Halloween On McKinley 2011

How was your Halloween? I hope it was good. Mine wasn’t too bad; not too exciting but also not too boring. At work yesterday, we had a costume contest, of which I was the organizer. Yesterday started our annual United Way campaign and I had the honor of putting together and emceeing the costume contest. I think we ended up with about 15 contestants and raised almost $400. So, it was a pretty successful event. My favorite costume was of a girl who dressed as Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials. She was spot on and really looked amazing. Her costume raised the most money too and so she was the grand prize winner.

After work, I went to the gym and got a spin class in before coming home to dole out candy to the trick-or-treaters. I managed to eat some dinner and bake a cake for tomorrow’s cake contest as well. This year, sadly, I only had around 10, probably less, trick-or-treaters. I’m afraid some of them may have come out earlier while I was still huffing and puffing on the bike. I didn’t get home until about 6:45; so, I’m guessing that’s maybe what happened considering the last couple of years I’ve had around 30 or so. Needless to say, I’m stuck with a ton of candy which I will be taking to work to force down the throats of my co-workers.

At one point during the night, I sat out a half bar of cream cheese to make some icing for the cake. A little later, I went outside to take a photo of my jack-o-lantern and also bring in the trashcan. When I wrapped up outside, I came in to discover that the cream cheese was MIA. After looking around for a bit I thought to myself that I bet The Tide had snatched it up and sure enough, she had. I found the Ziploc bag on the bed and the cream cheese along with the aluminum wrapper were gone – eaten by a guilty dog. Of course, not surprisingly, The Tide got sick an hour or so later and I managed to run in with a towel before she threw up all over the bed, which seems to be her favorite vomiting spot. (Sorry for the gory details.)

Finally things settled down and then at five minutes until 9:00 the doorbell rang and it was two more trick-or-treaters; young ones too with a parent, of course. I thought I had turned out the porch light, but apparently I had just blown out the pumpkin and not turned out the porch light. Those two were the last visitors we had, that is, of course, unless someone comes up and steals the jack-o-lantern and smashes it in the street, which has happened before. Maybe I should run outside real quick and bring it in. At any rate, I hope your Halloween was great and full of treats, not tricks!

My 2011 Jack-O-Lantern!