Family Album - It's Alive!

Now Playing -  End Of The Worlde by Great Big Sea
 

Family Album

My lovely bride and my slightly less lovely best friend Rob, at our annual Brain Eaters party, back in 2009. Rob always has the best costumes, even when he does something as simple as this. Gotta love it.
 

 

The ROUS FAMILY -   

  

 

 

 

 

The Maze Of Death!

Life -  

 I've been pretty offline lately. My work has been... complicated and has taken up a lot more of my life than usual and by the time I get home, I scarcely have the energy to make dinner and read a book for a bit.

But today was a day off with my wife and we made a go at it. We got up early and ate breakfast. We relaxed for a bit (Played with the dog, read, fell asleep in the chair...) before deciding to head down the road a bit and explore a local attraction. We'd stopped in at The Treworgy Farm before, mostly to get some ice cream, but they had other attractions, including you-pick pumpkins and apples, a petting zoo, apple cider and a corn maze!

This was the tenth year the farm had done a corn maze, each year a different design, with little stations within for you to find. This year, the maze is shaped like a horse and all of the questions were horse themed. Not that you get the feeling of horse-i-ness when you're in the maze. All form kind of vanishes and you're surrounded by thick, gently rustling stalks of corn.

I loved it. It was gloomy and threatening rain, on a Thursday afternoon after school started, so though we heard a few other visitors, we never saw a single soul in the maze. We wandered for around an hour, using the map every once in a while, but mostly getting lost in the rows. It also made me want to read the Pine Deep Trilogy of books by Jonathan Maberry, which I think I'll have to do this Autumn at some point.

Afterwards, we looked over the large selection of pumpkins, picked a half peck of apples for a few dollars (Macintosh and Cortlands mostly, though we got a couple of Delicious apples too, to see if fresh grown ones are as horrible as store bought ones - they are.) You also got a free soft serve cone with the maze tickets, so we got them in the gift shoppe, where we also picked up a jar of homemade and utterly delicious dill pickles.

I cooked up some Enchiladas Verde for a late lunch and spent the rest of the evening out in my Fortress Of Smallitude, writing a bit, sculpting a smidge and generally wishing I never had to work for someone else again.

All in all, a decent day off.

The ROUS FAMILY -   

 

 

 

 

The Horror! A Halloween Mega Review Post!

Reviews Of Unusual Size


Movies

NIGHT OF THE DEMONS
Directed by Adam Gierasch
2009, 93 mins, Rated R
 

Re: A group of rowdy college-ish aged kids throw a party at an old Loisiana mansion. When the cops roust 'em, a select seven, mostly played by people in their late thirties of questionable acting ability, manage to get locked in. They play spin the bottle, get it on and get possessed. Crappy monster effects and gore ensues.

Outstanding:I really liked Monica Keena in some other stuff. The intro, filmed poorly in a 1920's style was at least a good idea...

Unacceptable: Everything. I don't even know where to begin with how bad everything was in this flick. 

Summary: Bad in a way that only a movie made in the aughts, featuring hard rock, computer generated gore and c-list actors can be. Barely worth finishing. And I'm not even sure why I say that.

1/5     

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

Directed by Samuel Bayer
2010, 95 mins, Rated R

 

Re: A remake/reimagining/encapsulation/renovation/modern take on the original. If you don't know the plot, well... I'll probably post a non-Halloween post on Thursday.

Outstanding:I really like Jackie Earl Haley, and I think a few things they did with the story were unique.

Unacceptable: Everyone else was generic and forgettable. There were a few scenes that  has abysmal special effects. Pretty sad for a film with $35mil to play with.

Summary: Granted, I've never really like Freddy. His style of dream antics and goofy deaths has always seemed silly to me. Silly but enjoyable. This movie managed to remove both of those things. Hmm.

1/5   



 

 LEGION

Directed by Scott Charles Stuart
2010, 100 mins, Rated R

 

Re: God has gotten tired of us, so he decides to unleash heaven on us. Kill 'em all and let himself sort it out, I guess. But for some reason, he gave us one last chance, in the form of a pregnant girl, working in a roadside truck stop. Oh, and Paul Bettany is an angel that wants to help out. He has lots of guns.

Outstanding:This movie knows it's goofy and dumb, but it also knows how to have fun with that. There are a few well done scenes and Doug Jones as an angel-possessed Ice cream man. That's pretty cool.

Unacceptable: Y'know, maybe it was my mood when I watched this, but despite its shortcomings, there wasn't really anything I hated.

Summary: It's not gonna win any awards, but if you're looking for a flick where grannies walk on ceilings and angels pack glocks, check it out. It's kinda amusingly diverting.

2/5   

RESIDENT EVIL - AFTERMATH

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
2010, 97 mins, Rated R

 

Re: BANGBANGBANG. Weird four mouthed zombie things! Convenient reunions! BANGBANG! Big goofy zombie thing! BANGBANGbangBANGduckBANG! mumble, swim, BANG! Matrix guy. BANGGITYBANGBANG! Goofy non-ending!

Outstanding: Is that Tig, from Sons Of Anarchy?

Unacceptable: Is that Milla, staying clothed for the entire movie, despite a perfectly good, badly written, shower scene?

Summary: BANGBANGBADBANGBANG!

1/5  



Books

THE STRAIN
by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan
2009, 608 pages, ebook
 

Re: Del Toro and Hogan spin a new take on vampires, one that's both modern - steeped in the paranoia of today and classic - inspired by legends from the past. In their world, vampires are a virus, infecting us. Turning us into pale, sexless, evil drones with stingers and white, worm infested bodies. 

Outstanding:I still love this take on the vampire legend. The characters are well-rounded and excellent. You really feel for them, you want to know what happens to them. And the vamps are everything a vampire should be, violent, evil, nasty and infectiously awesome.

Unacceptable: Despite how much I love this book, it suffered a little bit the second time around. A few sub-plots seemed less important and a little long, but overall still a very enjoyable read.

Summary: When I first reviewed this book, back in 2009, I gave the book 5/5 and said it was probably one of the best of the year. I wouldn't go that far this time, though it's still easily a 5/5 book. I just didn't find myself devouring it as eagerly as I had before.

5/5     

THE FALL
By Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan 
2010, 320 pages, ebook
 

Re: The sequel to THE STRAIN and book two in a planned trilogy. Setrakian, Goodweather and crew continue their valiant battle against the vampires and the nation of misinformation that claims the plague of neck suckers is merely a plague of a conventional sort. And the Master ramps up his plans to subjugate the world.

Outstanding:Del Toro and Hogan really know how to write a story. Everyone stays intriguing and fun to read and the action is cranked to eleven within the first few pages. I really like the track they took with the Ancients, a breed of old school vamps, the originators of the virus. Luchadore!

Unacceptable: There's a lot of stuff going on here, and some of it is far more impressive than others. There's a couple of sub plots that may pay off in the long run, but seem like they're unnecessary here. There's also a spot in the book where I would have sworn a man's arm is broken, yet he uses it with no difficulty a chapter or so later.

Summary: Not as strong as the first novel, but still a well written one. I'm pretty excited to see what happens in the final book... In a year or so.

4/5     

BAD MOON RISING
by Jonathan Maberry
2008, 480 pages, ebook
 

Re: It all ends here. Maberry's excellent Pine Deep Trilogy concludes with an all-out explosion of chaos as the evil massing in the cellars and fields of the tiny town take to the streets of the Pine Deep Halloween festival. With plans to feast.

Outstanding:I love Maberry's writing. He infuses things with an easy sense of humor and his dialogue is as natural as listening to a couple of buddies talk. He also knows whats scary and nasty and revels in dosing it out.

Unacceptable: The pop culture references wore a little thin for me, with entire chapters dedicated to the efforts of the real-life  horror dignitaries at the festival. It was fun for a while, but I think it went just a wee bit over the top. 

Summary: Overall a very excellent book. High on drama and action. It's not easy writing a trilogy like this, I would imagine. His mythology is deep and twisty and he balances dozens of fairly important characters without us ever once getting confused or lost, only hungry for the next pages. I loved my visit to Pine Deep. You should plan a trip, but book ahead if you plan on visiting around Halloween. Things get pretty busy that time of year.

5/5     

THE RISING
by Brian Keene
2004, 336 pages, ebook
 

Re: Zombies rule the earth. For every man, woman, child or animal that dies, they come back. Walking, eating and yes... the bane of zombie novels for me, talking. In Keene's universe, when something dies, something else takes over that body. A Sumatran spouting demon that remembers what the previous inhabitant knew and wants nothing more than to continue porting their brothers over. Oh yeah, and a guy tries to travel cross country to save his kid that is supposedly still alive in an attic.

Outstanding:As much as I despise talking zombies, I was entertained by these guys. They're possessed, drive around like something out of Mad Max and know how to use your loved one's feelings against you. Kind of original.

Unacceptable: Man, the living in this book bored me to death. Every one was a stereotype of the highest order, and while that's almost a requirement in a zombie book, these guys were all really bad. There was the selfless Priest, the hardcore ex-hooker, the stalwart and determined single father, the scientist carrying a load of guilt for starting the whole thing and the military asshole. 

Summary: Despite my annoyances with the main characters, I had a good time reading THE RISING. It's a traditional zombie road trip book with some unexpected twists along the way.

3/5

     
 

Weighty Matters - 
My Current Weight -  296
Progress Thus Far -  A couple pounds. But on the plus side, we finally got some healthy snacks for me to take to work, so that should help.  

I've got a bad motivator!

Now Playing -

Marty Robbins - The Strawberry Roan

Life - 

Pooka, his head looking deceptively small and Clover, cuddling Pook's paw.

I was planning to wait and update my blog on Thursday, when I have a day off, especially after I hurt my finger at work - A box went rogue and sliced my right index finger under the nail about a half inch deep. Which is indeed just a papercut when you think about it, but an awesomely painful one, especially when you're a henpeck typist, like I am.

But then two things happened!

Ball... Not pictured, a second ball, further back in there...

First, I took the three awesome photos of the boys, hanging out, being goofy that accompany this post. As you can see, they're deserving of it.

Ludo, laying in what looks to be a horribly uncomfortable position. Also observe his luxurious mane.

 And second of all, I got a blog award! Zoe, over at No Letters On My Keyboard chose me as one of the recipients of the "One Lovely Blog Award" Keep in mind, she's a horror writer with awesome taste, who just gave me an award titled One Lovely Blog. A recent post was about how death and darkness makes her a better person. The blog award also features pink roses and a lacy teacup. SO clearly, Miss Zoe has a great sense of humor. So in honor of a Major Award, I figured I should Lovely Up my blog with some pictures of the kids looking stupid. Taa-Dah!

Thanks, Zoe! (And Thursday or so, I'll pass on the love to some deserving blogs too!)

I also have a few book reviews to catch up on, I posted a sneak preview of Martin, my newest creature on Deeply Dapper, and I started setting Halloween at work. Hooray for Halloween!!!

Writing - 

Uhh... Nothing to see here, move along! I hurt my finger! Arrrh!  

Halloween!

Life - 

Man, This year Halloween really snuck up on us! We'd planned to be totally prepped and ready for the Sixth Annual Brain Eaters party by the thirtieth so that we could take the day of off and just kind of goof off. Watch movies, carve pumpkins, what have you. Instead, we found ourselves scrambling up to the last minute, rushing against the clock to finish before guests arrived, dealing with a few dozen trick-or-treaters in the midst.

What is the Brain Eaters? some of you may ask. That is our annual shindig, a party most excellent, most wild, most wicked. It started a few years ago with my roommate Rob and I and we've continued it since, each year getting a bit more elaborate, and sometimes a bit more efficient. We typically get around 20-50 people, this year was no exception, clocking somewhere around forty guests (I'll have to wait until the photos are developed to get a truly accurate count... things have gotten a bit muddled!) It starts around 9 usually, but we actually had guests an hour early, while I was still wandering around in my jeans and bed-head, trying to get things assembled.

A lot of fun again, and as we try to keep it, no drama and with the exception of a close call between my windpipe and some brains, there were no fatalities! Every year we have the same basics; Jello-Vodka brains, Jungle Juice, Lime Punch, Bean Dip, a kitchen for chatting, the front room filled with fog and black light for dancing, a porch for the smokers or people that need a break from the crush of folks, a halloween movie playing in the basement (Though that got no action this year..) Wassail, lots of disposable cameras and me, who has been drinking since noon-ish.

Added this year were a good chunk of glow in the dark webs, courtesy of my new web gun (Speaking of which, if you buy one, buy the UV webs, not the glow in the dark ones, they arent very effective at all) we covered the furniture and the floor of the dance room with white sheets and we blocked in the porch a bit to give some shelter form the cold Idaho wind. 

To be honest, we were pretty sure this year would be the smallest yet, despite attempting to make it our grand finale. There were a lot of sick people, many of our regulars have moved on to families or different towns, my in-laws bailed on us, in fact, up until the day before, we'd considered canceling. Instead, we got slammed with people and actually ended up running out of nearly everything by 1:30 in the morning, the earliest we've ever ended. In fact, we usally have a few liters of juice left and all that remained this year were the dregs. I was pretty surprised. 

I actually felt bad about running out of everything, even the wassail and the punch, the non-alcoholic stuff was gone, and we had a few stragglers show up, but in a way it was kind of nice that the evening was over. Maybe I'm getting too old for this kind of party, or maybe it was the choking fit I'd had at the very beginning of the night, but I'd had a headache a lot of the night and I was looking forward to eating a bit and heading to bed.


All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful party. I overheard one girl talking on her phone to a friend, with both ends shouting so I could hear the other side too, and when her friend called house parties lame, my guest responded "Then you've never been to this house party!"

This will (Hopefully) be our last Brain Eaters party, and it was good to see it go well. I'll make it a point of posting pics once I get them developed so everyone can get in on the debauchery.

Time is short.

Now Playing -
You Might Think  by The Cars

Life - 

Man, October is shaping up to be a tremendously busy month. My wife and I switch rotations in the first of the month, which will allow our days off to fall on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, which will be great. I haven't had a Christmas off in seven years, to the point that last year I found myself being quite a Scrooge. I hope that this will make things easier, but there's still a high likelihood that working in retail during the holidays will still get to me. Odds are good that you'll hear a lot more about that in months to come.

Our anniversary is on the sixth of October and once again, we'll likely have to celebrate it on a different day, we both work that night.  From there, it's gogogogogogogo until November. I'm trying desperately to finish my zombie book by Halloween so that I can stay in the spirit, and we're leaving for a week to visit a few potential sites in Oregon to move next year. After we get back, I work a rotation, then we have a couple of days to prep for the Brain Eaters party, then November is upon us.

We've slept a ridiculously wonky schedule this group of days off too, and I'm not sure why. Last night, we took a "Nap" around 7:30, woke up to the alarm, fell back asleep, at some point accidentally locked Ludo out of the bedroom, and eventually woke up at 10:00pm. We figured there wasn't any point in getting up, so I pottied the dogs, took a shower and went back to bed. Then we got up at 5am. It's been like this all week.

Writing - 

I had planned on working on my revisions to The Whispering Ferns today, but after realizing how much time I had before Halloween, I decided that I should dive back into the zombie wasteland of Graves, in an attempt to finish it before November. Besides, working on a lighthearted ghost story around Christmas sounds pretty good.

The Last Sentence -

The infected from the store have begun eating each other, and I have a front row seat.

From - "Graves" (WIP)

A pretty decent day

Now Playing -
Veronica by Tricky

Life - 

Quite an interesting day yesterday. We woke up early, just before seven, with a lot of things planned. Ate a little breakfast, wrote a bit, prepped a crock pot for dinner, then we headed out on the town. We ate at Mama Inez, a local "American Mexican Food" restaurant. We eat there every other week on Fridays, when they have their fajitas special. Their food is good, though not super Mexican. They have a dish called the Cheese Crisp however, that is unlike anything we have ever found in other towns. Thick flour tortilla chips, three cheeses, some sort of creamy enchilada sauce... Very good.  When we lived in Missoula, we attempted to replicate it with very little success.

After that, we dropped our leftovers off at my work so that we wouldn't have to drive back home (Which I just realized that I forgot to pick up last night...) and went to the local Catholic Bookstore. My wive's family is Catholic and she was raised in the religion, though neither of us are practicing anything. We do both have a lot of interest in religious items, being history fans. We were there yesterday for a bit more of a nefarious reason; my brother and I are going as Catholic Priests for Halloween (Easy costume, super comfortable) and we bought a couple of props for the costume there.

From there, we headed directly to Idaho Falls, fifty miles to the North. Idaho Falls is like a richer, more conservative, snootier version of Pocatello. They have some better stores, like Target and Barnes  & Noble, but as a general rule, we aren't fans of the people there. Most have a holier-than-thou attitude. Anyway, we did a bit of shopping at a few craft stores, checked out the mall and hit a movie before heading home.

The two high points were without a doubt, Target and the theatre. Target has some great Halloween stuff this year, a line called Haunted Heraldry, with crowned skulls and medieval style designs and a line for kids with gloopy monsters in bright colors. We didn't buy anything, but I very seriously considered quite a few items.

I love the theatre in Idaho Falls. It's an Edwards Theater, fourteen screens. It has a grandeur to it, with it's giant lobby and wide seat that the one in Pocatello doesn't pull off. They were also showing the movie 9, which the Carmike in Poky declined to show. Great movie and we had the theater essentially to ourselves at 2:30 in the afternoon.

After that, the evening went a bit off the rails, there was a bit of drama with one of Lindsay's friends, but we still managed to have some excellent Corned Beef. We were both in bed by 11pm, which is why I'm now up at 6am... this could be a long day.

Movie Reviews - 

I've decided to review movies and things on here too, in the same format as my book reviews. And while I REALLY wanted to give "9" a nine, I figure that I should change to a five out of five rating, since I post five blurbs too.

 9

Directed by Shane Acker

Starring the voices of Elijah Woods, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly

2009, 79 minutes

Gorgeous visuals  --  Evocative Danny Elfman Score  --  Brilliant Design and Non-Stop Action Sequences --  Giant Robot Apocalypse!

5/5

THE HOLIDAY

Directed by Nancy Meyers

Starring - Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law

2006, 138 mins.

Predictable  --  Light-Hearted  --  Cute, But Over-Long  --  Diaz is Stiff and Over-The-Top at the same time  --  Winslet's side story with the old screenwriter stole the film

3/5

Writing - 

Wrote a chapter last night, I'm up to over 36,000 words in Graves.

The Last Sentence - 

"Aren't we?"

From - "Graves" (WIP)

(I never claimed that the Last Sentence would be a thrilling one...)

The Yellow Poster Goo Of Doom!

Now Playing -
Save My Soul  by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Life - 

Last night was my first off of this rotation, thank goodness, it seemed to take a VERY long time to get here. How did I celebrate? I watched the last half of a movie called "The Holiday" and learned that the yellow gummy stuff that they sell for poster hanging? After a few years in the package, it becomes a different substance entirely. I tried taking a glob of it to hold something in place while I made a simple frame and within minutes had all of my fingers, part of the table and my pants covered in a liquid that was both sticky and solid at the same time.

Fought with it for around 20 minutes before I started panicking, picturing my wife finding me, cocooned in a horrible yellow web, a wobbly bubble where my mouth and nose used to be.  Napkins didn't work, scraping didn't, water just made it angry! Eventually, after manically slapping it as it rolled down my forearm, I realized that it could be formed into a semi-solid form by rapidly slapping it against itself. Fifteen minutes later, I had yellow under my fingernails and red palms, but finally, I'd defeated the monster.

Never did build my bracket.


I did get the compressor from my dear friend Laura this morning and we ran our first test run in the garage. I love the WebCaster. LOVE IT.

It's easy, fun, looks GREAT and should be relatively simple to clean up.

Check this out, keeping in mind that 3/4 of the webs can't be seen in the picture, it looks swell in real life.

It's gonna take some practice to calibrate the air and the webbing, but it should eventually be easier and look much better than that old-school cotton rubbish.

Click for bigger, by the way.

Writing - 

Nothing yesterday, sadly, but I'm heading upstairs right now to dive in.

Book Reviews - New Format

Now Playing -
Blue Heaven by The Pogues

Book Reviews - 

OoohErr, that's a crooked photo....

I've decided to do something new with the format of my book reviews. They take me a while to write up usually, and I'm typically pretty "Meh" about them anyway, so from now on, until it's no longer the case, of course, I'm using a new review format. I'll integrate them into my regular updates and instead of a paragraph or so, I'm going to list five adjectives or brief phrases to describe the book, much like you see on the blurbs for bestsellers. Then, if I have any notes, I'll make them, followed by the overall rating. I think this will be a fun way to do the reviews and it may spill over into movies and music too.

I also like this format because it keeps the book pretty vague, but you get an idea of what I thought, while forcing me to start expanding the adjectives I use, hopefully helping my writing too.

Let me know what you think!

FOUR BLIND MICE

By James Patterson

2002, 404 pages

Twisty Plot -- Iffy Ages of Villains  --  Page-Turner  --  Neatly Wrapped Up  --  Too Neat, Maybe

5/10

TAKEDOWN

By Brad Thor

2006, 441 pages

Terrorismistic!  --  Human Main Character  --  Entertaining  --  Easy to Hate Villains  --  Maybe Too Easy, Terrorism in New York Seems Like An Easy Target

Notes - This was the first Brad Thor book I've read, and I enjoyed it a lot, though I thought the Hoorah - I Heart NY attitude was a bit overblown. I'll have to find some more of his stuff.

7/10

LIFE SENTENCE
by David Ellis
2003, 390 pages

Lawyers and Politics, yet I liked it!  --  Good End Twist  --  Outlandish  --  Fuzzy On Some Details  --  Deja Vu?

Notes - For some reason, I found myself certain that I'd read this book before somewhere, but until recently, I've never really read legal thrillers of any kind. The scene with the bedroom and the skinned knees especially seems familiar... maybe it's a movie too?

6/10

BLOODY WATERS
By Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
1996, 274 pages

Miami Based Female P.I.  --  Many References To Cuba  --  Good Story and Plot  --  Appealing Characters, many moreso than the Main Character  --  Did I mention that they talk about Cuba a Lot? I Mean A LOT!

4/10





Life - 

Still trying to decide on a costume for the Brain Eaters, but my brother and I may team up and wear the same costume. Watch out, world!

Rode my bike home from work today... It's not much of a commute, especially by my friend's in SF's standards, but for a fat guy riding uphill most of the way, for the first time since last summer, I'm pretty happy with my time. And I plan to do it again tomorrow, that's important part.

Writing - 

Another chapter, that's about it. Linz and I have been talking though, and we think it would be a good idea during revisions, to divide the chapters by characters, rather than in soryline and revise that way. It should be easier to stay in character and make sure I carry over thoughts and quirks of language.

The Last Sentence - 

I see nothing human in his gaze, but it's hauntingly beautiful.

From - "Graves" (WIP)

More personalities than you can shake a wand at...

Now Playing - 
Slow by Tricky

Life - 

Man, today has been an odd day. Possibly the strangest sleeping schedule ever. Last night, around 7, I decided that a nap was in order, as I'd gotten only a tiny bit of sleep the night before. Linz decided to joing me and we slept for around an hour. When the alrm sounded, I made the clearly sleep-addled suggestion to sleep for a bit more, rather than getting up and eating dinner.

Around 1:30am, we woke back up. I have a tendency to get pretty pissed off at wasted time sleeping, when I could be doing anything but, and the fact that my hour nap had turned into six and a half was not high on my list of things I love. It did however, allow us to go out and do our shopping at Wal-Mart (Hate) and WinCo (Love) at a time when the only real opposition to our shopping enjoyment were stockboys and maintenance grandpas.

After spending far more money than I'd planned, but getting some much needed car cleaning supplies and enough groceries for a few weeks, we hit up the local 24-hour mexican drive-thru. Most towns have 'em, they're usually named a bastardized, rhyming version of Albertos or Rodolbertos. Ours is currently named Rolbertos, and is manned that time of night by a Hispanic man with interesting, though typically sullen features. Tonight/thismorning/last night however, he was kind of friendly, and got most of our order correct, a real oddity. He also popped out of the window after giving us our food, holding three pens in the air.
"You can have a free pen! What color do you want?"
Naturally, I chose the green. He gave me a huge smile and my wicked-sweet free pen.

The best part about it? it has the cities of the two local Rolbertos, Pocatello and Blackfoot, with their phone numbers next to each. It also has the slogan "The best Mexican Food in town"
It does not, however, have the name of the restaurant on the pen anywhere. We like to think this is some sort of delicious ploy to get people to call and order, long before ever seeing the place. Bravo, "The best Mexican Food in town," bravo!

After we ate, we put away our groceries and I was conned into going back to bed. At this point, it was around 6:30am. We woke back up again around 8:15 and despite being kind of groggy/sleepy, I've managed to stay awake since, though my eyes are pretty heavy right now....

After we got up and started a crock pot of Chicken Chowder, we headed out on the town and did a bit of shopping. We freaked out the employee at Home Depot - he actually took a step back when we said we werre looking for a few items for jewelry making, it was hilarious. We hit up the Halloween displays in a few stores, hoping for some inspiration about our upcoming Halloween party, possibly the last Brain Eaters.

A couple of notes regarding Halloween and shopping in Pocatello, ID -
-ShopKo apparently thinks they're a classy Halloween boutique, with costumes averaging $70 and reaching over $150 for some. SOmething tells me they're gonna have a LOT of leftovers, come November.

-The Party Palace continues it's rein of awesome sauce, with the best rentals, a huge selection of decor and the item I'm most excited about this year, the Webspinner Gun, more on this later, likely after I buy it and play with it for a while. The owners of The Party Palace are really cool too, kind of crazy and fun. They plan to build an actual castle to house the store, complete with moat. Right On.

-TJ Max? Bah.

-Sierra's Crafts and Frames had a few cool ideas, but focuses Waaaay too much on cheesy kids autumn decor. Am I the only one that gets an uncontrollable urge to kick those little kid mannequins that look like they're playing hide and seek in the butts?

- The Halloween BOOtique. Fun store, with great help and lots of interesting costumes. I'm always intriqued by how much work the designers of costumes must follow trends. I like this place because they have a lot of decent quality movie makeup stuff. Lindsay found a costume for this year and they are carrying the skeletal lawn flamingos again this year, which is spectacular, I wanted some last year but forgot until after they closed.

-JoAnne Fabric had a few thinsg, but nothing worth being too excited about.

After that, we hit a few other shops, bought a tiny Ball Peen hammer and ate some chowder at home.

We also hit dinenr with my mom and bro for a belated birthday meal, at Ruby Tuesdays. Good food, but as usual, I felt like it was overpriced.

Writing - 

Managed to get a pretty good chunk of editing done on Graves, I hope to spend the next two days getting to the halfway point.

The Last Sentence - 

It would be easier to keep everyone calm without whatever was left of Brian staring them in the face.

From - " Graves " (WIP)