Heltober is over
I am still R&R ing from October.
This year was not nearly as bad a years past. But my stamina is not what it used to be. :/
On the plus side while I was tired I was not weary. Missing sleep, not the deep fatigue of years past. I thank our new King Size bed for that. I am getting much better rest. :)
I am starting to pack up the bar. Working on the booze inventory card system and tweaking stock levels based on what we drunk. The new booze boxes will help a lot.
One of the new boxes kept falling apart. I guess some of the wood was spongy and would just not hold nails? I re-nailed it twice and it still pulled apart. Finally I deck screwed it together. Hopefully that will do the trick.
They yard and house are in good shape, not much to do, just basic clean up. Though I am moving slow. The laundry is almost caught up, I had a epic back log. And the laundry room is a mess, again. It was one of the "stash things out of the way" spots. As was our bedroom. IT will take me a week or 2 to get all of that stuff finally situated.
Setting up for Friday's game should be easy.
Finish packing up the bar
Reset the coffee station
Top off the tiki torches (I need to get more oil)
Move some props around
Shift some Halloween boxes out of the way
Post Party Review:
Supplies. I never got a chance to do my supply run Saturday. Lots of people volunteered to get stuff, but I was not well organized with my list so I missed a critical thing. Juices! I guess it was not too much of a issue the bar adjusted and people still drank. I really need to do a formal inventory about a week out.
Costume difficulties. Not too much I can do about this one. Working out the bug ahead of time is always the plan, but something always comes up. Try to do better and start earlier in the year.
Music. We had Pandora running in the house for a while and that was nice. But I need music in the whole yard.
Games / Kid friendly activities. We had planed to set up a Wii with rock band and Kariokie but had technical problems. Just one of those things that got pushed off to the last and we did not have time to fix. We did have TV and movies running in the living room so it worked out ok.
Post Halloween Review:
Halloween the day after the party is not a good idea. I was pretty tired and would have liked at least a day for clean up before having to set up for Halloween.
I think we did a good job. And with a few Trick or Treaters as we get I was not motivated to do more.
The new foggers rocked. We had some issues with the feed lines but eventual worked that out.
More smaller foggers is the way to go. Manual remotes worked ok, but automated times would be nice and allow for better positioning of the foggers.
We did not set up any sound / music. I got to remember to do that. Even just a iPod and speakers would have been enough.
A look out camera would have been nice, but by no means a must. I think some kind of low light web cam in a skull looking out at the people coming up to the house would be cool. If I can do it cheep and easy I will.
The front yard needs a overhaul. The props are getting ragged. A rebuild and a better lighting setup is needed. As well as some automated props.
Electrical Power. My big fogger makes everything flicker when it is heating. That is not good. I need some kind of power filter on it to keep it from affecting the rest of the house's power.
New Props:
A new FCG
Pop up heads
Fogger timers and covers (Tombstones?)
Updated Tombstones
Fence posts with built in lighting
Musings:
This year was another big infrastructure year. We seem to do the same amount of effort every year to get the place ready. But the bar on what that /is/ gets higher with each passing year.
In years past we just blocked off the driveway, or the back half of the yard. Each year we get more of the property usable, but there is always another problem area to address. Hopefully we can finally get ahead of this. Not having a "We have to get X cleared first" will make things so much easier.
Also not having some major project in September will make a big difference. Well we probably will, but it will be more party related. Permanent yard lighting and sound perhaps?
But baring a major remodel there just should not be much infrastructure stuff left to do. Of course I say that and something I have forgotten about pops up. :)
Lets review:
Garage - I WILL have it organized by the end of this year, dammit!
Driveway - the last cabinet needs to be cleaned out and eventual replaced.
Yard - The wood pile needs to be used up one way or another
Yard - Sprinkler system needs to be completely replaced
Yard - The area around the tree needs to be leveled and filled.
Yard - Permanent Outdoor sound system
Yard - Permanent Outdoor power outlets
Yard - Permanent Outdoor lighting system
Yard - Fence needs replacing
Yard - Front gate needs replacing
Garage - Library needs to be torn down eventually
Bathroom - needs to finish paint and tile
Office - need to finish baseboards, drapes
Craft Room - needs to be organized
Hmm, lots of good Summer yard work projects. Except for the Library none of these should be a major project by itself. Though a whole yard overhaul would be.
This year was not nearly as bad a years past. But my stamina is not what it used to be. :/
On the plus side while I was tired I was not weary. Missing sleep, not the deep fatigue of years past. I thank our new King Size bed for that. I am getting much better rest. :)
I am starting to pack up the bar. Working on the booze inventory card system and tweaking stock levels based on what we drunk. The new booze boxes will help a lot.
One of the new boxes kept falling apart. I guess some of the wood was spongy and would just not hold nails? I re-nailed it twice and it still pulled apart. Finally I deck screwed it together. Hopefully that will do the trick.
They yard and house are in good shape, not much to do, just basic clean up. Though I am moving slow. The laundry is almost caught up, I had a epic back log. And the laundry room is a mess, again. It was one of the "stash things out of the way" spots. As was our bedroom. IT will take me a week or 2 to get all of that stuff finally situated.
Setting up for Friday's game should be easy.
Finish packing up the bar
Reset the coffee station
Top off the tiki torches (I need to get more oil)
Move some props around
Shift some Halloween boxes out of the way
Post Party Review:
Supplies. I never got a chance to do my supply run Saturday. Lots of people volunteered to get stuff, but I was not well organized with my list so I missed a critical thing. Juices! I guess it was not too much of a issue the bar adjusted and people still drank. I really need to do a formal inventory about a week out.
Costume difficulties. Not too much I can do about this one. Working out the bug ahead of time is always the plan, but something always comes up. Try to do better and start earlier in the year.
Music. We had Pandora running in the house for a while and that was nice. But I need music in the whole yard.
Games / Kid friendly activities. We had planed to set up a Wii with rock band and Kariokie but had technical problems. Just one of those things that got pushed off to the last and we did not have time to fix. We did have TV and movies running in the living room so it worked out ok.
Post Halloween Review:
Halloween the day after the party is not a good idea. I was pretty tired and would have liked at least a day for clean up before having to set up for Halloween.
I think we did a good job. And with a few Trick or Treaters as we get I was not motivated to do more.
The new foggers rocked. We had some issues with the feed lines but eventual worked that out.
More smaller foggers is the way to go. Manual remotes worked ok, but automated times would be nice and allow for better positioning of the foggers.
We did not set up any sound / music. I got to remember to do that. Even just a iPod and speakers would have been enough.
A look out camera would have been nice, but by no means a must. I think some kind of low light web cam in a skull looking out at the people coming up to the house would be cool. If I can do it cheep and easy I will.
The front yard needs a overhaul. The props are getting ragged. A rebuild and a better lighting setup is needed. As well as some automated props.
Electrical Power. My big fogger makes everything flicker when it is heating. That is not good. I need some kind of power filter on it to keep it from affecting the rest of the house's power.
New Props:
A new FCG
Pop up heads
Fogger timers and covers (Tombstones?)
Updated Tombstones
Fence posts with built in lighting
Musings:
This year was another big infrastructure year. We seem to do the same amount of effort every year to get the place ready. But the bar on what that /is/ gets higher with each passing year.
In years past we just blocked off the driveway, or the back half of the yard. Each year we get more of the property usable, but there is always another problem area to address. Hopefully we can finally get ahead of this. Not having a "We have to get X cleared first" will make things so much easier.
Also not having some major project in September will make a big difference. Well we probably will, but it will be more party related. Permanent yard lighting and sound perhaps?
But baring a major remodel there just should not be much infrastructure stuff left to do. Of course I say that and something I have forgotten about pops up. :)
Lets review:
Garage - I WILL have it organized by the end of this year, dammit!
Driveway - the last cabinet needs to be cleaned out and eventual replaced.
Yard - The wood pile needs to be used up one way or another
Yard - Sprinkler system needs to be completely replaced
Yard - The area around the tree needs to be leveled and filled.
Yard - Permanent Outdoor sound system
Yard - Permanent Outdoor power outlets
Yard - Permanent Outdoor lighting system
Yard - Fence needs replacing
Yard - Front gate needs replacing
Garage - Library needs to be torn down eventually
Bathroom - needs to finish paint and tile
Office - need to finish baseboards, drapes
Craft Room - needs to be organized
Hmm, lots of good Summer yard work projects. Except for the Library none of these should be a major project by itself. Though a whole yard overhaul would be.