Vito's Halloween Costume

Here are the pictures of my main man in his Halloween costume!!!! Enjoy.

Haunted House Videos

Video of Randy with the chainsaw at our Haunted House 2008.

Vito Video

Just so you can see I'm not making things up -- here is a little video of Mr Vito with his run, stuck again, in the cement. This was just last night and thankfully, he didn't act NEARLY as crazy as the other evening.

But...he is quite cute if I may say so...not bias here at all...

What Obedience Class?!

Yesterday, I could have strangled Mr. Vito. I came home from work and Randy left to go rake leaves for a little at his grandmother's. I thought to myself, "Well, I'll clean a little, play with the dog, and then have a glass of wine and relax. Ah, some alone time. What a sweet day..."

I let Vito outside and started to vacuum. Since my big bad Doberman thinks the vacuum cleaner is harboring dangerous dragons, I figured it best to do this while he was outdoors. Over the loud hum of the vacuum, I could suddenly hear this loud, obnoxiously howling...
This could only mean one thing. Mr Vito got his run stuck. *sigh* Turn off the vacuum, peek through window. Yup, the weenie is about 30 feet away, stuck, barking his big 'ol Doberman head off.

I put on my boots and over-sized hoodie and shuffle on outside. Now, we have cement stairs outside that lead into our basement, and unfortunately there is a small crack on one side -- Vito managed to get his run caught in there. You know, the 1 cm crack. As I approach the Don, he gets overly excited to see me (like he hasn't seen me all day), and decides he's going to have the zoomies and do a little jumping. Okay, A LOT of jumping. For those of you that do not have the pleasure of owning a Doberman and experiencing their "zoomies," imagine a 87 pound black and tan missile rocketing at top speed in thousands of directions. Throw a few leaps and bounds in there, also at mach 10, and you have the Doberman "zoomies."

Of course when I try to calm him and keep him from jumping he doesn't listen to me. I wave good-bye at the obedience class dollars well spent. Vito then manages to catch the run around my ankle and pull with his 87 pounds of force -- burning the plastic and wire run through my pants, socks, and my flesh (yes, the best feeling, but at least I didn't fall -- woot)! After causing me great pain, he gets more excited and starts with the jumping again. So, now I'm limping and covered in mud. I grasp the plastic and wire run and give it a good yank, praying it'll come free from the cement. Now, have you ever tried to pull on a plastic and wire run??? Are you picturing me in boots, huge hoodie, covered in mud, pulling on this thing while my Doberman is jumping on me??? Needless to say, it did NOT come free...

Unhook the dog, try to hold on to him as we make our way back inside. Almost fall 3 times. Almost lose grip on Vito's collar once. *sigh again*

We finally get inside, I do a quick change of clothes and proceed to my cleaning. As I am trying to clean up our movies and wipe down the glass tables, Vito keeps finding things he shouldn't have. A sock, shoe, another sock, shirt. I chase him around the couch time after time again on my hurt, run-burned ankle. Another sock, or was that the same one? Where is he getting this stuff?? I go up the stairs and find out he's been climbing into Randy's closet. Yes, my 87 pound Doberman is climbing INTO a closet...

Vito is now banned from going up the stairs.

Finally, I'm down to the last thing on the cleaning list -- simply finish the vacuuming. Sounds easy enough. I plug it back in and start vacuuming our notorious heinous pink carpet. Remember, the vacuum is full of vicious dragons, so Vito barks at the vacuum 20 times (when I say bark, please note; I mean the loudest ear-piercing and echoing bark you can fathom), whines a little, then goes tearing off around the couch...at mach 10 of course....and straight back around into my legs....

@#*$!

I have to pause as I am seeing stars and can literally feel my knee bruising. Goodie, now I can limp on both legs!!! I sit for a second, and Vito tries to sneak upstairs, earning him a, "OH NO YOU DON"T!!! YOU GET YOUR KNUBBIN A$$ BACK DOWN HERE!"

I think to myself, "Calm down. Deep breath. You only have small portion left to vacuum."

Turn the vacuum back on. Vacuum for about 10 seconds when there is an explosion that rocked my house, deafened me and filled the living room with smoke. My entire spine prickled, my hair stood on end...
"The house exploded. We've been bombed. I'm going to die..."

The smoke cleared, and it was deadly silent. I looked over at Vito and he was standing at attention, in shock. I have never seen a dog's eyes get that large...he never moved.

Yes, I exploded my vacuum cleaner. It exploded. I mean EXPLODED!

I quietly unplugged it, left in it the living room and made a martini. I sit in my rocking chair with said dirty martini. Ten minutes pass and Vito finally moves. He comes over to me, sits directly in front of me, puts his snout 6 inches from my face, and proceeds to bark at me until Randy comes home.

We dissected the vacuum only to find out, not only did I explode the bag (which was NOT even full by the way -- thought you might be wondering that at this point), but I also exploded everything INSIDE the actually cleaner. Belts, fans, screws...everything...in pieces. Wow.

For the record, Randy thought the whole thing was hilarious! He put the only salvage-able pieces of the vacuum back together. Attached is the photo for you. And by the way, my left knee is one ridiculous bruise...

Yay Vito-Man!!!!

Ok, ok, I'm a little late with this post. A week late to be exact...but I just wanted to let everyone know that our little Vito-man graduated his obedience class last Monday with flying colors!!! Woot! He even got a diploma, which me, Mom, of course is framing!

Congratulations Don Vito!

He smiles when he is happy:
"I graduated today! Yay!!!"

Mom's sexy man!

Haunted House Props Update

Hi everyone! Here is a quick update of our Hanging and Wolfman props...

The wolfman body is now put together . It's constructed from pvc pipe, and is currently hanging from a bungee cord in the garge -- glue drying. I didn't take a picture of it, because really, how exciting is pvc?! You're disappointed...I know...

The wolfman head has made a tiny bit of progress. The sculpta-mold (basically clay) has completely dried -- I think it's because our garage at most times is pretty darn chilly and damp -- so I applied a bit more clay, making the nose, eyebrows, and "mean muzzle" bumps. I brought the head inside, so here's hoping it dries quicker and I can sand him down this weekend.

Although not a very good picture, here is a close up of the wolfman's snout:

The hanging/thrashing man is all glued and screwed together, and the drill motor works like a charm. Now, all we have to do is bulk him up and give him some clothes. Woo-woo! Check out the thrashing motion:

Staring Contest

And, because I just love the hell outta the boy and my Vito puppy...

Here is a random photo of my boys staring each other down. Who will prevail??

Halloween's a Coming!!!

It's been quite awhile since I've posted anything, and man I miss blogging...
Things have been, well, crazy to say the least -- but I won't bore you with any of that now.

I will, however, bore you with something else -- my favorite holiday and time of the year -- Halloween. Every year for the past 9 years, the boy and I take part of a Haunted House put on by the Vikings Club in Bemus Point, NY. Pretty much between us, his family, and our friends, we take up virtually the whole Haunted House space.

And let me tell you we really love doing it! What better excuse to dress up like a goon and scare some people?! We spend weeks, if not months preparing -- coming up with a theme, room ideas, costumes, and props gallore.

This year, we want to make the Haunted House even better. We decided on making our portion of the house a Carnival, complete with ticket booth, a never ending hallway, a freak show, carnival games, food and prize booths, and a fun house. Oh sweet day.

I've been busy working on various signs, including the Carnival "banner" -- "Circus of the Damned." Haven't taken a picture yet, because I think you need to see the sign on a whole, and it's not quite done yet. But let tell you, it's black and white, creepy, and very Tim Burton/Beetlejuice looking. Woot.

Other than signs, Randy and I have been trying to make some awesome, but not easy props. The first 2 we've started on is a hanging man that actually thrashes and the wolf man. Not sure where he's going to go yet, but I'm creating him from scratch and where ever he ends up, his head will move back and forth. Aren't we so creative?! I'd like to this so...

Check out the fun so far:

Here is the beginning of the hanging man. Now I now he doesn't look like much, lol, but his pipe legs are done -- we just didn't want pvc flying all other the place when we tried the motor the first time. The hanging man was created by Randy, using a drill motor, and he really works well. I'll have to be sure to take a video of him in action...creepy to say the least...

And here is the start of the wolfman. Also doesn't look like much, I know. I took an old motorcycle helmet and cardboard and designed the wold head shape. Then, using the mold mixture (pretty much like clay but more messy), and covered the helmet/cardboard with a thick, thick layer. Once this has dried completely, I will sand it smooth and round all of the square edges. Then, I'm going to add the nose, teeth, eyes, eyebrows, and wrinkles in the snout with another layer of mold. Repeat sanding and smoothing. After all of the mold is done and dried again, the wolfman head will receive several layers of liquid latex rubber, will get painted, and then comes right off the mold. Last, but certainly not least, wolf man will receive hair and whiskers in various places as well as ears. Details about the body and moving head to come later... Check out my monster so far:

I know he's not real exciting at this point, but hopefully you can envision all the scary wolf-ness he'll be shortly. More pictures to come soon, I promise!!!

Keg Stand

So I filled out a survey recently. One of the questons was, "Have you ever done a keg stand?" Now maybe I am a dork, however, I don't even know what a keg stand is!! I googled it.

Here is a portion of the Wikipedia definition (yeah, this is real -- gotta love the internet):

Time Magazine defined a keg stand as, "two friends suspend you by your ankles over a keg, and you guzzle as much cheap beer as quickly as you can."

Procedure

1. The person puts both hands on the keg.
2. Others pick up the person by the legs and tip them upward, as if they were doing a handstand on the keg.
3. The person wraps their lips around the tap, opens it, and drinks.
4. The surrounding audience and awaiting participants chant the number of seconds for which the person is drinking, chant, or sing a song
5. The person shakes their leg or turns their head to signal to friends when they can't drink anymore and need to get down.
6. Repeat.

Yes. And that, my friends, is not only what a keg stand is, but how to do it. Complete with photograph.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Do you remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series? Books where you as the reader assume the role of the main character and make choices that determine the characters actions and outcomes. There was at least one, but often several, endings depicting a highly desired resolution, often involving uncovering a handsome monetary reward.

Or you got a negative ending that resulted in death for the character, companions of the main character, (or both), or other very negative ending (like an arrest), because of a fatal choice of the reader...

Now I don't know about you, but many times when choosing the wrong decision that ended the story, I would "pretend" I didn't really mean to select that way, and frantically flip back to the last page I was viewing...choosing the other option of course.Wouldn't it be nice if life was like that?! Make a wrong choice, and you can flip back and simply choose the other way...

Do you ever wonder what would've happened had you taken the left road of life instead of the right? The winding path instead of the straight one? Many people come to a point in their lives where they may suddenly discover they have a regret. Sometimes, we get lucky and it's something we can change, something we still have time to accomplish.
Sometimes it's not.

Lately, I have discovered not so much a regret yet, but fear of them, Fear that the next many years of my life will pass me by. The time will come for me to cross the finish line of my path, and as I approach, I will pause, turn around, and think, "Damn, I should have..."

Everyday, I feel like I am making wrong decisions. Decisions that lead me to settle in life. Settling for something that is safe, something I know. I fear I will regret always making simple, easy, safe choices as life continues to spiral around me.

Is it simply a fear? Or am I actually "choosing the wrong adventure?" Should I been aiming to have more than what life is offering me? Or is that simply all there is? That this is the life I was meant to live? These are questions I ask myself...

I have found that life has a funny way of changing people. Changing me.
I have found that life has a funny way of opening your eyes when you didn't know they needed opened.
I have found that life will inevitably place those crossroads in your path...
Only problem is you have to decide which way you'll go...