Trick or Treat

Awoke to a gray sky and a cloudy day. Perked things up a bit with this week's American Top 40. Casey moved ahead to 1980, as disco started to move out and punk rock, power ballads, and New Wave moved in. Hits from early November of that year included "Love, Look What You've Done to Me" by Boz Scags, "Jesse" by Carly Simon, "All Out of Love" by Air Supply, "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down" by Diana Ross, "Master Blaster" by Stevie Wonder, and "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen. That week's #1 song was one of the biggest of Barbara Streisand's career, "Woman In Love."

Spent the rest of a quiet morning inside, watching cartoons and TV show episodes and finishing a scarf for Molly. In The Backyardigans, Austin is "The Funnyman Boogeyman," a ghost who wants to make people laugh. He finds his toughest audience ever in ghost-chasing Uniqua and Pablo! Garfield and Odie are spooked by a monster movie and help John on a date with Liz, while the rest of the US Acres gang attempt to hatch shell-bound chick Sheldon in a first season Garfield and Friends episode. In the Danger Mouse mini-episode "Eeek! Spiders!," Danger Mouse and Penfold find themselves up against gigantic arachnids who are taking over London. Count Duckula has no more luck with a stone vampire look-a-like who wants to wreck havoc in one of the bonus Count Duckula episodes that comes with the Danger Mouse Season 7&8 DVD set.

Switched to live-action as I prepared to help Dad and Jodie with trick-or-treaters. I didn't get a chance to fit the Perfect Strangers Halloween episode in before Wednesday, so I did it this morning. When Larry stays up all night watching horror movies during a Halloween party, he dreams that Balki is an alien from the planet Mypos who is bent on taking over the Earth!

I can't dress up for work this year, I decided to dress up to give out candy for Dad and Jodie instead. I finally opted to go as a black cat. I have the ears, bow, tail, and gloves leftover from a few years ago. I just wore my black jeans, and since it was chilly, my heavy black winter coat. Gave myself a pink nose with peachy eye shadow and eyeliner "whiskers." Brought along my WebKinz Black Cat Luna, who got to wear the sequin-trimmed bow that came with the original costume. (It looks silly on my neck.)

Much to my surprise, we had tons of kids today. Though I think most of New Jersey is waiting for Monday for trick-or-treat, Oaklyn opted to do theirs Saturday...which is probably why we had at least 40 kids coming by Dad's house today. A few were tiny guys with their parents, but most were elementary school kids with their older siblings or older kids in packs. I suspect some may have come from other towns that are waiting for next week.

I was especially happy to note that, out of those 40 kids, only 4 teenage boys didn't dress up...and of those 4, one boy at least had clown makeup on with normal clothes, and another sported a Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirt and baseball cap. I don't think I've ever seen so many kids actually put some effort into Halloween costumes.

There were some really cute costumes. I wasn't the only cat. I saw one teenage girl, one elementary school girl, and two toddlers who dressed as kitties. (The youngest toddler was a darling cheetah cub in a thick cheetah-print jacket.) One teenager was a sock-hopper, complete with a chiffon scarf in her hair. Her friend was a vampiress. An elementary school girl was a ghoul princess in a bloody renaissance dress. There was a cute Darth Vader whose mother opted to make him up as the elder Anakin Skywalker instead of making him wear the mask. There were two adorable Minnie Mice, one toddler, the other elementary school. I counted at least five ninjas and three cowboys (one a Woody from Toy Story). I saw Lugi and Mario in one group, Waluigi and SpongeBob SquarePants in another.

Dad and Jodie went to a 50th birthday party in Audubon Park just as trick-or-treating was ending. Jessa drove me home. After I got in, I did things around the apartment. I took off the cat stuff and put that way. I changed the American Girls into regular clothes. Molly now wears her red Hula Costume sweater with the khakis from the Aviator Outfit, the white shirt from the 1995 modern meet outfit, and the penny loafers from the Girl Scout uniform. Jessa wears the Girl Scout Uniform turtleneck with eBay overalls, socks, and Springfield Collection sneakers. Samantha sports her mauve checked Meet dress.

When I finished with the dolls, I took down the Halloween decorations and put up what I have for Thanksgiving. Most of my Thanksgiving stuff is cardboard hangings I found at yard sales and dollar stores. I did find one really cool set of Pilgrim/Indian themed hangings at the Acme the year I moved here in 2006. They're pretty big - I think they were intended for classroom use - and fairly realistic-looking. I also have the two plush WebKinz turkeys, the regular Turkey Plymouth, and the plumper Gobbler Turkey Mayflower, along with a Beanie Baby Turkey.

I ran a few things in the background throughout the evening. Had on The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters as I was taking down the Halloween items. The most popular of the Bowery Boys horror-oriented movies pits Sach and Slip against a spooky family, including a female vampire, a robot who wants a human head, and a man-eating tree.

Switched to Sleeping Beauty during a dinner of Flounder In Lime-Wine Sauce with Mushrooms, romaine salad, and steamed broccoli. The most famous villain in Disney animation - the evil fairy Maleficent - graces one of the most gorgeously drawn films of all time. When the title lass is put to sleep by the aforementioned vengeful fairy, three comic good fairies help the prince she loves come to her rescue.

A bit on the simple side, with a disappointing princess. For all of Aurora's title and Disney Princess status, she actually doesn't have that much screen time. It's the fabulous animation and memorable supporting characters who make this one. In addition to Maleficent,  the three Good Fairies themselves - Flora's my favorite - are always a riot, and Prince Phillip is one of Disney's few genuinely fun princes.

This is out of print now, but it's been released on DVD twice and Blu-Ray once, so it's not that hard to find. My copy is the original 2-Disc DVD set from 2002, but I don't think the 2008 Platinum Edition is all that different.