Another rousing and successful Girls Night Out…it was murder! A murder mystery!

We arrived at JS’ house, food and drink in hand, which was transformed into Bella Pasta’s restaurant, portrayed perfectly by EL, in the black slinky dress. Joining her in the suspect pool was TT as Leila Taybell, the very pregnant ditzy waitress, AN was Rita Ring looking fabulous in a flirty frock, JS was Dee Scovery, perfectly playing that famous science woman from TV.

AT was Pip Olfinda (how goofy were we all, except KH, who didn’t realize her name was actually ‘People Finder’!). If you have never participated in a murder mystery party, all the names are very clever, try to see if you get them all and have a good laugh! Next, I played dual roles, Lotta Boddie, the murder victim’s sister and Mandy Vowra, a collector of men, go figure!

Rounding out the suspects was NR as May Coaver, the local beauty shop owner, Lena Boddie, played by CD, the sweet, winsome niece of the murder victim. EA was Justine Moment, the chef very proud of her restaurant, KH was Gail Over was aces as the controversial counselor, and last, but not least…RS was Su Thing, the exotic aromatherapist.

So..the way a murder mystery party works is you have a list of guests invited to a party and the invitation includes a character description so they will know possible costume ideas and how they are portraying themselves. You can send out menu suggestions, if you buy a kit like the one I did, it comes with invitations, instructions, menu ideas and other details and suggestions for a fun party. The parties are generally for even numbered groups.

There are parties for mixed groups, half men, half women or all women, I haven’t found any that are all men. When you have mixed characters and only female players, they would play the male roles. Tonight, I found a game that was for 12 women.

Guests arrive and you find out that someone has died, tonight, oh no! it was the “birthday girl/guest of honor”, Carrie Oakey. There is a detective, it could be a player or you could play the mp3 that comes with the kit. Each player gets a playbook that has descriptions and instructions, dialog and questions and answers that will help you solve the murder and things that you should keep to yourself. After each round, you would play one of the mp3s which will give clues and details.

As you are using the guides, you ask questions of each other and forming your opinions. Some of the games are created that tell the killer who they are towards the end of the game and then there are the games, like this one, that no one knows who the killer is until after everyone has made their accusations and explained their thoughts, you play the final mp3 and find out who the killer is.

If you haven’t tried one yet, I highly recommend one! I have participated in a few and hosted several, my 18th birthday was a murder mystery party at my house, too much fun!

Just remember…it’s not always the butler!

It’s Halloween! I know it’s Halloween because I keep seeing posts on FaceBook, with pictures, received pictures texted to me and a video of my nieces and some FaceTime, but that’s my only proof. Oh yeah, and only one trick-or-treater.

When I was a kid, I loved Halloween, coming up with new costume ideas. One year, I was the famous hobo clown, Emmit Kelly, http://www.emmettkellyjr.com/, how many 5th graders know who he is? In the 4th grade, I won a costume contest as Charlie Chaplin, Dorothy Gale. Even as I got older, I kept going, I’ve been almost all of the female Disney villains, one year I was the Wicked Queen from Snow White and won for my office, I scared a bunch of kids, some wouldn’t even come up to me!

I loved decorating my office/cube when I worked at Harbinger, that was a party place! Everyone would go all out! There were department themes and amazing ideas and costumes, IT had a real knack for it!

I started decorating in my first solo apartment, it was awesome, never had trick-or-treaters, but it didn’t matter, still had fun, my first house..that’s where the big started, but it wasn’t until I moved to my second home that I went all out. It was fun and scary at the same time. There was a graveyard with great sayings on the tombstones, a broken fence, creatures trying to get out of the ground, an archway painted black with black leaves, roses, crows, so much fun! There were unspoken competitions with neighbors down the street.

I used to hold a Halloween party that became legend. I used to make jello shooters like crazy! 10-12 trays, you open the refrigerator and get high off the fumes! I would have fun with the flavors, one cup of hot water and then instead of cold water, a coordinating alcohol: Pina Colada was made with rum and a piece of pineapple, margarita had tequila and a gummy worm, if there was a flavor like black cherry, I put a maraschino cherry in it! I also had a brain jello mold, layers upon layers.

Let’s just say the next day…everyone had to be very very quiet! People learned their lesson eventually!

A few years ago, DCM gave me an old fashioned pop corn wagon for my birthday. I started making popcorn on Halloween to give out with candy. I would ask kids if they wanted popcorn, they would say no until I told them they could have popcorn AND candy! Then I was the favorite house on the block, “The popcorn lady’!

I love seeing their faces and costumes, especially the wee little ones! SO CUTE!

Since moving to Colorado, we are in an apartment and I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, if there would be trick-or-treaters, as the night wore on, all of a sudden there was a knock at the door and there was a goblin, luckily I had a bag of Reese Peanut Butter Cups, so I gave him a few, luckily, I guess, there weren’t any more, no pressure. I didn’t think there would be any, so I hadn’t bought any candy.

So, aside from pictures on FaceBook, FaceTime with my sister and nieces and some texts with costumed pictures, I wouldn’t know it was Halloween. Kind of makes me a little sad, no kids to smile at and give treats to, no decorating, no office antics, no trick-or-treating to take around.

But…don’t cry for me Blog Friends…I got pictures of all my nieces and grandkids with their costumes and treat bags that I sent and I had a great big smile on my face tonight!

Happy Halloween!

And tonight proved it more than ever!

Tonight DCM and I met dad and his friend, LB, for dinner with a dear family friend, SF, and her family. SF grew up with my mom, found out tonight they knew each other since they were about twelve. My mom was pregnant with me when SF got married, does that give you a better idea?

I’ve told you I know I look like my mom, started seeing it about 11 or 13 years ago when I looked up from washing my hands and there she was staring at me. Every year I look a little more like her and sound like her too, not the same accent, but the same laugh, well, up to the point I start laughing so hard I’m snorting!

I started dying my hair red consistently about thirteen years ago, I just got tired of being a brunette, plain and simple. At first, I was getting it professionally done, streaks, all sorts of things, then it wasn’t something I was spending money on, so I started dying it myself, this is not a secret, I’m pretty sure I’ve told you before, No 42 by L’Oreal and damn proud of it! Even do my eyebrows, lends to the believability! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

My mom had fire red almost orange hair when she was younger and as she got older, and it was long, I mean really long. When I was a baby, I used to grab it and get tangled in it, so she cut it, sorry mommy and as she got older, it started to turn brown. Then…she started dying it and when I say dyed her hair, we’re talking red, magenta, burgendy, nothing too crazy, but very noticeable. The funny thing is, she used to question me about my hair! Her carpool would look at her and say, “really?”

When my hair is short and styled a certain way, I look even more like her and I realized it when I was getting ready to go to dinner, but it was a real shock to SF, she gasped, covered her mouth and didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t believe it, the color, the cut, the style, the laugh, it took her a few minutes to take it all in, well, take me in, I guess I should say.

It’s funny, depending on the way I look at the camera, a different person stares back. One way, it’s me another way it’s my mom. I’ve posted pictures on Facebook, might have to do another with this haircut and find one of my mom, spooky. (Brings to mind the expression “Spitting Image”, which in and of itself will be a blog post, just giving you a heads up.)

It’s a mixed bag or blessing. Some days, when I look in the mirror, I want to see me looking back, no one else and it’s frustrating that I don’t see me or I should say just me, and other days, it’s like she’s with me and that’s comforting.

What a day!

I had something to do earlier in the morning, tell you about it later, then therapy, I can feel things moving more turns out it means things are getting better, wahoo!

Home again to clean and get ready for the crowd for poker and as I’m moving things, I looked at LB’s costume thinking I need to make the mask for the costume, doh de doh…oh crap! We’re heading out very soon! So, after I finished cleaning, the apartment looks so good after it’s straightened out, it’s funny, it doesn’t get that messy, but you can tell when it’s straightened, nice.

DCM set up the table last night, we put out the chips, ready to go. I put out the chairs and then sat down and made the mask for Swiper, looks good, right?

whew!

DCM got home, we decided to just have pizza, so I called Little Caesars, “Pizza, Pizza” , $5 carry out, the college students friend! We left to go pick up the pizzas, 9 miles away, took us about 30 minutes, apparently, there was traffic…am I in Atlanta? Made it home just in time for GW to show up, still had beer left in the fridge from last month, score!

Next, EL, AT and EA showed up, a few people had to back out, their loss, we played for winner take all. I held my own, I was third out, but that was about an hour and a half in, not too shabby. I played it a lot safer, I had really crappy cards! It came down to DCM, EA and GW, then it was EA and GW, it was not and heavy and intense, too rich for me! They finally decided to split the pot, not bad, $60 each, I’d take it!

Bottom line, we had a blast, we had fun playing and laughed a lot, I did a lot of snorting, can’t beat that!

Who’s joining us next month?

Spam is not a good thing, there I said it, whew, I know people love it, but it’s bad, just bad!

Spam started out to just represent a food, I won’t say food group, maybe food like substance. Either way, not for me, I’m a veg head! But for those who still love it, have at it! There are recipes galore for you to enjoy and if you have a gmail account, you have probably seen the links in your junk folder for spam recipes, right next to delete all messages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)

Next, we have the electronic version of spam, which is what I will be waxing on tonight. Electronic spam, or junk email, used to be we only got junk in our mailboxes, fliers, now, it’s virtual…whoopie, well, the one good thing, you just hit delete and it’s gone, you didn’t have to kill a tree.

But it’s still a bad thing…how about the “real email” that accidentally gets sent to your junk/spam folder? I learned the hard way to go through or at least look at every single email/subject and recipient to be sure that I don’t delete something important, I’ve gotten emails from recruiters there, oh brother! Then I get spam in my actual inbox, fun.

Ooh, I may have an inheritance of a bajillion/gazillion/umajillian dollars! All I have to do is write back to my cousin/long lost royal relation and send them my account number, sure thing! There’s a part of me that always wanted to open a dummy bank account and send them that, they won’t get anything, well, I could send them my actual account, no difference, ha ha. The sad part is that there are so many people who get sucked into the scam, especially the elderly, used to be they would call on the phone, now just email.

Oh, I can enlarge my hm..hm…wow, who knew? I don’t even have one of those, but thanks for the offer! Hot Asian girls? Wow! Married but looking? Wow! Enlarge this, extend that, stay …longer. There’s even a “F$*kbook”! Ooh, hurry, where do I sign? “Baby, I saw you across the room, don’t you remember?” Who falls for this crap?

My mom was a teacher and if you knew her this story will crack…you…up? You couldn’t wear shorts in her classroom, she had sweatpants in the locker if you needed them. You didn’t cut her class, she would track you down, skip school? She would call your parents! When I subbed for her one day, they walked in the room and said “You’re Mrs. X’s daughter, we’re stayin!” She was great and her students and their parents loved her. She didn’t take crap or stand for it.

We didn’t cuss in my house, my parents didn’t use bad language, one time, I closed a car door on my foot, I asked if I could use an expletive. A little background for you.

She got a computer in her classroom one day, this is years ago, AOL was still the you know what. Well, she enjoyed the PC, but was frustrated with some things and she go a lot of spam and one day at the table she says (mind you, my sister and I were grown at this point) “You’ll never guess now much p&$$@ I want to…” (Hint, it’s another word for kitty), I think we just about fell out of our chairs!

The funnier part? She got an email from the IT department at her school. “You have been flagged for a high volume of inappropriate emails! My mom! Imagine! We laughed a lot at that one!

Now, we all laugh at the ridiculous emails we get in our spam folders, but they can sometimes be dangerous, aside from scamming people, there are viruses that get sent out and can do horrible things to your PC, what’s the point? I know it’s challenge for some people, hackers love a good challenge, well, go challenge yourself doing something productive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)

Rant done. I’m sure there is more that I can say but I think we’re good. I will end by saying there is only one form of spam I like and it was in a song created by the geniuses that are Monty Python and I leave you with them here…enjoy your SPAM, I know I do!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cFrtpT1mKy8

Might be the greatest thing since sliced bread!

I remember when DVR (Digital Video Recording) first came out years ago, I thought it was ah..ah..ah..awesome! Imagine, recording something, then fast forwarding through the commercials, wow!

Then not having cable, I wasn’t watching TV at all and when I would go to a hotel, I would have to watch commercials, heaven forbid!
Now that I have cable again, it’s nice to have DVR again because watching commercials stinks!

The other great thing about DVR is being able to record things and watch them at your leisure, it’s a little like Netflix, you can record two things at a time, but the bad thing is that you can’t record two things and watch a third, so you have to watch something that was previously recorded. But as I said before, you can record until your hearts content and watch again and again, but even though it’s record as much as you want, there is a limit and it will tell you when you’re close to 100%, then you will have to delete to make room.

Right now, we’re at 47%, it too bad. It’s hard, I have an amazing movie collection, but a lot of it is still in Atlanta, CKM is “holding” it for me, so, when a movie I love comes on TV, I will record it and watch it over and over and over, well, at least until we run out of room.

Ah…DVR makes me happy…it’s the little things in life. (I’m going to pretend my life has more meaning, ha ha)