Tom Whittaker's Blog

This year for Halloween we did a fun Halloween display in the front window that projected haunted images.  It was a huge hit and at some times throughout the night, we have about 10-20 people just standing in front of the house watching it.  I like to keep things different each year, so the kids have some ghoulish surprises.  We also had the side window display, which was all heads and monsters, which was also quite popular.  It was fun.  We had about 150 trick-or-treaters.

Here are some shots of the front window:

Here is a shot of the side window:

Here is the front porch before it got dark:

For me the reward is to see the excited look on the kids faces when they look at all the decorations.  It is such a joy, as this is their special night.  Well, I have 365 days to plan for next year.  I will have to try to come up with something different.

I love, love, love Halloween and tonight Dale and I will be treated with an endless line of trick-or-treaters.  Some years we have had over 200 kids come to the door.  It is a lot of fun.  Dale and I make special treat bags for all the kids in the neighborhood we know personally.  Our hopes are that if we are really nice to them now, they may be nicer to us when they become teenagers, when they start to steal pumpkins and play with matches.  Here is a shot of this year’s treat bags.  They are full of candy, plastic bugs and skeletons, Halloween themed pencils and erasers, play doh and other Halloween fun. 

For me the highlight of Halloween as a kid was trick-or-treating.  Most years I dressed as a hobo.  Looking back now it seems odd that my Mom dressed me as a homeless person, but it was the 70s and it was a far less politically correct time.  Plus, it was an easy costume to throw together.  I would put on one of my Dad’s old shirts, put some soot on my face from her ashtray (I know sort of gross, huh?), then hang a handkerchief from a stick and I was a hobo.  I looked something like this (right), but not as cute. I do have to say, my parents always made Halloween very special for my sister and I and no matter what, they would endure the hours of walking to ensure we got our fair share (and not so fair share) of Halloween candy.

After a long night of trick-or-treating, my sister, Rachel and I would bring home our candy, but were really not allowed to eat it (except for a few pieces from neighbors we knew and trusted) until the next day because my Dad had to check it overnight for razor blades (it was the 70s and there was the whole tainted Halloween candy scare).  Oddly, when we would wake up the next morning, it seemed only my Dad’s favorite, Hersey Bars, seemed to be affected with the dreaded razor blades and had to be confiscated. Strange.

Over the next few days my sister and I would participate in the ritual of “trading” each other candy we preferred.  Really it was just an opportunity for my sister to screw me out of my good candy and convince me that I really liked those hard as a rock, Sugar Daddies and that pennies were better than candy.  It usually ended up with me crying and each of us trying to eat as much candy each day just in case the other tried to steal it.  Ah, memories.  Looking back, those are some of my favorite times as a kid.

Happy Halloween everyone!  Have fun tonight.

My Mini Cooper is named Elvira.  She is a convertible, so when I take her out with the top down, I refer to her as topless.  I have posted several times about her on my blog as Elvira topless.  As a result, I actually get a lot of traffic to my blog from people  (I assume mostly men) searching on Googlelooking to see Elvira topless.  I am sure almost all are disappointed to see a picture of some fat, gay guy in a convertible.

What surprises me even more is how much the traffic picks up in October for my Elvira topless posts.  Daily throughout the year I typically get 5 hits or so from people looking for Elvira topless.  Some days in October this shoots up into the hundreds and one day there were 856 pageviews to my post on Elvira topless. 

Are there really this many horny men sitting around wanting to see a 58 year old actress with big knockers, who dressed up as a vampire?  Apparently so.  It is just funny.  Men think Halloween and think topless vampires. Who knew?  Also, I really do like the word knockers when referring to boobs and breasts.  Knockers just seems more fun.

Happy Halloween everyone and I hope you find your naked shot of Cassandra Paterson (a.k.a Elvira).

I like to push the envelope and think Halloween is a good time for parents to talk to their kids about cross-dressing and transexuals.  Can't you hear it?

Tammy the Trick-or-Treater - "Mommy, why is that man dressed like that?". 
Mom - "Take your candy and run, Tammy run!"
Me - "I'm just a sweet transvestite."

Just kidding.  That would be inappropriate for kids coming to the door.  I am wearing one of these instead:


Again, what time of the year is better than Halloween to discuss pedophiles and beastiality.

...winter has started so early here in Colorado?

…here you go.  18 inches and snow.  I took these at 5:00 PM today.  More snow to come. Don’t you love autumn?

...featuring my nieces and nephew.  Thanks Rachel for posting this on Facebook.  Very funny!  You can barely see Jillian’s face – ha!

...white. Funny but this will all be gone in time for Halloween probably.

May the saddest day of your future be no worse

than the happiest day of your past.

Today was a rough day.  It was a day that challenges you and makes you are glad to have behind you. I hope the rest of the week proves to be a little less stressful.

Zoe is not a small dog.  She is 55 pounds and a pretty solid dog, but I love, love, love, when she gets in a little ball like this. 

It is just so amazing how dogs do this. It looks so cozy.  I wish I could do this.  It is funny sometimes she lays out and is all legs and then other times you get this.

She is my baby!

I felt better this afternoon, so I took about 30 minutes and got the porch ready for Halloween.  We are not going as “overboard” as previous years, but still wanted to make sure we had something special for the kids because that is who it is all about…well and big kids like me.  I hung “Roy” the skull ghost over the porch to put a fright in the neighborhood and turned the two planters into mini-graveyards.  I added Halloween lights, gravestones, hands, snakes and some monsters.  I think it turned out fairly fun and not too scary.

In our neighborhood there is a tradition where you leave Halloween gifts on your neighbors door during the month of October and “spook” them. 
We got spooked last week and do not know who did it.  We got spooked again today and it was wonderful – cookies, homemade biscuits and soup and a beautiful trick or treat sign.  It is from our neighbors the Walters.  They are so wonderful.  Our thanks for the Walters Family for being so kind and thoughtful.

This morning there were cookies on our porch.  I love when people leave baked goods in the early morning hours. 

Actually, it was my friend Shannon Spencer who left the cookies.  She had messaged me on Facebook last night and asked if Dale and I would like some cookies, as she had backed extras.  The funny part is Dale and I have never met Shannon.  I only know her from Facebook.  She lives in the same development as us, I read her Facebook updates, she reads mine, we comment and have a mutual friend Nicole Krout, but have never met.  Several months she left cupcakes on our porch one night.  She is really becoming one of my favorite neighbors.  Seriously though Shannon, thank you for cheering up a sick man with cookies. It was very kind of you.

I am so over wearing a surgical mask.  I am on day 4 and I wear it most of the day and anytime I come in contact with Dale.  As much as I hate it, I would do just about anything to prevent Dale from getting this damn flu.  It is annoying, but a small sacrifice.  On a interesting side note, add in the constant hand washing and hand sanitizing and I am ready pretty much all day to conduct surgery if needed.  I may buy a set of scalpels to complete my look.

Overall I am feeling better.  My cough lingers (especially in the morning) and I have to blow my nose a lot, but I feel about 75% of my normal self.  I am thinking another good night of sleep (thanks to the good people who make Nyquil) and I should be close to 100% by tomorrow.  I am still amazed on how much this flu took out of me.  I cannot remember the last time I was this sick.

I find it interesting how swine flu obsessed America has truly become.  It seems like anytime that anyone says they have the flu, everyone wants it to be swine flu, so they can say they know someone with swine flu.  It is weird, but not all flu is swine flu and more people die from the regular flu each year than the swine flu.  The swine flu just has better media coverage.  It is almost as if you are no longer considered sick if you just have the regular A or B types of influenza.  It is as if the only flu that matters is swine flu.   Now, I personally do not know what type of flu I have.  I just know I have sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head and a fever, so I would like to rest…oh wait, I do not have the flu.  I have whatever Nyquil cures.  Yeah.

Having the flu completely sucks.  Getting a wonderful fruit basket in the mail from a dear friend makes it suck a lot less.  Today, Dale and I received a great treat delivered to our door that brought smiles to both our faces – a beautiful fruit basket from Edible Arrangements.  It was sent to us by my college friend, Nell Stetson Herman.  It came at the perfect time and truly lifted both our spirits and our hearts.  It is so wonderful of Nell.  She is probably one of the kindest souls I have met.  Thank you Nell. Oh and on a side note, I love this angle of the basket because it looks like a face with the top fruit being the hair.  It makes me smile!

...watch this video. Why? Because it is all about the joy of spending your life with someone and celebrating that is a fun, fun way. How can you NOT watch this video and not smile?  I warned you it was corny.

…if they could make my damn nose stop running. 

• I got the flu shot. 
• I wash my hands far too much. 
• I use had sanitizer. 
• I disinfect mike like a mad man. 

So how the hell could I catch something.  I need this “bug” to move on. Now!

I found these funny.  There are more here.

In this post I plan to toot my own horn.  Toot!

Today, I spent about three hours cutting pack perennials and grasses in the backyard.  I even got up at 8:00 AM to get an early start on things (yeah Tom).  I am very proud of myself for a couple of reasons:

1. I do not like manual labor.
2. I do not like manual labor that involves the outdoors.
3. I do not like manual labor that involves the outdoors at 8:00 AM.
4. I do not like manual labor that involves the outdoors at 8:00 AM on a weekend.

I could have done more today, but I filled both trash cans with clippings and a large bag, so I really had nowhere else to go with the stuff until after Wednesday when the kind trash men (or women, I am not sexist) come for a visit.

I am about 1/2 done with the yard.  I got all around the pond done (pictured above), plus the southeast corner of the backyard. Hopefully, we have nice weather next week, so I can finish up some more.

In case you are wondering why I worked so hard – meet my Supervisor Zoe.  Dale put her at the backdoor and told her if I tried to stop and come inside to attack me.  She may look sweet, but is a slave driver.

We attempted to go to the Pumpkin Patch up in Broomfield with the Krout Family, but unfortunately 80 degree weather brought EVERYONE out and the line just to enter into the gates to the farm were about 1 mile long. 

We decided pumpkins were not worth the wait today, even through it is a Gl-ittaker/Krout Family tradition to go pumpkin picking together.  I think this is year 4 or 5.  We will try later in the week…if not Safeway or King Soopers may need to be this year’s tradition.

Dale and I received a wonderful package in the mail.  My former co-workers, Laura Ling and Rob Dixon sent us the most delicious box of 16 apples from back East.  They are so tasty.  I always tell Dale he has never tasted a real apple, since the apples they sell in grocery stores here do not have any real flavor.  Today, he learned just how right I was.  He loved, loved, loved the apples.  My thanks to Laura and Rob.  Such an amazing and caring gift that brought a HUGE smile to both our faces.  Thank you!

I am very excited today as I am taking 90 minutes that will be all about Tom.  I am headed this afternoon to get a massage.  I am very excited, as my shoulders and back are very tight. 

I personally love massages and once I win the Powerball, I plan to hire a full-time masseuse to be at my beck and call.

…but it did.  I will never look at the Wizard of Oz the same again.

Owen went out and got himself some tail!  Yes, my boy Owen has himself a girlfriend (or boyfriend, who am I to judge).  Today was the first time Owen has had his little friend to the house.  Dale has named her Ophelia (since she is smaller than Owen, we are going with female…of course, Owen could be a girl too).  Aren’t they the cutest damn couple?  Ophelia is on the left and Owen on the right.  Both have been snacking on the nuts I provide all afternoon. They seem very happy.

Of course, this having visitors in our yard does not always thrill Owen’s sister’s Mille & Zoe.  They spend a good portion of their afternoons standing at the back patio door watching their brother Owen eat.  Zoe is great and does not bark.  Millie however agrees with me that Owen is a dog and whimpers and wags her tail, trying to get his attention.  Owen seems used to them by this point and just continues to eat, even if they do make any noise or movements.

Today, we even got a bit of acrobatics from our new pal Ophelia.  She decided to peek in the house from the 2nd floor window in our family room using our back patio cover.  She probably just wanted some decorating ideas for her and Owen’s love shack.

I know.  Shocking, huh?  I am sorry.  This is a very busy week and I have not had the time to blog.  Sorry.  Also, I have not had a ton to say (yes, even more shocking).  But, things are looking up a bit, so the next few days should be better. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for something interesting soon.  I promise.

This is what our dining room window looks like at night now and for the rest of October. 
I think it came out pretty cool and will be fun for when the trick-or-treaters wonder by later this month.
It is all monsters, skulls and other fun creatures of the night.  I try to go scary, but not too scary.

Since the weather has sucked the past two days at 18-25 degrees, I figured it was a good excuse to start some Halloween decorating.  Each year, I try to do some fun stuff for the kids and try to change it up each year. 
This year I decided to build a monster window display in our dining room window, now known as the Dining Room of Death.  It is hard to see in this snapshot, but there are probably 20 monsters, creatures and other ghouls in the dining room window.  I will try to take a photo tonight as I have it all built so at night it looks even better, as several of the pumpkins light up, plus I have some lights shooting from above and beyond.  I planned to take a photo last night, but I did not like the liking, so I took the entire display down this morning and re-built it again with more lighting, so hopefully tonight, I efforts paid off.
I have about 20 bins of Halloween decorations and this is only about 4.  I am not doing as much as I have in past years, but I still have to decorate the front porch when it warms up, plus I have a surprise for the front living room window for Halloween night.

My baby boy Owen continues to come by once or twice a day for his helping of nuts.  I snapped these photos of my boy today.  The funny part is Millie and Zoe tend to just wag their tails at him while he is at the back patio door eating and do not bark.  They are such good girls and so sweet to their brother, Owen.  He seems to like almonds best and sunflower seeds seem to be his least favorite.  I was worried about him since it is so cold out the past two days at 18-25 degrees, but Dale keeps reminding me that he has fur and no, he cannot come live inside with us.  I think Dale thinks I am a bit nuts when it comes to Owen, but I just think he is so damn cute.

Why decorating for Halloween of course?  Well, at least the inside of the house anyways.  I did a large Halloween window display in the dining room.  I think it came out great.  I will post some pictures when it is not 18 degrees outside, as there is no way I am going outside right now.

...is October 19th.  It is supposed to snow tonight.  We had flurries today.  Today is only the 9th.  This is one case where I hate being above average.  I hate, hate, hate winter.

Look no further -  check out Field of Corpses in Arvada, CO at www.fieldofcorpses.com, I have been to almost every haunted house in the area over the years (poor Dale) and have gone Field of Corpses the past three years. It is by far the best hands down. Even Dale loves it every year.  It is by far the longest, has the best special effects and is truly the most intense experience of them all.  Be sure to check it out.  It is outside, so dress warm.

I am thinking of going this Friday night if anyone wants to join me.

Very original for a cover.

On the news this morning and in the USA Today, it was reported that David Letterman apologized to his wife on-air yesterday and that the whole 'sleeping with staff members' scandal has caused a major 'rift' in their marriage. I sort of find this odd since David Letterman's wife was a staff member he got pregnant and eventually married. So is his wife upset about the infedelity or is she just no longer feeling special?

My friend Sean from high school posted the amazing words below on his blog last week.  They are the vows from his wedding to his partner, Jeffrey.  They were married 10 years ago.  Yes, 10 years.  For those in this world, who do not believe in gay marriage, please read these words and tell me gays and lesbians do not deserve the right to marry.  These words express true love.  I read these words and they express the love and devotion I feel for Dale and the joy, support and comfort he brings to my world.  I hope Sean does not mind me sharing.

I ask you to be my partner for life.
I promise to always be here for you
To remain by your side
When things are good
And when things are bad.
I promise to always listen to you
And value your thoughts and feelings.
I promise to try to bring light to your darkness
And when I can’t, to hold your hand
And stay with you until it fades.
I promise to comfort you,
Nurture and support you,
To show you gentleness and generosity
And to give you room
for personal growth.
I promise to encourage you
to follow your dreams
And to support you
if the road to those dreams gets rough
I promise to do all I can
to keep anger from our life,
To never cause you pain,
To always be honest with you,
And to admit when I am wrong.
I promise to share with you
Those things most sacred to me:
My family, my friends,
My trust, my tomorrows
And most importantly, my love.

I am having a hard time finding motivation this morning. The skies are cloudy and gray. It is also a Monday and that does not help either. Maybe I need to start drinking coffee to get that boost I need. I am sitting on the bus going to work and resisting the urge to put me head down and sleep. Mornings are rough this time of year as they get a little darker and a little colder each day. I say we all take off the next few months and re-group in March or April when things start to warm up. All in favor?

I am worried.  My new squirrel friend Owen has not shown up at all today for the nuts I leave for him daily.  This is probably the first day all week, he has not eaten the nuts I leave out.  I am hoping he is okay.  There are so many predators out there for a squirrel, including too many fast driving cars.  Hopefully, he is back tomorrow.  I wonder if Dale will let him live in our garage.

This afternoon we finished the mulch around the side of our shed and the rock in our dog area.  Both areas have been left undone for months and are areas right along our neighbor Cindy’s house, so I know the unsightly nature has been stressing Dale out, as he prides himself on a beautiful yard.  Sam joined us and helped us weed the area, put down weed barrier, lay the rock and mulch. Sam’s help turned a project that would have been 4 hours to just under 2 hours.  I am so appreciative to have Sam as a friend and neighbor.  Thanks Sam!

Dale and I have a new dog named Owen.  I am very excited for the new addition, as I have been asking Dale for a third dog for years.  His response has always been ‘no’, but Owen just showed up on our doorstep this past week and he was tough to resist.

Owen is a very small, light brown and has a fluffy tail.  I am not 100% sure of the breed.  I am guessing from the size he must be a little bit Chihuahua. He is very sweet and darling.  He gets a little skittish around new people, but he seems to be getting used to the Gl-ittakers (me, Dale, Millie & Zoe). While Millie and Zoe tend to enjoy the warmth of the house, Owen loves staying in the backyard, so I am thinking he may be more of an outside dog.

I named him Owen because he sort of looks like Danny DeVito, when he played Owen in the movie Throw Mamma from the Train.  So far, he has been a great addition to the family and I am so glad he found us.  Here are two snapshots I took of him today eating.  He is small, so he is tough to see in the photos, but look close. In the photo on the left, look to the right of the white ceramic ducks and in the photo on the right, he is in the near the center divider of our patio door.


Isn’t he adorable?  Owen is so cute and sweet. Oddly, he really does not like the dog food like Millie and Zoe, but I have found he loves nuts.  I typically leave a handful of nuts on the back patio and he just shows up.

Okay, yes he is a squirrel, but I figure Owen is the closest I am going to get to a third dog.  This is the first squirrel I have seen in our neighborhood in the six years we have lived here.  I think because Five Parks was a brand new development, there were no squirrels.  Finally one must have migrated here from a surrounding neighborhood.  I saw Owen in our backyard about a week ago and have been leaving nuts at our back door ever sense.  He comes by a few times a day.  My goal is one day I can open the back door, yell ‘Owen’ and have him come running.

Of course, Dale finds its a little weird I am feeding Owen.  Even a little stranger is the fact that I am not feeding him ordinary plain nuts, but Dale’s good mixed nuts, which include pecans, almonds, cashews and hazelnuts.  They are not cheap, but I feel Owen is worth it and deserves something nice to eat.  Plus, he has to store some food up for the winter and I bet all the other squirrels will be jealous when they see Owen in January eating a fine almond dinner.

This morning Dale and I got up at 7:00 AM, so we could hit Albertson's Supermarket for some 50% off grocery shopping.  The Albertson's south of our house is closing and a few days ago went from 25% off everything to 50% off everything in the store.  How can you pass up 50% off.  They were a bit picked over, but we still were able to find some products we regularly use.  We bought some cleaning supplies, canned soups, canned peaches (for Dale only), cake mixes, tissues and some other great stuff.  We got $300 worth for $150.  Great, great deals!  If you are near one of the Albertsons that are closing, get there soon before everything is gone.

Last night, our friend Barb came to the house to hang out with Dale and I.  We hung out, we ordered some pizza and had a wonderful time catching up.  Barb even brought a delicious, homemade peach crisp.  Well, I hear it was delicious. I do not each peaches, but Dale said is was just like the peach crisp his Mom used to make.  It was a very nice evening and our thanks to Barb for coming over to visit.

In case you are wondering why I do not each peaches, there are two reasons:

• If you eat a whole peach, the fuzz freaks me out.  It is like gnawing on someone's arm.
• If you eat sliced peaches, the syrup in gross and slimey.  

So there you have why I am living a peach free existence. 

Yes, worms! You know the creepy crawlers that live in the dirt. Yes, them. They are the topic of this post.

Worms have become a very familiar site on my morning walk to the bus over the past month. I walk about 1 1/2 blocks to catch the good old 80x bus to work and over the past two weeks there has been an abundance of worms on the sidewalk each morning. They seem to move out to the cool, wet concrete overnight and in the morning are making the slither back to the grass and dirt before they get backed by the sun. I try to watch my step as it seems only polite not to crush them. I mean, they have jobs and families too, so they deserve a certain level of compassion, right?

Well something horrible happened earlier this week. Either the worms forgot they bake in the sun or they lost all sense of time (late night raves tend to cause that) because this morning the sidewalk was littered with hundreds of dead (or really sleepy) worms. Perhaps it was a mass suicide? I checked for little white sheets and little cups of kool-aid but there was no evidence of either. It is just weird. Did a cold snap get them? Were they too exposed on the sidewalk?

I feel like I should all someone to figure out why this happened? Why these week? Why here? I Googled CSI: Insects but apparently that is the only CSI the good folks at CBS have not tried. Oh well, I am sure the birds will be by today and excited for the easy to catch snack.