Still here

Monday afternoon and evening, after working the 3-night stretch, was a little bit unproductive. Mostly I slept and tried to catch up on blogs and email, and made a list of the things I need to do for Halloween. I will have a brainstorm now and then, but if I don't write it down, it leaves me until it's too late to accomplish anything. Oh, and I dismembered all the long-legged female caricatures. (Dolls.) Arms and legs are now in jars. Heads are set aside for something special.

Yesterday morning J-Man and I went out to breakfast at a local diner that has a wonderful Greek omelet. My list of things to do was superlong, but I think he was feeling a little neglected, and there'll be no more breakfasts out til after Spook Day, so I tried not to eat too fast.

The rest of yesterday was mostly spent in working in the yard and on Halloween stuff. All my carved apples--all 18 of them--went dark and moldy on me. I tried using a Fruit Fresh solution to dunk them in--and it didn't work. When I saw they were turning, I tried a bleach wash, but it was too late. So all of them went into the trash. I bought some more yesterday afternoon, but didn't get to carve them. So Fri or Sat will be spent carving a whole new batch, then putting them in the oven on low for a while to speed up the dehydration process. (sigh) I should have stuck with the recipe.

Scarecrow has been dressed in the t-shirt and scrubs and the old man mask, and is standing in the yard. The pockets on the lab coat have been torn, and it was soaked in a tea/coffee mixture and draped over the deck rail to dry. Dirt and vinegar and fake blood to be added later.

Part of the lasagna garden by the front door has been started, so it will make a good place to put some bones. Torture tools were mounted on the walls of the porch, pumpkins were scrubbed, and as a side note, the pansies were planted in containers. They needed it, and besides, I have a drainage ditch that runs under my driveway that I don't want any Trick-or-Treaters to tumble into, so the containers were strategically placed to keep people away from that part of the yard.

Got my haircut, hallelujah! It'd been 10 weeks since the last one and it was driving me nuts, so I went a little nuts and had her cut a whole new, short style. She was reluctant to hack so much off, and left the sides a little too long, but I love it, so am going to call and have her trim off a bit more. For Halloween I'll be spiking it and going purple.

Sorry not to have taken any pictures of all the preparations yet, but hopefully will get some up soon.

Back to work tonight and tomorrow night, then off Fri. and Sat, but it's supposed to rain all weekend, so only indoor prep stuff will get done. I'm starting to feel the time crunch!