X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

10/31/2007: I got a rock.

Happy Halloween, you creatures! Though some may cry foul over Halloween falling on a Wednesday this year, at least it helps make the impenetrable hump of the workweek a little more palatable. Even people who don’t give a shit about Halloween know enough to only work at half-speed today, and that in of itself is enough for me to toss aside all previous misgivings and shout, “I LURV HALLO.”

Of course I watched It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown last night. It’s just incredible to think that I’ve been watching that special for 25 Halloweens straight, give or take. I don’t know when I started the tradition, and I’m sure I’ve missed a year here and there, but it’s just so odd to realize that I watched that very same cartoon, probably at the same exact time of year on the same exact channel, decades ago.

When you’ve seen anything that many times, it’s tough to avoid being on autopilot. When I view this special (and others in a similar vain), it’s kind of like being at church: You know you’re supposed to be paying attention and soaking it all in, but truth be told, your shoelaces suddenly became extremely interesting.

Throughout most of the special, I had a cat in my lap. We have five cats, and through some Halloween-inspired horrible luck of the draw, I got…”Kitten.” Kitten’s proper name is “Saturn,” but we never call her that, because a generic, ironically nice-sounding moniker seemed to be a more natural fit the cat from hell. Don’t get me wrong — I’d fight off a Doberman if it picked on Kitten, but she is definitely the meanest cat in the history of cats.

You know how some animals have “hot spots?” Parts of their body that may result in offbeat vicious behavior when touched? Well, every part of Kitten’s body is a hot spot. Since she’s the smallest of our cats and kind of cute in her own little ugly way, Kitten is the first feline visitors want to approach when they’re in our apartment for the first time. They never believe us when we tell them that this is a grave, grave mistake. This is a cat capable of simultaneously striking with her teeth and all four claws in less than a second, a talent that she truly enjoys showing off. Everyone loves scratching a cat right above their tail, but if you do this to Kitten, five parts of you will bleed.

And yet, she manages these rare bouts of total and complete affection, always at the oddest times — like, for example, when I’m trying to take pictures of Charlie Brown television specials. Digging into my soft pink flesh with her hard eggshell claws, I could only hope that she’d grow bored quickly. It’s one thing to touch Kitten’s hot spots when she’s just roaming around, but if you bug her when she’s trying to be cute, the pain you’ll face is positively legendary. I’m not sure if any of this has anything to do with Halloween, but it’s helped make this appear to be fairly large for a blog post. Thanks, evil Kitten!

They stretched the Charlie Brown stuff into a hourlong broadcast by showing You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown right after the pumpkin show. I guess we have to accept this as part of the tradition, as they’ve been doing it for a few years now. It feels wrong to get up or change the channel when Charlie Freakin’ Brown is on prime time network television, but man, that special sucks. I used the time to peruse the new and gigantic Toys ‘R’ Us catalog, which had just enough errant snowflake graphics to remind me of happy Christmas decorations and log fires and all of that other junk that will help take the sting out of a Halloween season that just never seemed to pork my soul like a pro this year.

You guys are great. You let me off the hook for this year’s Halloween Countdown, and I appreciate that. You probably read plenty of websites, and…how can I put this? I’m sure you can tell when the people running them are “gunning for class president,” so to speak. Clearly, I’m not. There’s a freedom in that for me, to be honest. It’s about trading some bravado and momentum to just do what I want to do, when I want to do it. I do feel bad about broken promises, but I won’t make a habit out of it. This site’s Christmas season will rock, and if it doesn’t, I will personally stage an event where every reader is invited to bring along a bag of rocks and stone me to death.

Haven’t seen a single trick-or-treater today. I guess nobody wants tiny Twix bars or Jolly Rancher lollipops shaped like Dracula. More for me. It’s really calm out, and kind of chilly, and kind of darker than it should be at this hour. Pretty perfect, and I’ve got just enough gusto to drink something Halloweeny and watch something Halloweeny and be happy with that.

Better days are ahead, but this one isn’t so bad.

Er, if I had thought I would be first, I would have posted something positive. Sorry.

Don’t forget Thanksgiving, Matt…The Macy’s parade reviews are always awesome…

Oh no, Cameron, I won’t. I’m going to be on my best behavior.

I just wish I didn’t already cover the best of the parades…but there’s still gold to be had.

Perfect Hallo weather here, although i only had 2 kids come to my door, TWO FREAKIN KIDS!! R.I.P Halloween…
Happy Halloween Everyone, now Im about ready for Christmas.

Hey we prefer quality to quantity any day, besides you have the rocking archive that I have been going through since discovering this site.By the way the description of your cat was hillarious, Happy Halloween

Hell yeah. About time to hit the liquor store and buy something spooky. Unfortunately we’re moving apartments tomorrow so a lot of tonight is going to consist of packing. The tv’ll be unhooked last, though, so a constant stream of horror movies will be going in the background. Thanks for the couple Halloween articles you did write, Matt. It wouldn’t be Halloween w/out XE.

Strange, but I didn’t really have it in me to -really- celebrate Halloween like I have the past few years either.

Those last few sentences did a good job of summing things up for me, so thank you.

Party is in full swing and two people brought their babies. Hmmmm. Good thing I’m drunk.

Really enjoyed this article. Really. Probably mainly cause it happened, secondly cause oddly enough reading about your kitten was interesting, and thirdly cause you promised Christmas to be good.

To be honest in the 4 years i’ve followed you at halloween it’s the only time i’ve come to X-E in the year. Never christmas nor any other time. This christmas i’m gonna be here, just cause you said it would be good. So if you fuck up again, i’ll take you up on the stoning haha.

Anyway we had a pretty great night for TOT’ers this year, better than last year by far. Half way through the original Halloween at the moment, but the heat in the livingroom got too much so i came here to cool off.

Happy Halloween everyone! It just wasn’t the same without the countdown to look forward to every day after work, but I’m looking forward to Christmas now.

Hot spots for cats must be different than hot spots for dogs… My dad trains Labrador retrievers for hunting trials, and the hot spots he has (and occasionally I have) to deal with are spots on the dogs’ fur that has been improperly dried, where a fungus causes the flesh underneath to swell a bit and become quite… pussy. Not like a cat or a slang term for a certain reproductive organ, but pussy as in “full of pus.” It’s quite gross…

In more festive news, I dressed up like a burrito to get a free burrito at Chipotle. Totally worth the however-many-feet of foil.

To celebrate, I had a mini Are You Afraid of the Dark? marathon. Not too Halloween-y, but fun.

Ben: Yes, that’s the proper definition, but I made up my own for cat-related purposes.

I posted a comment on the last blog about 10 minutes before this one was posted….no one will ever see my comment (nothing interesting, don’t worry)

I had a crap load of TOTers and most were Rude!! No ‘Trick or Treat’, no ‘Thank You’. I can never recall demanding more candy, or different candy.

Our neighborhood grows lighter and lighter on the TOT’ers every year, but I can’t believe we didn’t get ONE. Maybe our block is too dark, I dunno. We went for a short drive earlier, and saw tons of kids, but none were in costume — seems more like an excuse for junior high kids to prance the streets and yell things.

first time post, and i was giving out candy dressed up to scare the hell out of some kids, but no kids were coming by this year! last year: over 100. this year: maybe 20. what the hell?

The husband and I alternate turns at the door and he got a string of about 30 kids (I was outwardly grateful it wasn’t my turn :-D)

Matt: Fair enough. Yours is a LOT less gross and a lot funnier. =P (My brother’s kitten has quite a few herself)

Trick or Treating is just about to start here, and I get to pass out the candy (Reese’s Cups this year).

Matt, you have a great site. I discovered it within the past year, and between past countdowns, old articles, and the blog, I don’t think there has been a single day where you haven’t brought a smile to my face. And all for free, LOL. Update whenever you feel like it.

I was watching the news earlier and the annoucer said that the period from mid-October to January 1 is now being called “HALLOTHANKSMAS”. Hmm. Never heard of that before. I can wait for the Hallmark card.

This is by far the absolute worst Halloween I’ve ever experienced. No one at my school dressed up, I didn’t know anyone having a Halloween party. We got NO trick or treaters which made me really sad as I was looking forward to that since I can’t trick or treat anymore.. And now XE doesn’t have the countdown. What is going on?

i think the kids have stop coming by. of course, the doorbell rings as i type that. they took the last of it. happy halloween people i don’t know.

I live on the end of a dead-end street in an apartment on the back of a house, so I don’t get trick-or-treaters anyway, but even if I did, I worked for most of the evening. I was dressed as a black cat, with ears and a tail and a bow (it was supposed to go around my neck, but I liked it better in my hair), and most of my customers said it was cute. All five of them. Work is always, to pardon the phrase, dead as a doornail on Halloween.

I didn’t watch “Great Pumpkin” last night…but I DID watch the DVD this morning, along with “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure” and a horror-themed episode of “The Monkees.” Speaking of the Monkees, I ran a grindhouse B horror/suspense flick Micky Dolenz did during his lean years in the mid-70s tonight, “Night of the Strangler.” It sounds scarier than it is. I have one of my favorite yard sale finds on right now, the soundtrack of “Young Frankenstein,” complete with bits of dialog, on record.

Happy Halloween, Matt. Don’t eat blue raspberry Now and Later suckers, they turn your whole mouth completely blue, and it’s AWFUL. :0

Hah! This is the most fitting blog post possible, because I came in here intending to ask you all a biology/thaumaturgy question regarding cats.

I just walked home from my night class, and there was a black cat sitting in one of the niches of the church down the street. We were watching each other as I went past, and he winked at me. Closed one eye and opened it again without looking away. Now, in your experience, do cats generally wink? Or was I just the recipient of a Halloween miracle, Charlie Brown?

Glad to hear I wan’t the only one not necessarily paying muyo attento to the “not elected”, special. I did however, stay up, and tape a Charles Schultz special which made me effin cry, and after that was a “A Peanuts Gallery”, orchestra pieces inspired by Peanuts characters. Want a copy, Matt? I hope I don’t tape over it, if I do, however it’s okay because it made me cry. But I will be watching Ghost Hunters at nine, anybody else?

My cat winks, first one eye then the other. Basically its an odd blink, like a lizard does.

Jedoc: That sounds hilarious. Like an outtake from the “Rock Me Gently” jeep commercial.

My night is ridiculous. We’re playing a show at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY. I’m in the back selling merch in my big yellow banana costume. Girls keep taking pictures with me. And I went onstage during my band’s set and dancing like a moron. There’s video of it that I’ll post on my website after the shows over tonight.

I even bought a bag of candy and sprinkled it all over my merch table. I am obviously the most spirited here. And since I didn’t get to watch em on TV cause I live in an RV, I brought along my Charlie Brown and Garfield holiday special DVDs….and we have the next two days off to drive to Baton Rouge, LA…so ill be fermenting in candy goodness.

As much as I enjoy lurking, I had to say Happy Halloween. The wife has abandoned me to take her youngest brother trick or treating, and then visit her newly single friend to keep her from sacraficing herself on this spookiest of evenings. So I will now retire to spend the night playing halo 3 on xbox live in full “The Burger King” costume, Score one for me…

I forgot to mention, I think I won the night with a total of 82 trick or treaters down here in Richmond, VA.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I took my son out and am now back. Last night he was having none of the CB special. Too bad.
Bill- I love that you are posting mid party.

It’s been a fairly dull Halloween around here. I live in a condo building, so we don’t get any trick-or-treaters. More candy for me I suppose.

I’m typing this as I watch my copy of It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, originally recorded in 1980 on an old Beta machine, complete with commercials. I miss the CBS Special Presentation intro, McDonalds and Dolly Madison commercials. It wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I realized CBS had cut down the trick-or-treating/I got a rock part of the special to just one house. To think what I’d been missing all these years…

Just saw a bit of the Pinky and the Brain Halloween special. Nice homage to Charlie brown…”I got a bowl of soup.”

Gettin’ older myself I think you just have to accept sometimes a holiday will be gold and other times kinda depressing. Like Linus with The Great Pumpkin it seems even one particular holiday can be a roller coaster of highs and lows. I suspect if or when you have kids business will pick up again. Until then just roll with the punches, get out and see friends and family, and keep in mind what every holiday is about: having fun just because.

Hope everyone had a good Halloween - here, even watching Halloween on Tv didn’t really do much. No-one came trick or treating here, but then again, I do live in an apartment. So lots of candy for us - though it’s all nasty stuff. Why didn’t we get mini-twix?

And if the lack of people in costume wasn’t enough, my synth has decided to let it’s pitch wheel thingie die; along with a Jaz drive, the joystick on another synth, and quite probably my fragile state of mind. Boo

Stupid Halloween…

Eeek on Christmas coming up quickly. I still don’t know what I want, let alone what to get other people! Time to put Bowie and Bing on repeat.

Not a bad night for TOT’ers where I live in Nashville; we got about 30-35 total, I’d say, which ain’t so bad considering we live on a busy street with no sidewalks that kids really shouldn’t be walking up and down.
Funniest thing that happened tonight: Around 6:00, still light outside, our very first TOT’ers just walk right up and open the front door, entering our house. After my shocked and exasperated cry of “What do you think you’re doing?!”, the kids were really apologetic. (They were about 9 or 10 I’d say, with no adult supervision…and no costumes. But they did have bags with some candy in ‘em.) They claimed they thought they were walking into an apartment complex…but my house ain’t that big. Seriously, it’s not palatial in the least.
I probably stood a good chance of getting robbed, but I gave ‘em some orange KitKats nonetheless.

I know this is going to sound like bull*#@& but I can honestly say that taking the kids out for trick or treating was ALMOST as good as being a kid going trick or treating.
Christmas morning, so far, not the case. I don’t think that feeling will ever be topped/equaled. But trick or treating was still a lot of fun.

Then I watched a HOME IMPROVEMENT where the oldest kid dressed up as Raggedy Andy because his girlfriend was going to be Raggedy Ann. So, I guess SOUTH PARK ripped off HOME IMPROVEMENT??

LOL- reading about your Kitty made me nearly pee my pants! I too have a cat with the brilliant talent of being able to make you bleed in five places at once.

As a Halloween kitty note, I have a black cat with a cast to take care of her broken toe- it is all the way up past her elbow. And, oh yeah, orange. My vet has a sense of humor, it seems.

Well, she just figured out today that she can use her cast to abuse the other animals. She’s been thunking our ninety pound hound-dog in the head every time he gets near the door.

You know what? This Halloween season didn’t feel “right” with me either. It was fun, but not magical like most Halloween seasons are. It’s cool Matt, the articles we did get were great. Here’s hoping next year rocks, and that Christmas makes us forget about this month.

Oh, and we got plenty of TOTs, but we made them all say “Trick-or-Treat” before we gave them candy. I don’t know why some of them are not ashamed of going out in costume for candy, but when you ask them to say the magic words they act embarrassed. Hopefully they’ll learn next year.

Last night was the highlight of my month, saw my favorite band- Gogol Bordello in Boulder. Almost everyone in that town starts dressing up just to go out grocery shopping around Halloween! LOL. I got to dress up, and wore my white out contact lenses. They rocked.

Anyone that lives where Gogol Bordello will be playing, go see them, you will feel so happy and energized for days after the show!

I love selecting pumpkins. I love buying them. I love admiring them. I DO NOT LIKE CLEANING THEM!

I had a damn nice Halloween, mostly due to one of my friends living in a neighborhood with so few trick-or-treaters that the sweet old ladies who live there will literally chase down anyone who looks roughly under 30 and insist on giving them candy. I was an alien, two of my friends were zombies, one was Steve Irwin (pre-death) and another was gay Dumbledore. Swear.

I think the gods, or Satan, or whatever deity officially presides over Halloween, must have known this would be one of my last chances, because they blessed me with a haul that was a solid 30% chocolate and less than 5% Mary Janes. Plus, I got gummy teeth!

There were DOZENS of kids out there today, one of the best years in quite a long time. There were lots of people still showing up to CVS to but some more candy, as they’ve been running low.

There was a Fall Fest at my school today, and saw some neat costumes. I myself dressed as Mitch Hedberg. A friend of mine went as a Guitar Hero, as in, just carrying around a GH guitar. There were a decent-looking group of girls dressed as the Sailor Scouts, as well as some of the better-looking Sorority girls dressed as slutty McDonald Characters.

I swear that we shall enter the phrase “Slutty Hamburgular” into the Lexicon (or at least the XE one)

I also saw 2 people dressed as Ron Burgundy (one had a trademark highball of “scotch”), and another was Chazz Micheal Micheals from Blades of Glory, even though he had blonde hair.

Halloween has been slow for EVERYONE! Only got 30 trick or treaters

But we must strive to keep it in our hearts all the year!

There seems to be a general consensus of this being the shittiest Halloween anyone’s had. The weather’s been all wrong. Daylight Saving’s fucked up this year, so the time is later than it feels like it should be, which means all the trick-or-treaters started late and stopped early. I went to a party over the weekend that completely sucked. Everyone’s doing cute/silly instead of scary…And tonight I saw an unprecedented number of houses with porch lights off and curtains drawn. I remember thinking that Halloween 2001 sucked because everyone was afraid to be too macabre, but this year just seemed vastly worse somehow.

There was, however, one house…dozens of unique jack o’lanterns, tomb stones, monsters, fog machines, spooky music CD…it really redeemed the night for me. Hopefully, next year more people will be into it.

What a boring sitting-in-an-office day—but now the kids are out, the sky has become appropriately dark and cloudy, and I’m warming my stone-black heart over the sugar-high grins of the youngin’s. Hooray.

Not a bad Halloween. I had about 40 kids here. Almost ran out of the reese’s cups, but not quite. I have few left for me. Nice.

Knegative: Of course, every Halloween should be better than the last. It’s the holiday that kicks of our great holiday season.

There were NO kids in sight. I have to take my parents’ word for it, as I was IN CLASS

Oh well, Halloween’s just starting for me, yada, yada, yada. Off to Silent Hill.

BRIAN what band are you in? i am from ohio and a few years back my band and i played a show in poughkeepsie, NY, with a band called folly and another named paulson…….just hearing the name of the town brought back great memories. no longer in the band due to school, but remembering those days feels great. also, and dont kill me for saying this fellow X-E’rs, but i sincerely hate charlie brown…..honestly. wow, im glad i got that off of my chest.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! The trick or treaters were rather slim down here in Tennessee too. The first year we moved into this house, we had around 600 kids. Gets less and less each year, but it was a great Halloween none the less. Went to Wal-Mart today, and it’s Christmas EVERYWHERE. Can’t say that I didn’t crack a smile though. Can’t wait for some Thanksgiving and Christmas posts Matt.

Two were little babies- a little doggy (who wanted to bark at my doggy) and a little dinosaur. There were four 14 year old girls, and their boyfriends who were hanging back so they could look cool. I spent twelve bucks on candy for 6 kids… oh well.

I didn’t count the boyfriends because they didn’t get candy. My neighborhood is old folks/college kids (I live near OU) so there aren’t many kids anyway, but…

Happy Halloween everyone! Zero trick-or-treat’ers as per usual… but living on the 3rd floor of an apartment building will do that. We had a couple kids in the office yesterday. A less than eventful Halloween… but tomorrow brings us November and that brings us the Thanksgiving Day Parade… and that ushers in Christmas. So I’m psyched.

man, 14 year old girls and their boyfriends are the worst…..i had work, but we had a few idiots come into the officemax to fuck up my day. seriously i hate people

Since yesterday was Beggar’s Night and I handed out candy (we had 125 Trick or Treater’s, and the weather was gorgeous) all I did tonite was watch the ABC lineup of Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, and Dirty Sexy Money. I’m currently browsing until the new Mythbusters episode reurns at midnight.

I’m just happy I found some Peeps Cocoa Bats today. Those suckers are hard to find.

I have a Kitten. Seriously, my cat Kerry sounds eeriely similar to your cat Kitten. When Kerry decides he wants to love on someone it’s best to keep your hands to yourself. He’s giving up love, but he’s a definate touch-me-not. Like right now he’s laying at the foot of my bed sleeping, and he’s being all cute about it, but if I were to go to pet him I would regret it.

Great post Matt. I decided to have a very chill Halloween this year, and actually tagged along with my sister and her 4 girls trick or treating. It was so fun just watching them. 3 of the 4 were characters from Star Wars too, so that was pretty cool. Some house had elaborate skeletons made of PVC pipe, and I’m talking like giant dinosaur skeletons. It’s cool to see people get that into the holidays. I can’t wait until I have my own house to decorate!

I did my best to get along with Halloween, but you know what? Halloween was a jerkface to me for about 75% of the day. Then when it was all over I saw a juggalo on a bicycle. Seriously. It was like the “I’m sorry” flower.
I don’t know if we’ll be together next year.
Thanks for the stuff you did cover Matt. A relaxed writer is a happy writer.

Just when I thought Halloween was dead and gone forever (much like “AHH! Real Monsters”) getting off the PATH in the village before class really made my day. Not only did I get a good commuter parking space (which means that a lot of people actually took off today) but I immediately saw like 4,000 different costumes (about 200 or so were pretty original). It was pretty nice.

I was so amped I went out and bought Monster Squad on DVD and since the studio I work at is awesome, nothing but that and Michael Myers have been on all night. Fuck yes.

No apologize necessary matt - you provide a valuable service that’s hard to find these days. Time to move on, Christmas is around the corner, and the horror movies will go back on the shelf to make way for festive feel gooders.

Hey, everybody. Happy Halloween. Guess it’s after Halloween now on the East Coast. I’ve been watching the Halloween marathon on AMC since I got home from work. It’s cool and all, but it kind of sucks that Halloween (the original) was on at 10 am. I got home for the last few minutes of III and then the far-inferior “Jamie Lloyd” trilogy. Oh well.

I go the new Clive Barker book today, so I’ve been reading that too. So far, so good. For any Barker fans out there, the hardcover is definitely worth the $17 on Amazon.

Not only did I partake in Monster Squad tonight but I also saw Transylvania 6-5000 and the last half-hour of Carrie which for some reason was on PBS.

Halloween’s been pretty decent, but what I’m really looking forward to is the drunken fake ghost-hunting expedition I’m going on this weekend in friends “murder basement”. Promises to be a good time.

Someone please tell me that somewhere out there, one of you enjoyed Pumpkinhead this year. I can’t be the only one. It just doesn’t seem right…

Even people who don’t give a shit about Halloween know enough to only work at half-speed today, and that in of itself is enough for me to toss aside all previous misgivings and shout, “I LURV HALLO.”
Totally! I passed someone in the hallway as they made their way down to the potluck in the conference room, and they grinned and said “I love days like this!”
Matt, you doing what you want to do when you want to is why I’m here. So personally I’d rather you kept that up. On to Christmas!
I picked up some Kit Kat on the way home just to be safe. We’ve had one pair of treaters, so I could have saved the trip and just used the personal candy stash. Oh well, I’ll have to eat them myself. Just watched the finale of The Search for the Next Elvira. Elvira deserves better than this.

Knegative: Boo Berry makes me happy. I saw for the first time Boo Berry Fruit by the Fruit at WalMart.. I’d blown my money on a Chipotle burrito so I had to leave emptyhanded.

The girlfriend and I passed out candy.. pretty good turnout. Best costume I saw was a really good Wolverine one, and honorable mention goes to a little girl who came as that chick from the LA Ink show.. seriously.

I know I’m in the minority here, but I have to say, I rather felt the Halloween bug this year. Came home, got my face all painted up (kinda like the obscure Marvel character Cardiac, might post some pictures later). Then I had one of my friends over, he was kindof dresed like a pimp, and we watched Silence of The Lambs (which I’m embarassed to say was my first viewing of it).

Btu all in all, I think everyone was real down about Halloween. I mean, the house next to me was all down up with skulls, Jack-O’-Lanterns and organ music, but next to that, not a whole lot. Only had about 32 trick-or treaters (and in line with what Jeffininer said, the kids were ruder. From half of them I got a “Trick or Treat smell my feet”, with their parents right there. I joked about doing that once during my TOT-ing days and got yelled atl if I’d done it I would’ve been beat)

So I don’t know, I guess I just hope that eventually, Halloween will properly come back around, perhaps due to us wanting those around us to share in the same things we used to.

And so, to Matt, I respect the way you went about this season, by following how you felt; To Knegative, I “SWEAR THE SOLEMN VOW” to make next year better; and to all my fellow X-Eers (is that our name?), I wish you a Happy Halloween.

kitten aka saturn is dope man, i’ve been coming here to read you articles since the start of this site, its good to know that you still keep it interesting,… big ups. happy all hallows eve.

One more legendary to go. Heatran. I don’t really care about the non D/P dex legendaries, but they will come in handy for trading for starters and the version specific legendary next generation

Hippowdon
Toxicroak
Drapion
Seaking
Octillery
Lumineon
Gyarados–I traded him for a Shiny Bastiodon. I’m serious

I’m a little nervous about signing on to the Knegative vow - days like this always hurt more when you’ve promised yourself that they’d be better - but I think it’s important to take this risk. We may be setting ourselves up for disaster, but I think it’s a chance that each of us should be willing to take.

I honestly think that even though the countdown (and season) didn’t go as many of us expected, Matt generated one hell of an idea. The mood table is just a startlingly good idea. As we get older, the way we go about many things in our lives changes. It’s a pragmatic and simple way to keep that spirit of Halloween burning quite brightly.

I didn’t actually set up a table, but I watched movies and played games that I love and I know put me in the right frame of mind. Making next year better won’t take horribly much. Even small steps are steps.

My cooperating teacher decorated the room pretty extensively today and it felt like a different place entirely. That is part of how I am going to make next year better. I need to, as an adult (

) bring Halloween out of just my head and bedroom, and back into the outside world. That is my goal.

So, next year will be my first teaching. I’m going to decorate my room and try to give my students the same joy that the current ones had today. I also want to go to a Halloween party. I don’t know why but I’ve never been able to sync up going to parties with my friends. I have plenty of friends, and we do plenty of things, but for some reason I’ve always been shafted on this one thing I feel is VERY FREAKIN’ IMPORTANT

Making the vow and sticking to it isn’t really ALL THAT DIFFICULT. If we can just ignore Christmas being rammed down our throats earlier and earlier.

I am deadly serious when I say that Halloween is the holiday I want to perserve in my life and in those around me. Every year Christmas means less and less, to me. No joke.

I got less trick-or-treaters than I hoped for this year… probably because my neighbourhood is full of crackheads. It was still fun though. One of the crackheads came to the door wearing earrings and mumbling incoherently, it was weird, but I gave him a chocolate bar anyways.

I like the picture of kitten!! I’ve had my cat for almost 17 years and his hot spot is his tummy. I got this cat when I was five and he conditioned me very early on… now any time I rub a cat’s belly I flinch involuntarily!!

Happy (belated by 27 minutes here) Halloween everybody! I spent yesterday evening carving pumpkins with my sister and her husband and watching Ghostbusters in the background. Tonight I spent hanging out with my mom and grandparents (I’m such a loser…) and watched a Halloween episode of CSI:NY. Also watched some of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers between classes today (I’ve always loved 4, and even 5, because of the weird dynamic between Jamie and Michael). Wish I’d been able to watch Psycho tonight, but there just wasn’t enough time.

Oh, and we got four trick-or-treaters at my house. Which is four more than we got last year, so I hope the trend continues. Also - at least they were little and cute, not older and rude.

Ack, I forgot to mention: I’m really glad that you didn’t force the countdown this year Matt, and that you did what felt right. A happy Matt makes a happy X-E, and I would much rather read one post every once in a while than a post every day if it meant that you were doing it because you wanted to.

Having said that, I AM really looking forward to Knacks and Kuse, so I’m hoping you’re ‘feeling it’ for the Christmas countdown.

I hope everyone’s day was as kick ass as mine. I got married in front of my family and friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better Halloween:)

Thank you for doing what was right for you Matt. “Gunning for Class President” is cool and it makes for some time wasting reads before work in the mornings, but we can always count on you for the right things at the right times. You did it for you, which in return meant you did it for us. As Frakkyfire put it so well “a happy Matt makes a happy x-e”. That’s exactly why I’ve been reading the site for so many years. It’s a happy and fun place to be.

I can’t wait for the Christmas countdown, I’m pretty pumped for it this year.

So…i had a novel idea for treats that did’nt go over so well…I no longer have my ps2, but I DID have some new sealed in package playstation games from some bundle deal a few years back(gamestop doesnt take ps one games anymore) so if i saw an especially cool costume, i was gonna ask them if they had a ps2, and if they said yes i was gonna hand them a game. I wanted to go down in history as a halloween legend…”remember that one year when this lady gave out video games??..that was awesome” oh well….no one showed up at all…i even stood by the curb across from my apart ment…and not a kid came by

Man, Matt’s apathy towards Halloween this year must have been universal; it really was a pretty blah Halloween all the way around. I got about half as many trick or treaters as I did last year, and even the ones I did get were pretty uninspired (lots of Spider-Mans, lots of generic ghost/witch/hockey mask things) and not that into it. Still, I did my best to put on a happy face and be excited for the kiddies.

Jollyrancher suckers are amazing as was The Price Is Right Halloween Episode… one of the models had an ax in her head the whole show

Man, 4 TOT’ers the whole night. Over $40 in candy wasted, I’ll never eat 10lbs of Wonka candy and full size Butterfinger, Snickers, Baby Ruths, and Pay Days before the Wonka candy gets gooey and sticks together and the chocolate forms that white wax all over it.

I live in a big neighborhood, but my block itself only has 4 houses, 1 of which is being remodeled and one other is my brother’s house. We were the only ones on the block giving out candy. Even though my block itself is small, we can still see into the neighborhood and still nobody was around.

When I grew up, it took 15 minutes just to drive through the crowds on one neighborhood block, what happened? Are kids becomming too cool for TOT’ing? Is something in the air? Even most of us couldn’t latch onto the holiday spirit.

Oh well, I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, already my spirit for those holidays is running at full speed. I think I’ll be doing my first Christmas shopping this weekend. I absolutely cannot wait for this year’s Advent Calendar and to see what all festivities Matt will come across.

I wouldn’t call it a failed countdown.. we’ve just been spoiled in the past! It just made me appreciate the articles even more when they were posted, err, ghosted!

Obviously I’m no expert, but I was remarking last night about the number of trick-or-treating alternatives there are these days. Whether it’s one of the many church-sponsored “Harvest Festivals” or candy/costume contests at the mall. Could it be that today’s parents are more comfortable with organized events than sending their kids door-to-door (accompanied or not)? That may especially true in neighborhoods where the event seems to be taken over by costumeless pre-teen punks with pillowcases. I don’t know. This is probably the wrong place to ask since there’s a die-hard group here and those with kids probably couldn’t imagine trading trick-or-treating for something else.

Hey would have commented last night but was wrapped up in the festivities.. got a last moment blast of Halloween spirit and bought a really really cool skeleton mask that has blood running in between layers.. and skeleton gloves that looked great in the dark and with a black jacket on.

I’m pathetic but I love it when i can scare the kids enough by sight alone.. it just makes Halloween fun for me and them.. of course i take off my mask and they are delighted and come up for their can of Pepsi (should ask Lisa if it’s an appropriate Halloween treat) and bag of chips.

A little baby almost cried but then started laughing when I took the mask off. Not sure if i should be offended at that or not but it was cute.

As much fun as it was, I’m really looking forward to Christmas. It has to be my favorite time of year and my wife seems like she is going to be into it this year so that will be an even bigger bonus!

Matt as a fellow blog writer (although not with the following you have) I can fully understand how it feels when writing a blog starts to feel like a chore instead of a joy. No need to ever apologize; you have a life, you have a job and you have a blog pretty much in that order ;).

Oh well.. back to work and i probably should post on my own blog one of these times.

:O Hey, mandy_Reeves, if you tell me where you live I may come by for some late Trick or Treating… =D!?

Great final post of the Halloween season Matt, in my opinion you did another bang up job. Not everyone closing in on 30 can still keep the Magic alive. Trust me it gets worse the older you get.

Now that I have 2 kids, I’m starting to feel the Magic again. My 2 year old daughter had a blast last night which totally made my Halloween feel like it use to!

Keep up the good work man and don’t kill yourself trying to make Xmas better than ever…Loyal XE’rs will love whatever you have to offer!

Your lack of Halloween spirit this year is totally understandable. I also felt something amiss this ‘go round…oh well - let us look ahead to the Christmas. Heres hope for a kick ass December - advent calendar and all.

Since I live in an apartment there were no TOT’ers, usually I see kids in costumes in the complex but this year I only saw 1. In fact the boyfriend and I didn’t even go to his parents house like we have done every other year. We had dinner, went to the grocery store to buy small treats for ourselves and he played on the computer while I played on the 360. So I guess neither of us really felt the Halloween spirit this year. Oh well. At least I am excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even one of the radio stations here has started up the Christmas music once again.

Eric: Did that tape also have the special “Life’s a Circus Charlie Brown?” I recall that that special premiered in 1980 because I remember going through microfilm of old newspapers and for some reason, I was going through some of October 1980 and came across the ads for those two specials.

I spent my Halloween getting lost in Austin, TX. I was looking for this theater that was playing Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” but I couldn’t find the right exit of the Interstate. Next thing I know I’m going through these neighborhoods and seeing all these trick or treaters out. It wasn’t much of a Halloween for me this year. Didn’t find a copy of Fat Albert’s Halloween and the Chipmunk Double Feature DVD was so boring, I fell asleep like 15 minutes into the first special. Also, I failed at getting the Great Pumpkin display at CVS. Oh well, these are just little notes I’m giving myself so I can start planning on next year’s Halloween season and come hell or high water, I WILL be in the proper spirit next year!

Can’t wait until I leave to go home to Chicago. Want to go through our old Christmas tapes. I also need to find the copy I have of the 1988 Macy’s Parade, a year Matt DIDN’T cover on this site. Oh I hope my car is ready by tomorrow. Getting repairs done that’s going to cost me about $2800 plus tax. Thankfully I can afford it! Well, better stop rambling before this runs into the Christmas season! Happy All-Saints Day for those who observe it!

last night was NOT the night dracula saved the world…. or halloween or anything for that matter.

I watched Tales From the Darkside movie last night, and if you want to see the real cat from hell you need to pop that one in. I also watched sleepaway camp… had never seen the ending….yea WTF!!

I miss Sounds of the Seasons’ Halloween collection already…yes, we’ve still got X-E’s jukebox, but it doesn’t have all the songs I heard. The “It’s Halloween!” tracks were catchy, even if they were aimed at the K12 crowd, but that may just be because I thought the woman singing some of the songs had a sexy voice. (Yes, I’m ecchi.) There was also Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s other songs, although none of them matched the original Monster Mash. Dr. Elmo (of “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” fame) had two songs as well: “Redneck Dracula” and “Black Cat.” The latter was funnier, if only because it was Dr. Elmo, with his less-than-intimidating voice, talking about what a scary, dangerous black cat he was. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “Little Demon” was catchy, especially the gibberish chorus. A Dracula impersonator sang an amusing parody of “Mack the Knife.” And for fans of Michael Myers, they had the entire soundtrack from Halloween II. And that’s only a fraction of it. But it’s all over now. At the stroke of midnight, Santa ate Halloween again, and won’t crap it back out again ’til mid-October.

Only got 3 TOT’ers here but that’s okay - all the more mini-nestle crunch bars and Laffy Taffy for me. Looking forward to Christmas on X-E Matt!

Matt, you are totally excused for a lackluster Halloween season. I think my biggest issues for this season was we had next to no trick or treaters on my blog so my mom was bummed because typically she bought more candy then we needed: we haven’t had loads of kids on my block in at least 10 years.

Second, the weather was too warm and I despite cold weather and winter but it doesn’t feel like Halloween when it’s 66 degrees out.

Also I found the selection of horror movies and specials on this year really disappointing. I didn’t even get to watch all my stuff on DVD/videotape. Thank goodness they DO still show Charlie Brown (even though it sounds like they’re throwing on the DVD for the country because the Election cartoon is on that DVD).

I look forward to your Christmas bonanza, matter of fact, I was telling a coworker about your Mare Winningham advent calendar just yesterday. It’s the only thing I look forward to around the holidays these days….so rock on, Matt.

Happy Birthday to me! Last night was okay, not great, but it ain’t one I’m taking to the grave as a fond memory. A very fallow ‘ween in terms of kids. But, we do have a metric buttload of candy to nibble on through Thanksgiving.

Aw, reading about Saturn da Kitty reminds me of my sister-in-Law’s cat, Frybread. She was a shelter cat, her previous owner was abusive and instilled a odd paranoia in her. SiL tried to call her by different names and nothing worked, but for some reason, when she tried Frybread out of frustration (and what else would a plains Indian eventuall name a pet?) the cat responded. Fry-cat loved to watch movies, ate only dry cat food, would come running to listen when Alice In Chains was playing, outwardly hated nearly every human she met, but would come and console you if you got bad news, liked to lull people by letting them pet her before shredding the arm up to the elbow, and died of old age at 20 this Summer. Hope you have as many adventures with Saturn for about as long.

I’m trying to pace myself and get into Thanksgiving before I get into Christmas this year. Anybody know any cool Thanksgiving-flavored DVDs? I have the Garfield Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas DVD, but that’s it.

BJ: Yep, the tape had Life’s A Circus, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Christmas (also taped in 1980), and I think You’re The Greatest, Charlie Brown. On the last one, I think we taped over whatever ran after the Christmas special.

I didn’t discover until about 10 years ago that once You’re The Greatest was over, the tape reverted back to whatever was on after the Christmas show. It was then I realized that this was taped the night after John Lennon was killed. There’s a CBS newsbreak showing scenes of the candlelight vigil outside his apartment that night. I copied that, along with the commercials before and after it, onto a DVD with some of the other interesting commercials I’d found going through our old Beta collection.

I think another tape had She’s a Good Skate and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on it. Used to watch these tapes all the time when I was a kid.

Haha..I couldn’t sleep at all last night. So after the wedding and the wedding night was finished and well over and done with I got up and surfed around a bit. I’m suffering from a pretty severe infection in my tooth which causes agonizing pain..sleep and eating aren’t really options these days:(

Jeff: I’ve always enjoyed “Dutch” as a Thanksgiving movie tradition; Ed O’Neill tries to transport his girlfriend’s son (played by a young Ethan Embry, then going by Ethan Randall) home in time for Thanksgiving.
It also features Christopher McDonald (Shooter McGavin from “Happy Gilmore”) in a great small role as the kid’s asshole dad.

we should make a list of all the Halloween Specials they don’t show on tv anymore. except for Great Pumpkin,they’re all locked in a vault somewhere. even watching Charlie Brown isn’t the same for me just because it’s on ABC now. growing up it was always on CBS. a minor thing,but still…

Jeff, besides what you and Matt have mentioned already, “Home for the Holidays” is a good one. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles though, by far, my #1 choice.

Sorry with another Thanksgiving post so soon, but I’ve been sitting here wracking my brain for more Turkey Day movies and specials, and geez, there are barely any. But how’s about:
“Son-in-Law” (if you like Pauley Shore)
“Hannah and Her Sisters” (if you like Woody Allen)
“Home for the Holidays” (if you like movies with Holly Hunter directed by Jodie Foster)
“Pieces of April” (if you like watching Katie Holmes struggle to act)
“Alice’s Restuarant” (if you like oddball movies based on really long songs)

Oh, we had a Halloween party last. It had it’s highs and lows.
High- Started drinking really good beer while watching the Great Pumpkin.
low- People brought babies
High- They also brought Guitar Hero
Low- Good beer ran out and switched to Miller lite
High- My friends finally showed up
Low- No one talked to them but me
High- Rocked “Holy Diver” on Guitar Hero
Low- The “cool” people segregated themselves in the kitchen.
High- The “cool” people segregated themselves in the kitchen.
High- Everyone left at 4:30 this morning and I ate leftovers while watching “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown”. I was drunk.

Bill - I’m so glad I’m not the only person who isn’t thrilled when people bring the smaller version of themselves to social events. It’s kind of an asshat way to be, but kids take so much work and attention - not that I don’t love my friends’ kids - that it can ruin parties.
Guitar Hero can save parties? We still break out DDR once in awhile…

Low- The “cool” people segregated themselves in the kitchen.
High- The “cool” people segregated themselves in the kitchen.

And hell yes to GH Encore! I’m so excited, I’m picking up GH3 tomorrow during lunch. I don’t know what all the deal is with Wii friend codes and GH3, but something is up according to wikipedia, so if anybody else has GH3 for Wii let me know, I’d be interested to do…. whatever it is that’s possible.

Our cats must be long-lost twins, Matt. My Nyxie is pure terror on paws… er… when she’s not hiding from my fiance. She’s known for randomly attacking people and falling in love with complete strangers to the point that she ignores family members. Crazy cats.

Well, Halloween turned out even better than I hoped. Around dusk we decided we should get some candy just in case we had TOTs, but as we were leaving Target the fiance decided we should go to Red Lobster for dinner. So now we have three bags of Halloween candy all to ourselves. Screw the TOTs, I love Take 5’s! haha

NEW SODA FLAVOR ALERT: I was at Target today checking for after Halloween sales (bought some leftover candy, including that gummy brain and those sour mints Matt talked about) when I saw it. Limited Edition Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper.
I immediately bought a case but haven’t tried it yet. I’ve always wondered what a chocolate soda would taste like. Now I get to find out.

I might be the only person on here that doesn’t like the Halloween season. It’s too commercial, especially here in Mexico, where it’s just a buy-fest imposed by the Americans.

Well, the ‘Ween was alive and well here, with about 50-60 ToTers showing up, which is about the usual amount. Here’s hoping next halloween’s countdown has two years worth of awesome in it.

I don’t know RPharazon. I’ve been to Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico City and that is 10x the Halloween celebration than anything Americans have. And way more fun.

Jessica: I feel a little guilty about the kid thing at the party but I am never comfortable with anyone shitting themselves while I’m drinking beer.

Am I late?
Of Course.
Anyway.
Went out to SCZ andsaw a rad show- misfits cover band and a local rockabilly band. But I was bummed by the lack of effort by those in costume- it really look as if most of the population raided a Spirit store, or ravaged their closets for old masks. Rare costumes were mega hot- A 10 FOOT GRIM REAPER was the only one I took pix of.
I had a great halloween but since others didn’t it kind of weighs on you, it’s hard to enjoy yourself when people are so visibly uninterested.
And the amount of slutty costumes was so overwhelming. bleh.
I am sad that halloween is over, but am looking forward to pumpkin pie and candy canes, and good old-fashioned christmas kindness.
Bring it on, I’m ready for it now!

I was very tired last night because I got up at 7:14 in the morning and I think I stayed up until 1 the night before. So I watched the Today show, and then a mixture of that and Regis and Kelly, and a talk show I have never heard of that is probably the first and last season, then I watched about 10 minutes of the view mixed with the Today show, then I watched (the internet was off so I was hopeless, for some reason the Today show reminds me of the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade everytime I watch it) Martha Stewart and her Halloween show she had Rosie O Donnell on and I was waiting for that.

I don’t remember what else I watched but by that time we went off and did laundry and I came back to watch Ellen’s show and I think a little bit of Roseanne but I don’t remember. lol. I watched Phomeneon and then went to bed. No trick or treaters, so I should of just bought the good candy because I am eating all of the cheap crap myself anyway now lol. There are some of these generic brand fruit chews, they taste like a now and later, because it’s like a pez candy and then a soft fruit chew after you soften it up a bit in your mouth. I also got about 20 candy necklaces (I was going to give them out to the favorite kids) in a bag for a buck as well. All for me, I haven’t had a candy necklace in years and these are pretty good they taste like sweet tarts. They have some make your own candy necklace kits at the Dollar Tree too I might get one sometime and possibly write an article? Billy? :D I can be like how Matt and Scary Crayon does sometimes and act like an obscure action figure is making a candy necklace. We’ll see.

Okay, see the little pumpkin graphics next to your name? Time for them to go, but it’s a little early for anything Christmassy. Any suggestions more along the lines of Thanksgiving? Remember, they’d have to look coherent in a graphic that small.

Wow, after being gone all day job hunting, there’s a lot to talk about on here. Nice to know everyone survived what seemed to be an all around letdown of a Halloween. Mine consisted of going to a friend’s house and getting tipsy on old whisky then coming home, doing a quick change, and heading out to the club where I spin from time to time for Scary Karaoke. I tried to put in a request to sing some AC/DC or Cure, but the guy who was running it had already stopped taking requests for the night. Probably just as well. I’ve no business on a karaoke stage despite my friends always trying to push me into it. I try to limit it to special events like Halloween and my birthday, which is in…4 hours! So, I’ll make a point on posting round about midnight tonight so I can celebrate turning the big 3-0 with my fellow X-E’ers. Happy Birthday also to those of you who had one today and yesterday. At the club I saw a few good costumes. I went as Buffallo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs. I saw a Hunter S. Thompson, Thing 1 (from The Cat and the Hat), Jack Skelengton, and most inappropriately, a bloody tampon. Yeah, that’s right. It was wrong. It was very, very, wrong.

I too had a terror of a cat. He was by buddy and his name was Freddy. If anyone besides my mother or myself got anywhere near him they risked losing a finger or two, and he actually got banned at the vet we used to take him to for being “too volatile for treatment.” He was mean as a snake and I think that’s why I liked him so much. He died about 2 years ago at the ripe old age of 17 of kidney failure and is missed. He’s buried in my mom’s backyard with his own little tombstone that has a statue of a cat that looks just like him. I’m waiting for his spirit to possess the statue and go on a rampage any day.

Bill: Thanks for the party pics. Kickass Jason mask, btw. Sounds like it was a lot of fun. I gotta see what all the hoopla is about Guitar Hero one of these days.

BethanytheMartian: That cat cast thing is hilarious. I think you’ve created a monster.

I was disappointed at the lack of Halloween spirit in my neighborhood. The houses are so nice and everyone has pretty big yards. Lots of trees and plenty of space for all kinds of decorations. It’s exactly the type of place I would like to have grown up in. Had I had more money this year, our yard would have been super spooky and would have been the talk of the town. All I need is a little more cash and some space and can do it up right next year. I’m all in on the vow to make next year the Halloween that this year should have been. In good news though, my cousin sent me and e-mail today and said he was awarded 3rd Place in Halloween decorations for his neighboorhood. The paper announces all the winners and whoever decides these things gives out awards and gave him a “3rd Place Winner” sign to put in his front yard. Good for him!

Chris Martin: Getting the new Barker book is pretty high on my priority list. He’s my all time fave author. I hear he’s writing the Hellraiser remake, but it’s unknown if Doug Bradley’s going to come back as Pinhead. I just wish he would hurry up and finish the 3rd part in “The Art” trilogy.

squee4242: Man, I wish I could get the channel that the Elvira thing is coming on. Our dodgy, basic cable here doesn’t even come with a box, so I only get like 50 channels, and I don’t think I could talk my roommate into springing for a box with loads of channels. I was really looking forward to the Elvira thing when I heard about. So, the selection isn’t that good then?

Everyone: I’m sorry, but even though I’ve been reading the site for a little over a year, I’m still a relatively new poster and with this being my first Countdown/Christmas season as an X-E’er I’m still not totally in the loop on a few things. That being said, I got a few questions–who the heck is Mare Winningham and what is a Knacks and Kuse? Is this something I should look forward to?

Mandi: Congratulations! Yeah, I agree with what someone else said, posting on the day of your wedding is some committment.

mandy_reeves: What a great idea! What neighboorhood is this? I might stop by next year.

A while back I went back and read all of the Macy’s T-Day Parade reviews, and man there was some good stuff in there, especially the one year when John Ratzenberger uncomfortably sings his little song. Looking forward to this year’s review.

My family used to have a tradition every Christmas at my cousin’s house (the same cousin that won 3rd place in the Halloween decorating contest) As we’re unwrapping presents, we would put on a record of Alvin and the Chipmunks singing Christmas songs. I think I’m going to try to convince them to revive the tradition this year. These days I’m all about nostalgia in just about every way I can get it.

Matt, can you do those pilgrim guns with the trumpet type ends? They always symbolized Thanksgiving to me.

I think a drumstick would be a pretty good choice. I was going to suggest a can of cranberry sauce but I don’t know if it could translate well being that small. I say we change “Ghosted” into something equally as clever as well, like “Roasted” or “Toasted”.

When does thanksgiving even happen? I live in Canada, we have thanksgiving in October, but I don’t really celebrate it. I remember having a day off work last month which I assume was thanksgiving.

Do you guys do the whole turkey, cranberry sauce, tryoptophan thing? One of the first articles I read on this site was the recreation of Charlie Brown’s thanksgiving dinner. Fucking brilliant!! I’d much rather have popcorn and toast and sundaes than some dead bird. Isn’t turkey supposed to be dryer than chicken? I haven’t eaten either since I was in my teens.

PS: I don’t think I’m ready to let go of halloween yet…. would it be tacky to light my jack-o-lantern tonight?

Jinsky: Yup! My family does, anyway. We’re Italian, so we kind of mix the traditionals with Italian junk. Thanksgiving dinner is like, a seven hour affair.

i love those artichokes…for real, they made me happy, especially the post-it note with the arrow explaining that they were artichokes

Leigha, I’m going to try to keep one artichoke and the note, but I think I’ve gone a little too far into jungle territory.

I wish I had thanksgiving. I’m not entirely clear on who I’m supposed to be thanking though.

Jinsky: Yep, Thanksgiving pretty much is what you made it sound like, except my family is huge and there’s a LOT more food involved than just simple turkey and cranberry sauce. I think it’s the southern American version of Matt’s Italian thing. Much like Italian families, Southern American families don’t mess around when it comes to holiday family dinners. And yeah, that article about the Charlie Brown thanksgiving was amazing! That was one of the things that made me realize I had to make reading this site part of my daily routine. Anybody who would actually recreate the damn dinner, much less write a hilarious article about is someone that has something to say. Oh, and as far as the punkin, it’s absolutely appropriate. I say light away. I didn’t even carve one, but I’m contemplating getting one anyway. Prolly won’t, honestly, but I am hitting up Target and Wal Mart tomorrow for some after Halloween sales, if I’m lucky enough to find anything.

yeah, even one would be fine….and it is bordering jungle territory. then again, anything that you can obviously guess as to what it is, accompanied by an arrow and what it is called just wins me over everytime. (i realize that that sentence is a little convoluted…but hopefully someone else can figure it out)

Either that or a Turkey. I agree it is too early for Christmas. NO Christmas until after Thanksgiving. NONE.

Holy crap, until all this artichoke talk I didn’t even notice that the top had changed. Interesting…Oop, I just glanced up there and now it’s just ONE big ass artichoke! It’s mutating! What next?? Gizmo looks concerned.

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who’s a bartender and he invited me to come out and have drinks on the house for my b-day, which is in…..1 hour and 36 minutes! I’ll try to make it back home by midnight to ring it in on the boards. See you then!

Oh my god, major crisis narrowly averted. I thought the whole blog was destroyed.

I think maybe a few posts got lost….I got scared for a minute there, Matt! Uh….Are you backing this stuff up?

Cameron: There are backups in place but the problems we just had were very unusual — not the kind of downtime that is typical. Was very scared…reading up, it looked like the blog was entirely wiped off the planet. Thank God I’m with ServINT.

Being November first and all, I hope you managed a nice Halloween - the night was certainly autumn enough for me here in New England.

Well it looks like Shrek and Hello Kitty are two of the new balloons in this year’s Macy’s Parade.

yeah…i got a little freaked at that word press thing…for some reason back in january, i could not get on x-E via my pc bc somehow my IP got blocked…i had to use my psp and someone elses unencrypted signal. It was hit and miss for months

Whew! Glad the blog still exists. I broke out an Xmas tune or two from my iPod, but quit cause it didn’t feel right. PEOPLE â€“ IT’S THE WEATHER. It’s freakin’ me out. I have gotten jack SQUAT of fall, and so I’m in a “no-time” zone. The only thing Thanksgiving is good for looking forward to is pumpkin pie for me. I wanna go full bore Christmas crazy, but I need WEATHER CHANGE. Cold, dammit! COLD NOW! BTW, love the turkey legs.

Happy belated Happy Halloween everyone. Yesterday seemed like the perfect day for it as it got dark early and there was just enough of a chill in the air to give off a crisp Autumn evening. Alas, it appears that the trick-or-treating days of my childhood are truly gone as fewer and fewer towns are allowing trick-or-treating at night or even on Halloween (the local mall ran their Halloween stuff a full week before the event but still managed to run it on a Tuesday or Wednesday). I think the upcoming b-day is making me more nostalgic and wondering why things that seemed like mainstays back in the day are slowly or quickly being phased out. Does anyone else remember the awesome CBS Holiday specials that would air the night of or before for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas? Sad to think that my nieces and nephews won’t have that to look back on.

Thanksgiving is coming! That means alot of things but especially my birthday on the 25th. I only remember my birthday falling on Thanksgiving Day once before, any idea how often it should?

Ksteeves, it should happen once every 6-7 years. But when you factor in leap years, you could potentially at least 10 years without it happening. I believe the range of possible Thanksgiving dates is November 22 - 28.

If I’m right, that means this year Thanksgiving falls on the earliest possible date. But it’s late, so I could be way off in my calculations.

On an unrelated topic, I live along the main street of downtown in a suburban area. Today, they put up the Christmas wreath on the lamppost outside my window. While I like seeing it, it feels slightly too early. It doesn’t seem right to see it up there while the trees still have their fall colors.

I like the drumsticks too, they’re my favorite part of the turkey… and you can buy them individually, so I get all the drumsticks I want!