Date #17 - Trick-or-Treat

Yes, I took Dale trick-or-treating for a date. No, not really. However, we did stay home tonight and spent a wonderful evening together the two of us giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters as they came to the door.

Now it may not seem like the most traditional of dates, but we sat together the whole night talking, laughing and commenting on the kids as they came to the door. It was a great time and we followed it up watching an episode of American Horror Story, so it was a fun Halloween night with my favorite little monster - Dale. I can not think of anyone I would rather spend Halloween with than my love Dale.

Spooktacular Halloween

I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween tonight. One final shot of Dale's pumpkin army.

Creepier

Okay, now that it is dark Dale's jack-o-lanterns look even creepier. Great job Dale!

Six jacks

Here are Dale's six jack-o-laterns all lit for the night. I think they look great.

This is why the are canceling my bus route

With three miles to go it is as usual just me.

Things that made me smile

I think it is good to look back at my week and appreciate all the good and things that made me smile. Here are 15 from last week:

1. The song Man in Motion from the St. Elmo's Fire soundtrack being the first song on shuffle on my iPod Monday morning as I walked to the bus.

2. Tony Pietrocola using the phrase "Megatron" on my company's Monday morning sales call.

3. Blood stains on the sidewalk on Monday left over from Saturday's Zombie Crawl.

4. A funny image on Facebook with the phrase "Mykoc" on Tuesday. Thanks Frank Curtis.

5. The first snow of the season on Wednesday.

6. Watching our puppy Lucy experience snow for the first time Wednesday morning.

7. The Paul Simon concert Wednesday night - at 70 he is still amazing.

8. The woman next to me on my flight to Boston Thursday who laughed out loud the entire flight watching the movie Zookeeper.

9. The Japanese woman at Logan airport Thursday with the Hello Kitty bedazzled cell phone cover.

10. Every damn thing about Friday night at the midnight screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

11. That Sandy Stubbendick texted me to ask the date of when Loretta's anniversary with Steve. I have created a full fledged person in Loretta and I love it.

12. During a board game at a friend's Saturday night when asked his partner's most oddest habit, Dale said it was that I take my iPhone into the bathroom with me. I would think wearing my shoes two sizes bigger than my feet and not eating berries because dogs per on them was much odder. Funny.

13. Sandy Stubbendick's delicious Tuscan ribs make my mouth and stomach smile Sunday night.

14. That Shannon Stubbendick's roommate Molly asked Sandy Stubbendick if she collected bowling bags on Sunday night.

15. Going to Field of Corpses for one final Halloween haunt Sunday night.

Halloween spirit

Dale was a carving maniac and carved these 7 pumpkins today. 5 will be for our front porch and 2 will go to neighbors. All so the trick-or-treaters get some Halloween spirit tonight.

Halloween childhood memories

I loved Halloween growing up. I still do. Thankfully for me as a kid I had a Mom, who also loved Halloween. My Dad really was not as big a fan of Halloween, but thankfully my Dad went along with most things my Mom liked. For me as a kid, Halloween meant two things - a costume and trick-or-treating. My Mom always made sure we got our more than fair share of Halloween candy with her and my Dad taking us out trick-or-treating for hours.

For most years my Mom dressed me as a hobo. It was an easy costume. It required me to wear one of my Dad's old shirts, a winter hat and put ashes from my
Mom's ashtray on my face to make a beard.

Probably one of my big Halloween memories was when my parents splurged and bought my sister and I a store bought costume. It was one of those Collegeville costume's in a box where it came with a plastic mask, shirt and pants. They were uncomfortable to wear as inevitably the shirt or pants tore and you could never really align your own eyes to the slits in the mask. Also, breathing was tough and condensation always collected on the inside of the mask.


However, it was a store bought costume and that made me feel like the coolest kid alive. Oddly, for some reason my parents buying me a costume equated to a higher status than the time and effort they spent actually making me a costume. Aren't we funny as kids? I remember having a Casper and Superman costume in a box as a kid.


I also remember my sister had the Princess with the blond hair. It is funny how popular these costumes were, yet how cheap and uncreative they were at the same time.

My all-time favorite store bought costume was in the early 80s and basically came with face make-up and an inflatable head piece that made you look like a monster or alien. Basically, the face paint made your own face look like part of the body, so the inflated head looked like a real monster head. It was like wearing a pool toy on your head, but as a kid it made your costume tall, there was face make up and it was store bought, so again I felt incredibly cool. I actually found a photo online of the one I actually had as a kid.


Good times and great Halloween memories from my childhood.

Field of Corpses

Dale and I went to the haunted house Field of Corpses tonight with Sandy, Steve and Shannon Stubbendick along with Shannon's college roommate Molly. Field of Corpses remains the best haunted house in the area. It may not be as high tech as some of the others but it definitely remains on of the scariest. It is 30 minutes of scares and screams that do not disappoint. A great time.

Before the haunted house Sandy made us an incredible dinner of Tuscan ribs. They were spectacular and what better way to theme a Halloween evening than gnawing meat off a bone. It is how zombies must feel every day. Yum!

We got spooked!

Today we found two bone encrusted champagne flutes filled with candy on our front porch. Thanks to the anonymous ghouls!

Fun time had by all

Last night Dale and I went to our friends and neighbors, Kevin and Michelle Stephans for dinner along with our other friends and neighbors, Anjanette and Sam S. It was a great evening. They made the incredible chicken shish kabobs and Anjanette brought delicious homemade cupcakes. After dinner, we played a question game. It was a fun time had by all.

Deviled eggs with a twist

Dale made deviled eggs with bacon and spiders on top. The spiders are made with olives. Delicious.

Ironic

Tonight is the big Halloween night out this month and this is the one Saturday Dale and I are not doing anything Halloween related. It is sort of ironic (in a Alanis Morrissette kind of way).

Date #16 - Just a Jump to the Left

Can you think of a better date than a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Neither can I. It is funny, campy and involves hundreds of crazy people...so what is a better date than that? Last night, I took Dale to see the movie at the Esquire Theater in Denver with our friends - Sandy Stubbendick, Steve Stubbendick, Sam S., Anjanette S. and Brent Dilworth.

We stood in line and watched all the people who dressed as Franknfurter, Riff Raff, Magenta and all the other Rocky Horror gang. Waiting in line is honestly as fun as the movie itself. This showing has live actors in front of the screen acting out the movie, which just makes it even more fun. It was a great time and Dale had a blast (so did everyone else too).

We all sang along, shouted at the screen, ate popcorn, got up and danced and most of all laughed and laughed. It was a great time and we capped off the evening at 3 AM with breakfast at Great Scott's Eatery.

It was a late night...actually early morning, but was so worth it and it was something Dale and I had never experienced together before, so that was fun.

It's just a jump to the left

And a step to the right. Put your hands on your hips and bring your knees in tight.

Last night myself, Dale, Sam & Anjanette S., Steve & Sandy Stubbendick and Brent Dilworth went to the midnight screening of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Esquire Theater in Denver as part of our October rocks celebration.

For those who have never attended a midnight screening of this movie (virgins) - it is a mix of movie, theater and audience participation and a ton of fun. Enthusiasts act out the movie right in front of the screen. You laugh, you yell and you throw things. It is pure heaven.

I have loved this movie since the first time I saw it as it is so campy and hilarious. Add in people dressed as characters yelling things like slut at Janet and you have a fun, fun time. I felt like I was in college again. It was a great evening and we even stayed out until 4 AM to enjoy breakfast at Great Scott's (fitting, huh?). I was up 25 hours straight but it was so worth it.

Thanks to Dale, Anjanette, Brent and virgins, Sandy and Steve for making the night so much fun. This has been a great month.

Three days later

I went to see Paul Simon at the Broomfield Event Center Wednesday night with Becki Dilworth, Sandy Stubbendick and Steve Stubbendick. I sit here three days later still in awe of that show.

At 70 years old Paul Simon is still a musical genius and still puts on one hell of a show. Not only was Paul's voice amazing but his band took musical instruments to new levels. We were treated to only what could be described as a wall of sounds. The band of 9 easily played over 40 instruments. At times you would have 5 guys playing drums and on the next song suddenly everyone on a different guitar. They played instruments I had never seen before and just moved from instrument to instrument creating such glorious sounds and melodies.

It was not a concert but a musical experience. I felt honored to witness it. Well done Paul Simon, well done indeed. You remain one of the most amazing song writers and musicians to grace this Earth.

The Day the World Came to Town

On my flight to Boston Thursday, I read the book The Day The World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim Defede. It was one of the most moving, emotional books I have read in ages and so much so that it actually brought me to tears several times. The couple sitting next to me on the flight, who were laughing all through the in-flight movie Zookeeper must have found it odd to see my weepy ass sitting next to them crying at times over a book.

They were not tears from sadness, but tears from reading about how amazing humans can be to each other at difficult times. There is one thing that truly makes me highly emotional and that is selflessness. When someone gives in a truly selfless way, it honestly melts my heart. It is like I am the Grinch and my small heart suddenly grows three sizes bigger and I become a puddle of tears and emotions.

This book is about a true event from September 11, 2001 but not a well known event. Of course the event in the book was caused by the bombing of the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, but this story was about the passengers on flights already on route to the USA, when we shut down our airspace following the attacks. There were hundreds of planes already on route to the USA and thousands of passengers. We closed all our airports. This gave pilots crossing the Atlantic two options - turn back or land in Canada. Our government felt there was a very strong risk there were more terrorists aboard more flights and to reduce more risks to Americans we basically made in bound flights to America and possible flying bombs, Canada's problem. Looking back it sounds a little shitty, but at the time we were under attack and did not know what was happening.

Hundreds of planes and thousands of passengers were diverted to the nearest Canadian airport and in many cases this included the small rural island of Newfoundland in Canada, specifically the town on Gander. At first it was expected air space would open in the USA within hours as we had never done this before. Thousands of international travelers were stranded on planes and suddenly hours were growing and airspace was not reopening in America anytime soon. As we all know now, it took several days before we reopened airports.

Passengers were trapped on planes and this book tells the story of how a small town of less than a few thousand like Gander, Newfoundland in Canada welcomed and cared for 12,000 strangers for several days until planes returned to the air. Schools, churches and social clubs gave people places to stay. People volunteered their own towels, their own linens, their own showers, their homes and food from their pantries at a moments notice to help others in needed. This book recounts stories of how incredible one human can be to another human, even when they are complete strangers. These are selfless acts of love and compassion that demonstrate the goods in our world.

This is a wonderful book that I truly loved. I recommend this book to anyone who loves to hear the good in people and see a very different side of 9/11 and the subsequent days. It is a very emotional read.

I should still be sleeping

Since I've only had 3 hours of sleep, I should still be sleeping but here I lay wide awake.

Sometimes I even laugh at myself

Talk about two extremes a I started the day in a suit in a board meeting and ended it at a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. How cool is that?

Has my travel luck changed?

I just landed from my flight from Boston to Denver. The flight left on time and landed a few minutes late. Nobody did anything out of the ordinary or yelled at me on this flight. I read 1 and 1/2 books and listened to my music for 4 hours of uninterrupted bliss. Has my travel luck changed?

Just get up stupid!

I was verbally attacked on my flight to Boston today. No exaggeration. I was sitting in my seat while everyone was boarding when this crotchety old man in his 80s starting yelling at me accusing me of being in his seat. He didn't even ask me if I was in the right seat. He just starting yelling at me and actually called me stupid. At first I thought wow, I must be in the wrong seat. I rechecked my boarding pass and no. It read 8F and I was in 8F. I tried to show him my boarding pass and ask him to look at his, but that is when he called me stupid. He actually yelled, "Just get up stupid!"

Of course everyone was looking by now. Finally I could get enough of a glimpse of his boarding pass he was waving around to see he was in 18F but by now two flight attendants showed up to calm the man down. At this point he called me stupid again. When the flight attendant explained to him where his seat was he called her stupid for making everything so small. She eventually got him to his seat. He of course offered me no apology.

However, I did get a free drink from the flight attendant later in the flight. She said she was sorry I was treated so poorly. At least that was something.

Now normally I would find this annoying

One my flight from Denver to Boston the movie was Zookeeper starring Kevin James. I watched it on my flight last week. It was not good. It had a few funny moments but not what I would ever race to watch again.

You know how on every flight there is the one person on the plane who watches the movie and laughs out loud like he/she is sitting at home in front of their own TV. Well, you guessed it - that woman sat to my left on today's flight. Now normally I would find this annoying but her laugh was so loud (even over my headphones and iPod) not to mention infectious it was hard not to smile and laugh myself. It actually made for a very funny flight because every five minutes or so she would bust out into a fit of laughter that would make me look up to see Kevin James doing something stupid. Apparently Zookeeper was her type of human.

First snow of the season

Yes, winter has reared up and hit Denver metro last night. About 3-4 inches but another 3-4 expected throughout the day.


With a high of 32 degrees expected today, it is a far cry from a record high of 80 degrees two days ago.

I remember I used to mock...

...my parents for going to bed at 10:00 PM. I thought they were so lame.

It is 9:25 PM and I can barely keep my eyes open.

Side Effects from the Zombie Crawl

Today for lunch I took a nice walk around downtown Denver. Since it is 80 degrees today and Wednesday will be a high of 34 degrees, I figured I should get out to get in one last appreciation for autumn. As I walked around I notice two side effects from the Zombie Crawl this past Saturday.

1. There is a ton of fake blood staining the sidewalks along the 16th Street Mall. People visiting Denver today must be scared worrying about what happens in Denver once the sun goes down.

2. The homeless people stand out a lot more on non Zombie crawl days.

I love that so many of my friends...

...have sent me this video. I do love this and expect Dale to figure out how we do this next year to Monster Mash.

22 things that made me happy

I think sometimes we get so caught up in the daily annoyances of life, we forget about all the little, simple things that make us happy or bring a smile to our faces. When I looked back at last week, I had a ton of great, fun and random things that made me smile. Here are 22 that came to mind:

1. Working from home on Monday.

2. Flying to Boston with Becki Dilworth on Tuesday.

3. Dinner at Legal Seafood Tuesday evening with my team.

4. Ordering Dale flowers Tuesday morning because I missed him and knowing it would make him smile.

5. Seeing so many friends at my company's kick-off meeting on Tuesday.

6. Dancing at the Irish Pub on Tuesday night at the Marriott in Burlington, MA.

7. Seeing Karen Weamer's smile when she woman Business Development Executive of the Year at my company's annual kick-off on Wednesday.

8. Dinner with my CEO Thomas Massie on Wednesday evening.

9. The driver to Logan Airport with the wicked Boston accent on Thursday morning.

10. The crazy woman at Logan Airport on Thursday who felt the need (unsolicited) tell me why see was flying to Denver.

11. Seeing Dale's smile on Thursday after a three day business trip to Boston.

12. $1.00 rib night at Brothers BBQ Thursday evening.

13. Finally watching the season premiere of season 2 of the Walking Dead Thursday night.

14. Watching a woman try to put on eyeliner while on the bus Friday morning.

15. Cereal for dinner Friday evening.

16. The creepy zombie baby room with a rotating swing at the Halloween Spirit store Friday night.

17. Sandy Stubbendick's tater-tot casserole for lunch on Saturday. It was heaven in a dish.

18. The amazing creativity at the Zombie Crawl on Saturday.

19. A shower after 8 hours of wearing Zombie make-up on Saturday evening.

20. Walking around Lake Arbor Park on a beautiful fall day with Dale, Zoe and Lucy on Sunday afternoon.

21.The sense of accomplishment for finishing 30 thank you cards on Sunday afternoon.

22. Watching the Walking Dead on Sunday evening with Dale

Me on the bus

Sometimes I just like to sing along to my iPod on the bus.












I also like to take pictures of myself too.

Look who turned 4

This weekend my blog turned 4 years old. I just noticed. Back on October 22, 2007 I posted some photos from our Halloween party and this little blog started. Yes, it was really just a place originally to post some Halloween photos. Four years and 4,097 posts later here we are. Happy birthday www.tomwhittakerblog.com.

Charming

Dale added a window to our shed. I think it looks charming. He is just like Martha Stewart...well except he is much nicer, hasn't been to prison (I know of) and has nowhere near her money. But otherwise, just like her.



Before



After

Making the most of a beautiful Fall day

It is in the low 70's, sunny and quite honestly a near perfect Fall day, so we decided to go for a walk this afternoon at Lake Arbor Park with the dogs to make the most of this beautiful day. It is supposed to be a high of 35 degrees on Wednesday, so we need to make the most of today.

Missing Dale

These are the flowers I sent Dale this past Tuesday while I was in Boston to let him know I was thinking about and missing him. Sometimes I am sweet. Aren't they pretty? Just like Dale.

This has been the best October ever!

October has been an absolute blast this year. We have done so many fun, cool things to celebrate Halloween. And best of all, there are still a few more Halloween treats left this year.

A huge thanks to the Stubbendicks for taking part in so many of these great events. You guys make it that much more fun. Thanks to all our friends who came to our Hallween party. A huge thanks to Dale for always letting my inner "Halloween" child geek out.

4 down and 2 to go!!!!

1. Go to a haunted house or two
2. Build scarecrows fans a haunted pumpkin patch on the front lawn
3. Host a kick-ass Halloween party
4. Do the Denver Zombie Crawl
5. Go to midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show (planned for 10/28/11)
6. Dress up for the trick-or-treaters (planned for 10/31/11) 

Dale tormenting Stacie Stubbendick at the 13th Floor Haunted House.

Our scarecrows and haunted pumpkin patch.

Woody (Dale) and the Invisible Man (me) make it on TV at our Halloween Party.

Our zombie crawl crew - Anjanette & Sam S., Sandy & Steve Stubbendick and Dale and I.

Date #15 - Zombies

For several years Dale and I have talked about doing the Zombie Crawl in Denver, but this year we made it happened and we planned a day of all things zombies. We dressed up with our friends Sandy & Steve Stubbendick and Sam & Anjanette S. as a zombie bowling team. We were a huge it and it was an absolute blast. So Dale, myself and our friends joined 15,000 of our closest zombie friends and took over downtown Denver for a bloody good time. It was great. We hit some bars for drinks and went to Mellow Mushroom Pizza for dinner. It was a great day with my zombie love.

Shots from the zombie crawl

Today Dale and I joined our friends Steve & Sandy Stubbendick and Sam and Anjanette S. for the Zombie Crawl downtown. We had drinks, food and drinks at the Tilted Kit, Lucky Strike, Mellow Mushroom Pizza and Little Man Ice Cream. We all went at zombie bowlers and were a huge hit with our bowling shirts and body part filled bowling bags. It was an absolute blast. We had so much fun and downtown was insane. Great day.