Happy Halloween ... I love to hear you scream ...

Scott took the day off to start decorating ... we go a little overboard at Halloween ...

I went to a management seminar at the Space Needle. I ate lunch at the top - if I can figure a way to get the pics from my (new) camera phone onto my computer, I'll post those.

Yes, we're WAAAAAAYYY over the top with the Halloween decorations, most of which are motion-activated and make noise. Pictures will be posted tomorrow night, hopefully.

For now, a pic of Halloween at our house:

BOO!!!!!!!!!

"I would rather talk about ... "

Not exactly a Halloween movie, but it is about ghosts ... I love this scene ...

I love the finger food at the end.

Hey, kids - what's tomorrow???

I put a spell on you ...

... and now you're mine.

Two more days, kids ...

This Is Halloween

Three more days, kids ...

Meet Jack

Jack O'Lantern. He's our latest addition. I went to a "punkin' carvin' party" at my friend R's house yesterday afternoon - he was even nice enough to scoop all the pumpkin guts out for everyone. We all sat around eating and drinking with sharp utensils in our hands. Luckily, there was no blood involved.

After Scott got home from work, we went to a neighbor's house where they had a farewell party for some neighbors who are moving to a new condo downtown. The guys who are moving were in costume for Halloween, probably (hopefully) for the sake of the kids at the party. It's sad that we're losing a gay couple from the block. The neighborhood HAS been going downhill lately.

After that, we moved the party to another neighbor's house, where we sat around talking and drinking some more wine. It wasn't until this morning that I realized I really didn't eat dinner last night. I had a couple of pieces of spanikopita, some crackers and cheese, a few stuffed mushrooms, and some bread. And wine. I feel a little fuzzy today.

And how was YOUR weekend?

40 is the new 30 (20?)

Yeah, I'm 40 now. That makes me sexier. :)

A word of advice: DO NOT have your 40th birthday on a Monday, unless you're taking the day off. It was brutal.

However, a couple of my team members disappeared for a while mid-morning and bought me this t-shirt (you may recall my post a few weeks back):

You, too can ride the SLUT soon ... for a price.

I endured a lot of jokes at work ... "Matt, if you can get your walker going and stay off the ventilator for a few minutes, can you come look at this?" ... "Wow, your eyesight really is shot if you came to work wearing THAT" ... "Is that a Depends in your pants or are you happy to see me?". Those people are all DEAD TO ME.

I was also taken out to a very cool lunch at the Kingfish Cafe (if you're ever in Seattle, you MUST go here ... preferrably for dinner. I had red beans and rice, and we shared a HUGE piece of Red Velvet Cake. Mmmmmm ... )

Scott bought me some nice things, and we made a nice dinner together.

So I survived. And I don't look a DAY over 40. (Well, okay ... ONE day ...)

Tomorrow.

What a way that'll be to start a Monday ...

T-Shirt Appreciation Day!

Chad (aka Mr. 12 of 12) has sponsored a new holiday! Monday, October 22, is T-Shirt Appreciation Day. Tomorrow is the deadline, but be a sport and send in your picture now!!


Here's mine. You'll have to see his post to read about it being my favorite t-shirt.

C'mon ... play along ...

This new holiday also falls on a Big Important Day for me. I'll tell y'all about that tomorrow.

October 12 of 12

Time for 12 of 12 again. Thanks to Chad for the idea - and the cultish following he's established ...

These pictures were all taken on Friday, October 12, 2007 in Seattle, Washington.

My first real view this morning. I'd been up for a while, but my eyes weren't open until now:

Oh, the irony ... ( LOVE our ironing board cover!)

You're supposed to put SOME part of your body in at least one "12 of 12" picture. I'm the Man in the Mirror.

Before pulling out of my luxurious parking spot. Cool tree. And cool car, too. For sale. Interested?

Purrrrrty ...

Friday is jeans day. Well, a lot of people wear jeans throughout the week, but Friday is MY jeans day. Here they are. Scott suggested I crop the picture. The original was more of a crotch shot. Scott reminded me that the Bonus Word this month was "Orange", not "Banana". NSFW, so I obliged.

Friday afternoons we have The Bar Cart. Well, it's pretty stationary, but we pull out beer and wine and booze, and people congregate and have a drink (or three) for a small donation. Tres cool, methinks. My friends C and K manning the bar while I took a picture. Some people just take their glass back to their desk and solve problems through alcohol. I admire that.

"You can fit more wine in that glass, beyotch!"

Just before leaving work. My messy workspace. There's not usually a nearly-empty bottle of Pinot Grigio on my desk. Just an imaginary one most days.

I stopped at my buddy R's house on my way home. He and his partner are trying to sell a bed and mattress set, and Scott and I have been thinking about replacing ours. It's a big decision ...

R is also wanting to get rid of his piano. Here he is showing me that some of the keys don't play. We live about six blocks downhill from him. We discussed him pushing it from the top of the hill and me catching it at the bottom. I'm a little unsure about that. These types of things scare me.

Stoli came running down the stairs to greet me when I got home. As usual, when I tried to pet her and take her picture, she basically said "Dad, I want a cheeseburger". *sniff* I've taught her so well.

BONUS PIC: "ORANGE"

There was a lot of orange in today's pictures. So I'm going into overkill. But I specifically took this one as Number 13 - R's orange "Le Creuset" crock, which I covet. Mmmmm. Actually, I covet his whole kitchen.

Kali the Amazingly Large and Resilient Puppy

I was just going through some pictures, and realized we've had Kali for just over a year - and WOW has she grown.


This is her in September, 2006 (about 9 weeks old):

And here she was just a few months ago, being held by Scott (and she's bigger now!):

*Sniff* Our babies are all grown ...

Autumn Sky

Tonight the sky is so strange ... the color, the lighting is just so off of normal. I'm sure it's the low autumn sun and the new layer of steel clouds, but everything looks so rose-tinted.

I didn't re-touch this picture at all:

It's here

Too early. The rainy season came, and I'm not ready for it. It's fine, when it's after Halloween, after the kids march around in their costumes, after every last drop of the dry, green season has been wrung out. Not now, though. There's still too much green. Too much life for the cold nights and the rain and the need to find the umbrellas and coats. It's too soon.



This is what I don't like about Seattle. It doesn't rain all the time - far from it. The summer (and, usually, the fall) are indescribably beautiful. It's a promise that the sun will stay, that the mountains will always be "out", that the water will glisten and blind you. More often than not, it's breathtakingly gorgeous here. Until the rains come. Then it's generally three-four months of wet, of damp, of daily gentle non-intrusive water falling on everything. You know it's coming, you prepare for it, you accept it, you know spring is coming. But it's October 7, fer Christ's sake. I's too early to think about spring coming. I want fall, and brilliant colors, and frost, and sunny bracing days and my breath fogging cold dry air. I want that so so so light blue sky that's not gray and metallic and wet, yet.



I want this picture to be brightly lit, for a few more weeks.

Cell Block Tango

Y'all know how much I love the tango. The precision, and more importantly the percussion of it. This, while old, is such a wonderfully and seductive movie interpretation of such a seductive, intimate dance. And, of course, the movie itself (and oh my god the stage production) are sexy as hell. Love this.

Something about the insistence of it ... the intimacy, perhaps the anger? Not quite the right word. The abruptness, the rawness of it. I'm not sure it can be described outside of the music and visual physicalness of it. As in Moulin Rouge:

Hopefully someone understands what I'm saying.

Colour my world

I stayed home sick today. I've got a nasty cold, and this morning it sat on me and choked me until I couldn't breathe. I've tried to work from home and take drugs (which I HATE doing) and stay vertical, but it's a losing battle.

After reading my work e-mail (thanks zod, no fires), I opened the shades above my computer at home. It's definitely fall in Seattle. The colors aren't here yet - they never really are, they get washed away too quickly when the rains come, which is sad - but the grey coolness is everywhere.

I'm looking at the browning leaves of the lilac tree, the pale yellow of the neighbor's house with it's even brown roof shingles, the architecture of the cypress, the horizontal levels of grey from the clouds zooming overhead, the sumac leaves starting to turn bright yellow. Fall came too quickly this time. The sky shouldn't look like gunmetal until the trees along 23rd Avenue are scarlet.

I wish I could have taken a good picture of what I see. I used to love fall ... brilliant and cool and crisp and still lively ... but it's so quick here that I'm afraid of missing it, missing any transition from hot and sunny and overgrown to wet and bare and dark. I miss the reds and golds and bronzes against the slightly whitish blue sky with only the high, faint jet trails crossing it.

I'd love to have one more day in an earth-colored plaid wool coat, walking in the forest preserve with my Mom and Dad and brothers, kicking up dry leaves and then heading to the apple orchard in Lake Zurich. I'm a big softie, I know. Fall always makes me want to be a kid again.