Decision: Made

In a nice change from what has been the Shittiest Week Ever, I got to visit with my friend Steve and his lovely daughter Madeleine (pictured). She's in the argument for Cutest Kid in America, which is good, because her sister (not pictured) is also in the argument. Steve had the good sense to marry up, so they get their looks from their mother.

For those of you waiting on pins and needles re: What the fuck am I going to be for Halloween? - Wait no more. I decided to be the "Adult Beer Guy", which is sort of an octoberfest / liederhosen / alpine deal. I opted for this getup because it's about average in terms of douche level, but should be reasonably comfortable. Those velour shorts are looking wonderfully textured and polyester. Very slimming. You can't ask for more than that. At least not for $60.

It's times like these you start asking yourself the important questions...

Important questions like: what the fuck am I going to be for Halloween?

I loathe dress up but the alternative (sitting at home doing nothing) isn't really workable, esp. when my friends are throwing a big Halloween party again this year and all I have to do is show up. Last year they got 300 people to go. Plus there will be plenty of trashy girls dressed in slutty outfits (or is it slutty girls in trashy outfits? either way, really). So we're costume shopping.

Because I'm crap at costume ideas and even more crap at putting them together I'm going to buy one off the internet. It's fine to show up as a sunflower (Pete in 2008) or kissing booth (Jeff, 2007) or 'dynamite in the sack' (Jeff, 2006) or Dennis Rodman (Pete, 2009) or a cockblock (Mike in 2006 - he wore a box with pictures of roosters taped to it) but only if you're really committed to the project. I'm committed to getting out of the house, not the dress up aspect. Narrowed it down to a few choices: 

• Star Trek engineering costume (red, although if you didn't think 'red' when I said 'star trek engineering' then you're reading the wrong blog)
• Liederhosen outfit w/ the shorts and suspenders. And maybe the hat? Not sure. 
• Ryu, the character from Street Fighter. Because I think that would be funny. 
• Disco guy in powder blue polyester pants/vest (but a better, fitted shirt). 

I'm leaning towards the Liederhosen outfit because it would be reasonably comfortable and appropriately silly. Even though someone else will almost certainly be wearing it. Mix and match, get a Lieder-disco thing happening?
We're soliciting feedback, so if you've got some, let me know. I'll transact by the end of the week, I think. To make sure it's here in time, fits, etc.

Today > Monday

Nothing great about today except that it's not Monday. I wish I had something nice to say but I don't. FML.

Right now you'll have to make do with the first batch of pictures from my recent trip to London and Spain. I put them on flickr (instead of kodakgallery) because I wanted to be able to link to them directly from here and not have to send you an email invitation. It's especially useful for the people that visit this space that I don't know very well. Which, judging by the google analytics data, is most of you.

If you do decide to browse the flickr photos, be sure to read the comments. They may (or may not) explain why I included a particular picture. Photos that I really enjoyed will show up in this space for further review.

Photo for THIS post was taken in our room in Madrid. Both me and Ze Newbs were a) glad to be on the last leg of our journey, and b) glad that our trip from Sevilla to Madrid was about as easy as it could have been. And I thought it was funny to get a picture of him coming out of the closet, as it were.