October

It's hard to believe that October has come and gone.  It all happened so fast, how can time fly by so quickly?  Here's how it went down.  

COSTUMES

First we'll address costumes.  Everyone should dress up for Halloween, regardless of age, religion or sexual preference.  If you don't dress up, there is a strong possibility that you've "given up" in more than one area of your life.  Think about it..  Dress up, no excuses.

We had a hard time deciding on what to be this year.  I eventually, took inspiration from this gladiator mask that we've had for 11 years.  We bought it in Rome on our honeymoon.  It's made of paper mache  and it's pretty badass.  To complete the look, I had custom leather armor made from a dude on etsy.  Then, with a stroke of serendipitous fortune, I found a duo of stainless steel gladius (gladiator get their name from the swords) swords online for $25.  Yes, I was stoked with how it all looked.

Candice went with the Batman villainess Poison Ivy.  She crafted her eye pieces out of foam and then painted and bedazzled them.  She also dyed her corset and leotard green and then hand sewed leafs onto them.

The gladiator sandals are from Greece!  We got them the summer before last with the idea that one day we'd use them in a costume.

 

I wish there wasn't all the other crap on the bed, I love this pic.

Here we are getting ready for the Jones Halloween Party

Here's a pic of the worst Jack o' latern we've ever carved.  It's supposed to be a gladiator mask...Fail

TREATS

It's not a holiday unless you're getting fat.  Here's what we did to ourselves.

 Chocolate tart with grand marnier pastry cream and strawberries.  We piped the spider and web with chocolate-fun to make!

 Caramel apple pie

Scorpion suckers with real scorpion!  Here's video to prove I ate it.  Candice wussed out.

Not pretty but sooo good. Pumpkin cinnamon chocolate chip cookies.

x

Bunch of cupcakes 

I smashed these mini cupcakes but they were really cute pre-smash.  Lime velvet and cherry chocolate

Peanut butter sandwich thing and more cupcakes.

Count Chocula because you gots to right?  I should note that we ate and by "we" I mean I ate this whole box in one sitting.  Also, the milk left over from the count's magic morsels is so good.

Cupcakes from Bakery Sensual.  Yes, this bakery specializes in realistic porn-inspired confections but they also turn out some awesome handmade Halloween sculptures.  The cupcakes are ok but the sculptures are super rad.

A little more detailed shot.

Biscuits and Berries catered the party that we went to on Halloween night and they did a fabulous job.  Above are cake lollis.  They also had this churro table (dia de los muertos inspired) where this dude was hiding under the table but his head which was sticking out of the table and looked like a skull.  When you would reach for the churros, he would grab you with this hand that was also disguised as part of the table.  It was funny and awesome.

We also had some other fab treats that we don't have pics of.  Rest assured, we ate well.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

While Candice was in the Bahamas, I went to the shooting range and shot zombie targets.  I love doing this and it fit in perfectly with the season.

This springfield xdm is totally rad.  20 rounds in the magazine means plenty of opportunities for head shots.

 My work was done and I feel a little more prepared for what is to come...

We also booked a room at the Stanley Hotel.  As you'll recall, this hotel is the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining.  He actually started to write it while he was a guest of the hotel.  It's among the most haunted hotels in America.  We' stayed here before and had a few weird things happen, so we thought we'd try a little ghost hunting to celebrate.

 The hotel has some creepy old portraits all around.

The freaky deeky twins.  The movie (both versions) are on a continuous loop so you can watch it at all hours.

 I recently watched a documentary with filmmaker Kevin Smith who said that this sequence is the scariest in movie history.  I'm not sure about that but it is freaky.

 We brought candles and set them all around the room to create a mood.  Then we munched on king crab, risotto, salad and other awesome food we brought from home.  The food is Estes can be a little iffy.

At midnight we went looking for ghosts.  I even snuck into a few empty ballrooms to see if I could see anything.  I remember in one of the ghost hunter shows that one of the ballrooms is supposed to be the most haunted.  Unless you lock the door, I'm sneaking in suckas!

 Not-so-creepy water feature.

I took Rocco to the zombie crawl, it's the largest zombie crawl in the country and people get really into it.

"Splicers" from Bioshock one of my all time favorite video games.  Props to these fine ladies.

 Unzipped face-I thought that was freaky and original

 Saw some cool Halloween art produced by local artist.

I loved the slimer piece

Tried on some little hats

 It was baby Rocco's third birthday.  We had a special day together in the mountains.

We love that little furry guy so much!

 Finally, on Hallween we went to previously mentioned party.  Candice's burlesque company SMACK performed.  They rocked the party that rocks the party.

 There were other dancers as well (pictured above-not part of her company).  As well as fire-breathers, and stilt walking monster people.

 Hot lady, sheesh

 I liked this pic that the photographer snapped as I was texting, gladiator style.