Fun – Page 8 – An Unorthodox Halloween

Square Pumpkins!

’bout time to talk about a Utah Halloween tradition!

SQUARE PUMPKINS!!!

There’s a local fast food joint known as Arctic Circle, and each halloween season, they break out the Square Pumpkins in the kids meals.

THESE THINGS TOTALLY ROCK!!!

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

I was a bit disappointed that you can not pop out the pumpkin’s eyes this year to make a swift jack o lantern, but it’s still a square pumpkin.

Yes, ok, it’s obviously a happy meal ripoff…McDonalds could never come up with anything more ‘happy’ to give away than Halloween inspired AWESOME toys.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Normally, they are SOME kind of halloween inspired flashlight. These finger lights, I was a little worried about…but, they are nice, bright, and just as great as always.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

So, for those of us here in the mountain west, go grab as many square pumpkins as you can! I gotta make it back to get a few dozen more…wonder if they’ll let me buy JUST the toys again this year.

FRIGHTMARES!!!

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know Lagoon is the local amusement park.

Frightmares opened tonight and…well, what follows is why Lagoon should skip the summer, and just host Frightmares ALL YEAR LONG. Period, end of story. It is head and shoulders above their ‘normal’ stuff.

First, we are greeted with thumping music booming out of the HEARSE.

From Halloween buildup 09

NORMALLY, there is NOTHING there.

From Halloween buildup 09

During summer, just in the gates, there’s a rather ordinary flower bed…not a photo op.

From Halloween buildup 09

Don’t like ghosts? here’s some scarecrows.

From Halloween buildup 09

Who doesn’t appreciate a pumpkin tree?

From Halloween buildup 09

More photo ops.

From Halloween buildup 09

A rather bland little area in the summer has been transformed into a very New Orleans styled villa.

From Halloween buildup 09

Complete with a more classic hearse.

From Halloween buildup 09

Unfortunately, the Beach is closed for Frightmares…or rather, according to the sign, filled to capacity, you’ll have to wait for some of the patrons to exit, but feel free to form a line to the right….

From Halloween buildup 09

But, that’s more due to weather than anything else. The real MEAT of the matter lies in the fact there is entertainment EVERYWHERE at Frightmares.

This junkyard is typically just an empty lot. That’s it. Empty space. WHY is it not up year round?

There are 5 different shows to go watch. Singing, dancing, a hypnotist, etc. There is something hilarious about dancing chainsaw maniacs…

And everywhere you turn there are monsters wandering, ready to take a photo with you. Providing Lagoon with an IDENTITY it just does not have the rest of the year.

From Halloween buildup 09

All this, with the rides normally associated with Lagoon.

From Halloween buildup 09

To be honest, the haunted houses at Frightmares are nothing earth shattering, and there are better to be had out there. But, the ATMOSPHERE, and the FUN of the season, Frightmares dishes up in spades.

From Halloween buildup 09

And, for all you tombstone people looking for one more epitaph….Here’s a tombstone slideshow:

The Laboratory

Fun day yesterday.

Lots of things went wrong.

The rain….oh…the rain…

Well, some things just weren’t working thanks to the rain. (got wet in transit) Most noteably, the Jacob’s ladder. I didn’t feel like tampering too much with it, water + 10,000 volts isn’t something I try to mess around with…

And, we had a minor accident, losing one of the lamps. Fortunately, we were able to mostly fix it to where it was more or less unnoticeable, but not before giving me a good jolt first…

We sprung a leak in my homage to The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, and just scrapped it. We lost a lightbulb in the serum tanks that forced me to use a backup set of christmas lights that just weren’t bright enough.

All this lead to not really enough time for me to dry off and get the makeup on properly. Only got the bald cap on, not my appliances, and it came falling off about an hour in, so we just mashed makeup into my hair and kept going.

Add in a faceplant on our first run due to the chains being longer than I had planned, and not catching till it was too late…

All in all, just about everything that could, went wrong. And, we still pulled it off in the end. A lot of fun despite the troubles. And, room to improve for next year.

So, just before we gave up on the bald cap:

And…just after.

Quick note

Just a quick note to say thank you to all who came out to see the Laboratory tonight.

We had a lot of fun, hope you all did too.

For the rest of you folks, pics and video coming soon…but Youtube is down right now.

News and notes.

Mostly been working on the BYOB project lately. Still not finished.

I did get some work on some lab equipment done, but the pictures I “took” turned out to not have a card in the camera….DOH!

While making a hand for the BYOB, though, I came on something.

From bob

I’m REALLY liking the whole disembodied hand look there. It just cracks me up. That one is presently hanging on the computer monitor, and I have 2 more drying. I think I just may make a bunch of them to give to some folks. Heck, might even sale one or two.

From bob

EVERYTHING is now Bob as far as Talia is concerned. Anything with a remotely skull design…”BOB!!!” Michaels yesterday, when another child of similar age was being traumatized by the Halloween section, Talia was in complete wonder at the little Halloween village that had an animated Bob. Occasionally, “Fred” escapes instead of Bob, and she knows Fred from Bob at home, but I’m not sure what is triggering the difference in the stores.

I do want to highlight one portion of the BYOB here now, before it’s finished. Making of a skull.

First, you need a skull to copy.

“This one scareder”