Just some quick photos from Chichen Itza. These are ones I have so far edited and corrected a bit. In time I’ll add more to my webshots and provide a link.

I really enjoyed seeing the place, but we had very little time there. Most of the day was spent traveling to and from. I told John one year we should do a tour of Mexico/Central America to get to all the places we haven’t seen. We also want to do Machu Picchu too.

I also added in two of the photos of us we had taken on the cruise.

Royal Caribbean has a private beach in Haiti, a very large one in fact, which they use for their ships while also employing the locals and helping the economy. We have been here a few times. It is nice enough, and I wouldn’t have bothered to get off the boat really. However I was on a quest! To buy some voodoo art for my classes. I had to wade through a lot of tourist art and pushy salesmen before hitting the jack pot. I originally made a video discussing all this, but it takes forever and a day to upload. So here are some photos instead.

I bought two things. One was a nice Skelton carving. The other was where I hit the jackpot as it was the only one I could find. Or the only one for sale that day. It appeared at first to be a little pestle and mortar carved out of wood, with the pestle being a effigy of a man. I thought yes! It was something for grinding herbs and making voodoo potions. That would be cool. But when I inspected closer I realized it was actually a fetish ….

It took me long enough this year, but I have the house pretty much done. Well the outside. I didn’t even start on the inside, I’ve been too busy this year. I may only do a minimal effort inside this year. We’ll see. Come one TV night this week, I may just throw it all up (John has a giant “Nightmare Before Christmas Village” I usually put out).

Outside I still need to tweak a few things, a few final touches to add, things I bought that still aren’t up (mostly lights). Unfortunately some of my old lights and strobes burned out, so I need to replace them at some point. Fortunately TarJay and other stores have these great LED yard lights and strobes that are way more efficient, and cheaper, so I’ll probably just go for them.

OMG! It’s going to be October this weekend, which means my thoughts have gone towards decorating. Of course my gifts from John have helped push me there too, along with the opening of all the Halloween stores. I vowed to be good this year and not buy too much, otherwise I’ll need a bigger yard!

I have decided this year I will only buy very cheap stuff I have to replace the cobwebs and “freaky fabrics” I use – CHEAP! I also bought some fun “spider lights” for the side of the house I expanded to last year – after a car plowed through the bushes leaving a gaping hole to be filled. I also bought a cheap $15 dollar ghost from target to hang there as well. I decided the material was light weight (and durable), it was cheap, so I would’t cry if the weather killed it – which I did after the rain killed one last year . . . . what a headache I had trying to rebuild him!

The weather really has been my main concern this year. The past few years we got a few nasty nor’easters that required fixing the outside decore a bit. I have gotten fairly good at securing stuff mind you. But the past two months have just been a lot of rain, way more than we are used to. I have to be mindful this year of where to place things and make the best use of our minimum covered porch space to protect things. I admit, I had thought of scrapping decorating all together or keeping it at a very bare minimum, the lights only. However I have to use what John gave me, it would be criminal not to! So I’m trying to figure out where to put things that are the most sheltered.

Anyways, to change the subject entirely, here are some more Monster Mania photos! No more Monster Mania’s till next March . . . what will I do? Oh there is Chiller Con at the end of the month . . .

Pam and Holly from “True Blood” — Anthony Michael Hall – Farmer Ted!
Zach Galligan “Gremlins” — Tom Atkins “The Fog” — Claire Higgins “Hellraiser”

Yes, some of the photos aren’t the best, we’ll chalk it up to jet lagged stars! Next time I won’t try and meet everyone the first night! They need rest

Sorry it’s been awhile since my last post. Busy busy as of late. I had a birthday over Labor Day. The big 36. I am officially closer to 40 than 30 now. John got me a bunch of Halloween decor, more than I know what to do with! 8 giant tombstones and 4 dead bodies in cocoons . . . whole sale comes in hands sometimes. He wasn’t extreme couponing.

I’ll try and not let 15 some days go by without a post again. I have been posting photos to my Tumblr Blog still.

Monster Mania 19 was just held here in Cherry Hill, and as always, I had a blast! This year I went more for the sci-fi fantasy people than horror, as many of them were childhood shows or movies. From Flash Gordon, to Buck Rogers, to the Princess Bride . . . oh and of course Sam Merlotte from True Blood!

So I took a good 40+ photos on the ghost walk. Not surprisingly, a lot were just crap. As the night wore on, it got more humid out, and the camera flash was reflecting off water drops in the air filling my photo with orbs that weren’t anything otherworldly. I could see them lighting up in the air in the flash. So I attempted to take as many photos without the flash, using only the available light, as I could. The issue there is the camera has to be completely still, otherwise you just get a blurred photo. I didn’t bring a tripod (next time!) so I had to use walls and trash cans to rest it on.

Of all the photos I took, here are some of the more unusual. In a few I adjusted lighting and contrast to make things easier to see, though I picked all the weirdnesses out of the original untouched photos fairly easily.

I took a lot of photos over the wall of the cemetery at Bruton Parish Church. In two I had a blueish-green orb moving across the back. In others, nothing. These were taken without any flash, so these aren’t water droplets.

Of note, the light streak, that is from a lantern nearby. Was that the cause of the orb? Was it a fluke? I don’t know!

Another two photos for comparison at the church. In the steeple window in one there is some bizarre light. I called it a visitor, because it actually reminded me of an alien!

I can’t recall which house this is. However the orbs here are all from moisture in the air. Few of the houses had any lighting inside at night. Something, or someone, looks to be sitting in the top right window, as if peering out in a rocking chair?

This too was from the church. The focus was the tombstone, which the guide told us people see images in the stone that had appeared over time (a skull, the family’s dog, etc). However in the window it looks like a man is peering out, with a colonial type ruffled color and coat on. Of course I may be stretching

Boo! Believe!

Just a quick update. It’s our last day of vacation here in Williamsburg. Back to the real world tomorrow. Been having a lot of fun, even if it’s been 97-101 every day. Did Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. We are going on a ghost walk tonight, so maybe I’ll catch some ghosts on film? Below are a few photos from Williamsburg and Yorktown. I forgot my camera the day we went to Jamestown, so I had to use my phone. Fortunately I have a million photos from there from my trip 3 years ago. Mouse/Hover over a photo for a description of what the photo is of.

Just some photos of my gardening so far. I just noticed today I have my first tomatoes (four of them) coming in. Two of my several plants are flowering.

(Left) My Topsy Turvery planter has three seedlings John brought me. One is of the Ramapo variety, a classic Jersey Tomato. The other two are 589s and Tie-Dye Tomatoes . . . which I don’t believe I’ve ever tasted.

(Right) I also have several tomato plants in planters that I grew from seedlings and transplanted. These are just your run of the mill Burpee seeds, i.e. beefsteaks, cherry tomatoes and whatever else I had bought (I forget!)

My sunflowers are coming in. I planted them on all three sides of the garden this year. Unfortunately at first only two came in (the ones in the right photo). I found that odd, since these were the ones most in the shade! I think animals might have eaten the others. I did not give up and kept planting though, and the others are all slowly coming in.

So monster kitty had her second vet appointment, and I HAD to give her a name. I told them it was Baroness Tangina Von MewMew. The lady at the desk then had to go an tell every one of the staff the cat’s name . . . .

They just put down Tangina, but we call her MewMew. That’s what she has learned and responded to.

MewMew also met her first BIG dog at the vet. She hissed, which I never heard her do. She growled too, never heard that! She shot straight up me (I was holding her at the time) and went to the back of my neck.

She was scared shitless . . . no really she had an accident on me . . . .

The lady behind the desk said “You should have a cat carrier!”

Yes I know, but she was small enough at this point still I didn’t bother. I won’t make that mistake again!