Decorating for Halloween................this is MY own Christmas

Well it's been a while sine my last post. I haven't come across anything or done anything in a while that I saw fit to post about.

So Halloween is almost upon us. This is my favourite holiday. It's like my own Christmas.

I happen to be an October baby and celebrate just a few days before Halloween.

Here are some of my fav decorations this year.

On the left here is the SS Bloody Mary. This is my one and only decoration at work. I thought it was appropriate since I work for a cruise line.


I would have decorated more at work like I did last year, but this year I'm taking Halloween off.

This is the McFarlane Headless Horseman from Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. I actually leave this out all year round. This combined two of my favourite things: McFarlane figures and my favourite Tim Burton film.





So this is my scarecrow. I wanted something that would be really scary. So being a movie geek and a Halloween freak I went back to Tim Burton on this as well. The face of this scarecrow is the same face that's on the scarecrow in the beginning scene of Sleepy Hollow. I don't have the dark available to me 24/7 to keep it ominous looking, but I do have a fogger to keep things cloudy and mysterious.





This year I picked a cool new Halloween toy. It's called a Webcaster. No it's not an internet tool. Basically it's a hot glue gun with an air hose hookup. So as your hot glue is coming out the front of the gun, you have an air pipe with 120 psi of air shooting that hot glue onto what every you want to form cobwebs.

This is our front door and as you can see I've planted some rather large inhabitants in there.



We live in a condo so we have to get creative. This is one of my wifes planter boxes with some skull fencing and some decayed bones. Don't worry I didn't dig anyone up for this display. This is the Bag O' Bones set from one of the local Halloween stores that sets up near us every year.

They look pretty real and I get a lot of compliments on them from neighbours and visitors.





My wife has been wanting a really creepy looking bust to have out in the house somewhere. We found this one at Michaels, a local craft store.

This one was the coolest and I think the most fitting since it's a vampire. They had some others, but they weren't as cool as this one.

I'm not sure we named him yet. I think he looks like a Montesque or some other kind of creepy sounding name.

Let's face it, Carl the vampire just doesn't bring any fear into my head.






This is the other portion of our mantle. We have some more skulls acting as bookends on some rather scary looking books.

Ok so they're not scary books. We took some of our regular books and took the papercovers off of them so we could sit them out with their regular black spines and covers exposed.





This is one of last years displays. I searched everywhere for a really scary looking pumpkin and finally found this one at a costume and display store near the mall.

So there he sits with my pirate skull and a bottle of Vampire wine in the midst of the fog.

Try the wine. It's really pretty good. Not available in stores year round, but available straight from the vineyard year round.





I really like bats, and this guy is no exception. Again I picked him up in the Halloween store a few miles down the road.

He looks alright just hanging out in a freshly fogged front porch.







Now this sign is hanging on my front door. To my neighbours it means that I know how to decorate. The first time they saw it last Halloween they were kind of freaked out by it.

This year I had a Jehovah's Witness come to my door becuase of it and wanted to tell me all about the word and leave me with some reading materials. Apparantly I really need to be saved for decorating in preparation of a day that we celebrate the dead.

I let him know as politely as possible that I don't need saving or his reading materials and that he should probably leave. He kind of looked like that late nite talk show host, Tom Greene, but dressed in all black.



This is one of my favourite set ups. This is the bar in our dining room.

The only thing wrong here that I would change is the roses. The leaves and the stems shouldn't be as green as they are for being black roses. Bad me for buying them that way, but really who wasn't thinking when they made them?













This is the bookshelf over our garden window. This is kind of cool. We pulled the paper covers off the books so that we would have a bunch of black and brown spined books up there to give it that "old" and creepy look. The rats running around are particularly interesting.






Here is a our gargoyle door knocker.He got in the way when I douched the entry way with the webcaster gun, but then I decided that he should get all covered too.

Have I mentioned that I really love that web gun? It effin' rocks.












This is one of those vintage photos that changes from a normal picture to something scary when you move about the room. It's hanging over the bar.

I think this guy might be related to my uncle Stan somehow. My uncle reminds me of Lurch from the Addams Family.

Well I hope that you all enjoy your Halloween. Decorate and have fun. Go out and scare someone!!!

Kirkland Concours de Elegance

California has Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance.

Washington has the Kirkland Concours d' Elegance.

Most that don't know about either will pass it off as an elitist snob-fest for old farts that have more money than god (if he exist).

Not so. Sure some of the entrant vehicles at this show do belong to some of Washington's elite wealthy, but they are all motourheads at heart.

This year was the 6th annual Kirkland Concours at Carillon Point. As always the honourary chairman was Edward Herrmann. Sure most know him as an actor, History Channel narrator, and spokesperson, but what few people in the common world know is that he has 6 vintage automobile restorations to his credit. Currently in his garage are a Packard and a Rolls Royce that is currently undergoing restoration. He can also be found at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance of course.

There are more classes of automobiles there than one could possible think of from Lipstick Red Convertibles to Woodies to Vintage Motourcycles and Vintage Boats and European and American Classics, Horseless Carriages to Steam Cars.

This year also saw a display in an adjacent car park of a host of Porsches brought out by various members of the local chapter of the Porsche Club of America. This was another highlight for me as a fan of good ole german automotive engineering. I typically only by German cars as they last forever and never let me down. Currently I'm a member of the local chapter of the BMW Car Club of America.

Well enough rambling. I'm sure you all want to see some cars.

So here are highlights featuring my favourites from the event.

This one is the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Coupe Touring.

It's owned by a local named Jon Shirley. This car took the Best of Show this year not only in Kirkland but also at Pebble Beach. It also had a Best of Class at Pebble Beach and a First in Class European at Kirkland.







This is my favourite. This is the 1972 Ferrari Daytona 365 GTS/4. This little gem reminds me of the free-flowing good times we all had in 80's. Listen close you can hear it................the Miami Vice theme and you can almost see Don Johnson in his pastel jackets and deck shoes.

BTW- Don Johnson is the fuckin' bomb in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and in The Long Hot Summer. Just needed to get that out there.

Additional little note: the Ferrari Daytona used in Miami Vice was a kit replica built on a Chevrolet Corvette Frame.
This is another one of my favourites. This is the 1958 BMW 507 hardtop converible.












I like this one as well and also am placing this one up for The Mrs. to have some eye-candy.

This is the 1952 Jaguar XK 120 Roadster.

You can also see this car (or one like it) in the movie Cruel Intentions. While that movie was neat and entertaining, it was nowhere near as good as the film that inspired it, Dangerous Liasons.




These are the multiple Porcshe enteries by local shop owner/guru Dennis Aker.
Down this row you can see (in order)
1961 356 B Sun Roof Coupe
1965 356 Cabriolet
1964 356 C Coupe
1959 356 A Convertible D
1985 Carrera Turbo Cabriolet






This is the oldest know Indian Motourcycle. This little gem was built in 1902.












Since were out on the water, there is a vintage boats display as well.

The one on the very left is the 1941 Garwood Commuter.

I can't be sure of the ones in the middle and on the right. They were two of the Chris Craft boats on hand that day.







These are some of the cars that were brought to the event that day by members of the local chapter of the Porsche Club of America.

This particular lot is a grouping of early to mid 1980's 911's.

At the very end you can see two 1970's era 914's poking their little heads out.

BTW the copper 914 down there has only 43k on the odometer and has never been restored. The owner (original owner mind you) keep this one with it's 8 other brothers and sisters in an airplane hangar and rotates driving his Porsches on the weekends so as not to put too many miles on them.


This little grouping is two 912 models (the far left and the far right) with 911 in the middle.


The green 912 is a 1975 and the white 912 is a 1968. The silver 911 is a mid 1970's. Not positive of the year on that one.





And finally this grouping is mid to late 1970's era 911's with the exception of the far right white one which is a 1971 912.


Well that about wraps up the 2008 Kirkland Concours d' Elegance.

I can't wait for the 2009 show. Although if the Porsche club has member cars there then I'll need to find out why the local BMW chapter didn't have any there and see if that can be rectified.

Richard Wright...................A moment of silence please

Richard William Wright
07.28.43--09.15.08







One of my music heroes has died this morning. Richard Wright of Pink Floyd was 65. He was one of the 4 original founding members of this phenomenal psychedelic rock band.

Richard and drummer Nick Mason, bassist Roger Waters, and guitarist Syd Barrett formed Pink Floyd in 1965 after meeting in university in 1964. David Gilmour came in a few years later after it was clear that Syd was having some reality problems brought on by drug use.

I had read on CNN after Syd Barrett's death that the remaining Pink Floyd members had decided that Syd's family should still receive his royalty money even if they paid out of their own pockets. Man that just made me like this band that much more. Even though they had parted with Roger Waters, they could still come together for a mates family and put those differences aside. **DISCLAIMER** I was not able to find the CNN article after some half-assed searching so the information in the above paragraph may not be completely accurate.**

My earliest memory of being exposed to Pink Floyd was about 5. I fell in love with the sound instantly.

Thankfully I was fortunate enough to have seen Pink Floyd in concert (albeit without Roger Waters) and was as blown away as I knew it would be.........the stage, the sound, the lights, the Canadian security at BC Place stadium turning their backs on all the pot smoking (I didn't need to participate as there was enough for all to have a contact high) and of course the one thing that brought the masses together-The Division Bell Tour. The first album tour the band had done since the Delicate Sound of Thunder tour.

I was not disappointed. I had seen my music heroes. It's still so clear in my mind after all this time.

Richard, we'll all miss you here as you play "The Great Gig In The Sky".

Will work for cell service

We've all seen them. They are on just about every street corner and freeway on/off ramp. There are so many of them that Circle K and McDonalds could only dream of having this many locations!

Oh what am I talking about you wonder? Those folks that stand out there with the homemade signs asking for money.

Ever wonder how much they bring in every year? I know I do. I also wonder what drives them to the point of standing on a corner with that sign. Did they lose everything to the stock market? Did they lose their job and just reach the end of their rope trying to get their life back in order only to find they had nothing to fall back on?

So over the weekend I took my daughter to get some needed supplies for school and out on the corner from the local Freddies was a man with his dry-erase board (this was a new one with me as I've only seen them with cardboard signs) that says he's disabled and a vet and not able to work and not eligible for un-enjoyment and the list goes on, but that he is capable of still performing manual labour task and will work for food and money.

The typical, right? Not so fast there was one catch peeping this guy.....................as dingy and haggard as he looked he was on his cell phone!!!!

Now it's 80 degrees outside and my windows are down and I hear only part of his conversation, but enough of it to know that this is his regular job (as he tells his caller that he'll be off at 7 and head over for dinner afterward) and that he's doing it right.

So the next time you're in the lovely state of Washington and you see a nicely dressed man in a shirt and tie on the corner of the highway with a sandwich board that reads:
'Divorced dad of 2; ex-wife and state taking me for a ride, Please give' it's just me looking to take advantage of this tax-free high paying job.

BTW- I'll post photos of my little crumbgrabbers on the backside of that sandwich board just to tug at the heartstrings in order to seal the deal..................