Oregon" - What! We know Ashland, we love Ashland we go down at least once a year to see theater at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

So we make our way back in the line and met Baron Vladimer and Baroness Morticia Reuwsaat (AKA Tim and Tina Reuwsaat or Mort and the Baron) of Darkwing Manor. We also find that they are close friends with Leonard Pickel, the owner of Hauntcon.

If you are on the lists, you have heard of Mort, and her twin sister Dementia (she swears she's real :) She is a remarkable person, very funny, intelligent, generous, beautiful, does Halloween like no one I know, ah, yes, I know it is hard to believe anyone is that perfect - I want to be her.

(BTW - The Baron is pretty cool too :)

The most amazing thing is that Mort has a morguetorium museum in her parlor, which is in a beautiful Victorian farm house that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. No kidding. She has been collecting items for years. She has the most amazing collection of 19th century funeral mourning pieces. (And I have been to the National Museum of Funeral History, they have an impressive collection of hearses, but when it comes to mourning items, her collection is MUCH better.)

Anyway, we got to talking and found that we both knew Steve, in fact, her son Cody worked for Steve at Screamland, wow, nothing like getting out of the state to meet the locals! We also became fast friends and have visited them in Ashland many times, they have even been nice enough to let us stay in their guest room on one of our trips (in trade we brought our equipment and helped them create some video effects for their yard).....probably the last time though, ah, well, there was a bit of a plumbing problem in their guest bath that, well, ended up moving their remodeling project ahead by about a year :)

They are the perfect hosts every time we come to visit, we have even brought our entourage over to hang out on their patio and sample our new wine purchases (Southern Oregon has a lot of wineries!) Wine, theater and good friends that are really in to Halloween, what could be better?

They have two real horse drawn hearses. One traditional black one and another smaller highly decorated child's hearse (now black, but they want to restore it to its original white.) Oh, and they are from the east coast and had them both moved to Oregon when they relocated. I mean, when I move I can barely pack my dishes more less figure out how to move two hearses! True dedication.

She has great handmade light fixtures that are bat themed all over the house, inside and out. The house is beautiful and had a lot of fabulous Halloween decorations throughout.
They have a massive front yard that they decorate as well as letting people in the front rooms to visit the Morguetorium. Many of their props were made by their son Cody, who was well known in the haunt community as a popular sculptor.

They are regular attendees of Fright fest NW (I so have to redesign that site!) and have helped us become more involved in that event. Involved so much so, that we are now running it......do I thank them for that? I am starting to think we night have been set up. :)

Although they have come up the past few years to visit our haunt (we set up late September) we have only seen their haunt through pictures and video since they are only open a few days around Halloween.

We have also attended Transworld with them last year when it was in Vegas as well as Hauntcon this year. The best Halloween buddies a Frog Queen could want. It is one of our most cherished friendships and would never have happened if we had not gone to Hauntcon.

For us, that alone was worth the price. Just don't ever, ever, no matter what she says, drink her gunpowder punch. You have been warned :)

I need to keep my day job

I joked about web design as my new career, but I think I need to keep the day job.

I spent too much time on Sunday creating a very simple website for the Haunters Video Awards. I am so glad that husband was smart enough to grab the Haunt X award page before the site when down! I copied all the winners from that site and just put a simple list with links to the haunts website on the page. I will work up to adding pictures later. (I really need to finish my book, and the site for Fright fest Northwest first!)

I need Hermione's time turner!

So I get it set up and ready to go. I thought I was doing the right thing, keeping it very simple, simple image, simple fonts, simple layout. Looked decent on the screen. (I knew I should have had Allen help me with this one, I might need to call him before I am through :)

Then husband finished it up and uploaded the site and it had problems. When you scrolled the text, yeah it went behind the heading - looked lovely (not). Husband fixed it (I like having a live in IT department) and it is up now in draft form. I know I have a lot to add to it, if anyone has suggestions or if something is incorrect, let me know. Oh, and information on any of the winners before 2002 - that would be helpful also!

http://www.hauntersvideoawards.com/

I just looked at it again, and I can see a lot of things that need to be changed.....I will be tweaking it when I get home tonight. Watch for updates.

The DVDs are shipping soon!!!

WooHooo!!!!

Got the email from Propmaster that he is taking orders for the DVDs for 2008! I am so excited. We have a big party at our house each year and invite our friends over to watch. We can hardly wait. There are over 120 haunts this year and he has created a special 10 year anniversary edition.

Just want to take a moment to say a special thanks to Propmaster (Paul). Not only does he have a great yard haunt but he puts in countless hours creating these DVDs for the haunt community. He deserves our thanks as well as any amount you can afford as a donation.

AND....

as a big surprise to husband and I he asking haunters to contribute $1 extra on their purchase to help cover the cost of the awards. It is completely voluntary, so if you can't afford it, no worries! :) Although Micheal at Ghost Ride made us a (really) great deal on the awards - there are still a cost to us, along with the plaques and shipping, which we are happy to cover, but as all y0u haunters know, every little bit helps :) So thanks Paul, you are the best.

I am working on the website and hope to have a working draft of it up by the end of the day. I will keep you posted.

Now go out their and order your DVDs!!!

Why you should go to Hauntcon, Part 1

I was checking out something (that I will mention in an upcoming post) online and came across a familiar face.

Steve Koontz

Most if not all of you have no idea who he is. But I do, he is my friend. He ran one of the local haunts here in Portland called Screamland in an vintage amusement park called Oaks Park, and a prop company called Screamland Productions.

Jeff and I met him at the airport in Denver Colorado when we attend Hauntcon in 2006. We were all getting off the plane from Portland and he was wearing a shirt with the Screamland logo on it. We knew that haunt. That park is on the same road as our house and many people stopped by our place on the way there.

We said "hi" and became fast friends. Over dinner we found that we had several mutual friends in town and definately the same interests.

This was our first Hauntcon and Steve knew everyone. He was more than generous with his time and introduced us to many people we now call friends. He made that whole first visit to that convention perfect.

When we got back he got us in touch with several of the other local haunt owners. He helped us become part of the Portland haunt community.

So, if the convention itself is not the reason to go, it is the great people you meet. Hundreds of people that think about Halloween 24/7, 365 days a year, just like we do.

Unfortunately the haunt is gone, (thank you evil Clear Channel) and he moved to Vegas. We hook up when we are down there, but don't talk to him as often as I should. Next time I do I will definately give him a long over due "thank you."

I can't remember

if it was at the open house or the fundraiser. But someone asked me "Since you have done this graveyard has anyone close to you died?" Now, I am standing there with about a dozen strangers looking at me as I am trying to decide.....

Do I want to answer the question or not and if I do, is my answer going to bother (horrify) anyone standing there. I know these people are fans of the graveyard or they would not be here, but how do I explain this and not sound too crazy.

And a part of me was not sure if I wanted to share this with anyone outside the crew.

"Why yes, I have, it is for my grandmother, I lost her this last February, I made a her a tombstone. It is out in the yard by the grave keeper, the one that is a memorial to WWII Women Welders."

I look around, hoping that I do not get a "gasp!" or "oh, really" from anyone. Cause, I will seriously not be able to take that. Luckily, just kind smiles. (Makes me think that I should not be so worried, not everyone is like some of the boring people that I work with.)

I continue with "She would be thrilled, she spent many a season with us out here painting tombstones and carving pumpkins. I have a few pictures of her here on one of these "how we did it" boards (I point out the pictures.)"

The lady that asked me smiled and said "that's great, glad to hear that so much of your life is in this display."

I am thinking, you have NO idea :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been a year since my grandma died, and I miss her very much. She was definitely one of my favorite relations. She had a great sense of humor and amazing life. Not your typical grandmother, I don't think she baked a batch of cookies from scratch in her life. :)

But she was interesting! She could tell you entertaining stories of how she met Abbot & Costello when her father was running a theater (and how they gave her $5 - which is like giving a kid $100 today), how her father worked with Al Jolson, the stories of her mother's Italian restaurant, how her grandfather was a grave keeper (I know!), managing the USC art school in the California desert mountains (where husband and I met)......some of her best stories were of her days welding during the war. Anyone that met her, could not easily forget her.

She loved telling jokes. So in honor of my grandmother. Here is her favorite joke that she told at all our Halloween parties.

A lady's husband dies and she goes in to make arrangements. She talks with the owner and he tells her that they will take care of whatever she needs for the funeral. He tells her to take a look around and let them know if she sees anything she wants.

She looks around and sees an open casket with a man in a handsome brown suit.

When she returns to the owner she lets them know that she really likes the brown suit on the man in the other room, but her husband did not have a brown suit like that.

He says "no problem, he would be happy to take care of it." When she comes back, her husband will be in a nice brown suit.

She goes away and comes back the next day to make further arrangements.

She notices another open casket with a man in it with a striking blue suit.

She tells the owner that, although the brown suit is nice, she wishes she had seen the blue suit. That one is perfect.

"No problem" says the owner, we can make sure he is presented in a striking blue suit.

She is so impressed and grateful.

"Thank you so much, are you sure it is not too much trouble?"

"Not at all," says the owner, "we just have to change the heads."

I know, it is a lot funnier when a funny old lady is telling it.

Jeanne "JR" Roberts

March 31, 1924 - February 15, 2008

Sing

sing a song :) ....which he likes to do, my fabulous friend - Marc Acito.

Just the other day he was featured again on NPR. (again :) His piece is great and helps put things in perspective and makes me laugh. Something I think we can all use these days. Thanks Marc.

So I am doing what I can, to help someone who is doing what I would love to do, and that is do something creative for a living that does not involve an office of suits.

Do your self a favor and help me help him and take a listen and recommend it to your friends and pass it on. (Which of course you will want without me asking, because it is brilliant.)

Oh, yeah, and besides Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman, my favorite, favorite author is my friend, the funny, fabulous and very beautiful Marc - buy both his funny, funny books.

How I Paid for College
Attack of the Theater People

If you already own them, thank you, now do a friend a favor and buy them a copy.

Now, get back to making Halloween decorations!!!

Frog Queen folly #2

Last November I posted the first in a series of Chris follies (Now on to be known as Frog Queen Follies, to stay consistent.)

These are completely unnecessary creations for the graveyard or the party that I just have to have. Because I am the Evil Artistic Director - I have to keep up my reputation. :)

Anyway, this year, the other Chris made me a companion cube! I know how cool is that! It was a party decoration.....I know, just what a church/graveyard needs. Definitely a folly :)

Most of you are probably saying....companion cube???!! Huh?!?!

It is from the game Portal, which is the funniest game I (we, okay mostly husband) has ever played. Anyway, you have to carry around this companion cube in the game, and eventually destroy it :(

Well, I wanted one of my own.....and husband put a player in it so when you press a button it sings the theme song.....which is hilarious.

Very geeky, but not so much as this guy who made his own Portal Gun. Which, BTW, is very, cool....I think I need one :)

See, I am not that crazy.....unless you count that Halloween obsession :)

If husband believes it

I will use it as the excuse for why I took a very long nap today.

I work for a place that has Presidents Day as a holiday! WoooHooo!!

So, I lazed around today....a lot. :)

It was also what I call a Dorie day. My Dorie cat likes me, but is not overly affectionate. But today, she was following me around the house crying to be petted. So late this afternoon when I headed upstairs to get ready to see a movie, she followed me and ran under my feet all the way to the bedroom.

I picked her up and she, on this rare occasion, did not want me to put her down. So I sat on the bed and she curled up in my lap to fall asleep.

I thought, well if she is napping, so am I.

So I crawled back in bed truly expecting her to run away, and then I would get up. But if she stayed, I would use it for an excuse for a nap.

She crawled right under the covers after me and went to sleep. And so did I until Hal walks on the bed to join me cause he LOVES naps, and proceeds to sleep on top of Dorie (who he cannot see.) Hall is almost twice her size, so it does not take long before she is out of the covers....and although I thought she would run away, she did not....she curled up by my neck and went back to sleep.

Husband comes up looking for me and I tell him "look the cats took me hostage!" He said they do look very comfy and upset that I turned on the light and woke them up.

He bought it. Wow, that was easier than I thought. :)

It's not just me

We were watching The Big Bang Theory...because we are both kinda nerds and we think it is very, very funny.

Tonight the episode made mention to my favorite fun site.

LOLcats, icanhascheezeburger.com

see. they are everywhere!!! :)

Over breakfest

husband was reading the card I gave him for Valentine's Day.

"I really like this card honey"

I reply "You know they make really sweet, sappy and lovey-dovey Valentines Day cards?"

Husband asks, "Are you telling me this so that I know?"

As I butter the toast I say, "Yes, because I am never going to send you one." :)

The Price

Someone asked me the other day why I was such a Neil Gaiman fan.

Hum, well, he did write the Sandman comics - which were ABSOLUTELY amazing - yes, I was a huge comic book geek - ask husband how he built custom shelves to house my collection after a water heater mishap in the basement.

Anyway, that is not the real reason.

The real reason is not even "Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" , if you do not own, stop reading right now, and purchase this book. What in the world could be better than Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett? Nothing. That was not a question, I was stating fact.

But my favorite thing is something all together different.

It turned out to be something I read late one evening, by myself in my library (do yourself a favor and when you design/buy a house, make room for a library. Pretend you are Poe in the Raven poem.....ah, that is so much fun!!!) There was the first time I read one of my favorite stories.......

It is the short story "The Price"

Not since a kid reading Ray Bradbury had I read a story that actually gave me shivers. It is the best feeling when you read something that you know is changing your life at that moment.

If I was a writer, that is the story. That is it. I could write that and shout form the tallest mountain that this is my story, no apologizing or self patronizing. I would own that. If I had indeed written it. But I did not, and likely never will even come close.

From then on I was a fan.

This is truly how bad it is. I was at a reading of his, and he talked about how he was going to read a story that someone had requested as an auction winner.

The minute, he put the book on the podium and I saw where the bookmark was.....I knew. I had read it a dozen times!

He is going to read "The Price!" OMG - I get to hear him read the whole story!!!

If you are the unfortunates who do not live in Portland, Oregon (very close to Milwaukie, Oregon, my current haunt, where Dark Horse Comics is head quartered) then you might have missed the show. Even better if you are a Tori fan, he read the poem he wrote for her when she was pregnant with her daughter called "Blueberry Girl" - He respectfully asked the audience not to share it on the Internet. It is available now, but after that reading, I could not find it anywhere (that was 2001). I cannot think of another artist who can command such respect from his fans for them to give up that Internet fame.

But if you want to give some money to charity - you can buy the DVD and hear what I heard for yourself. (minus Blueberry Girl, which you can find on YouTube now.)

Someone told me that I like it because it was a "cat story and you just like cats" - I no longer call that person a friend, it was just one of those moments. You know, the one when you know that someone is not right for you. :)

I like it because it is perfect.

If Clive Barker had not written Damnation Game, Neil would be my favorite writer. But that is another story. :)

I have no right to

complain about any TV show, because I do have the worst taste in TV shows. So for all my friends that emailed me with comments about how much they love LOST, I guess I should fess up.

My favorite TV show, ever is Friday the 13th the Series. I know, how terrible is that? Pretty terrible :) Bad acting (or lack of) simple stories.....but I love the idea and the shop was cool!!! It came out in the 80's, and it looks like it. It did not age well, but that has not stopped me.


Anytime it was on I watched it, I had most of the shows on VHS.

Then, amazingly, the Chiller channel started running it again so I TIVOed all three seasons! Then one day as we are arrowing through the list I notice these ! notations next to my shows.

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, that those shows are in the que to be deleted if we run out of space."

You have got to be joking! I was panicky about losing them....I would be like "how do I set these so they save and do NOT get delete because we run out of space!!" He shakes his head at me, grumbles and grabs the remote and mutters something under his breath about "I can't believe I am doing this, I thought you hated TV."

I told him that I heard there were books that explained how to hack a TIVO so you can get to the hard drive and get them.

"I am not hacking my TVIO so you can copy your shows!"

"Really, your not much of a geek if you are passing up the opportunity to take a gaget apart! What is wrong with you!"

I pleaded my case several times, I never won that battle.

I tried burning them off on to DVD, but that meant that husband had to watch them all and fast forward through the commercials to record it. He managed to do one episode and then told me that he couldn't sit through another episode. I was SOL, "just leave them on the TIVO."

What is this feeling? Wow, so this is what it feels like not to get my way. I don't like it. Not at all.

So I go on my unhappy little way and then one day.....

We redecorated the living room, that meant we upgraded the TV and satellite system which required us to get a new TIVO box. WHAT?! But my shows are on the old TIVO box!! Can we move them? What do I do? Gasp, did someone suck all the oxygen out of the room?

"So, can we hack the box now? I mean, you're not using it anymore ."

"I am not hacking a TIVO to get your shows"

Once again, strange feeling, the one I have been able to avoid since last time we talked about this.

(I bet if I ask about 20 more times you will :) - let's try it.

"Fine. I will leave the box out until we find a way to get them out of there."

"Okay, so how do I negotiate between two TIVOs?"

"You don't, you will have to unhook the new one and hook up the old one when you want to watch the shows."

You are kidding, right? - I start to protest, he walks away.

Once again, not happy with how this is going.

(It is decided, he is sleeping on the couch. )

One day he says "you that show you like is coming out on DVD?"

WHAT!!!!

Secretly, I am sure he was just about as happy as I was to see that come out on DVD - now that I think about it, this probably saved our marriage :)

I went to Amazon and put a order within 10 minutes.

I had to wait a month or so for it to be released.

I have watched it at least 3 times from start to finish so far.

Season two comes out later this month, I know, have it preordered.

Yes, go ahead, make fun of me. I deserve it. :)

This one

made husband laugh out loud, while he was on the phone. I am so evil :) So I apologize to who ever that was :)


see more crazy cat pics

If no one else does it

I am going to start bringing one of those sand timers to our meetings.

Our lovely neighborhood has association meetings every month. They are usually boring and often long, sometimes very long. But we enjoy our community and well, with the madness we cause in our neighborhood in October. We do what we can to stay on every ones good side.

And one of our really good friends got elected chairperson, and I believe the storey goes he was not at the meeting when they voted for him. Lesson learned my friend. Yeah, and scared the beejezus out of husband and I, what will happen if we miss a meeting?! Anyway, we are there to support him and our community...but sometimes, like the nail lady incident, I am reminded of where it is I live.

We have an unfortunate "situation" happening in our neighborhood (I will not bore you with the details) that has a chunk of neighbors pretty upset. And when you are upset or passionate about something (as in my case) you can babble on like and idiot leaving the whole room gazing at you like you have three heads.

(Cue Alison from Elvis Costello "....sometimes I want to stop you from talking when I hear those silly things that you say....." yep, that song was running through my head the rest of the evening.)

It was painful and went on for WAY TOOOOOOO long and never came to any point - in fact not even in the neighborhood of anything resembling a point. Most lost the will to live. And brought to the forefront of my mind that there is no way I could be chairperson. I would be in jail for killing someone. And it would be fast trip to the police station because there is always an officer at the meeting.

No, the meetings are not that violent (yet) they are giving us an update of crime in our neighborhood. :)

It was a great reminder of why attendance is so low, no one else wants to go to jail.

Obviously you have

only known me for one Halloween season if you start your email to me:

"I know that you are probably not thinking of tombstones this time of year..."

Really, I think about tombstones everyday-of-my-life. (I have a very serious problem, I know.)

Husband and I have been putting in way too much time creating our 2008 DVD, and we are just about done. We could not think of what to do for our Easter Egg when husband remembered some odd footage taken by an aspiring movie maker friend.

It was unusable for the video, but if you slow it down, turn it sepia, add noise and lots of dust and scratches, you have something, well, just weird enough for husband and I to share.

So I have indeed, been thinking about tombstones a lot. A whole lot. Nothing like looking at unforgiving daylight footage of about 20 or your tombstones, over and over and over again, to make you think about how many you need to replace. (I keep telling myself I will not make any tombstones this year, let's see if I can keep to that :)

So I need to make this very nice hearse owner a custom tombstone for his car. I project we worked on this spring for about 6 of the hearses that came to our events.

Yeah, it is pretty cool to have a line of vintage hearses in front of your house!!!

I always wanted

a good picture of our props in the snow. I don't know why, just a Frog Queen Folly I imagine. :)

Well, a got a photo from someone else (I lent them the prop for a party, long story) not perfect, but after the mess I made of trying to take tombstone pictures, I was pretty excited to see this one.

Anyway, we posted this on the Davis House blog, but I wanted to share it here (after I did a bit of Photoshop magic on it.)

Oooooh, aahhhhhhhh

I just installed (wait, no, not true, husband just installed) CS4 for me. The full professional version. (Big smile!) Which was called Stonehenge in production. Very cool.

Not that I have any free time as it is...but what I did have is gone. I now have no excuse for getting the book finished.

And, I have Dreamweaver and Flash to run amok in. I am so happy :)

Supporting the locals

Even if the new Coraline movie was not done by Laika (previously Will Vinton Studios) Animation Studio here in Portland, Oregon, I would have to see it because it is a Neil Gaiman story.

I met a few guys that worked on the film when they stopped by to see our graveyard display and asked them all kinds of questions. Importantly, did they know if Neil liked it.

They said yes. I was very happy, because next to Clive Barker, he is my favorite author (living.) And that is great story and a bit creepy for a kids story, and I was afraid they would tone it down too much. They said it was definitely "good and creepy."

If I was not already happy because it was October.....talking to them put me in a fantastic mood.

I can hardly wait!!

Better yet, they are going to film the Graveyard Book. Fantastic book, do yourself a favor and buy it. You will not regret it.

I officially can call it

Heros/Lost
Husband and I have been watching Heros. The first year was good. I did not complain too much, but by the second year I started comparing it to the worst show on the planet (in my opinion) LOST. (Rented season one watched it all weekend, a whole weekend of my life I will never get back.)

I have been calling it Heros/Lost for most of last year and it has irritated husband to no end. He hates watching the show with me because I have to mention at least three times.....in the first 30 minutes. :)

But last night - as if by a miracle - something happened on the show that solidified that I can call it Heros/Lost.

A plane crash! Seriously, the show ended with a plan crash (or about the crash.) Hum, that story line seems very familiar....where have I seen that before....could it be....yes, I believe it is LOST.

That's it, I am officially done watching.

And the winner is

ME! (We!)

Yeah, this should be the new them of my blog - Frog Queen bitchin' about awards. :)

Anyway, I got an email today from one of the groups I submitted our Marketing awards and we won, something, they don't tell you what you won, just that you did.

And of course they invited to sign up for the conference to pick up my awards. I think they go through the list of people that did not sign up and have them win an award so that they can invite them and increase attendance for the conference. I am in Marketing, I am suspicious all the time.


Awards or not, I am still not going. :)

This should really be a

Twitter, not a blog entry.

But then I would have to log on to Twitter and then start talking to people and get nothing done for the rest of the day........ah, it is always something with me.

So right now, husband is out of the house at a party, the cats are asleep in the office, I have lit all the candles and The Dreaming by Kate Bush is currently in the CD player and demons are coming out of the speakers :)

I am so happy. Back to cleaning the basement!!!

I hate working

in print.

My job entails all kinds of evil ways to separate us consumers from our money. One of those ways is in advertising. One of the most expensive ways to promote a product or services. You would seriously not believe how my newspaper advertising costs.

So, getting it right is important, you are paying for thousands of people to see your ad. Be crystal clear with your ad rep and run the right ad.

You think I would know that by now.

No, obviously I do not.

You can see where I went wrong:

Me to ad rep,"Run the last ad we ran."

Ad rep, "Sure, I will let you know if I need to re size it."

Me, "Great, thanks for being so flexible."

Sounds like that went pretty smooth right? The wrong ad was run, it had outdated information.

How did this happen?

Ah, here is the same talk but with the commentary on.

Me to ad rep,"Can I just use the last ad we ran." (I mean the "last" ad that I ran with their regular publication, about two weeks ago. She is thinking the last time I ran an ad in special annual guide she is talking about.)

Ad rep, "Sure, I will let you know if I need to re size it." (I think good, the ad that I ran might not fit for the special publication - meaning that we are talking about the same ad. So I don't worry, she will let me know if there is a problem. She is thinking that the size of the special edition has changed and they may need to re size the ad from last year.)

Me, "Great, thanks for being so flexible." (I think how great it is that they are going to make it easy for me and just re size my ad so that I don't have to have it done on such short notice. She is thinking wow, this is easy, I just get to use last year's ad.)

Husband programs for a living, if he messes up, "its a bug" and he fixes it and most likely in a week no one could even remember it.

My mistakes are on the back outside cover in full color and anyone can get it and bring it back and show it to me anytime they want. They fold nicely into your personnel folder and are right there for easy reference when your review comes up. So, I know I will see it again in about 10 months :)

I am so glad I have a hobby/obsession I love, or some days I would throw myself into the river. (And I have to drive over a bridge on the way home, so it is pretty easy to do :)

I think I am going to start taking web design classes.......this print thing is killing me.

Husband finds me the best stuff

As I mentioned earlier, I am not a big TV fan, I will watch TV shows when they come out on DVD, but watching a show every week/day/whatever - not my thing. But husband does. And it pays off sometimes, that is how we found Firefly and Carnivale - but yesterday he Tivoed me a whole bunch of shows called "Whatever, Martha."

OMG! If you don't have anything nice to say about Martha, take a seat next to her daughter Alexis and her friend Jennifer. They go through old episodes and pretty much rip her mom to pieces...the show about the wool felt hats made me about pee myself. (That and the few glasses of wine that I had :)

Sactioned by Martha, so it proves that although she does not show it. She must have a sense of humor buried somewhere - or she made one with a glue gun and bits of wire and organic, recycled shopping bags?

I think it is brilliant that she is making money off of what everyone else says about her. Smart lady!

I have to admit that as much as I like to make fun of her....I like her stuff. Her sugar cookie icing is amazing. And her Halloween stuff is, not always my style, but inspirational and head and sholders above any other Halloween craft guide. A definate level of sophistication that you don't get from Family Circle. Yes, you just have to put a pumpkin on the cover of a magazine to seperate me from my money:)

Anyway, I cannot believe I just publically admited I like Martha Stewart. There went my street cred :)

So I come downstairs

and husband is playing his Xbox. I ask him how it is going.

He says "I am getting my ass kicked by a girl in Virtual Fighter."

I say, "good, this no longer makes me the only woman kicking your ass. I can share you in that department."

I think he was so into the game he didn't even hear me.

:)

BTW - this reminds me of one of my favorite Firefly quotes, from Wash (from the movie) "Tell us the story again how Jane gets his ass kicked by a 90lb girl, cause that is never gonna get old." :)