Whatchoo think?

So, the Cute Blonde Boy and I went to a Hallowe'en party over the weekend, and I think our costumes looked pretty darn good (and daaammmn, was he a sexy swashbuckler in that getup! durrrrrr.....). We had a friend take a couple of pictures of us, and he caught one with this look on our faces:

I'll tell you the circumstances later, but I'm curious as to what you'd caption this.

To borrow a device from Pat, I'll offer up a small prize for the best caption. I don't know just what yet, but I'll come up with something. Probably a t-shirt from the band, and/or some other useless crap. I'll try to keep the dog fur off of it, anyway.

So, whaddya think? What caption should this photo have, should I ever get around to posting more pictures on my site?

IQ - Scawy

Who's a slacker?

I AM!!!

I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks. Whoops.

So, here we are, coming up on the Hallowe'en weekend, and I am bombarded with ads for the various and sundry haunted houses around town every time I leaf through the paper.

I don't do haunted houses. Those of you who know me, know that I don't do well with freaky-ass things. I can handle a movie with some violence (a la Lethal Weapon, Indiana Jones, etc). But a film that sets me to wondering whether perhaps a madman with a knife has gotten into my basement without my noticing, despite the fact that I'e been home all day? Or a TV show that makes my skin crawl by showing me a man being eaten alive by ants? Uh-uh. Just can't do it. The logical part of my head (it does exist, you just haven't seen it very often) gets pushed aside rather abruptly and gagged by the illogical part of my head that sees no reason why the life-sized brass rubbing of the 16th-century knight that used to hang in my parents' stairway shouldn't suddenly come to lie and chase me down. So no haunted houses for me, thanks.

The last time I was in one was when I was probably 15 or 16. Aside from the room in which there lay a coffin precisely like the one my friend had been laid to rest in some weeks earlier (oh, yeah, THAT opened the floodgates), there was another room that scared me. No, terrified me. Petrifed. Paralyzed. Beyond consolation. I realize now that the chainsaw this man was wielding probably did not have an actual chain on it, and therefore would not have severed my leg from my body with unbearable pain and torture. But when he cornered me (and the saw was running, that much I'm sure of), you could not have convinced me otherwise, without having Christ himself make an appearance.

I screamed myself hoarse, because I really did believe my life was in danger. And no amount of back-patting/hugs/reassurance from my friends (who did manage to stop giggling at me, once they realized that I was about to actually go into severe hyperventilation) would convince me that it was all just in fun. No sir, not fun at all.

So I'll let the rest of you whose brains are actually grounded in all lobes attend the haunted houses. I'll be waiting outside, noshing on caramel apples and concentrating on looking at the prettypretty moon. Or pondering your answers to today's Insightful Question:

What are you afraid of? What terrifies you? What irrational fear do you have?

As for me, the fear of being stabbed in the back as I come up the stairs from my basement is a pretty strong one (never mind that I've just been down there and know for certain that nobody else is there). And as for things that might (indeed will) eventually happen, I'm pretty frightened of the day I come home and one of my pets doesn't greet me at the door anymore.

That, and the idea that perhaps Congress will change our Constitution and allow Dubya one more term.
*shudder*

IQ - The List

Do you remember the Friends episode where Ross & Rachel make up their Freebie List? The list of 5 celebrities they're allowed to sleep with, without the other one getting upset? Ross has 6 on his list, eliminates Isabella Rosselini to cut it down to 5, and then she shows up in Central Perk. Occasionally, I think about who would be on my List (makes watching "Entertainment Tonight" a little more interesting, dontcha know).

So last night, as I'm checking the online guide to see whether Leno or Letterman has more interesting guests, I find myself in a quandary. Letterman has Orlando Bloom, who is absolutely on my List. And, though his hair is a bit shaggy just now from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" shoot, I'm interested in hearing about his new film, "Elizabethtown."

Just in case, I check Leno. He's got Keira Knightley, who is my same-sex girlfriend. At some point, someone I was discussing the List with decided that the list should have 5, plus one of the same sex. And Keira's my plus one. Just adorable, isn't she? So, I switched back & forth. Watched Leno/Keira for a bit, hearing about the new "Pirates" film from her, then when they went to commercial, flipped to Dave & 'Lando. So, this leads me to today's Insightful Question:

Who's on your list? And try your best to give me a plus one. It's okay to have a man-crush (though it's perfectly okay if you don't), or to think you might consider kissing another girl (oh, all the guys' ears just perked up).

I'll start you off (and mine changes from time to time; this is today's version) :

• Orlando Bloom
• Will Smith
• Colin Firth
• Craig Ferguson
• John Hannah Brad Pitt (how did I forget him?!? Must've been pre-caffeine kick-in)
• Keira Knightley

Alright, I'm waiting......(and don't worry, it's not like we're going to laminate these or anything)

IQ - World traveller.....we hope.

I'm meant to head to my first-ever trip to Canada on Friday. Headed home with the CBB for Thanksgiving. Those crazy Canucks, they celebrate it in October, when it doesn't fall ridiculously close to Christmas, thus adding to the stress of the holiday season.

Speaking of stress.....

The CBB & I were talking one evening about this trip (about which I am excited, but a bit nervous -- meeting The Parents is a sortof Big Thing, in my book), and the topic of passports came up. "A person should always always always have a valid passport", says I. And I relay the story of my friends who won a radio contest, and found themselves faced with a trip to Australia in 3 weeks' time, with no passports for either of them. I also recalled learning a bit of a lesson from some former co-workers who were booked to fly to London, and realized when they got to the airport that one of them had a passport that expired1 month after their trip ended.

No problem, you say.

Tell that to the nice people working immigrations & customs in London, who might not be so keen to give you a visitor visa which allows you to stay for up to 6 months, if your passport expires in 1 month. Maybe you're trying to get in, and have no intention of leaving. How do they know?

So, CBB says, jokingly, "I'd better check mine, then!" And waddya know? His expires a week after we fly back from Canada. So, off he goes to get al the necessary paperwork to get it renewed. Boy, Cananda has a lot of paperwork, rules and restrictions. I guess government is government is government.

That was almost 2 weeks ago.

We're booked to leave in 2 days, and no CBB passport. And while it's not required to travel, it sure makes things a lot easier. But, given that he had to send in his old passport, and his birth certificate to get the renewal, my beau may or may not be headed home to mum's cooking this wekeend. Boy, I hope so - I'm dying to meet the family.

So here's my Insightful Question out of all this:

What's the most stressful travel situation you've had?

As for me, it's a toss-up between

• not knowing until 4:30 the day before BessFren and I were supposed to leave whether or not our airfare to Curacao had been ticketed (it was a freebie I won through work; lots of rules & restrictions)

and

• driving 100+ mph down the M40 from Oxford to London, hoping to high heaven that we made it in time for our flight (remembering along the way that we had to drop the car off. And oh, crap, gotta gas up, too). We got checked in, in time, but then got picked to be the lucky ones to have our luggage inspected with a fine-tooth comb. My companions were not very understanding about my wigging-out. It's just that I dont deal well with being Very Late. Makes me kinda crazy.

***********************

Postscript:

10/10: So, we're not in Canada after all. About noon on Friday, this Impatient Girl called the Canada Passport office to ask if, when they send out a passport, they generally let the recipient know what the tracking number is. I never did get the answer to that, but the guy I talked to asked for the CBB's date of birth and last name. I gave it to him -- hesitantly, as their site warns that calling and asking for a status could result in a delay. He pulled it up, and said, rather casually, that they hadn't started on it yet. Which made me wonder, why do they include a line on the application that asks for your departure date? they didn't even make an effort to try to get this started before CBB was scheduled to leave. Grr....

So, we're rescheduled to go in November -- thus starting the countdown all over again. But it gives me a bit more time to find something to wear that's more suitable than my many T-shirts. And figure out if the idea I had for a hostess gift is really the best I can come up with. ThinkThinkThink.....