My friend Kyrsta throws the best Halloween parties. She goes all out with themed parties each year. Two years ago – the first time I attended one of her parties – she had a Harry Potter themed party. Last year’s was Sci-Fi (I was working at the bar that night, but told the kids’ I’d take them. I had no costume, but I did have a red shirt. So I grabbed a piece of paper, cut out a Star Trek badge, and went as the Red Shirt Guy Who Always Dies When They Go Planet Side)…this year’s themes was Nightmare Before Christmas. Again, we didn’t have much in the way of costumes, but because of the theme, we could dress Christmas-y. We did have Santa hats, and that’s all it took.

Krysta had great decorations, like always, and quite the spread – like always. She looked fantastic as Sally, with a great home-made costume. She always makes her costumes, and if you take a look at her gallery, you’ll see she does a fantastic job.

I can’t wait to see what she comes up with for a theme (or costume) next year. I think next year, I’m also going to try and come up with a decent costume. I went as Hagrid for the Harry Potter party, and won Best Costume (I think), and that was great fun.

So thanks Krysta…can’t wait to do it again!

As some of you know, I host a semi-weekly poker game. We usually play dealer’s choice, and can come up with some pretty wild games. Other nights, such as last night, it’s straight Texas Hold ‘Em. Most people seem to like this, so I’m going to be going to a flipped schedule; one week dealer’s choice, two weeks later, Hold ‘em.

Last night’s game was fun, and I missed being in the money by only one spot. What I thought was going to be a small game (about 5 people) turned into a full table, with Eric bringing his wife, my buddy Scotty making a last minute appearance and Eric convincing Julie to come play. We ended up with eight people at the table. I think I need to purchase a new poker table!

My night wasn’t anything exciting; quite frankly I’m surprised I managed to stay in as long as I did. I wasn’t getting diddly-squat in terms of hold cards, a lot of 4-8 off suit, or low connectors, such as 3-4 or 5-6. I did have one memorable hand however; I’d folded pretty much every hand previous for 6 or 7 rounds, when I got pocket 2s. I figured why not, called the big blind, then got up to go let the dog in. When I came back, the flop had come. 2-9-2. I’m glad I wasn’t sitting at the table when the flop was put down, as I’m sure everyone would’ve heard the thump my jaw made when it hit the table. Can’t say I’ve ever flopped quads before.

The most important (and fun) thing for me on these poker nights is not winning, but getting a lot of people I enjoy spending time with together just to hang out and socialize. We don’t do big buy-ins (last night’s was $10…we usually do a $5 for dealer’s choice), so it’s usually cheaper than a movie. And we really do have a good time.

November seems to be the month to write; both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo are attempts to get people to write more. NaNoWriMo is Nation Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. For NaBloPoMo, that’s National Blog Posting Month, and that equates to a post a day. I’m going to attempt the post a day for NaBloPoMo. But I’m also going to make another goal. To finally open up Harleyroads to the public.

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I’m terribly addicted to Dicewars. Damn the Internet!

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Sarah spent her 10th birthday by inviting all the kids in her class, along with assorted friends (and her teacher) on a ghost tour. Gail does the Leesburg Ghost Tours from April to Halloween. Sarah and her friends learned a lot of history, heard some ghost stories, had their cookies and snacks and hot cider in a cemetery (I kid you not) and got to touch a ghost. She had a blast. I have a wonderfully unique, kooky daughter.

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Speaking of birthdays, Cody’s is just around the corner now. He’s going to be 15(!!). After that, it’s my anniversary…after that, it’s Christmas. I never have any money between October and February which is when Gail’s birthday and Valentines Day are – on the same day actually.

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When I first listened to Sigur Rós, I wasn’t sure if I liked them or not. Listening again and again brings new levels of appreciation and admiration. Like peeling layers of an onion, each layer gets you closer to the sweetness.

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I need a new MacBook Pro. I want Logic Studio, but my old Quicksilver G4 just isn’t up to the task. Anyone got $3,000 to give me?

This weekends camping trip to Matt’s Mountain couldn’t have been better. We had perfect weather compared to last time, hung out with some fantastic people, met some new people who I hope to see up there next year, and generally cut lose. The only thing that would’ve made it better would have been me being able to stay Saturday night as well. But, ironically enough, I had to get back in time to get Sarah and go on our own camping trip with the Indian Princesses.

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Both kids were up early, excited to be starting school this week. They’ve been driving each other nuts while at home this summer, as Gail and I’ve been working. Sarah’s looking forward to fourth grade, while Cody is starting High School.

High School. Geezus I feel old today.

Saturday was spent down in my basement again, and trying to clean up the mess that’s my office/computer area. I’m wanting to recycle all the old computer stuff that I can, so I spent the time sorting hardware that can be recycled from stuff that can’t. It’s amazing what I’ve collected over the last 14 years or so that I’ve been messing with computers. I have 5 towers, 2 laptops, 2 Zip drives, 1 Jazz drive, a bunch of modems (I found a 14.4 internal modem if you can believe that), not to mention a plethora of cables. Some I can use, some I can sell, some I can recycle, a lot are getting tossed (apparently I have a soft spot in my heart for phone cords. Lord knows why, but I had 30+ phone cords…all tangled up).

I have a couple of those big Rubbermaid containers that I kept those cables in. And with the exception of half a dozen or so, all the cables were tangle in a heap in there. Phone cords, SCSI cables, power cables, power bricks, MIDI cables, Compact Flash Drives, even a hand-held scanner. All tangled together. It probably took me 3 hours to untangle it all. In between this, I was getting Cody’s computer back to a working state (nothing a format and re-install can’t handle…), and looking over at the bookcases, deciding which books to toss. Some are horribly out of date.

Sunday was spent in the same manner, this time in the garage. We cleaned it out, tossed a bunch of crap, and then moved everything back in. Right in the middle of the day when it was like 94 degrees outside. That was just dumb. So Gail and I camped on the couch the rest of the afternoon while the kids were occupied and watch Casino Royale, and had chips and salsa and queso and beer. Not a bad way to wind down.

A rather quick conversation with Jett this morning after I’d sent her a link about why Christian Bale is a badass.

shad: http://www.filmwad.com/featured-why-christian-bale-is-a-badass-3312-p.html
jettdelerium: clearly its because he’s made of awesome.
jettdelerium: OMGPICTURE
jettdelerium: THANKSYOU!
shad:
jettdelerium: he was actually NOT an American Magician
jettdelerium: He used his own accent in that film.
shad: thought you might like that…
jettdelerium: Which is Welsh.
jettdelerium: <- just revealed herself to be a total dork
jettdelerium: I finished my school robes! They’re so awesome!
jettdelerium: I now have a full on HP school costume!
shad: I already knew that….and if that previous statement about him being welsh didn’t cement that fact, the robes did the trick…
jettdelerium: hahaha
jettdelerium: You knew.
jettdelerium: Its ok
jettdelerium: Dont worry, I’m not wearing it to the movie
jettdelerium: I’m only wearing it to the Convention. Where everyone else will be wearing them too.
jettdelerium: So, its ok.
jettdelerium: Sort of.
jettdelerium: cause I’m sure the fact that I’m GOING to the convention doesn’t tip the scales.
jettdelerium: You know this is all your fault. You loaned me the book. HAHAHA
jettdelerium: You want me to further demonstrate my Bale dorkness?
jettdelerium: In both pictures demonstrating his committment to serious weight loss?
jettdelerium: He’s looking in his bathroom mirror.
jettdelerium: but you can only tell in the second one, cause the first one isn’t panned back enough.
jettdelerium: well, ok. I guess you can see the sink
jettdelerium: but have you seen Equilibrium?
jettdelerium: Cause you freaking MUST.
jettdelerium: I know. I know. Switch to Decaf.
shad: I’m so posting this to my website

She said all that in the space of about 40 seconds or so. I love her. She makes my day.

About all I’m doing lately is play practice and work. I haven’t turned on the TV, worked on my webpages, or played any music (guitar, Reason, etc) in probably a month or more.

I’ll write a longer, more detailed post about how everything went. AFTER the play.

As I mentioned, this past weekend I went camping with a great group of people. One of the people along was a very good friend of mine named Ann (who I have a secret crush on but don’t tell her that . So, this IM that follows was a bit surreal. It wasn’t the Ann I know, but fun nonetheless. Enjoy!

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Starting to feel recovered from my weekend finally. Thought I’d take the time to write about it.

When we left, like I’d stated in the last entry, the forecast called for rain. About 20 miles outside of where we were to turn off the interstate, it started to rain in earnest. We made it to the campsite with no problems (that was one worry; the campsite is accessible by 4-wheel drive only, and we were concerned the road might have been impassible), and set up our tents in record time. Thankfully Sam and Rachael were there early and had set up a huge tarp we were able to take shelter under. Because of the rain coming off the tarp, we had quite the quagmire on the edges, but were relatively dry underneath. There was a ton of mud though:

But we prevailed and didn’t let the mud stop us from having a fantastic time. Naturally there was a bunch of alcohol consumed, lots of laughing as people fell in the mud, and even some good food. I’d marinated a few steaks before the trip and they turned out quite tasty. Last year, there was a stripper pole. This year, there was a whole stage built just for the stripper pole. Naturally I had to get up there and shake my booty. It’s just one of those things. Unfortunately, there’s some pictures. No, I won’t be sharing those. You don’t want me to, trust me on this one.

Saturday the weather relented and we had a gorgeous day. A bit cool, but absolutely beautiful. Sam brought out his arsenal, and we went shooting. He’d brought along a Beretta 9mm rifle and pistol, a P90 semi-automatic with a 50-round clip, a Bushmaster, and some others I’m sure I’ve forgotten. My favorite has to be the Beretta rifle. With the scope he has on that, you just can’t miss with it. I probably hit the target 19 out of every 20 times with that one. The pistols are fun to shoot as well. For someone who grew up in a anti-gun household (my mom hates them), I sure had a good time shooting them. I’d like to own my own gun, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

That night saw more laughter, more drinking, more watching Biscuit head dive into the mud (That’s what they call him; Biscuit. Not sure where the name comes from, but it’s strangely fitting). Biscuit was doing the rounds with a bottle of Fighting Cock 103% proof whiskey, making everyone take a swig, and then shout out “Cock-a-doodle-do!”. He was coming around the circle of chairs and managed to trip (not hard considering his quite inebriated state) and took out three of the empty chairs, and almost dumping Kelly on the ground as well. Laying there, face down in the mud, one leg in Kelly’s lap, I heard him say “What the hell just happened?” Krysta and I were laughing our butts off as we helped him out of his tangle of chairs and back to his feet. Didn’t slow him down though; he just passed the bottle to me and said “drink up fucker!”

Yeah, it was a great trip. Can’t WAIT for the fall camp out! Huge thanks to Matt and Lori for allowing us to camp (it’s their land we camp on), and allowing us all to cut loose. You guys rock!