All Hallows' Eve

There are few things I have found in this wonderful life that give me such great joy as the shrieks of terror uttered from the mouths of very small children. The only thing that makes that sound even sweeter is when the fright is delivered by my own hand (*insert vaudevillian-villain laugh here).

A large portion of my infatuation with Autumn stems from the fact that it heralds the coming of my favorite of all holidays, Halloween. I can't recall exactly when I realized that it was indeed my favorite, but the six (count 'em, six!) 31-gallon-a-piece Rubbermaid tubs it takes to store my collection of horror-inducing props and contraband have made it a clear staple of my adult life that I annually look forward to with emphatic zeal.

My serene delight with Fall as described in my last entry is quickly and undeniably overshadowed for several weeks by the sudden reappearance of my own personal and maniacal little doppelganger. No really, this is what it actually looks like:



I know! What's the deal, right?! Just trailin' behind me like it owns the place for the whole month, giddy as a schoolgirl! It faithfully retreats though come the first of every November to wait patiently for its next opportunity for brilliant re-emergence. Stay tuned to see what trouble it gets up to this year...

Sweater Weather!

This is me:


Or rather, it will be me as the Summer continues to wane, the equinoctial point pushes temperatures lower and the moist green drains out of the leaves. I really hate Summer to be quite frank. Spring, tolerable. Winter, slightly more tolerable. Summer, abysmal. But Autumn......Aaaaahhhtumn.

It's one of two times a year when the Sun crosses the equator, and the day and night are of equal length. This perfect symmetry makes for one very happy Gemini. At the autumnal equinox, the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator, which I also find contributory to my giddy frame of mind.

Give me cloud cover, pumpkin harvests, migrating birds, knitted things and boots to wear, overly hot and long baths with good books, orange and brown and black.....mmmm, If you'll excuse me I have to go draw a bath and whip up some cinnamon spice cocoa. My copy of Twilight might not survive the Winter - the spine is holding up and at least I haven't dropped it in the tub (yet). The OCD Gemini twin got her way and the third run-through is well under way. Self control be damned; this is MY time of year.

Fanatic (noun) 1. Liz Perkins

So, um, I just finished reading the complete Twilight series...again. I actually took a full week this time to get through all four books. I'm fighting within my brain very hard right now to keep from starting again...again. Being a Gemini I get into fights with myself all the time. We'll see which side wins this one. It could get ugly.

Pure Fiction Ecstasy

4 books in 4.5 days = 1 immensely satisfied me and 1 lonely husband (sorry Dave)

Part of my occasionally falling out of mainstream craziness means that I sometimes am slow to catch up on such gems as the Twilight saga. 1:45 a.m. last night brought me blissfully to its conclusion. Once I had started, I simply couldn't stop. It was like watching a movie in my mind that I was so engrossed with that I could hardly stand to draw my attention away long enough to satisfy such frivolous needs as eating or sleeping. Even the call of nature never stopped my voracious and near maniacal propulsion forward. Sorry about that TMI moment. I devoured each page; consumed them one after the other. I never would have believed that I could breeze through 2,444 of them in just over a hundred hours and afterwards feel as though it only lasted the duration of a single beat of my heart. Even if Midnight Sun never sees the light of day in its entirety, I'll still be forever grateful. Stephenie Meyer, you are a goddess.

Belittling Bale's Batvoice

Ok now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE The Dark Knight and it will definitely find a place of honor in my DVD collection. However, just as many others have been, I was more than a bit distracted by Christian Bale's somewhat silly voice while behind the mask. Fortunately, there are mega-fans out there who create masterful gems like this one that reflect my own opinions perfectly. I hope you laugh as hard as I did.


http://view.break.com/554666 - Watch more free videos

And the saga continues...

Yes, we went back at it again last night on the "Hard" level and actually made it through to the final round! Josh rocked the vocals on the first song:



I had a rather grand rock star moment myself:



Devan took the vocals to town on our second song while Josh cranked out the ending bonus (I love this pic):



For the finals all of the bands had to do the same song, Dani California, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We only made it 20% through it before failing out but still got a prize baggie just for participating.



My seven-year-old niece, as it turns out, is brilliant behind a camera. She has the 'eye' as we photogs sometimes say and she was responsible for all of the trigger work last night. This definitely ranks among my favorite pictures of Dave:



I also liked this one that she took. Being on the other side of the shutter most of the time, I rarely end up on film - or on a memory card as the case now is. This pic isn't so much flattering or anything like that, but was just a nice capture of a moment.

SCANDAL at the Davis County Fair!

The Perks (that's us left to right: me, Seth, Josh, Devan) totally rocked their hearts out at the Davis County Fair tonight but sadly, didn't make the cut to the final round of the Rock Band competition.




As it turned out, however, the drummer for Neff (another competitor) had to leave right after their set and their band made it through to finals. They asked me if I would be willing to play with them so they wouldn't have to disqualify out and I am always up for playing. We totally cranked out Boston's "Foreplay". Come on, Boston and a county fair crowd? Wicked awesome. The band immediately following us, however, also gave all to their song and carried away some major points. The last band to play through in the finals pretty much sucked toenails and took home less than half the points that my surrogate band received, but managed still to win the competition. I guess there are more crooked judges out there than just in Beijing. Oh believe me now my dearies...letters will be written...Letters...will...be...WRITTEN. And then sent.

It was actually still a total riot and we might even go back for some more punishment tomorrow for the "Hard" level competition. Tonight's was "medium". So, there may be more to come from the Rock Band saga. We want those iPod Nano's dammit! Whoever braves the "Expert" level on Saturday (heaven help them) has the iPod Touch coming their way. Oo la la.