Halloween and Mia's Birthday

Mia and Gina are here for a 2 day visit. They arrived mid afternoon. The first order of business . . . carve a Jack O'Lantern! We've never seen a pumpkin like this one. When we cleaned the guts out, it was all like spaghetti!!! Very strange!

We all pitched in and made a pepperoni pizza for dinner before heading out to Trick or Treat and join in the Old NE neighborhood Halloween celebrations.

Here is Dr. Gina and Dr. Mia at the start of making their rounds.

This house was making cotton candy . . .

18th Avenue NE was blocked off at either end of this block with entrances looking like a cemetery gate. The decorations were amazing! A future post will have many more pictures. There were tons of people on the streets. Thought we were at Disney for a minute or two.

After a couple of hours, we headed back to have Birthday cake and ice cream. Wayne made a delicious chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. YUM!!!

Did you count those candles???

I Voted!!!

Florida extended the early voting hours from 8 hours a day (8 am - 4 pm) to 12 hours a day (7 am - 7 pm). So, after work today I drove downtown to vote. I waited in line about an hour and 15 minutes. And it was cold outside!!!! It only got up to the low 60's today, and I did only have on a cotton shirt with my sleeves rolled up, but I sure could have used a cup of hot cocoa!

It was fun...people were all in a great mood. The volunteers were handing out bottled water. Talked with a girl that was just behind me in line. She moved here 5 years ago from Indianapolis. I've been so use to the old mechanical voting booths. Here we filled out a paper ballot and then fed it into a scanner. The process was well organized and all of the volunteers were very pleasant.

Now the wait . . .

All Hallows Ball: The Costumes

I wish I had taken photos of more of the costumes. Unfortunately, when you are in a wheelchair, you are somewhat limited. Here are some of the ones that pass a PG rating.

There's an imposter in this trio!

Go Spartans!!!

Debbie and Linda.

A Fairwell to the fans!

All Hallows Ball

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center was the site for the 32nd All Hallows Ball. What started as a small house party 32 years ago, has blossomed into a gala event with somewhere near 2,500 attendees. It is by invitation only and I'm told that if you do not attend for two years in a row, you are dropped from the invite list.

Red carpet and all. We were interviewed on the carpet. I thought it was Joan Rivers at first!

This year's theme was Stage and Screen. We went as Jane and Blanche Hudson from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" It was a blast! I got to ride in the wheel chair all night! Poor Jane had to push me around all night. It wasn't fun trying to get across the dance floor. We ran over a few toes on the way. ("Oops, excuse me, I had a spasm.") And, either you got it or you didn't. Many of the younger people had no idea who we were. But a lot of people yelled at me, "But ya are, Blanche! Ya are in a wheelchair!"

These four guys were dressed as Johnny Depp characters. See all 4 of them?







Towards the end of the evening Baby Jane was exhausted from pushing me around all night.

And by the end of the night I couldn't get Baby Jane off the dance floor. You should have seen her shake her thang!

Watch for my next post of some of the costumed attendees.

I Guess It's Official!!!

Don't know what's funnier...SNL or real life.

If Elected King, I promise to. . .

My credit union has this thing where they crown a king and queen for the year. Several of my co-workers nominated me. We received an email this afternoon with the nominees: 5 for King and 5 for Queen. And, I am one of the 5, for King, that is, not for Queen.

I'm sure I'm not winning this. And, after all, I don't think I really want to have to go to all these ribbon-cutting events. And, c'mon, wearing that red cape with the white fur collar? Not me. Not here in Florida. Maybe if I take a junket up to Albany this winter . . . ?