Tag Archives: halloween

All About Max, Canucks Hockey

Rambling…

Leave a comment

Neely jersey Pam and I went to the Canucks game against the Detroit Red Wings last night. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the Wings – an Original Six team, with lots of heart and character. Their jerseys are classic, simple and meaningful. Something the Canuck jerseys have NEVER been, despite dozens of re-designs.

Anyway – we had seats in the absolute LAST row of the house. We were three rows ABOVE the nosebleed seats! haha Still, it was fun to be at the game, even though the Canucks never showed up. My buddy Mike and I have complained about the lack of team toughness for years. And this team is once again a bunch of weak sisters. To be run out of the building by a team like Detroit is really disappointing.

The hardest working guyAlex Burrows is so lame this year. And Kesler looks lost. It’s time the coach realized that those two guys need each other to play well. Neither Burrows nor Kesler threw a check, which is something we have come to expect from them. But No Longer…  Thomas Holmstrom stands in front of the net, directly in front of Luongo and is unmolested. In the Detroit end, not a soul could even find the front of the net, let alone stand in front of either goalie the Wings used.

I’ve put a picture up of the hardest working guy on the ice last night… (The Zamboni driver, in case you missed my reference…)

Just a note about the vandalism of our Halloween display – the single grave marker that was removed from our yard has come back. In four pieces! I found it at the front of the property – I guess someone drove by and threw it back on the yard.

I appreciate you returning it, scumbag. I’ve smoothed over the ragged edges, re-touched the paint, and it is again featured on the yard. I’ve been working quite a bit on the display and it’s really getting cool.

Kinda morbid eh?I’ve been searching the net for funny grave sayings, and I’ve used the always familiar “I told you I was sick” already. But the one that caught my eye was “Bill Blake – Hanged my mistake” which I changed to “Billy Blake – Aged 5 – Hanged by Mistake!” haha

Funny story – one of my neighbours across the street, saw me out taking a picture last week, way before I had even put half our stuff out. He says to me, “wow, buddy, you must be finished now eh? That’s a lot of stuff you have there.” I said to him, “You new to the neighbourhood?” haha He gave me a funny look and walked into his house. Wait til he sees the smoke machine, the skeletons, the music, the karaoke machine, the strobes…

And when I start putting out the Christmas stuff… man – he’s in for a shock!

Max Update – He’s doing great. His left front paw is slightly weak, but he’s figured out how to do most everything without it working perfectly. He’s in better spirits lately, and much more playful.

We’ve been going on walks, instead of running for now. He wants to run, but the doctor advised against it, since the steroids can cause some swelling.

Commentary, Holidays

Halloween Vandalism

2 Comments

Pam and I do a lot of exterior decorating, for lots of different holidays. Have done it since we’ve been married, and each year, we add a little to the display, make it a bit better. We do it for the kids, because we remember how cool it is to see someone get into the spirit. Pam asked me once what we’d do if someone vandalized our stuff. I said, “no worries, we’ll start over. Not going to be defeated by idiots and losers.”

Why am I saying that? Well, here’s a first! Someone stole one of the grave stones off our front yard. Only one marker was stolen – they left the cool skeletons, the fancy bats, the lights, the pumpkins, the blow ups – everything. Only the new grave stone we made this year with the name “Roberto 2009” on one side, and “Anna 2009” on the other side went missing. Interesting that only that one grave marker went missing. In fact, VERY interesting that it is only that one particular grave stone that went missing.

It’s amazing to me, how small some people are. Stealing a wooden grave stone? Wow. You must really be proud of yourself. A truly remarkable person. I bet your father, if you know who he is, must be really proud of you! And your mother, gosh, she must truly be a remarkable person too – instilling such values in you… She probably works down on Main and Hastings. I shouldn’t be too hard on the thief, though, they probably have residual childhood issues, like bedwetting, Mommy didn’t breastfeed them, or Daddy spent too much time with the hookers.

At any rate, I’ve got two more grave markers in production, and we’ll just replace the stolen grave marker. These small, pathetic people won’t deter us…

Holidays

More on Halloween

Leave a comment

Pam and Max Today was a nice day, so Pam and I spent most of the afternoon puttering around the yard, making modifications to the front yard display. Last night a really stong wind came along and broke a few decorations, even breaking off one of the styrofoam crosses!

Halloween 2009We put out one of the blowups and it really fills the yard! We also added a few bats hanging from trees. Max gets a kick out of Halloween and he spent the day chasing us around the yard! (He’s doing great by the way. He’s on a second round of steroids and his appetite is great.)

It’s been fun doing it this early – lots of people have stopped and talked to us about it. The young girl across the street looks scared already! And we haven’t even got the creepy music or the spooky lighting or the smoke machine going yet!

I’ve got another grave marker drying in the garage, and we’ll put that out tomorrow. I’ve got a couple big spiders (5 or 6 FEET across!) to put out too. And we have not picked up any pumpkins yet. We’ll have to go out to a few farms and see what kind of deals there are!

Holidays

Halloween 2009

3 Comments

Halloween 2009 We’re starting Halloween decorations way early this year. We’re going for a graveyard theme. I’ve added a few more tombstones from last year’s display. I’ve managed to get some more “raw material” for the tombstones.

PSA, Halloween 2009The paint job ain’t great, but at night, they look better lol. I’ll work on them a little more. I’ve found a simple way to keep the styrofoam grave stones from blowing away. Simple and easy. Will have to see how I can adapt that to Christmas lights.

It’s a work in progress so far. Pam is off tomorrow, so we’ll probably spruce things up a bit more. She wanted to involve more of the yard, instead of a “Strip of Horror” down the driveway, like we normally do. More room to scare ’em, I guess…

And we’ve added Mike’s door from his Volvo to the proceedings lol.

Holidays

Halloween 2008

2 Comments

Pam. Halloween 2008. This Halloween we were expecting some pretty terrible weather. According to the weather man we were going to be deluged with rain. HAH! I don’t think so.

It was almost balmy. I was not cold at all sitting outside under our overhang by the garage. Maurice did a spectacular job decorating this year.  I had bought a new blow up at Costco, a group of ghouls with 2 large trees with a bevy of monsters in between them. The blow up is about 7 feet long or so, and pretty tall.

It’s nice and bright, and the number of people who were taking pictures of their kids in front of the blow up was amazing. I also got alot of requests to pose with the kids (I guess I’m not that terrifying).

The REAL Reaper?Maurice added to the fun by coming out with a yoda mask on, and he would just stand there, the kids didn’t know if he was real or not. When he spoke and yelled ” get the little ones, they taste the best!” they knew! Never saw kids run so fast in my life. 🙂 hee hee

Not to be outdone, Max added to the festivities by providing some sound effects. He would bark from inside the house, or garage when the kids came up and that provided some spookifying sounds!

WOLF!Maurice set up the karaoke machine for me as well as the small stereo we have with a subwoofer, so the heartbeats, screams and thumping drums, buzzing fly’s and what with Max the wolfs howls… the night was complete!

We usually get about 175-200 kids, but I think we only had about 125-150 this year.  Marit, our next door neighbour came over with a swell treat of some home made pumpkin tarts with whipped cream on them. yummy. Thanks Marit! She looked swell in her vampire type outfit and was handing out candy next door.

The Canucks were playing tonight, and we won against the Ducks. I missed the game, but it was for a good cause. Halloween has always been a fun fun holiday for us, and while some may think we over do it, we consider it a gift that we can give to the kids once a year.

Monsters in love!Maurice here — I have to say – this year was so much fun. Never seen so many kids run for their lives!

There were quite a few kids who wouldn’t even come up the drive way when Pam put the smoke on. They’d hang back and grab their parent’s hands. We’d try to coax them up the driveway by saying through the karaoke machine speakers “Come get your candy, it’s good candy, don’t be afraid!” But lots wouldn’t do it. Lot’s would come up and say, “thanks for scaring me!” lol

Sometimes I’d be in the house, and I’d see them come up and I’d yell out the mailbox – “Let me have the little one, no one would miss them – just the little one… oh come on, give me just a leg then…..” all in a transylvanian accent – If they ran (and LOTS did) i’d yell, “Aw no, you let them get away! Grab them Igor!!”

Motion activated skullThis guy was right at the end of the driveway, and people would be focused on Pam and her smoke machine. Little did they know, we had put a motion activated skull on this guy’s arm – and it would scream and blood would run down the face – it scared the daylights out of a lot of people, even adults. lol

Great start to the display!

Here is a movie of the guy in motion.

Halloween 2008Here is a another shot – it shows the red effect we got by having a big red spot shine down over the garage door. The big skull head had flashing red eyes too.

With the smoke curling out of there, and we had REALLY loud scary music coming out of the 3 or 4 speakers, it was a hellish looking place! Man it was fun. Kids literally ran away screaming! It was the best year for me.

We’re already planning how to improve things for next year. We saw someone with Chucky and the Bride of Chucky hanging from their garage… that might be a little too extreme!