A California Halloween

This year I decided to go all out and throw a Halloween party. It wouldn't have been possible without the extra effort by Emily, Chuck and Emma. Thanks to each of you for all your help in making this party a reality! I couldn't have done everything on my own. Having some experience with how these things should go... I got to work in September ordering the reams of black construction paper (to cover the walls) and black plastic (to cover the floors). The most fun was getting the music together and finding that G-Force (my favorite music visualizer) has a current version that works for iTunes and even stand alone on my PC. I also had a lot of fun shopping for all the small party favors with Emma. One of the best things about this Halloween was that my brother Chuck flew in from Boise to surprise my friend and his girlfriend Emily! That Friday night we carved pumpkins to put out front for the party.


Saturday we spent the whole day working on the final party preparations. Emma made some FABULOUS jello shots (THANKS EMMA!) while Chuck, Emily and me put up the black construction paper. Phew- that was a lot of work! Then Emma did an awesome job painting up some black light reflective art on the walls for a very Halloween appropriate effect.


We got the black lights setup, the fog machine going, the pumpkins out front, beer fridge stocked with appropriate adult beverages, candy and food on the table and the music bumping just in time for Peter, Michelle, Annette and Aaron to arrive early and take a few pictures. There were football players, comic book heroes, Disney characters, VAMPIRES; you name it they were there!


It was a great night with good friends and family and made for a wonderful Halloween. You know it's a good party when it ends with me blowing up my subwoofer! Definitely time to invest in a state of the art sound system. Now the only question is what am I going to be next year...!?

Six Flags Fright Night

Today I met up with Peter, Michelle, Jason and Kevin. We went to Six Flags "Discovery Kingdom" in Vallejo, CA. The park is having a special event called Fright Night. Starting at 6:30pm they have a short performance of Zombies with an end result of them being released upon the park to haunt and terrorize the park goers. It was the perfect occasion because apparently there had been a cheer conference that day and there were hundreds of Junior and Senior high cheerleaders wandering the park. Once the Zombies were let loose upon them, there was screaming and running and general terror and chaos. It was fun!!!

Earlier in the day Peter, Jason, Kevin and me went on the Medusa roller coaster ride. I was nervous as I'm not the type to go on the roller coasters that go upside down. Totally not my thing- but I did it and survived! I don't think I breathed in the whole time; just a lot of screaming and holding my breath.

Then everyone else went on the roller coaster where your legs hang out the bottom and it goes upside down in a cork screw fashion. I'm glad I skipped that one- ugh! Upset stomach for sure!

I was thrilled with the quality of the pictures my new iPhone 4S takes. All the pictures here were from my phone. Even the one where the roller coaster was zooming along about 45 miles per hour and you can see Peter in the picture. That's pretty cool.

It was a great day- I'm glad we got season passes!

Occupy Wallstreet

Today I thought I'd go see in person what all the hubbub was about in the news with the Occupy Wall Street protests. The general sentiment of the nation on these protests I think is best summed up by this picture circulating on facebook:

I can't say I agreed with everything the people were protesting- but I do feel strongly we need further government oversight of our financial sector. Rachel Maddow had a great perspective in her October 13th show. Right now, Obama is trying to get a "Jobs" bill through that would create jobs by putting people to work on our decaying infrastructure. However, what are Republicans working on? Federally they spent the day putting a THRID ban on abortion funding. It's already stopped, twice in fact. But they spent today putting a third ban in place, yes, the entire day. At the state level? Well Wisconsin has made it more difficult if not impossible for the next election cycle. In the words of the poll workers who did a test run "It's very, very confusing". At the local level? Well in Florida, Republicans have pushed through a change with the drinking water so that Fluoride will no longer be added to their water supply. Because as we all know instead of reducing tooth decay by an estimated 40%, Fluoride actually is a form of government sponsored mind control... oh please!

At a time when our nation needs to be focused on the economy and the President is encouraging this, these are the things Republicans are working on. I was very glad to be in attendance and stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in San Francisco.

iPhone 4S

Today I went into work as usual... and promptly went home! My new iPhone 4S was on it's way to my house and I couldn't stand the thought of missing it! I actually was rather productive in the morning, but as the day wore on I was more and more anxious that perhaps it was delayed or shipped to the wrong address. UPS made me wait until 5:15PM before they delivered it. Well, it's here now and I'm THRILLED!

White, 64GB, 8 mega pixel camera, 1080p HD, iOS5, Siri (voice command and recognition software), Dual Core A5 processors, iCloud, iMessage, Notification Center and tons of new features. Yes, I'm in geeky iPhone heaven. ^_^

Sonoma County Harvest Festival

This weekend was the Sonoma County Harvest Festival at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. Pictured above is Emily, Michelle, Peter, me and Emma. Michelle drove us up so the rest of us could enjoy the wines! There were so many things to do! There were booths with fresh honey, wine sauces for desert, cooking, everything you could think of. I ended up buying two desert wine sauces and a chipotle barbecue sauce.

We all had a great time sampling the different wines available to us; especially the booth that Emily knew the hostess! They just kept pouring and pouring and pouring... we all REALLY enjoyed that booth! ^_^

After the Harvest Festival in Santa Rosa, Emily and me went to the Sonoma State University Harvest Festival put on by Prelude at the Green Music Center. There was a nice spread of appetizers to enjoy and we each got our own collectible Lagunitas mug complete with Lagunitas beer.
It was a nice event and fun way to ring in the Harvest season!