I Can't Believe It! :o)

Have you ever lived in an apartment complex that holds contests for the residents? Most of the ones I have lived in, over the years, will have pool parties in the summer or chili cook offs in the winter. You know, get to know your neighbor kind of stuff. They are nice but, I honestly don’t pay a whole lot of attention to them. Mostly, just because I always seem to be busy whenever that stuff happens. Anyway, I received a notice on my door yesterday saying that my apartment has been nominated in the Halloween contest they have going on. Awesome! That’s never happened before. I can’t take the credit for it though. I love Halloween but, I don’t usually bother with decorating the outside of my apartment. This year has been different though. My fiancé is a Halloween freak and I am not dropping the “F” word lightly here either.lol He loves Halloween the way most little kids love Christmas day. So far he has put 2 skeletons, 3 ghosts, 3 lit up pumpkins, a vampire, and a scarecrow on our patio. He also put up little flashing skeleton string lights and strings of pumpkin lights as well. I think that’s all of it.lol There definitely isn’t room for anything else on our tiny patio. He told me last night that he doesn’t want to put anything else out because then that would just be going overboard with it. You think?lol Voting goes on until Monday I believe. I hope for his sake we win. Wish us luck.


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That Makes Two

Remember how freaked out I was by the Halloween toy, in the living room, going off all by itself a couple of weeks ago? I almost put the darn thing in the closet outside but, decided to go ahead and keep it there just to see what would happen. Well, it did it again wednesday evening. Just went off 3 times in a row then nothing. I'm not quite sure what to think about it. I guess I have a friend visiting? Two times definately isn't enough to get TAPS interested but, I wish I had a video camera so I could do some investigating of my own.lol I checked it again just to be sure it works okay and it appears fine. I don't know....what do you think? Am I loosing it?lol




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Scare Me Please!

Woo Hoo! I am loving this Halloween season. Has anyone been to Thrillvania Thrill Park out in Terrell, Texas yet? It was selected by America Online as one of America’s top haunted houses and it is Awesome! My only regret is getting out there too late to see all the attractions. Now, knowing I had limited time I went straight for Verdun Manor. The tale behind it goes something like this. In 1901, Baron Michael Verdun, who is a psychopathic werewolf, and Lady Cassandra, his vampire wife, build a grotesque house on Voodoo Bayou where he conducts cruel experiments on travelers, turning them into human-animal hybrids. Those crazy Verduns, also loved throwing fiendish masquerades where they would serve human flesh to their guests. All the fun and games came to an end though, one stormy night, when an angry vigilante mob, set the house on fire and murdered the Baron and his wife. Before he died, Michael swore vengeance upon any who dared to enter his realm. Now, that’s an entertaining story to be sure but, I have to admit that I am not normally impressed by most haunted houses I visit. Maybe it’s because I’m older now and not as easily impressed by guys swinging a chainsaw at me anymore.lol I must say though that I have never been to one that put this much attention into the details before. They put a lot of work into that place. The bayou and graveyard leading up to the house are impressive. Just imagine, it’s cold and dark and the mist is so thick you can barely see in front of you and it seeps into your clothes after awhile. When you do finally get to the house it looks just like a haunted house is supposed to look like. Scary!lol Plus, it’s cool how they have flames that shoot out of the chimneys on the house. They even have a fountain out front that is full of blood and bones. It’s great. The only thing that put a damper on it, for me, was that there were too many people there. I don’t blame them a bit for wanting to be there but, it does make things a tad less scary when there are a truckload of people going through it with you. The actors still managed to scare the tar out of a few friends of mine though. That was hilarious! I’m such a nice friend right?lol Oh, I forgot to mention that they had a lot of well known scary movie characters representing throughout the grounds. My favorite one out there was pin head from, the movie, Hellraiser. His costume was awesome!

So that was my latest haunted adventure. I’d like to go to another one this weekend if at all possible. Does anyone have any recommendations? I’d love to hear them.

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American Hauntings

I just love watching stuff about ghosts. Did anyone catch Taps last night on the Sci Fi channel? It was awesome! They were down in Louisiana investigating Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie. I wish I could have been there with them during filming. Do you remember the scene, in Interview with a Vampire, where Brad Pit’s character is talking about his days before becoming a vampire? Well during that scene there is a shot of him riding away from this humongous plantation home that he lives at. That’s Oak Alley plantation. I actually got a chance to visit it a few years back. That place is huge! They say that during one tour, a candlestick flew across the room in full view of 35 tourists! Unfortunately though, nothing out of the ordinary happened while I was there. It would have been so cool if it had. Anyway, they guys get called out by one of the people who run the place. They want to see if Taps can get real documented video footage on the ghosts that are said to inhabit the place. They said that staff and volunteers have witnessed all kinds of cool stuff. Everything from figures in windows, lights coming on and going off by themselves, and the sound of boots on the floor even though no one is there. There have even been instances where some of the tour guides swear that they have heard carriages coming up the drive that are accompanied by a cloud of dust moving towards the house but, there isn’t anything there to be causing it. Now I am a skeptic so my first thought was okay, how much of this is really true? I’ve watched a few of their shows where they go to investigate places only to find out that the strange things people are experiencing can be explained away by normal stuff like shutters or mirrors. They actually had some cool stuff happen to them though and caught it on video. There was one instance where they had a flashlight come on all by itself and when they went to investigate, it went off and they found that the light was very cold to the touch and the immediate area surrounding the light was cold as well. My favorite thing, that happened to them, was they caught someone looking at them through the window off the balcony. There was no one out there though! Another cool thing they caught, on audio, was the sound of the boots on the floor. They were all wearing either flip flops or tennis shoes! Awesome. If I had actually been there, I probably would have been scared out of my ever loving mind.lol

I can’t help but, wonder how many people have unexplainable things happen to them? You know in ordinary places like their apartment or house. It doesn’t just happen at old plantation homes and castles. I would be interested to hear about it. If it will make you more inclined to tell me, about it, I will tell you about something that happened to me just the other night. It freaked me out and I still can’t figure out if I've watched too many episodes of ghost hunter or if I’m just losing my mind. Probably a little of both but, I digress.lol Anyway, I was home by myself, late Tuesday night when one of our Halloween toys, in the living room, started going off all by itself! Now I know some of those things have sensors that get set off really easy but, this one is set so you have to literally push the button on this thing to make it work. It went off 6 or 7 times in a row and then stopped. It hasn’t gone off since. I was tempted to stick it in the closet on the patio it freaked me out so bad.lol In the end though I left it. I’m curious to see if it does it again anytime soon. So, as I mentioned before, I would love to hear if anyone else has had some strange stuff happen to them. Please tell me I’m not the only one.lol :o)
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My Top Halloween Movie Pics

Do you mind if I complain for just a very brief moment? Hope not, because I’m going to do it anyway. Now this is just an observation of mine but, it seems like Christmas sales are starting earlier every year. I remember, when I was a kid, the stores would at least wait until Thanksgiving was over before they ”whipped the holly jolly” out on everybody. Not anymore. Did they even wait till September this year? Come on already. There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than hearing Christmas carols before December. Please, give me a chance to enjoy Halloween and everything that comes with it first. The fall season just started and I am so excited about it. This is the one time of year when adults can dress up like Zombies, Vampires, heck even our favorite super hero and totally get away with it and, after recent events, I’m already wondering how many bananas chasing gorillas we will see on the streets come Halloween night. Yes, this time of year is great. When else can you visit haunted houses, play pranks, and eat candy shaped like eyeballs. One of my favorite things to do is have scary themed movie watching parties. Now I know we all have our own strong opinions as to what the best movies to watch are, at least in my house but, it’s always a great time. I thought just for the heck of it I would make my own countdown of personal Halloween favorites. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this but, that’s fine by me. I welcome the feedback. Now without further ado let’s get to it:

10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Why do I like this one? It was really gory and twisted. There were a few times that I had to shut my eyes but, it’s based on a true story and who doesn’t love that? R. Lee Ermey plays the deranged stepfather who kills the sheriff and takes on his identity. He was absolutely disgusting! It was great! Even if that kid had been born “normal” so to speak he would have never stood a chance being raised with that group of freaks that he had to call family. Yikes!

9. The Amityville Horror (2005)
This is based on a true story too. I remember having nightmares as a kid after I saw the original. I may be the only one who thinks this but, I prefer the remake with Ryan Reynolds. He was great in it and the special effects were pretty cool. What I don’t get is why would anyone want to move into a house that looks like that in the first place? It just looks creepy. No thank you very much.

8. Gothika
I was surprised by this one. I didn’t expect to like it. I just love a good ghost story though and this one delivered just that. Halle Berry plays the part of a repressed psychiatrist who wakes up as a patient in the very asylum were she worked and has no memory of what happened. It is a trip and the ending is very unexpected, which is great. I hate it when you’re able to figure out the ending ahead of time.

7. Blade: Trinity
Now I know this is the 3rd movie in the Blade Trilogy but, it is by far my favorite. Dracula, the king of vampires, is awakened and it is just one kick butt scene, at least to me, after another. Of course, if your familiar with the Blade character at all, you already know he will kick ass but, that doesn’t matter. If you like Vampires, you will love this movie.

6. Saturday the 14th (1981)
I didn’t say that all my favorites were actually scary did I? This is some great stupid humor and was on the top of my list, as a kid, back in the day. It’s a spoof on the Friday the 13th series but, it also takes shots at several other horror films. If you like watching movies from the 1980’s, like I do, then you are almost guaranteed to like this movie.

5. Underworld
There is nothing better to me, around Halloween, than a good vampire movie and this one is awesome. Kate Beckinsale plays Selene, a vampire warrior, who is entrenched in a war between the vampire and werewolf races. It’s fought in a gothic-like setting and the special effects are awesome.

4. Shaun of the Dead
How can you not love a romantic comedy filled with flesh eating zombies? Poor Shaun is just trying to turn his life around, win back his girlfriend and reconcile with his mother but, these darn pesky zombies are taking over and trying to eat everybody. This movie is greatness!

3. Interview With a Vampire
Have you noticed my love of vampire movies yet? This is another great one. I love just about everything Anne Rice writes and this movie was about the first book of the Vampire Chronicles. When I first found out Tom Cruise was playing the Vampire Lestat, I was shocked. Tom Cruise? No way! He actually nailed it though. He was great. That was such a good surprise. Unlike the Queen of the Damned movie that came out a few years ago that was based on another of her books, this one was awesome. It kept with the story line almost perfectly. If you haven’t read the Vampire Chronicles yet you should.

2. 1408
I didn’t know what to expect when I went to see this at the theatre. This movie is a trip! It’s about Mike Enslin, a cynical writer who writes books evaluating supernatural events that go on in hotels and other haunted places, usually debunking the mystery. Anyway, he hears about this hotel room, in the Dolphin Hotel, that is permanently unavailable to guests. The manager tries everything to keep him from staying in that room but, finally gives up after Mike threatens to sue the hotel. He finds out real quick though that while he can check out anytime he likes, he can never leave alive.

1. Planet Terror
I’m not much for zombie movies but, this movie was awesome. It’s a throwback to the Grindhouse movies from the 70’s. It’s even made to look and sound like one from back then. It takes place one night after an experimental bio-nerve gas is accidentally released at a remote U.S. Military base in Texas. Anyone exposed to the gas turns into flesh-eating zombies. If you have an affinity for old style movies like this you have to see it. It is sheer greatness!


So there is my list, love it or hate, I don’t mind. I meant it though when I said that I’m open to feedback or suggestions. I would like to find one or two new ones to watch the next time movie night rolls around. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to spoil my inner child by shopping for Halloween goodies. I am having a hard time deciding the perfect thing to be this year but, it’s fun to look around.





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