Happy Halloween 2010

The following is a photo journal of the Annual Anderson Halloween Party costumes. If you don't watch TV or movies or enjoy pop culture, most of these costumes will be lost on you. However, I loved them all. Also, I didn't get photos of everything because I was really bad about taking pictures this year. I'll try to get some from a more responsible photo journalist.

This year I went as Sue Sylvester from Glee. Carolyn was Will Shuester. I bought a meagphone and a slushie for the occasion. Also, I have no idea why this photo is so blurry. I obviously didn't take it.

You can also see Daniel in the background in his Captain's shirt and Joe as Harry Potter.

Brenda as Dr. Arizona Robbins and Krisana as Dr. Callie "Gauze Paws" Torres from Grey's Anatomy. You know, from when she had the chicken pox.

Troy and Adam as members of clergy. Opposing religions still love each other.

Tom and Ashley as Lone Star and Princess Vespa from Spaceballs!

The Rabbi and Pediatric Surgeon prep for the bris.

Joe changed from his Harry Potter costume.

And then came the portion of the night where we all started wearing everyone else's costumes!

This is Sue pretending to be Jesus.

The following night I went to another Halloween party. There, Sue ran into Olivia Newton-John (she was just an 80's aerobics instructor, but it's funnier if she's Newton-John) and Madonna.

Cyndi Lauper was also in attendance.

And thus ends all the photos I took at these parties. It was another success, although I'm not sure that it topped last year's "Up" costumes. Although, people did seem to enjoy it and got it rather quickly, so that was nice.

At the Anderson's party I used my megaphone to yell at people all night, since I knew everyone there. Also, I made fun of Will Shuester's hair. Repeating Sue's one liners was ridiculously fun. At one point I stood in the corner of the kitchen we were using as a bar for mixed drinks and I screamed "This is Sue's Corner. You are not allowed in Sue's Corner. Everyone out of Sue's Corner!" And then I said, "That's how Sue, 'sees' it," and did her little C letter hand motion thing. If nothing else, I had a great time!

As always, thank you Beth! It's the best part of Halloween every year.

Oh, and PS - these are the two pumpkins I carved this year:



Happy Halloween, Everyone!


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Up Halloween

I promise I'll put up more pictures later, but here is the crew from Pixar's Up at the Halloween party. I even made Carl's house and have it hanging from the balloons in this picture. Remy went as Dug, even though she didn't quite make the picture. We had a lot going on...

If you can't tell (because my costume is SO good), I'm the old man, Carl Fredricksen. Carolyn is Russell, the Wilderness explorer (I made a couple parts of her costume) and Brenda is the bird, Kevin.

(click picture to enlarge)

I'm very proud. I walked out of this movie when I watched it in June and said, "I'm going to be that old man for Halloween!" I'm glad that I have friends who supported me. And that I was able to sneak Remy into a 'no dogs allowed' house because she was vitally important to the costume. She had a great time and was probably more social than I was!

Sadly, not many of the people at this party had actually seen the movie. Which was just sad. It's Pixar! You'll love it! So, if you haven't seen it, go BUY it on November 10th when it comes to DVD and watch it. Then, retroactively love our costumes.

As always, another great Halloween party.

I wish my digital camera was working. I have to get pictures from others. I'm going to have to get a new one, I suppose.

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Pub Crawl for Cancer

Saturday a group of us participated in the Pub Crawl for Cancer in Westport. It is an insane event that must raise a ton of money based on the number of people that were there. And it turns out it's an excuse to be completely ridiculous and offensive in public and people will cheer for you as they pass.

Let me explain.

The group that I was with was a bunch of college frat friends of Daniel/Alex/Tom, and then my friends who joined their group. There were over 20 of us. Their group dressed up based on an SNL skit/music video "I'm on a Boat". (See below. If you don't already know about this, you have to watch it to understand these pictures. I had not seen it before Saturday, so the joke was completely lost on me. It was sad. I think this means that I am old.)



Because we didn't know what the theme was on the other half of the team, and we were encouraged to "dress silly" by the team captain, we decided to take our fake mustaches out in public again. They were also a huge hit. I get more compliments when I wear a mustache than at any other time... ever... in my entire life. Scratch that - you get just as many compliments in a fake mustache as you do when you're wearing a bridesmaid's dress. I know which I'd rather, but as long as the end result in these costumes is getting drunk, it doesn't really matter much. Right?

I think that is all the background story you need. Enjoy photos from the pub crawl.

Howdy!

Team captain, Alex in his ascot. Classy.

Only Brenda and I managed to keep our 'staches the whole day. This is the free after party. Trust me, there were way more people there than it looks.


He'll probably kill me for catching this photo at such a perfect time and putting it up on my blog. All the guys felt the need to rip each other's sleeves off. I'm sure it has something to do with being a boy, so I'll never understand.



I have no recollection of this. I don't know what they are doing. Maybe it was when I went to the bathroom because I didn't think I was so drunk that I wouldn't remember...


Messy much? She puts ketchup on her ketchup.

Brilliant! Best photo of the day.

Hungry found us and followed us around all day. We said he could stay as long as he wore a mustache, too.

If you don't know who hungry is... (Is this a lesson in pop culture or what?)

I think Ashley's hungry...

Hungry for beer!

And Tom's hungry for Hungry.

This little dude was obviously too fun.

And this, folks, was how our group walked through the streets of Westport. We had a boombox that continuously played the SNL song. We were on a boat!

There was a buoy. His back read "No Wake Zone". He would stop traffic in the middle of the street. It was amazing we didn't get hit by a car or arrested in the streets. You can kinda see T-Pain behind him.


Colleen somehow convinced the people working the burger line to let her flip the burgers. It's amazing what being appropriately dressed will get you. The back of her shirt also stated "I Flip The Burgers"

I can't tell you how many strangers on the street asked ME how this was possible. I would shake my head and say that I wasn't sure, but I did know that she gave him crabs.

It was a pretty awesome day. I'd totally do it again. Nothing like getting cirrhosis to cure cancer. It's worth it though.


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Up And Away

We went to Red Robin Friday night for dinner and, as always, someone picked up a balloon on the way out. (Get this, it wasn't me. Carolyn, Beth and Ashley all took one. And then Beth abruptly lost hers when she tried to tie it around her wrist which ended up killing a dolphin.)

Anyway, some were left in my car and therefore it only seemed right to let the puppy play with one.










I'm sure you can tell, she's screaming, "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!"



Now you know why I was so upset about not being able to get the info off of my SDHC card (You know, if you saw that twitter). I bought a card reader tonight - all is well again. And the USB port I plugged right into my fancy new monitor... which I now realize that I never put up pictures of.


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Mustache Mayhem

You may know that one of my friends, Daniel, has grown a mustache and has had it for quite some time now (like, a year). When asked when he would shave it off, his response was, "When it goes out of style." I'm not sure how Mustache Mayhem came about, but I'm not one to ask too many questions when something like this comes my way. Five girls in fake mustaches? Hilarious.

Plus, it also gives you an excuse to run around saying things like, "Mario!" and "Luigi!" and "I'd like a pizza pie!"

And fight with your best friend.

And walk to the grocery store for beer and cake.

People are so friendly to you when you're in a fake mustache. And they don't even care that you're in a fake mustache when they card you for buying beer. I can't even begin to describe what a great time we had watching people's reactions... especially those driving by our caravan of three cars.

And it gives you an excuse to play lawn darts and judge accordingly.

And claim ownership of things by placing your foot on them. The Anderson's couch was claimed in the name of mustache. I can't tell you how happy I was to still own this hat. It complimented my mustache so well.

And an excuse to look at Playboy. The boys have real mustaches in case you were wondering.

Even my Watchmen sticker grew a mustache for the occasion.

Hilarity ensued all day. But this was my favorite moment. Brokeback Mustache... our hand faces drank their way off into the sunset together... and lived mustache ever after.

I know, sometimes it's awesome to be me. All of these women are getting an extra point in my friend book... +1, will wear fake mustache in public for no good reason. Happy Snake Saturday.


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Retro Flashback: Thanksgiving 2008

I once said that I was working on getting up some videos of the Economic Stimulus Package Thanksgiving Road Trip Spectacular. Well, truth is, I forgot about it for quite a while until Brenda asked me why they haven't been put up yet. I was planning on putting together all the videos into one like I did with my Texas Road Trip, but it appears that this is not going to happen since I haven't done it yet. So, I've decided on giving you the highlights in chronological order, as uploaded to Blogger. This took forever, the autosave kept failing, and my 'connection to blogger' kept getting 'lost'. So, you better like it for all the frustration it caused. No wonder I hadn't done this before now...

The first thing I learned was that all you have to do is point a camera at Brenda and she will perform like a monkey without any prompting. Here we are stopped at a gas station to fill up and have dinner. It is very cold. Very. Very very. And as you will see, we're not wearing coats because we are geniuses.

I just got back in the car after running Remy around outside so that she would do her thing, which is why I am breathing so heavily, and why I am so cold and glad to be in the car.

We spent the night at a La Quinta in Indianapolis and got on the road again after a few hours of sleep. Brenda drove from Indianapolis until right before the Pennsylvania boarder, where I took over. Right after that happened, there was a wreck on I-70 and we got stuck in traffic... forever. Here I am, thrilled about the situation. As soon as we made it to the next exit, like an hour later, I took it and trusted Garmin to find our way back to civilization. I believe that we detoured through Washington, PA, home of Washington and Jefferson College, which I think we may have drove by. There were very dark and twisty roads. I do not recommend going to this town when it's this icy out.

After the detour, the driver's side windshield washer fluid sprayer froze up and stopped working. Why is it that you can always see better out of the passenger side of the windshield than the driver's side? After a few terrifying minutes of driving while unable to see because there was salt all over my window, I finally found a place to pull over and try to remedy the problem. You'll see here that I do not manage to get the driver's windshield washer fluid sprayer to work, but it started to dry up outside and the window wasn't nearly as bad after that. Although, for a while I did think that I may have to time travel back to high school and spray a Windex bottle out of my window like I used to in the Mustang. (I had one on hand, just in case.) Days later it finally warmed up and I haven't had this problem since.

Also, we've reached Pennsylvania, home of Tasteykakes.

The reason for this trip was ultimately to go to the Madonna concert in Atlantic City. I drove to Atlantic City and saw her limousine on the way there. Here is the video proof.

I like musicals and when the drive was getting long, we usually opted to put something in that we could all sing along to. Wicked was one of my favorites, and a fun song to sing was What is This Feeling? Funny thing, I accidentally replaced Galinda's name with Belinda's name once and thereafter, anytime that song came on, it was about Belinda. This camera angle is from the dash just so you could enjoy the dash dirt and dash dog hair and the Garmin being all awesomely in the way.

I had a really hard time switching my camera between video and pictures. A really hard time. In fact, I have several videos just like this one (or shorter). But you're only getting to see this one. I can hear your "thank yous" already.

It was always fun to piss off Garmin or sit idly by as he went completely insane. This joy may only be appreciated by those in the car with him for four days... recalculating!

Brenda apparently loves Diet Coke. I don't even know why she was doing this. There was no reason. This is Brenda. If you have ever wondered exactly what her personality is, or what she is thinking, or how she behaves... This is the epitome of Brenda. Now you understand why we are such good friends.

This is also very Brenda-esque. Do not judge her. Spice up your life.

I was pretty excited about the time changes. Phones are super smart. Do not judge me.

I talked repeatedly about doing a Chinese Fire Drill (I know, but there is no politically correct term for this, and if the Chinese are going to get mad at me, they already did for my Summer Olympics blogs) the entire time we were on the trip. So, when we were nearly home, we decided that we better do it or be forever regretful. I thought it best to have the jumpy video of me running around the car instead of a stationary camera on the interior. Just so you know, the reason I am screaming as soon as I get out of the car and the reason I cannot stop laughing is because when I got out, I jumped in a giant puddle that made water cover my entire shoe. And it was very cold.

Surprise, it snowed again... and though I didn't have problems with my windshield washer fluid sprayer this time, my driver's side windshield wiper just about fell off my car. Man, those things are awfully tricky to get back on. Okay, they're impossible. The only reason I have a windshield wiper on my car is because Brenda played the hero.

So, those were the main highlights of the trip. I hope you can see why I agreed to drive instead of fly for this. It was really a pretty fun vacation all around. I thank my traveling companions for so much fun.


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Giants v. Cowboys Game

Me and Carolyn: Nooo!
Beth: Goooo!!

Beth: Oops. Oh, wait, who are we cheering for?

Carolyn: The team in blue.

Daniel: The blue and white guys.

Beth: They are both blue and white!

Nikki: The guys with the blue helmets, not the stars.

Beth: Boo star hats! Star hats suck!


I love Beth.


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Economic Stimulus

Here are some random pictures from the Economic Stimulus Road Trip 2008 where we drove to Warrensburg, MO to Indianapolis, IN to Middletown, NJ to Atlantic City, NJ to Middletown, NJ to Orwigsburg, PA to Auburn, PA to Chambersburg, PA to Annville, PA to Chambersburg, PA to Philadelphia, PA to Middletown, NJ to Fairborn, OH to Warrensburg, MO and all the way back to Kansas City. It was a long time in the car, but it was super fun. And the best news is that we never paid over $2.09 for gas the entire trip.

Random highlights:

This was the house I grew up in. First, in order to get into the gated neighborhood, I had to remember the number to the front gate (It was the area code that I couldn't remember because I never dialed it. Thankfully Carolyn was looking at signs for businesses that had numbers on them and we figured it out.) and then lie to them about who I was and that I was expecting myself... After I got in and saw the house and yard, I freaked! The garage doors were white! The little trees were so huge! There's a new tree in the front yard in a really weird spot!

But really, why would you change the garage doors to white? They looked nice when they were maroon like the shutters and door.

This is Brenda in Chocolate World in Hershey, PA. That's a lot of chocolate right there.


This is Carolyn hugging Hot Dog Frank, a statue at my undergrad school. I think that everyone that went there has some sort of photo taken with Hot Dog Frank. I know I have one where I'm kissing his cheek. Anyway, the funniest thing is that we had to come back later because the bookstore was closed and Janelle wanted to purchase new LVC apparel. When we came back, I had Remy with me who went for a walk and happened upon Hot Dog Frank. She totally hawked out and barked at him. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen her do, and I'm so upset that my camera was in the car for it.

Remy does not like Frank. Although, she did get close enough to him to sniff his hand, which was the cutest thing, ever. I think she was confused because he smelled like metal, not human. Adorable.


Pictures from Erin's place and our 5 year college reunion, including the elusive Sarah who is apparently allergic to photographs or something.


My FAVORITE car picture of all. Brenda's trying to sleep, Remy's yawning, and I'm trying to get the shot from the front seat. Cramped much? Remy didn't believe in personal space.


"The pilgrim companion drank from the cup of life while the hunter looked on." Don't ask me what that means, these two were completely goofy on Thanksgiving and sitting at the other end of the table, like a million people away from me. I'm sure Brenda will blog about her escapades with Cherylann.


We made friends with this guy by waving Carolyn's Kansas hat at him in the window. A Pennsylvania plate with KU on it! Marybeth will be so proud! And it's even a Prius. It's like he went there.


This cross is the biggest cross, ever. It's in Illinois. In Effingham. Which makes us giggle. Doesn't that sound like an effing curse word?


Remy's personal boundaries are awesome.

We took nearly 40 video clips as well, but it'll take me some time to get through all of them. There are tons of other pictures as well, but I just wanted to get some up of the trip now.

Stay tuned.


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