Happy Halloween everyone! I’d like to take a moment to share a few photos from tonight’s festivities. It was lots of fun getting the reactions from the neighbors! They all remembered our Haunted Maze from last year, and many commented on how they love coming to our house each year to see what we’ve done. 

Here is the front entrance. We set it up in the garage like the Maze last year. Notice that you can’t see too much from the road. The headstones were handmade by me and Andrew two years ago. They are styrofoam carved with a dremel using computer-generated templates, painted with black latex and coated with granite spraypaint. They look quite realistic up close.

Andrew and I are toasting to the visitors with our skeleton friends. Notice the girl skeleton is toasting too! The flashlight in the middle is actually pointed up at a disco ball. We had loud rock music (Thriller, Dead Man’s Party, etc etc) playing in the background. It was quite a scene!

Here I am, glowing in the blacklite. It took me about a half an hour to wash all the hairspray (Rave super hold and blacklite spray) out of my hair. Notice the prosthetic cuts with blacklite nail polish painted on. I will NEVER wear prosthetic pieces and flesh latex again! That stuff was very uncomfortable, hot, and it hurt like a you-know-what to peel it off (even with remover).

Here are two of our favorite skeleton friends, hanging out at our Zombie Prom. They were a hit with the parents especially, many of which decided to pose their poor blinded children in front of the scene with a digital camera and horrifically bright flash. Now, who wants to vote on whether THOSE pictures actually turn out? Yeah, I don’t think so.

I must admit it was more work than it should have been, for such a short about of time (5:30pm-8:00pm and only about 100 kids). Two people should only put that much planning into their wedding… My goodness. Next year will be much less effort, if anything at all! We’re getting burned out on Halloween.

Last night, I attended a poker tournament up in Phoenix with a bunch of friends. Typically I volunteer in the tournaments (re-buys, add-ons, change-ups, counting money, etc etc) but this time, I decided to actually play. For $20 you get 1000 chips to begin the adventure. 

We started the night at 5:30pm with 153 players at 20 tables. By 8:00pm, Lady Luck was all over me and I was taking jackpots left and right. I forced one gentleman to re-buy and then it was time for the final add-on. I bought the add-on like everybody else and by around 8:30pm, I had triple the average stack!

Around 10pm, I was relocated from table 7 to table 10. Table 10 was a totally new atmosphere, with different players and a different style. It took me a while to get used to them. Then, I started getting lucky again and I knocked out one or two players.

It was getting late, around 11:15pm, and then something VERY lucky happened! My head was pounding and I wanted to go home. I had Q-3 of Diamonds, and decided to call the big blind at 2,000 chips. Unfortunately for them, three folks decided to go all-in after me and the flop showed K-3-J with one diamond. Typically I wouldn’t play this hand, even with a pair of threes, but these three players had already gone all-in and we had two or three side pots going (can’t remember how it worked it, I get confused with side pots). One player had pocket aces, the second with K-Q off suit and the third had Ace-Queen off suit. Fourth street and the river came up diamonds, and I won it with a flush! I knocked three players out in a single hand, and it was pure luck!

Things kept going that way as I was moved over to the last of two tables. The crowd was getting big as we made our way into the money – the top 21 positions which paid out. I was playing it very, very slowly as blinds were increased to 3,000/6,000 and players were dropping like flies. By 12:30am, my head felt like it was going to explode and I still had a long drive home!

Eleven players left… I was definitely in the money. I’m sitting in the big blind at 6,000 chips, and get dealt K-Q of hearts! Who wouldn’t play this hand, when your big blind is 1/3 of your chip stack? I go all-in and get called by two other players. We’ve got a HUGE pot and a significant side pot going on. They both flip up big slick (A-K) and split those lovely pots….

Not too bad for a crazy whim, a lot of luck and a throbbing headache! I didn’t make it to the final table, but 11th place was enough to earn me $145 on a $40 investment. That’s better than a slot machine any day!

It’s been such a long time since I have posted… Not sure if anyone is reading anymore. Anyhow, I’ve been extremely busy with school and work. Today we received the brand new tape backup library that is the centerstone of my project (and my entire job). The four new servers came in a few days ago. I’ve been very busy setting them all up and getting ready for several months of transitions. School is keeping me busy as well. I’m about to sign up for Spring classes to finish up my Linux Associate certificate. I’ll be glad to have that done. 

We’re having a small garage sale tomorrow morning. We just decided tonight to participate in the annual neighborhood sale. It’s amazing how much stuff we have crammed and shoved into crevices all over the house. It feels like we are always dumping amazing loads of junk when we have a sale or a massive donation. It’s like junk grows in the dark in our house. Does that happen in yours too?

Well we’re getting up at 5:30am so I think it’s time for bed. Later!