Yer a Wizard, Johnny

Our friends Gabby and Derek invited us to a Harry Potter themed party at their house. I always sort of secretly wanted a Hogwarts outfit and wand since we visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando like ten years ago. Well this party plus our pending trip to Universal Studios Hollywood pushed me into wizard mode.

It's completely normal to dress like a magical British school child, I think.

Gabby really went all out with the menu. There were wands made out of asparagus with like croissant dough wrapped around them, and deviled eggs with little olive spiders.

They had a boozy butterbeer in production as well. Somewhere in the middle of mixing up a batch of these Derek blurted out that Gabby was pregnant!  That was fun. Maybe we won't completely lose all of our friends after we have a baby after all.

In addition to growing a human she also made some pretty frightening little potatoes.

I brought some fancy booze out of the beer cellar from the far away land of St. Louis.

I also brought a non-alcoholic potable from the even farther away land of a Saudi Arabian shopping mall with a big hole on top. We initially planned on popping it for New Year's but ran out of time.

Derek has a 3D printer he's proud of and made several creations with that. They also printed some fun Harry Potter style nerd glasses with lightning bolt included that were fun.

At the end of the night we did a lot of Expecto Patronum spells at some black Dementor balloons that attacked us. They even had some 3d printed patronus animal figurines inside. These guys really went all out. 

I went home with my very own 3D printed Dobby the House Elf parting gift.

Modern Stone-Age Family

I always say that the closest you can get to the fun of doing something for the first time is to do something with someone and it's their first time. So I was excited to take Julie and Renaud out on a Halloween bar crawl in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood for their first Halloweeny experience.

Checking in was a mess with a lot of lines, so we didn't stay long. Our French friends were surprised at how revealing some of the costumes were.

I don't think Julie ever drinks and Renaud is a baker and had to go to bed pretty early, so we were trying to think of something to amuse them in the area and why the heck not mini golf at Flatstick Pub? The fact that we've already paid for lifetime passes had nothing to do with our decision, I can assure you.

Flintstones fit check. A lot of people gave me "yabba dabbas" on the street which I appreciated. One rando even told me how Fred was his role model because he always stopped working when the bird whistle blew at the quarry. I hadn't considered that he was such a working class hero.

I had the honor of spray painting Lydia's hair orange back at the house.

Wilmaaaaa!

We let our friends borrow some of our costumes from past years.

I beat Lydia's little butt.

Yabba dabba, yabba dabba dabba do now.

Halloween Party at Club Rep

Lydia found us a sweet Halloween party sponsored by Webster University's Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

It was awesome for multiple reasons. First of all, every single part of it was free. I was a little hesitant to get excited about it because it was so cool that I figured that there must be some kind of catch.

Not only did they have a ton of complimentary snacks, but they had a theatre company's production values. Everything looked like a lot of care went into making it. I mean who among you has seen such a beautiful tray of cinnamon rolls with icing made to look like intestines?

I was also excited because it meant I could wear my hotdog costume again.

You see, "In economics, fixed costs, indirect costs or overheads are business expenses that are not dependent on the level of goods or services produced by the business. They tend to be time-related, such as interest or rents being paid per month, and are often referred to as overhead costs. This is in contrast to variable costs, which are volume-related (and are paid per quantity produced) and unknown at the beginning of the accounting year. For a simple example, such as a bakery, the monthly rent for the baking facilities, and the monthly payments for the security system and basic phone line are fixed costs, as they do not change according to how much bread the bakery produces and sells. On the other hand, the wage costs of the bakery are variable, as the bakery will have to hire more workers if the production of bread increases. Economists reckon fixed cost as an entry barrier for new entrepreneurs."

"In management accounting, fixed costs are defined as expenses that do not change as a function of the activity of a business, within the relevant period. For example, a retailer must pay rent and utility bills irrespective of sales. In marketing, it is necessary to know how costs divide between variable and fixed costs. This distinction is crucial in forecasting the earnings generated by various changes in unit sales and thus the financial impact of proposed marketing campaigns. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 60 percent responded that they found the "variable and fixed costs" metric very useful."

As we descended the stairs from the lobby there was a girl handing out free jello shots that came in syringes. This was my kind of place.

Someone went to the trouble of sticking googly eyes onto all of these cups!

The music was rad as well. There was a DJ but at times he would play the sax over it. Insane that this was free.

Pumpkin vomit veggie tray? Check.

There was a free tarot card reader!?