Monthly Archives: October 2020

‘halloween is upon us’ – hubie

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Happy Halloween!

It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to spend the month of October engaging in a horror movie marathon that’s become known as our ’21 Days of Halloween’. There’s no real logic behind that number except that shooting for 31 horror movies felt waaaay too much and 21 seemed challenging yet achievable. We rarely ever actually hit 21 (last year I think we made it to 17) and this year we are coming in with a somewhat lackluster showing of 15. But it’s all in good fun and without further ado, here is our complete listing. Our starred reviews follow the list and if you can stick around until the end of the post you can see my lovely daughter in her Halloween costume.

  • Alice Sweet Alice (1976)
  • Prom Night (1980)
  • Asylum (1972)
  • Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
  • Weekend Murders (1970)
  • Hubie Halloween (2020)
  • Final Exam (1981)
  • Last House on Massacre Street (also released as The Bride and The House That Cried Murder) (1973)
  • Night of the Demons (1988)*
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 watches Boggy Creek II (1984)
  • The Boy (2016)*
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
  • The Birds (1963)
  • The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

NIGHT OF THE DEMONS STARRED REVIEW (by Sara) – This raunchfest came out of nowhere to be my favorite film of the season. It’s a great example of the 1980’s horror movie genre, complete with an exceptionally lame party at an abandoned funeral parlor / mansion, an Indian burial ground, bad girls doing spine-bending interpretive dance to a truly awful 1980’s power ballad soundtrack, lots of gratuitous boobs and butt cheeks, early death to the sexually promiscuous, demons, and the virtuous Final Girl. There’s also a side plot featuring a crotchety old man and the urban legend of razor blades in Halloween offerings which has a very satisfactory ending. It has it all!

THE BOY STARRED REVIEW (by Brandon) – An outrageous concept so sure, why not? Lets see where the hell this goes. Well executed, well paced, and with a nice little twist to boot. The sleeper hit of our little marathon.

Miss L – Plague Doctor – that’s my girl!

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween weekend! xoxo

friday five – i’d like to meet his tailor

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  1. Although Covid has definitely taken its toll on Halloween fun, our town has gone over and above to make the best of the situation. They’ve hosted a “Grand Raven” decorating contest in our town square, with local merchants decorating scarecrow-sized ravens, and done Zoom readings of Edgar Allan Poe works, and Wednesday night they hosted a free drive-in movie showing of ‘The Birds’. Our local 1920’s movie house popped popcorn and Brandon, Miss L & I brought our own goodie bags of Halloween treats and enjoyed the festivities. I’d forgotten how long it takes this movie to get going – at least an hour of Mitch / Melanie schlock before the pecking starts. But the playground scene was entirely worth it.

2. With the weather turning colder and the leaves falling, Brandon has been requesting some “comfort food” for dinner. Last week, he had a yen for red beans and rice. I’ve never made it before (not being a huge fan of sausage) but this recipe from Damn Delicious made me a convert! It was economical, quick, and absolutely yummy. Miss L was at her dad’s for the night so I made it extra spicy and got Cajun andouille sausage. Served with hot rice and cornbread and we devoured it and had a fire in the woodstove and split a bottle of Malbec and it was perfection!

3. This from a bestie made me ridiculously happy.

Gratuitous picture of the boy cats in full hibernation mode

4. I’m getting into (more of) the Halloween spirit listening to Phoebe Reads a Mystery tackle ‘Dracula’. Is ‘Lucy Westenra’ pronounced the way it looks or is it pronounced ‘Wes-TERN-a’? Anyone? ….Bueller?…

5. Yesterday was a doozie. A few minutes before Miss L needed to join her online classes for the day, and before I needed to dial into the first of 4 hours of work-related Zoom and Skype calls, we managed to blow the fuse for JUST MY STUDY (and her bedroom) where the router is located. The fuse seemed completely gone so I used a series of completely unsafe extension cords to construct a fragile web to plug the router into an entirely different part of the house. I got up and running, joined my call, got booted off twice and then spilled coffee all over myself and my workspace just as I was reconnecting. Good times…

Suffice it to say, I’m glad there’s a festive weekend ahead. Join me here this weekend for a peek at Miss L’s costume and the complete listing of our 21 Days of Horror viewing (along with my starred review)! I hope you have a deliriously atmospheric Devil’s Night or Angel’s Night – whichever one you prefer. And don’t forget to change your clocks this weekend and VOTE ON TUESDAY!

Not my sign but I wish it was! Seen in my neighborhood.

friday five: last night i dreamt i went to manderley again

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  1. We went up north last weekend and had a wonderful autumn weekend in my happy place with many of the people I love best. Brandon & I had a nice hike at the Treat Homestead in the Sleeping Bear, we ate like kings thanks to my mom, we laughed endlessly with my dad, and it was just what I needed to fill up my bucket til the holidays.

2. I have to make a couple of conspicuous consumer-type recommendations. Firstly, I recently splurged on a very well-reviewed brush-hairdryer combo that I love. I wash my hair every day, but usually just blow-dry and put it into a messy pony or bun, or if I have to go into the office or somewhere public I will actually use my ceramic straightener. This dryer gives me the option of a nice blow-out without the damage of the straightener and I’m pleased with it!

3. Not for the fellas – I shied away from the recent “bralette” craze because I usually – [ahem] – require a bit more support. But at $14.99, I decided to try one of these from Target and I ended up going back for 2 more. I can’t see myself wearing anything else (as long as they hold up in the wash) – well, at least until the days of “return to office” when an underwire will be required. They are super comfortable and flattering.

4. Although Brandon & I are halfway through our 21 Days of Horror binge, I took a break to watch Netflix’s Rebecca. This book holds a lot of sentiment for me – in high school, I was placed in an Honors English class during freshman year, and we spent 4 years together with different teachers exploring all types of literature. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was one of the first novels we read together as a class and as such, I have vivid associations with it. We later went on to read things like ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, and ‘Lord of the Flies’ together but I will always think of ‘Rebecca’ fondly. And this interpretation by Netflix – well, it blew me away. Lily James and Kristin Scott Thomas are EXACTLY how I envisioned the second Mrs. de Winters and Mrs Danvers – to the letter, to the note, to the hairstyle and the lipstick. So perfect. And Armie Hammer – who has never really done anything for me – is wonderful as Maxim de Winter (and might I add – RRROWRRRR!!). Spectacular all around.

5. Bringing things down to reality. Our school board voted this week on a proposal to bring secondary students back to face to face classes as early as November 30. This comes on the heels of a vote approving elementary kids to return on November 9. We were a bit on tenterhooks about this, and as you can imagine, everyone had differing viewpoints on the wisdom (or lack thereof) of returning to f2f, even a hybrid model. Miss L’s dad & I had basically agreed that there was no point in sending her back – assuming we would have a choice – until after the holidays, but the district and parents were thrown into chaos by the vote and the debates. Ultimately, our district has voted to keep secondary kids remote until at least January 25 – while sending elementary kids back – which is a relief as it takes the decision out of our hands. And Miss L – being a strong-minded and self-driven kid- has done well with the remote model. But the application of different sciences & logics for elementary and secondary remains a bit mysterious to everyone so I really do feel for parents of younger kids who are in a quandary with decisions about health of kids and their family, quality of education, socialization, safety, etc.

Lastly – my typical reminder to vote and if you are on the fence as an undecided voter, please consider that Mr Biden has put together an excellent, high quality plan for economic stabilization while the orange disaster continues to churn vitriol, hate, fear, and bile with no plans whatsoever. Think about who will leave a better future for your children and grandchildren. But most importantly, VOTE on Nov. 3.

Have a lovely weekend, all. xo

friday five – early october edition

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  1. I had a good old -fashioned sick day on Tuesday. Having a home office means that even when I feel less than 100%, I usually end up logging on and working for the day, simply because the commute is manageable – if I can make it down the hall, I usually feel like I should get to work. But Tuesday I had a migraine of the sort that I haven’t had in a few months, with dizziness and difficulty focusing. I slept all morning, woke up and ate some lunch, and then went back to sleep. By evening, I was feeling a bit better, and by bedtime I felt the relief of impending normalcy. I felt a little guilty for taking the day off but it was the right thing to do.
  2. We’ve officially started our month-long “21 Days of Halloween” horror movie marathon. This concept was born a few years ago when I felt disgust over the “25 Days of Christmas” schlock on some Hallmark or Lifetime channel and decided to spend the month of October swimming in the macabre. I quickly realized that 31 days of horror movies – and then 25 days of horror movies – were unsustainable for a healthy mental outlook. 21 days is a sweet spot of reveling in the morbid and decayed whilst still maintaining a productive and optimistic energy level for day to day social adjustment. I’ve decided not to do the periodic posts of detailed reviews of our viewing and will instead post a list of our full viewing for the month on Halloween, along with a few starred reviews. So far, I’ll tip you off that we seem to be favoring the 1970’s horror genre which means heavy on the moody and atmospheric (albeit slow-moving) narratives.

3. We decorated the lawn – Miss L did a nice graveyard of styrofoam tombstones yet I could not bring myself to take down the Biden sign so perhaps sending the wrong message? The same day this photo was taken, the wind picked up and blew most of the tombstones over so I have to go back to the drawing board with embedding them more firmly – any tips?

4. The hummingbird feeder is finally down, washed, and stored for the winter. I have fallen in the the rhythm of refilling the feeders and birdbath every morning (after nightly deer and raccoon raids). I can usually hear the chickadees in the trees waiting for me to finish up, flitting with delicate and inquisitive flutters and sawlike calls, but the other morning it was an entirely different sound in the neighbor’s tree – a restless, shifting organism made up of a hundred birds. I was barely inside when the dark cloud descended on the feeders like a gang of rowdy drunks at a free bar. European starlings – probably 150 of them, and it only took them a few minutes of tussling and gorging to clean my feeders out. There were a few more the following day, but I think they’ve finally moved on, to the relief of my typical crowd of sparrows, cardinals, titmice, jays and finches and cardinals.

there were at least another fifty at my other feeders, further back.

5. I’m still working on my Halloween socks but had a setback this week. I’d turned the heel and was working on the gusset and feeling not happy with the heel flap, which was done in-pattern (the Minecraft sock pattern by Heather Cox, available on Ravelry). In addition, by time I started on the gusset, I had somehow forgotten that the pattern was written for circulars and I was using double-pointed needles. This resulted in mistakes and so I had to rip back anyway, so I decided spontaneously to rip the flap all the way back and instead of doing it in-pattern, replace it with a simple slip-stitch heel flap. I think I’m going to like this better but I did lose a couple of days on it.

Obligatory Pot Roast picture in my home office

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be busting on my socks, taking lots of naps, and reinforcing my tombstones against gusty autumn breezes.

Obligatory reminder to vote blue: it’s good for the economy, according to Moody’s and Goldman Sachs, and reduces the likelihood that your governor will be the target of a domestic terrorist extremist kidnapping plot!

friday five

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What a week. I almost didn’t show up in this space today but I do have five things and I’m enjoying this little weekly exercise, so without further ado, let’s jump right in.

  1. So did we need ANY MORE PROOF that Trump is a criminal, a liar, a bully and a racist who defends, protects, and promotes white supremacy? I didn’t. He’s been showing those things via his actions for years. The minute he appointed a poster boy for the Breitbart alt-right to his administration, that was all I needed to know, and by the time he defended white supremacists in Charlottesville (“very fine people”), the horse was waaay out of the barn for me. The fact that he could not wrap his fat mouth around the simple words condemning a fascist, alt-right, Holocaust-denying organization is no surprise to me – but when people tell you who they are, believe them. The sad thing is that his base doesn’t care. His time in the White House has given credence and a voice to a segment of the US population that should be living under rocks, in the boondocks, being generally scorned by the civilized public and allowed to die a toothless death on a sagging couch under a stained Confederate flag wall-hanging. Instead, our President, our Commander in Chief, has them on standby when he refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power. What the ever-loving FUCK, people. (Although I did love the suggestion from one Tweeter that said that if he were Biden, he’d open the debate by putting a tin cup in front of Trump and flipping a quarter into it.)
I will always be here for the Biden / Barack bro memes. 🙂

2. If you are on IG and NOT following Quentin Tarantino’s account @quentin.quarantino, you are missing out on some extremely funny shit from someone who hates MAGA and the right-wing and has an amazing sense of the bizarre, the incisive, and the hilarious. Also some great merch in his shop, and I think he donates some portion of the profits to charities although I can’t find any verification of that (I think I remember him posting a Story about it?).

3. On a complete 180, I’ll move into television entertainment and say that we were excited to see a new ep of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. It is more subdued than previous seasons, but Noel, Paul, and Prue were a breath of fresh air and although we miss Sandi, Matt Lucas seems like he’ll be a fine addition. It’s such a nice show to have for family viewing times with Miss L and when she’s with her dad, Brandon & I have been dipping into Season 2 of The Boys which is just as totally off the hook as Season 1 with just as many crazy “WHOA” moments.

4. I am making hay while the sun shines. Working from home has given me no excuse to get my shit together so this week I made dentist appointments and flu shot reservations for me & Miss L, went to the doctor for a physical and a prescription refill, had the chimney swept, and bought firewood. My car is completely up to date with service, and I am going into the winter with a new furnace and water heater. And yes we broke down and turned the heat on yesterday. Bring on the winter.

5. I’m hoping to get my Halloween socks finished to wear for Halloween but although my progress has been steady so far, I know that my sock-knitting productivity can take mysterious hits at any given time, so I am really trying to (see above) make hay while the sun shines. These are Ravelled, but just as an FYI I”m using Less Travelled 757 sock yarn in the Slutty Pumpkin colorway and using the Minecraft pattern by Heather Cox, which is also on Ravelry. This is resulting in a very satisfying knitting project and the Less Travelled yarn is lovely to work with.

I hope you’re all getting ready for a lovely weekend full of fall fun – pumpkins, woodsmoke, yummy treats, warm blankies and leaf piles. I’m going to be decorating the yard for Halloween with a variety of tombstones and a scary pumpkin-headed ghoul (that Miss L, in withering 12-year old fashion, thought was “a little tacky”). DON’T CARE – BRING ON THE GHOULS. xoxo