Halloween Happenings and Hurricane Preparations

Started off today with this week's American Top 40 re-run. Casey hopped back a decade to 1976 as disco sneaked in amid the ballads, novelty numbers, and R&B. Hits the day before Halloween that year included "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" by KC and the Sunshine Band, "Muskrat Love" by the Captain and Tennile, "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry, the Bay City Rollers' remake of "I Only Wanna Be With You," "Beth" by KISS, "Don't Fear the Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult, "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees, "Rock 'n Me" by the Steve Miller Band, "A Fifth of Beethoven"  by the Walter Murray Orchestra, and "Fernando" by ABBA. Chicago got their first number one hit that week with "If You Leave Me Now."

I spent the morning having fun with the dolls. I did a photo story showing the fuzzy and plastic residents of the Riverside Rest helping me prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. The storm was originally supposed to hit this afternoon, but now they're saying early tomorrow morning. Whatever. We'll see what actually happens. I also dressed the American Girls in costumes for Halloween.

Hurricanes and Halloween at the Riverside Rest

I went online briefly after lunch to check the weather forecasts and upload my pictures. Spent the next hour finishing up the outdoor hurricane prep. I swept the porch (at least one layer of leaves will be gone), then went downstairs. Retrieved the mail, then moved the bike and trash cans to front porch, which is under a roof overhang and hidden by the many trees around the apartment. Stacked the chairs and blue milk crate I use for a table. They should be fine on my porch.

I was making Cranberry-Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins when Andrew, my landlord, arrived. He was bringing over the new carbon monoxide detector. Instead of being round like the last one, it's rectangular...but it works just the same. He said he won't be able to do anything with the house, sell it or rent it out to someone else, until at least next summer or possibly even later. I hope no one minds if I stay. I don't have too many other places I can live.

Ran two semi-horror-oriented animated films throughout the afternoon. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit have the famous English inventing duo in the rabbit-catching business. Their humane suction methods of catching bunnies is a big hit with their vegetable-loving village, but it's leaving them with the problem of where to put them. Wallace's attempt to brainwash the bunnies into rejecting vegetables goes haywire and creates a "were-rabbit" that terrorizes the village and eats every large vegetable in sight. Gromit initially believes it's one of the captured rabbits, but then he sees a few things that makes him wonder why his buddy's been so interested in eating vegetables lately...

I've only seen one Wallace & Gromit short (the one about their trip to the moon). This was my first real introduction to them, and I really liked it. Gromit in particular is an amazing creation. You'd never believe how much expression one can get out of a stop-motion dog with no mouth.

Switched to The Black Cauldron and more traditional animation while making a cake and during dinner. Taran is a teenage boy living in a dark fantasy world ruled by the frightening Horned King. He's not thrilled about being stuck taking care of a pig when he'd rather be a warrior. He gets his chance to show what he's made out of when he has to take the pig and flee the Horned King, who wants her oracular powers to find the fabled container of the title. On his journey, he loses and finds the pig, discovers a magic sword, befriends a tough princess and a bard with a truth-telling harp, and learns a rather important lesson about the importance of friendship and of responsibility.

Though technically a fantasy film, the atmosphere is spooky enough for me to have watched this every Halloween season for the last five years or so. Fantasy violence and the general scary feel makes Disney's first PG rated film inappropriate for the youngest members of the family. Older kids and adults who think they've seen every Disney movie might be willing to give this one a shot.

Between movies, I heard laughter and delighted screaming in the park. I pulled on my bright blue jacket and went next-door. A group of Girl Scouts and their den mothers, probably the same group who had the ornament-painting booth at the Town Picnic, were playing Halloween-oriented games. When I watched them, they did a relay where one girl had to pass a costume along to the next. The first group to sit down won.

After they finished, they moved across the street to the VFW building. While a den mother set up grill for s'mores, the older girls sang "pumpkin carols" (regular songs reworked with Halloween-y lyrics). They were really cute. They must have had a great time. I heard them across the street until around 7 or 8PM.

Oh, and as of right now, Hurricane Sandy still hasn't hit. It was windy and on-and-off cloudy all day, but otherwise not out of the ordinary for late October in Southern New Jersey. Last time I looked, we were supposed to get the first showers early tomorrow morning. Jodie called earlier and asked if I wanted to go over to Dad's house for the next few days and wait out the storm. I told her I'd probably be better off at my place, but I would watch the Eagles game with them tomorrow.