Google Today, SkyNet Tomorrow: My Birthday Edition

I was surprised to see this when I fired up the ol' Lappy 486 yesterday:

Yes, it's probably just based on a simple date in my Google+ profile (yes, I have one. no, I don't use it. yes, I'm still ashamed to have one), but it's nonetheless indicative of the coming SkyNet takeover.

And yet, I still like that it was a screen just for me.

So thanks, Google, for personalizing my internet experience yesterday.
And even more, thanks to all of you who made it a great day by wishing me a happy birthday through calls, texts, in-person greetings, and Facebook wall posts!

I'm who I am today because of all of you! Muchas gracias!

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This Year's Pie Night and Thanksgiving

Another amazing week of Pie Night and Thanksgiving festivities. And too much to write, so I'll sum it up mainly with pictures.

For another great recap of these lovely holiday events, see my sister's blogpost about them.

Pie Night Prep

You can't have a good Pie Night if you don't prepare properly.

So Heidi and I made a few pies. She did chocolate pecan, and I did cranberry-ginger pear.

Rollin' with the homies...

She makes her crusts, I buy mine
No wonder her pies are so much better

Doesn't it look amazing?!

Pie Night

I think our chocolate pecan and cranberry-ginger pear made their first appearances at this year's Pie Night.
Both did well (meaning they got eaten quickly), but the chocolate pecan was the first gone, and I'm not surprised, because it was absolutely delicious.

Showing off our contributions

Smyth girls

Smyth boys (minus dad)

We even had gluten-free pie (thanks, Danny!)

The first round of options

The night "Cup o' Pie" was invented

Thanksgiving

With our pie lust satisfied (as much as is reasonably possible) the previous night, we were ready for turkey and all the rest of the Thanksgiving goods. And I definitely had plenty, though my favorite part was and is and likely always will be the spending time with family, immediate as well as extended.

Siblings gotta snuggle a lil bit, right?

These gals have style

After this point, all I could think of was eating and socializing, so the camera got put away.

Thanks for a great holiday, family and friends. Hope yours was just as wonderful!

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Monday: Oh, Bother

Another Monday.

Sometimes, I just wish the weekend kept going a few extra days.

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Thank You, Veterans

Thanks to the men and women of our U.S. military, past and present, for their sacrifices on our behalf.

May the families of those who have perished by blessed, and may our active duty all return home safely.

May we all strive for peace at home and abroad so fewer and maybe eventually none have to put their lives on the line.

Happy Veterans Day, all.

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A "Once Upon a Dream" Halloween

There's a lot of build-up to Halloween night.

You know, haunted houses and pumpkin carving and such.

But the real Halloween holiday season payoff is the big night and getting to wear costumes.

Heidi and I wanted to do a couples costume.
We struggled to decide on what we'd be, until we landed on the idea of Prince Phillip and Briar Rose.

This is what we were shooting for:

With the help of some pieces from HCT rentals, and my amazing mother making my tunic and hat, I'd say Heidi and I rocked our costumes. And I gotta admit it feels cool carrying a sword around all night.

Conclusive proof that Heidi is a princess in disguise

My sister Megan joined us, appropriately/coincidentally dressed as a blue fairy, and we had a fun night visiting several friend parties.

Yes, that's a ghost horse photobomb

Heidi and her SLAC friends in great costumes

Hmm, what to be next year... It'll be hard to top this one.

What were you? Did you do a couples or group costume?

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Happy Halloween from George and Lenny Pumpkin

Happy Halloween, friends!

Today is the big day for all the ghouls and goblins and witches and warlocks out there.

It's also showtime for all the jack o'lanterns so painstakingly carved in the last couple weeks.

Heidi and I carved some pumpkins a few weeks ago, and we were happy with how they turned out.

Gotta start with good-shaped pumpkins.

As a (mostly) black cat, Amelie wanted in on the Halloween festivities.

Since mine turned out kinda goofy, and Heidi's was more serious/legit, we named them George and Lenny after the characters from Of Mice and Men. 

But instead of tending the rabbits, they want to suck their blood. Makes sense, right?

The finished product, our George and Lenny look-alikes.

The masterminds with our carved creations.

I've never looked better, I know.

Carving pumpkins was lots of fun, and then Heidi put the cherry on top of our Halloween-festivities sundae by cooking up the seeds and bringing them to work for my coworkers and me. Delicious!

I think this had brown sugar, chipotle chili powder, and cumin.

Note: sadly, our jack o'lanterns didn't last until Halloween. Although decomposing gore certainly fits the Halloween theme, I imagine the smell wasn't quite worth it. Next time we'll carve them closer to the big day!

If you're gonna carve jack o'lanterns still, please be careful and don't pull a Dr. Steve Brule:

HT: Heidi's tumblr

Have a safe and happy Halloween, everybody!
Can't wait to see the costume pics on your Facebook and Instagram pages today and tomorrow!

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Haunted Houses: For the Fun of Getting the Crap Scared Out of You

I don't like being scared. I don't like horror movies. I just don't like that stuff.

But at Halloween, I can like the right kind of scary, and haunted houses have a certain appeal.

Granted, I'm still freaked out the whole time, but at least I'm holding a really cute girl close to me the whole time while being terrorized. And it's only one month of the year, so I can man up.

Heidi and I went to the Nightmare on 13th haunted house earlier this month, and it was great.

Intense, clever, surprising, and just the right amount of scary.

There were three sections to the building, each with different scare tactics, designs, and creatures.

1) Dark Harvest: an evil farm where the plants have grown into monsters and kill all they can find. Better than I'd expected, with great sets and unexpected use of textures of things hanging and even the floors. 

2) 13 Levels of Fear: a walkthrough of 13 popular fears, from heights to clowns to hell to the number 13. Another that I underestimated. The heights room was especially cool; we want to know how they did it!

3) Mutant: a parasitic goop is loose, and it's mutating the people in a facility. The military is trying to contain it, but you've got to get through without getting infected or killed. Pretty good, but I liked the other two sections more.

I don't know if Heidi was protecting me more, or if I was protecting her. Probably a lot of both.

But it was a fun night at the haunted house, and I didn't have a heart attack, so I'm happy.

I'm obviously very good at protecting my date.

All smiles having survived the scares for this year.

If you're considering going to a haunted house in the last couple days of October, or even this weekend, Nightmare on 13th is a good one. And here's a coupon to save a few bucks.

What do you think of haunted houses? Are you a fan of them?

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