Cleveland At Heart

Go Brownies Go!

Is it bad that nowadays C and I watch the Browns more to see how many times the cameras catch Rob Ryan dropping obvious f-bombs than to watch the game itself? 

Halloween: A Great Success.

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday -- no family obligations, no awkward expectations to meet and be disappointed if other people don't meet, and a great excuse to do whatever you want without anyone thinking you're strange. When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with witches with the same passion that most little girls are obsessed with princesses. 

Since this was my first Halloween living in a house rather than an apartment, I was pretty excited for Trick-or-Treating. I wanted to make my little front yard terrifying -- none of the cutesy crap, but terrifying stuff that makes kids hide behind their parents and wonder if they really want a Reese's cup bad enough to walk past the carnage and demonic figures to get it. I took it a little easier than I'd originally planned, but did a decent job for it being my first year and having a limited budget. 

Awesome part of Halloween this year part two: it was a Saturday. I got up early like a kid on Christmas. I carved a few pumpkins, baked pumpkin bread, roasted pumpkin seeds, watched scary (and cheesy) movies, and that sort of thing. Some friends came over and we handed out candy to kids (Seriously! There were trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood! Can you tell I'm excited?!) We enjoyed some hot cider and whisky while doing this, so afterward we decided to stay in for the night rather than going out. 

Awesome part of Halloween this year part three: daylight savings time ended during the night. This means we had an extra hour to enjoy the darkness, the blowing leaves, and the full moon. Or, if you look at it differently, we had an extra hour to sleep off the bottle of Jameson and two bottles of wine the four of us managed to put away. 

So yes, I would have to say this was the best Halloween since college. It was the first "grownup" Halloween when I've actually had time and resources to really savor it, so it was very, very satisfying.