happy halloween

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, but it involves candy and kids in cute costumes so I'm not totally opposed to it. Last year, we committed the worst new home-owner fail of them all by running out of candy after an hour or so. We had to take the walk of shame to our neighbors house to borrow some of their candy.

This year, I wanted to do things differently. We bought about three times as much candy, which Jon promptly hid from me. Halloween candy in bulk is a major hazard when working from home. He did a really good job. I haven't exhausted all efforts to find it, but I may or may not have opened a few closets in passing hoping to find the candy bowl. No such luck.

We didn't just stop with more candy, though. I wanted to have a fun treat to pass out to the kiddos we knew so yesterday I made 90 popcorn balls. This is approximately 60 too many, but it's my biggest fear in life to run out of food. It's right up there on the fear list next to cockroaches.

I did have a little mishap while making the popcorn balls. I put the butter and marshmallows on the stove to start the melting process. As I was standing there stirring, I smelled something burning. I thought it was odd because the butter hadn't been on the stove long enough to burn. I looked down, and it turns out I WAS THE ONE BURNING. Actual flames were eating my scarf. I guess I got a little too close to the open flame of the gas burner. Oops. Gas stove = 1. Pink scarf = 0.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

My Solimar co-workers. We had our first ever costume contest. 

It's hard to tell in this group photo, but I'm wearing the front of a Life cereal box and carrying some lemons, which I handed out to people throughout the day. Get it? When life hands you lemons! It's easy and clever, if not a little corny - just what a Halloween costume should be. The best part was watching people think really hard about it before it clicked. Instant entertainment for me all day.

We also had a Halloween potluck at work. And yes, it is the best place to work. 

The best costume of the day, IMHO was my co-worker Gabe who dressed as a panda. Over lunch, we were discussing how funny it would be if he had gone as the panda cam. It's kind of a big deal around here. Sure enough, once we were all back at our desks, he invited us to a streaming video of him just kind of sitting there working. He was the panda cam. Too funny.

Gabe as the Panda Cam. As seen from my monitor. 

Our Halloween is over because we committed the cardinal sin - we ran out of candy. Luckily our awesome neighbors lent us some of theirs (you may remember them from the awesome cheese & wine housewarming gift) so we could make it until 8:00 p.m. After that, we just had to shut 'er down. New homeowner fail. :(

Just for fun - here are some oldies, but goodies. 

Bag o' flour.

Not Halloween, but still dressed up. This was common.