Halloween: a surprisingly lovely evening
Dominique agreed to hand out the candy for Dustpan Alley so I could trick-or-treat with Max, Rex, Elena, Mark, and Lisa. But before the others arrived Max helped Dominique hand out the candy. He enjoyed himself quite a lot. Dominique is one of the prettiest sweetest people I know. Damn her!
Max changed his mind about his costume at the last minute. He decided he wanted to be Vampire-Snake-Lizard-Man. He carried a stick around as part of his costume because snakes and lizards like to climb up them. I didn't point out that the sharp jagged nature of the "stick" he found in the yard would probably kill any snake or lizard that tried to slide on its surface. Why ruin it for him?
Rex was a pirate. I love his scarf! I think he looks great but I wasn't scared of him at all until I saw him do some mighty sword manoevres with Max in a duel to see who could smack a stranger first.
I'm not actually sure what Elena is. A kitty-cat with a mask I think. CUTIE!
It was very busy downtown but not enough to induce a panic for those with a fear of crowds. We had to wait in line to go from store to store but it was so much better than going from house to house in the dark. We got to see so many interesting costumes and didn't have to approach any questionable abodes. This is now my favorite way of spending Halloween. It was mighty cold out there.
This is Winn. He's a young musician who will someday become well known to everyone if he doesn't let himself get sidetracked by disappointment, hard work, or other people. He has a fantastic singing voice and not only plays lots of great Johnny Cash and Beatles covers, he writes some great music too. Philip and I are completely rooting for him to become sucessful. We had him play for our Grand Opening. After we had dinner at Trask Brewery we found Winn and his new bandmate playing outside. The kids went wild with dancing.
Naturally I didn't get any good pictures of their moves because my camera, being very low on battery juice, was not cooperating.
Stephen and Dominique caught up with us outside of Trask on their way home. What a happy shiny couple they are. (Stephen would probably choke on his own bile if he read that, luckily, he doesn't read my blog!)
This is all the adults watching the crazy antics of the rock-n-rolling children. They performed some impressive stunts off of the bus bench. Rex did a couple of break-dance moves and Max surprised me with his cartwheels which he finished off with some pretty fancy footwork.Some highlights of the evening:
- It was clear and cold out so no one got rained on and the kids all kept warm by the massive adrenaline rushes through their blood caused by the anticipation of eating a truck-load of candy. Since the downtown trick-or-treating begins at four pm, it's still light out so you can see everyone's costumes. Much better than skittering around under cover of darkness with little children approaching Mr. McGreggor's house with the five pit-bulls caged behind the chain-link fence. I realize that on some level, the whole point of Halloween is the dark parade through the winter streets. But in this day and age, I prefer to see where all the teenagers are.
- It would have been nice if more of the store fronts had made an effort to really go all out with their decorations. The whole thing could have been more festive with just a little more effort. I had hoped to have the kids come through the courtyard so they could see Bob (we were going to have dry ice to top off the whole scene), but with Philip sick, I couldn't ask Dominique to be responsible for dry ice and for herding all those people in and out. Next year we'll do something cool in our newest-new store. Lisa had some cool ideas.
- I thought the hay maze was pretty lame. After going through the maze at Fir Point Farms this one just couldn't compare. However, as with so many things kid-related, it isn't what I think that's important, it's what the kids think. The kids thought it was great! So there you go.
- Everything was over at five thirty pm, so there was lots of time to go grab a pint and some food at Trask Brewery. It was my first time there. I'm going to have to report here that it's never good when half the table gets their food at least twenty minutes before the other half. I've heard this about Trask before. They don't have their timing down well. Lisa ordered the nacho platter (appetizer) and found it had almost no cheese on it. Just a whisper of cheese. This is alright if you're visiting a fat-farm, but when you're at a pub and paying a lot of money for your pub food: NACHOS ALWAYS COME DRENCHED IN CHEESE. Always. No exceptions. At the prices they charge, they can afford to be generous with the cheese. My veggie burger was one of the best I've ever had. The bread was exquisite, and the patty wasn't over cooked. However, it costs $1.00 extra for all the things that make a veggie burger worth eating, the cheese, the avocado, and the substitution of fries for chips. That burger ended up costing me ten dollars. At least the fries should have automatically come with it. If that place is going to survive, they need to pay attention to these details. It's a really cool place and I really hope it survives. More cheese guys.
- Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the Downtown Association had a store display contest with three catagories: most funny, most scary, and most creative. Dustpan Alley won "Funniest Display" Yay! That's a good way to start my window dressing career.
Comments (1)
Excellent job.
Posted by Renaissance Costumes | May 13, 2010 10:50 PM
Posted on May 13, 2010 22:50