I'm baaaaack

Yes, I still have a million things to do, but at least they are at a manageable level. Yesterday I managed to get some kind of control over both my home and work email in boxes! Truly a happening!

Missed you all. Sorry, I was not as good at keeping up on the blogs the last few days. I apologize if I missed someone or if I left odd comments....I was a little stressed there for a while, not really acting myself.

I appreciate your patience.....only 144 days until Halloween :D

This was supposed to be

my big news. But husband has already posted this on our Davis House blog.

He does not post anything on there for weeks.....and I take a week or so off and he decides to post something. What is up with that?

Seriously - love husband and appreciate him keeping our blog updated (I now know he reads this blog, so I have to be nice :D )

Anyway. I know most of you don't read that blog, so let me pretend you did not know this.

The COOLEST thing happened a few weeks ago. (At least I think so!)

One of our haunt friends who lives in LA told us last Hauntcon that he was going to be working with Felicia Day on her "The Guild" series. We love that show.....and are HUGE fans of Dr. Horrible! So we were excited and told him that we had created a "Penny" (from her character - who dies in Dr. Horrible) tombstone in the yard for last Halloween. He showed him the pictures in our book and he thought they were great.

So that was in late May, we had completely forgotten about it....then.....a few weeks ago he sends us an email that says that he was talking to Felica the other day and she really wanted to see our tombstone.

NFW!!!! Are you serious!!! She asked to see our tombstone?!?!?
(Happy Dance in my office!)

He asked if we could take a couple of pictures and send them to him so that he could get them to her.

Ah, that would be a yes. Of course....you are now my favorite person in the whole world!! Have I mentioned recently that my haunt friends are amazing! :)

There was one teeny tiny problem we had to deal with and viola! There are pictures of our tombstone on their way to Felicia. We can hardly wait to hear what she says.

If we get really lucky....she might even pass them on to Joss! :)

The other night

I had one of those moments where someone's comments just made me say

F&ck! I am done with this Halloween business. I don't need these kind of comments in my life.

I was having flash backs to another unpleasant misunerstanding with someone in the haunt community, and (because lately I am a bit stressed and in a bad mood) could only see this ending badly.

I really don't need this in my life right now. I guess it goes to show how on the edge I am if something this small can set me off. Poor husband!

Have a mentioned that I am a red head and definitely fit the stereotype when it comes to my temper. In this case I was more upset than angry. Yeah, I don't handle "upset" with any grace either.

I (we) write the best email we can to see if we can patch things up, and head to bed.

I have a hard time sleeping lately but know I do not want to get up because I will want to check my emails.....and that could just make things worse.

I get up the next morning to find that, in this case, crisis diverted, everyone is happy.

Looks like there will be a Davis Graveyard in 2009. Not that there was any real danger of packing it up . . . just gave me head something to do for a few hours.

Guess I should get busy making some props. :)

So I guess I will share

The Igloo Keeper from Igloo of the Uncanny inspired me enough to take a few minutes, that I really didn't have, and make a blog post.....

(great blog BTW - check it out)

Made a funny comment about my "saved" blog posts. Just so you know that I am still thinking about blog posts. Here is a glimpse into the frog queens blog world. (Yes, be afraid)

As of this afternoon, here is my list of blog posts that need to be written. Maybe about 3:00 am on Saturday night/Sunday morning I will find some time to start writing these and build up my "saved" post reserve.

I am so

busy right now both work and the graveyard business. ( And I know, you all are busy too.) Just wanted to let you know that that last blog entry was the last of my "saved" entries, so now I have to write new ones. And that is not going to happen for a bit.

Like the rest of you, I only have so many hours in the day!!! For a little while I have decided to keep up on all of your blogs instead of posting to mine. (so you don't think I fell off the planet - actually, more likely I was commited to the local crazy house.)

I promise to have all kinds of fun stuff to share when I get back to blogging. (Besides the cool article in Haunted Attraction Magazine, I have one really exciting thing going on that I am dying to share.....)

Take care everyone!

Cheers!

It is funny what you remember

most about something. This last Hauntcon, as usual, was a great event and we had a blast, learned a lot, visited with friends and made new ones. Always a great experience that I look forward to every year. And every year I walk away with something different and valuable in some way.

This year one particular conversation with Leonard comes to mind over and over. He probably would not even remember that he said this to me....

We were walking up to one of the rides out in The Dells, and I was commenting on family and how things have changed with us and the haunt and he reminded me that these people.....these haunters are my "family". I had never really thought of it that way, but I suppose it is true, we all have the same disease of thinking of Halloween 365 days a year. And I do like most of them a lot more than some of my family.....I know that they like me a lot more than most of my family.

My family, to their defense, would quickly add that that is the case because they (the haunters) don't know me that well. :D Fair enough, there is something to be said for history.

I was again reminded about my haunt "family" this last few days when we were asked to submit an article for the upcoming Haunted Attraction Magazine as their featured "Home Haunter". Despite my many attempts and appeals to both Leonard and John that there are FAR better home haunters out there than ours....John finally convinced us to give in and be featured.

Then the problem of writing an article about us and Davis Graveyard. I can write (or blog) about that display all day.....but writing about "us" was a lot harder than we thought. We worked on it and ignored it....then worked on it....and ignored it until we were down to the wire.

We turned the dreadful draft into John telling him that this was in "no way" ready for publication. It did not take a second read for him to agree. But we waited too long and he needs the article for the magazine....NOW.

Once again, in steps Leonard Pickel. He is going to write our article. Wow, do I feel special or what? So, he talks to Jeff for a while and then calls one night while Jeff is out and talks to me. Brings up all kinds of old memories from our haunting past and helps us clarify who we are and why we do what we do. He tells me that he will send me the article that night, and if we could get back to him that same night, perfect.

At this point I look at my clock and see the time and know that he is several hours ahead of us. Does this man sleep?!?! So we are ready to stay up and wait for the email. We read it and are completely blown away. Wow, he made us sound important and interesting and all those other things I didn't know I could be. We made a few changes sent it back and husband went to bed.

I stayed up and worked on a few things for my day job and got a couple very funny and sincerely nice emails from Leonard. Not, "hi guys, nice to see you at the convention" type stuff...more like a friend. Wow, once again, I cannot tell you how great of a guy he is.

Funny, on that same weekend, someone in my family let me down again......I guess it is that "when one door closes" saying in this case. The more distant my family gets the closer I have become to all my friends and neighbors that help with the haunt and all my friends I know from the conventions. So there is technically not a void.....but it does feel different. I think I am figuring out that this "different" might be a good thing.

It goes in cycles

I was commenting about The IT Crowd and talking about UK TV shows, and one of my all time favorites.....yes, you are going to groan, is Red Dwarf.

I was sick for a few days and not feeling like doing anything other than sit in front of the TV for a while. So, since the special "Back to Earth" was just released in the UK (and I ordered it) I thought I would watch some of the original series.

Although I love most of the show, quirks and all! BTW, for all you horror fans - there are lots of "monsters" in it...including my favorite and "Lister's worst nightmare" the vindaloo monster. LOL!

Season 2 holds two of my favorite things.....my favorite story line Queeg and my favorite moments, the one that made me go...."hum, this is not your normal Sci-Fi sitcom, is it?" - the famous Tongue Tied song and dance number.



Tongue Tied has 4 different (that I can remember) versions for your viewing pleasure. The original from the show, the uncut version from the show (which YouTube keeps deleting), the music video (yes, it went to #17 in the UK charts) and the famous clay animation version (also no where to be found on YouTube). Ah, it is hard for me to pick a favorite.

Here is the video version.






The diehard fans, including husband are appalled that "Backwards" or the scene with the shrinking boxing shorts are not my favorite . . . . I do like them, but Queeg is my favorite and I do love a silly song.

The Real Frog Queen

A very nice and very talented work mate of mine made this "Real Frog Queen" image for me.

She saw the frog on her back patio, set it on a nickel, took the picture and then gave it the royal treatment in Photoshop. Just for me! Click to enlarge it, the detail is amazing.

I am so loved. :)

Click here to see her photography website.

It took a day

to build this crypt. Well, actually about 10 hours....and 6 or so very talented people.

Here is the crypt we built during the Bad Boys Scenic Design class at HAuNTcon.

Great class, any time you get to spend talking to Mike and the rest of the crew is invaluable. They are generous with their knowledge and build the coolest stuff.

A VERY good reason to go to HAuNTcon.

We love our new

friend Brian. He got video of Propmaster accepting his new award. It is also on the Haunters Video Award page.

The person reading the speech is our quite out-going friend Jon Williams from EFX TEK (we use their prop controllers) - they guy that hands the award out of the box is his counter part John Barrowman. This video makes me a bit sad that I was not there to see everyone.

Looks like they had a great time.

Costume Ball

At Hauntcon. I have one more post after this for Hauntcon and then I am on to my ideas for this year's haunt.

Really loved the scarecrow costumes.

In my opinion

the UK does comedy better than anyone else. And my new favorite obsession proves my point perfect. Husband and I recently discovered "The IT Crowd" - it is a show about the IT department in the basement of a company....not that exciting unless you are a geek - and husband is and I guess I just suffer from guilt by association.

But something funny happened midway into season one. That is when we discovered "Richmond" - there is a long story about Richomonds fall from power to IT basement dweller, but the funny thing about him is he is a goth...goth IT guy.

Before that day, I did not think that was possible. The contrast of this character in this situation makes me laugh out loud!

Here is the bio from the BBC

Richmond is the rarely seen fourth member of the IT team. The dirty red door in the wall behind Roy's desk looks like a rather unassuming gateway to Dante's lower levels, but it in fact leads to a room containing a machine that no one quite understands. Richmond sits there alone memorising the light flashes it emits.He is so isolated that it took Jen a long time to discover that he was working in the basement with them!

As Richmond rarely leaves the basement he has naturally very pale skin - which is ideal considering he is a goth.

Definitely not a show for everyone. But this scene where they try to get him back behind the red door....is funny,

Click here for a link to a clip from the show.

I heart my

blog friends! :)

Here is the latest bounty I got for guessing the correct number of items in a drawer from Dracenea at Rabid Reflections...huge surprise to me, cause, as recent experience has shown, I cannot count, that is why I am in Marketing....where there are very smart people that call pull me reports with lots of numbers on them.....and I like that. Wait, that just made me miss my Banshee friend.

Anyway - not only did I get the cool items she offered, I got two frogs!!! A girl can never have too many frogs. The first is the stuffed green frog to the left.

The next one is that small green plastic frog - that is so cool. He lights up and cycles through different colors!! I was playing with him last night for way too long and had to stop for fear of draining the batteries.

And of course here is the first shot I took.....Dorie had to check the "new" stuff out before I could get a picture.

They say you can

find something in every haunt that is at least worth the price of admission. And the Dominion of Terror at Hauntcon had one cool thing, and one very disturbing thing.

The disturbing thing was a girl tied up to a bed that got pulled apart by a couple guys!!! Come to find out that the leg that looked like they had twisted an broke is actually fake, she is missing a leg. Let me tell you, that is an image that I will not soon forget.

The actors were great. had a fun time.



















Ah, a vortex tunnel and a chainsaw guy....just for me :)

The creepy thing that I really liked was in this room. The clown on the far right is real, so in a room full of hanging clowns, just as you walk by, and you know that one of them is real, he jumps down and follows you.....got me! I am not afraid of clowns, but this one scared me :)

Congratulations

go out to Paul "Propmaster" Venturella . He is the first recipient of the latest category added to the Haunters Video Awards. The new award is for haunters that "have made a significant contribution to the home haunting community."

Being the creator of the videos from which the awards are given, we could not think of a better fit for the first award, and in honor of his contribution this golden pumpkin award will be called the "Propmaster Award."

His dedication to the Home Haunters Video collection for the past 10 years (which without his work these awards would not be possible), his invaluable resource of "how-to" information on numerous props, his contributions to numerous forums, his popular yard haunt and his work with the Rocky Mountain Haunters group. All of these made him the perfect choice for this new award.

Thanks to our new friend Brian and both Jon and John at EFX-TEK for presenting the award to Paul during the Rocky Mountain gathering this weekend.

Check out the website for more details.

There is an upside

and a downside to not putting my home on the local garden tour. Upside is just that, my garden was not in the tour.

That being the case, I did not spend every free moment I had for the last month trying to my make my garden look perfect so that I can try to convince strangers that my yard "looks like this all the time" :D

I just handled the marketing, some of the coordinating, all the printing and signage, and all the stuff the day of the event. Sounds like a lot, but nothing compared to all that on top of having the garden in the tour!! That is why I took my house out of the tour this year.

The downside is....that because my yard was not in the tour this year......I did not have to work like crazy to get the garden ready....thus my garden is a bit neglected. :(

So now that all the garden tour stuff is done, I am now going to spend a couple hours in my garden a few nights this week and see if I can get things looking respectable.

Oh, and we did raise about $1,345 towards the building of a new park in our neighborhood!!! Love little neighborhood parks!!

Anyway.....

Since I did not get my veggie garden in this year....is it too late to plant pumpkins? I was thinking of just planting a few pumpkin plants in my beds. Or do I do what I do every year and call my friend that owns the corn maze in town and barter with him for some pumpkins?

The only completely

3-D haunted house I have ever been in was Shawano Manor during this last Hauntcon. I know I have mentioned before that I am not a big fan of 3-D houses, and this one was just too much for me. Half way through, I wanted out. :0

But I know that many people love this sort of haunt, so here are some pictures (courtesy of my friend Jeri) that will give you an idea of the haunt. This is a 100% charity haunt run by the local Beja Shriners.

Although it is hard to see, this dot room was the one I mentioned earlier - a new twist on the dot room, they used geometric shapes instead of dots, and they are using the new large black light LED lights from our friends at Mini Spotlights. Bert was not only working on getting his haunt (Terror on the Fox) ready for the convention....he was also over helping this haunt set up.

Yeah, he told me he had not slept for a week :)

Now you know

what really happened to Mark Hamill's career.



I know, not Halloween related...but funny and sort of Halloween related on my end because one of our most memorable guests costume was when a friend of ours dressed as Princess Leia, the geeks still talk about her :)

Today

sucks. I won't go into the boring details. Just take my word for it. Normally I would post my "Happy Tree" picture.

But today we are going with a particularly amusing LOLcat. (Yes, I hear you all groaning - stop it! :D)


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Is black and white

close enough for me for Halloween?

Well, yes, I think so. My yard is all black and white and gray and this video is too.....and I am a big Arcade Fire fan. I found it through one of the design sites that I check for inspiration. The showed this as a great example of an interactive Flash presentation....ah, yea, I would have to agree.

Check out this interatice video. Neon Bible by Arcade Fire.

The Frog Queen is

a bit distracted lately.

Not only is work hella busy, but this weekend in our community "Secret Garden Tour" - my garden is taking a year off from the tour, but I am very involved in the design of all the marketing pieces and handling the events on that day.

So, as much as I always think of Halloween....if I am missing for a bit, that is where I am at.

Cheers!

Lights on Tour

That is what they call the tour through the haunts that we take after we go through it as it would be during the season with the actors.

Then they turn on the lights and let us take pictures!!!

Here are pictures from the inside of the Terror on the Fox during the lights on tour. Their attention to detail is what makes this one of my favorite haunts.