Halloween

So Friday afternoon we headed off south to pick up and rendez-vous with those people who were joining us for the Crüxshadows show in Philadelphia, being Cherie, Katie, Keith, Kit, Karen and Tom. Dealt with the weekend traffic fairly well, and managed to hook up with everyone regardless of delays due to things like NYC subway fires and stuff.

Arrived in Philly and PreZ, Tom, Karen and myself headed off to pick up the tickets at Digital Ferret while the others found a parking space. We ended up waiting outside the venue for a lot longer than I thought we would, as I was under the impression that the show started at 9pm, as the site/emails had stated. Keith wasn't feeling too well initially... it was probably the McDonalds we were forced to endure for "dinner" that did that to him. We met up with Eoin (Amoulsolo) in front of the venue, and got him to hop in line with us.

An intimate show with The Last Dance and the Crüxshadows... they weren't kidding. The venue was a lot smaller than even I'd expected, even though I knew it was a venue for something like 200 people. During the Last Dance it was really packed, and some of the security guys near the alcohol section were being real nazis about where you could stand, so I didn't end up with too many pictures of them unfortunately. The music was very good though.

After the Last Dance a bunch of us headed off to find the merchandise table to pick up Ethernaut (and also Vier Factor for me). Katie got her chest signed by a somewhat embarrassed Rogue :) I got my Ethernaut signed by him, and a hug too. He's so sweet. Later came the performance... ah, it was so good to see them perform live, haven't seen their show since their 2001 gig at the Limelight the week after Convergence 7. Last year was at Batcave which we generally avoid on principal, especially because it's way too overcrowded with bands playing... after a bad experience trying to watch Rasputina perform there last year, we just don't go to any band performances there if we can help it.

It was a great show, Rogue was energetic as ever. Close to the end he updated everyone on what was going on, where they'd been and what they were doing and all that stuff, which was really nice. I got loads of pictures of the show, PreZ also got a bunch, and Cherie unleashed her violin fetish and took many pictures of Rachel playing her violin. After the show PreZ also took a picture of Cherie and I with Rogue :)

Katie, Kit and Keith had left a bit earlier unfortunately :( Katie was tired and Keith of course hadn't been feeling too well (hope you're doing okay now!). The show did run a lot later than I'd expected, it had also started a hell of a lot later than I thought. It was like 2am at least when the show ended, and I'd counted on the actual performances having ended around midnight, giving us ample time to make the trip home.

We managed to get booked for speeding just outside of Philly, apparantly a stretch well known for the cops waiting for people to come flying by, as Cherie mentioned that either she or Katie had once gotten a ticket on that exact same stretch. The cop was a jerkoff and took forever and a fucking day to write the damn ticket. Surely filling in less than a dozen fields can go a little faster?

Dropped of Tom and Karen, and then Cherie before heading off home and collapsing into bed sometime after 5am. Not exactly the time frame we'd counted on ;) But, it was a great night... the Crüxshadows rocked, as usual, and were just all around lovely people too.

Will have piccies soon.

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Halloween Part 2 -- The Revenge

Saturday seemed to be rushed from start to finish.

I didn't get up until just before 2pm or so, due to having gotten home at 5am from our trip to Philly to see The Last Dance and the Crüxshadows. Did some household stuff, and caffeinated both myself and PreZ when he got up around 3pm. We showered, and then dealt with the outside decorations in preperation for our party. I had to hurry to the store to pick up some last minute items... invariably that takes the better part of an hour, even though you're only in the store for a short while... the queues and traffic just slow things up so much.

When I got back PreZ informed me that Kit had called about what train he needed to catch, and so we kind of expected him anytime from 45 minutes after that call, so a mad dash through the house to get everything cleaned up... stuff that we hadn't had time for on Friday. We managed to sort through most of that stuff, and finish a lot of the decorating by the time he did show up, which was at least an hour after we'd expected him, as he hadn't actually caught a train when he'd spoken to PreZ.

The only thing that got left by the wayside was a lot of the baking I'd planned on doing that day. I prepped sugar cookie dough before people arrived, because that needed to chill at least an hour before I could do anything with it... after that it never left the fridge, and remains there still. I was doodling a Jack Skellington design on the first pumpkin when most of the others arrived and managed to get that one carved relatively shortly after people got there. I had to carve the rest in intervals during the night... I'd wanted to have them all done by the time people got there, but I'd just run out of time that day. Kit carved geometric patterns into one of the small ones I had.

I did manage to roast a bunch of pumpkin seeds I'd salvaged from gutting all the pumpkins. I think they were tasty because Kit ate most of them :) I also made cream cheese frosting for the pumpkin bars I didn't have time to make, so I'll be baking those tonight and PreZ can take some of them to work with him on Monday. I did manage to try out a vegan pumpkin cookie recipe which was a success... they were very tasty indeed, though I had no time (or inclination) to make the frosting for them... nobody minded though. I still have left over dough for more of those in the fridge, as I didn't want to spend all evening baking cookies.

Cherie wore a great costume that she borrowed from work, which will be making an appearance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade... she came as one of the inhabitants of the Emerald City. Audrey was an anime character, and I completely forgot to ask her which one (not that I watch enough anime to even know, but there you go). I made spiced apple cider which turned out well and smelled lovely.

The party overall was a success... even though Cherie fell asleep on the floor... we eventually just got her to sleep on our bed, as she was so knackered from sleeping only 2 hours and having worked that day. I'm sure the few hours of sleep she got made her drive home a lot safer though. Tom also fell asleep on the floor later during the evening... also related to a very late night seeing CXS in Philly, getting home too late and not sleeping (well) enough. I think maybe a party the night after a hefty club night might not be a good idea next time, but then we didn't know in advance that that show would run so much later ;)

So 2 out of our 5 guests fell asleep at our party... but they say they really liked it ;)

I had a good time, even though I felt rushed for time the whole day and didn't manage all the stuff I'd wanted to do, and now have a crapload of stuff that I still need to bake, and not enough people around to eat any of it... I hope PreZ's co-workers like pumpkin stuff and sugar cookies.

Thanks to those who came, couldn't have done it without you!