Harry Potter Part 2

No. There is no part one to this blog post.  I'm referring to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Movie Part 2.

This movie series may be the greatest movies ever made.  Now, before you get all agro on me and say.. but WAIT.. Lord of the Rings! Let me Clarify.  There are 8 movies in this series filling a total of roughly 20 hours of time.  This series is directed at Young Adult to Adult audiences, and is much the same an EPIC quest to Win as LOTR's.

The difference is that while LOTR is visually fantastic and a wonderful story, it's not something that I constantly finding myself picking out off the dvd shelves in my apartment.  I am not someone who is discerning when it comes to movies.  I love all kinds of movies from (get this!) the Lizzie McGuire Movie to Pitch Black to The Last Unicorn, to 3 Men and a Baby.  I like movies for what they do for us, and if you don't get it, Movies allow us to forget reality for a few hours and live an adventure.

Harry Potter is an Adventure by Every single stretch of the imagination.  The world that JK Rowling created is a world MANY of us have probably thought about being part of at some point in time.  For those of you who claim to not know anything about Harry Potter, I call Liar.  You may not know the story, but you know the Characters.  Even the Amish know who Harry Potter is!  You may claim that it's not your cup of tea (as I've recently been told by several people), and I too call Bullschkiva.  How can you not love a story that has love, family, Friendship, Epic Battles, Magic, Adventure, Travelling, LOVE, and FAMILY.  Yeah, I said those last 2 twice.  Harry Potter's central theme (imho) is Love and Family.  How a boy can come from essentially nothing, and end with so much.  Harry starts out with Friends, who eventually become his family.  JK taught us that it's not necessarily who your blood relatives are (although some a quite awesome - see the Weasley Family), but who loves you.  He gets to use Magic, travel across the UK, fight the most dastardly evil villain of all time (Tim and I have used his name to describe a certain person who shall 'remain nameless' on this blog for their evil ways),  Go to school in a grand castle, and gain family and friends.  What part of any of that sounds like 'not your cup of tea'?  What kind of movies do you enjoy? Documentary? Fine.  Harry Potter is a Documentary about the life and struggles of a young wizard growing up.  Nature? Sure. There are PLENTY of creatures you've never heard of before from Acromantula's, to Doxies, to Half-Kneazles.   Love Story? Wow, this one is REALLY covered.  Harry + Ginny = Forever, Ron + Hermione = Forever, Bill + Fleur = Forever, Tonks + Lupin = Forever... There is love by the BOATLOADS in these books and movies!  Action / Adventure?  Are you kidding?  It's one giant epic battle waiting to play out!  Horror?  Have you SEEN what Voldemort looks like?  Suspense - only if you haven't read the books!

So tell me again how you are not interested in Harry Potter.  Tell me how it's not something you'd ever care to watch, and then tell me once you secretly went to the theater by yourself to see how it ends! =)

So we waited in Line at the Mira Mesa IMAX 18 from 6:30am-Midnight for Harry Potter.  We were about 70 people back in line at that point.  Yeah, really.  We had a FANTASTIC group of people in front of us, who had I of not been exhausted and struggling in the heat, would of probably befriended them WAY before we got inside the theater.  The one guy in the group, wearing a Green Sweater - didn't learn names - was especially wonderful.  After seeing my cousin Stacy struggling once they put us inside the theater to wait for 5 hours, he went and got an employee to get her a chair to sit in.  It was incredibly thoughtful, and we all appreciated it.  If I knew his name, I'd let everyone know!  This group also hooked us up with CUPCAKES in the theater once we all got seats.  How thoughtful again!  I wish there was a way to repay them.  Some people really do get it though!  The girls behind us were a completely different story.  Loud, Obnoxious, Screeching at high loud volumes, generally being a pain the butt, with NO sense of respect for those around them or their belongings.  After sitting in the HOT Sun ALL DAY LONG, we were all pretty exhausted.  These girls actually gave me a headache from their screeching.  We are all there to have fun, but there is such a thing as volume control.  Stacy was not feeling well, and REALLY struggling, and I had like 3+ hours sleep that I was rolling on, and Timmy was getting sunburned... but the group in front of us still made us appreciate the Harry Potter experience.

So around 6pm the theater "managers" come out and tell us that some patrons at the BACK OF THE LINE have been complaining that they don't have enough ROOM, and they are going to move the first 80 people inside the theater.  Are you kidding?  So he tells us to PACK UP OUR CHAIRS AND UMBRELLAS to go inside and SIT ON THE FLOOR for the next 5 hours.  SERIOUSLY.  The people at the BACK OF THE LINE who had JUST ARRIVED at 6PM (we'd been there since 6:30AM), were complaining about their place in line.  I hope every single one of them burns in hell. EVERY ONE.  We got put inside the theater at that point, lined up outside the IMAX theater down the hallway.  It then WRAPPED BACK AND FORTH on the hard TILE FLOOR, where were got stuck.  We got forced into a Corner UNDER THE DRINKING FOUNTAINS for that side of the theater, with no chairs, and a super miserable floor situation.  I went to the truck and got all the blankets I could, and we made do by 'stealing' their electricity to watch HP7pt1 on Tim's Laptop.  No one said anything to us, because if they had, I'd of told him to take a flying leap of a bridge at that point.  While sitting there, we got Gold Stars on our tickets, which then allowed us in and out privileges for the theater.  Something no one else had at that point, but whatever!

They finally let us into the actual Theater around 11pm.  We got our 3D glasses and pretty darn awesome seats, considering we were around 60-70 in line.  The endless announcements every 2-3 minutes was annoying, and unnecessary.

I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it yet, but I was in TEARS for parts, Laughing at Parts, Cheering at Parts (and i'm DEFINITELY NOT a movie cheerer!), and I left feeling better about the world.  Harry Potter can do that for you, you know.   It was visually STUNNING, with the 3d worked into every scene, and WELL WORTH the wait.  It was not traditional 3d with things coming at you, but more Depth 3d, with everything having depth and dimension.  It was not overwhelming on the eyes, and for the first time in a LONG TIME, I didn't have a headache from 2 hours of 3D at the end!  I think they could have EASILY added another 30 minutes to the story, and included some of the things they left out, and spent a little more time on things they glossed over.  I understand big budget movies, but this is HARRY POTTER, and while the things they left out didn't affect the overall story, it did affect how the story is perceived.  They made it clear that Harry had friends fighting for him, but left out the Centaurs, etc completely!  There is a fine line between budget cutting, and getting the story right.  They got the story about 90% right.  So my score is a 90% for this last movie.  I dock it the 10% ONLY because of the shortness of the movie.  2 hours and 5 minutes makes it the shortest of all the Potter Movies.  Overall I LOVED the movie.  It finished perfectly, and made me want to go back and re-read the entire series.

New Years Resolution put into Play!

I was really excited until a few people became haters and had to criticize me for applying for and getting food stamps this week.

Heres my story:

So yesterday I got my EBT card to receive food stamps.  I am not unemployed, but times are tough.  I applied because I wanted to get healthy in 2011, and simply couldn't see any other way to afford the healthier foods.  Fast food is cheap.  Hot dogs, and $1 pizzas are cheap.  Soda is cheap.  But NONE of it is healthy.  My first goal for 2011 is to get healthy.  2010 was a HORRIBLE year for my health.  I spent about 4 months of they year SICK (coughing, and flu, etc), and also had my very first Kidney Stone.  I knew they ran in the family, but didn't realize how bad it really is when you get one.  I tried to be healthier for a while, but it was just too expensive to keep it up.  Don't get me wrong.  I drink PLENTY of water now, where before I didn't...but eating the right foods proved to be really hard on my limited budget.

So on December 7th 2010 I broke down and applied for food stamps.  It takes up to 30 days to be approved, and the process is NOT an easy one.  Not only do you have to prove that you deserve them, but you have to prove income, expenses, how much you spend on rent, etc.  Money spent on luxuries is NOT taken into consideration.

Before you can even apply you must fill out a lengthy questionaire to determine if you are even a candidate.  It turns out that I was, and it was suggested that I might receive $100-130 a month in food stamps.  This would have been a major improvement in my life.  I won't deny it. 

On the 23rd of December I received a call from my case worker.  She was a very nice woman, though you could tell that she had WAY more cases than she could handle.  I answered all her questions, and sent her over my documents.  She called me back, and said that after all was said and done I actually qualified for $200 in food stamps!  I was taken aback, and asked her if I heard her correctly.  She said yes, and that it would be in my ebt account within 24 hours. 

I got my card on Friday the 31st.. Just in time for New Years!  I immediately went to the grocery store, and bought ALL healthy foods!  Salad, lemonade (for my kidneys...im supposed to have 1 glass a day), breakfast food, lunch meats, bread... I had never been so excited to grocery shop.  I got home and made the best salad I'd had in MONTHS besides Lynn's wonderful salad she makes for special gatherings!  I had a glass of wine ($4.47 a bottle at walmart, so all you haters can stuff it), and ate my healthy salad, and truly enjoyed my evening.  For the record, you CANNOT buy booze or cigarettes with food stamp money. 

So all the haters out there that criticize me for applying for and receiving food stamps here's my statement to you:

Yes. I visit Disneyland a couple times a month.  It costs $12 a MONTH for my annual pass.  I do NOT have cable television anymore.  I don't spend money on frivilous persuits anymore, like driving to Laguna to see the recently fallen snow.  I am STILL poor.  And not in that 'im waiting for my next paycheck poor'...in the 'I've been struggling to survive every month poor'.  Getting food stamps is something that TRULY MADE ME HAPPY.    I don't just get them forever.  I have to basically reapply every 3 months to continue receiving them.  If you need food stamps, I'll help you apply.  We have government programs like this to help struggling people, and have had them for 40+ years.  Please don't hate me because I am receiving a government subsidy now.  I am the same person I was before, I'm just gonna be a healthier one in 2011. 

I'm not gonna be that person who wastes their food stamp money on junkfood.

S&M Disneyland Style.

Let me start off by saying that NO characters were harmed in ANY way during the photos.  We were respectful of Disneyland Property, and did not attempt to reach characters that were more than half an arms-length behind fences/walls etc.  We also did not attempt to use characters ON rides. 

Now that the disclaimers are over.







WELCOME to S&M Disneyland Style.  A series of pictures (and story) that tell the tale of how Disneyland turned to S&M for not one, but TWO days!

This is probably the most fun I've ever had taking pictures at Disneyland.  Tim found what appeared to be a tie, and we brainstormed the things we could do with it.  He Really has this thing for the White Rabbit.  So we were headed for the teacups, and stopped to see how our friend enjoyed being blindfolded...

He didn't seem to mind, so we continued on our way, trying to decide who the next victim would be.  Low and behold, Tim! On the Teacups, he wanted to know what it felt like to be blindfolded while spinning.  Seriously, he's kinda Masochistic.  It's fun to photograph at the least.

After spinning pretty fast, we were both dizzy.  But as we were stumbling out, we ran into our friend the Mad Hatter.  Since it was his TeaParty we had attended, we asked if he would mind, and we slipped our blindfold over his eyes.

We thanked him and went on our Merry way. 

After this we went back over to California Adventure.  I tell you, I've grown quite fond of that place as of recent, but the photo ops for this project were pretty slim to say the least.  So Tim was the subject of our DCA compilation, which basically means we took a few awesome pictures, and after that no others were needed.  Witness his Praying to the Grid to take him to the games... lol. I really don't know what else to say. Megan unwittingly became a part of our game and allowed tim to have some fun with it. That blue light really makes some awesome pics.

Onward we go.  We were pretty much done with DCA for the night, so we went back over to Disneyland.  Being that there was literally NO wait, we headed for Splash Mountain.  On the way there we realized there were several characters.  At first, it was just the Waiter we chose...

and we ran over to Splash Mountain.  There was no wait, and the other guy in our boat was fun, so Tim decided to throw on the blindfold Again for the pic... Turned out pretty good if you ask me.

We got very little water INSIDE the boat, so we were laughing when we got off it.  They asked if we wanted to go for another round. No Thanks.  =)  Heading back to meet Megans' girls Maleah and Mia with their Grandma, we spotted two more subjects.  They too didn't resist us, and were eager to please. 

In getting Fastpasses for the Haunted Mansion (a LONG 20 minute wait with fastpass!), we spotted MANY subjects for this project. They ALL willingly obliged.  I was beginning to think that NO ONE would deny us the Blindfold. So we got everyone we could see.

Left: A naked boy seemed inappropriate, but the blindfold worked for him. Right: This Adonis lost his head to Medusa, so we gave him a way to dominate her back next time.  He REALLY liked it, and thanked us.

 

(yeah, that's a raven-guard in the Haunted Mansion-the wait was long, so we got creative while waiting)

The rest of these guys were less than eager to participate, but eventually gave in.  Disney has trained their statues well.  A quick Jaunt on the Pirates of the Caribbean, and we found 3 more..but this time our blindfold was too small.  They did the best they could under the circumstances, and found us to be generous captures. hehe.

   

 We found another little angel nearby, and he gave us his blessing to tie him up!

So we met up with Elena, and the girls, and told them all the fun we had been having.  We took Megan's 3 year old Maleah, on her FIRST ride on Big Thunder. Then we headed to Dumbo as it was 10 minutes to midnight.  We had to hurry if she was gonna ride.  Luckily there was NO wait, and we got on Dumbo, AND the Carousel.  Maleah even got to ride Jingle.  We asked Jingle if she would mind wearing the blindfold.  I tell you that horse is not what she seems.  She kept peeking out from the blindfold, unable to be dominated.  What's funny is the CM asked if someone wanted to ride Jingle on the back..."she's a good old broad, she can handle it"... ahhhh Jingle.

While sitting there trying to work out our plan for tomorrow, Dumbo yelled that we had left him out.  I tried to tell him that we would be back tomorrow, and he just was not happy with that answer.  So Tim and I tried to get him involved as well.  He was among the more difficult subjects to photograph.  He's HUGE!

We realized at this point that we had forgotten one VERY important guy who is ALWAYS full of mischief.  The Cheshire Cat.  He's in sort of an awkward place, so it required Megan to Climb on Tim's shoulders to reach him.  He was the only one that we went out of the way to photograph. MEOOOOWWW.

On the way out, we ran into our old friend the White Rabbit again... He asked us to photograph him in the pose of a threesome.  Megan was hesistant, and Tim didn't want to get in trouble with his gf back home, but he kept asking, so I took the picture. hehehe.

That was it for Day One.  A ROUSING success as far as I was concerned.

Day Two was WET. VERY WET. Not so much rainy, but wet. So we cut our attempts short, and did the bare minimum to finish up with the guys we KNEW would want to be photographed.  We found a whole series of willing participants..Pinocchio, Chip n Dale, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, White Rabbit, Dumbo, and Timothy the Mouse.

So we get to Donald Duck, and I tell you what... It turns out he's unwilling to wear the Blindfold, because HE convinced ALL THE OTHER characters to put it on for us.  He's Clearly the Dominus!  Look at how he manages that blindfold.

We were almost done with this little project, because clearly we were being manipulated by Donald, and we found a few extra guys who wanted to have fun with us.

We had forgotten about these guys, and they whinnied for us come take their pictures!  We couldn't say no.

Then we ran into Disneyland Security.  Super Nice Guy that he was, was a bit confused when Tim asked him to take a picture with him, and then said something like 'ignore what i'm about to do. it's for a project'...

He was a good sport despite not knowing what we were doing.. So as we were heading out, there was ONE LAST subject we needed to photograph.  The Indian.  How could we forget him? He's iconic!

And Looks REALLY good in a Blindfold!

Well thank you for taking the time to scroll through all of these pictures, and hopefully a few of them made you giggle, or laugh, or say "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!?"  Just some people who wanted to expose the darker side of Disney... I encourage you to enjoy yourself at the Parks like we did.  A project like this lets you notice things you may not normally pay attention to, and we are grateful that the Characters allowed us this opportunity.  Happy Holidays!

The Haunted Mansion: A Sign

So I have been diligently working on my Haunted Mansion Sign for my living room.  Can't buy it, so I must make it.  I had started by hand forming the 'leaves' :

but frankly this looked childish and like a 4 yr old made it.  I wanted something that looked a little more professional.  So I trashed what I had started and decided to start over.  The true sign has little leaves down the sides, but 1. I didn't have anything to cut them out with, and 2. this is my sign damnit.  I decided to create my own ideal of what the sign should look like.  No easy feat considering I wanted to keep it looking like the original a bit.

I managed to find a snowflake cookie cutter in my cupboards that fit the bill of what I wanted for the sides.  I rolled out the clay and got to work.  an hour later I had 80 little pieces all stuck together...So I swished them all together, and curved them just so.  Then I got to work on the other side.  80 more pieces later, and I was done with that! woohoo right? 

Then I had to figure out how I was going to do the skull on the bottom.  I decided less like the original, and more simplistic.  As it is, most people won't notice the difference once it all gets painted anyways.  I set to work creating the skull, and then the snakes that go around him.  I attached it all together, and finally had something looking like the Haunted Mansion sign I wanted.  I remember to add the weird ribbon pieces on the sides, and then sculpted the big ribbons for the top.  These were especially daunting because they have to rise, and curve, and flow, and look like billowing ribbons.  Then I had to add snakes to that as well. 

The final step in this whole thing is the Demon head at the top.  I have been thinking about him for 2 days now, and I'm not sure how in the heck I'm gonna get him done.  he's got so many details, and I have so little patience.  I will try though.  I have over 2 full packages of model magic clay left, and the stuff seems to do what I want with it. 

Last but certainly not least is the lettering in the center.  It needed to be raised above the cardboard this whole project is currently sitting on.  So I added a layer of the model magic to the center, and cut out all the lettering for the sign.  it's all currently just resting on it, and the only picture I seem to have posted online is this:

Any questions or comments so far?  I'll post finished pictures in the next few days...



Playing with a fog machine

So yesterday I got my fog juice from Froggy's.  I have to start off by saying that I had been referred to them by the lovely people on halloweenforum.com.  The people who use this stuff all swear by it.  I wanted to be one of those people too, so I ordered a gallon... 1 gallon will last me the entire season, since I only use it for a few hours 1-2 nights a year.   

Just so you have a comparison, here is a video of the Fitco Fog Juice I had left over from previous years.  This stuff is junk... and has 0 hangtime.  It didn't even fog up an AREA of our shop after about 10 cycles.

I decided to take some video of my experience with froggysfog yesterday.  Mind you we were just messing around in the shop and my brother goes "lets put it in the bathroom and see how dense it really is."  So I put it in the bathroom and turn on the fogger, and we run it through 2 cycles (that's 2 times of pushing the button til it stops to recharge).  Then we opened the door.  Here is the video of what happened: (you can ignore my attempt at sounding like a snooty reviewer... I was serious about the review..just not how I said it.. hehe)

The fog Juice had EXCELLENT hang time.  My friend Devlin had seen the smoke billowing out of our shop from down the way and thought it might have been a fire.  The fog not only hung around for what seemed like days, but when the wind hit it (we have a HUGE breeze that rolls through the shop), it just started swirling and looking creepy.  My next step is to attempt a crude chiller, so I can see what it does on the ground. 

So far I am really impressed with froggy's Swamp Juice Fog, and I can say this with certainty..  I will never rely on another brand of fog juice again.  Thank you froggysfog.com

Projects updates...

My potentially beautiful DVD Cabinets are still in the not so beautiful state of unmade.  I am constantly being told that there isn't the right saw blades on the machines, etc..  I'm honestly getting frustrated by it.  Why would you BUY THE MATERIALS if you have no intention of building it for me.  Seriously.  It's like a constant irritation every time I walk out there and see them sitting there doing nothing.  3 months now.

I understand they got busy... I tried to get Timmay to help me, and was told emphatically NO by my dad.  I don't get it.

So I have been working on other projects for my home.  I need to get on them.. =)  I have been working on the Haunted Mansion sign for the Living Room.  Not sure yet where it will go, but it's coming along nicely. 

This is the start of the sides of the sign.  I am printing the letters out today.  Yay Photoshop!  I'm gonna finish the other side of the side tonight, and maybe start work on the top and bottom.  I'm making it out of Model Magic Clay from Crayola.  I've added a link to what I am using.  It's lighter than regular clay, and for something like what I'm doing, it's perfect.  Hanging heavy things on a wall doesn't usually end up working out well in an earthquake prone place like Southern California. I am building it to be about 12x18 overall.  What you see in the picture is about 12 inches long so far.Anyways, I got a good deal on this stuff at Michael's.  Normally it's $19.99 for a 2lb tub of it, but with a 50% off coupon, I got it for $10.00.  Very nice score in my opinion.  And by the way, 2lbs of this stuff goes a LONG way.  That picture I posted used about 1/8th of 1 of the 4 packages of stuff inside. 

The finished project will look something similar to this:

So that's all I have time for right now.  I'll update more about the new pics I used to replace what would have been the stretching room portraits, and my own smaller version I'm working on..

So many projects, so little time!!

Dreams...

So everyone has Dreams... no. I mean like Dreams we dream each night in REM sleep...

I happen to be one of those people who VIVIDLY remembers the things she dreams.  I remember people, places, sights, colors, sounds... I remember it all.  Last night was no exception, except it's been a while since the dream was so vivid... usually I'll remember one thing I did, not an entire dream sequence; although I do sometimes get the whole dream, I just forget to write it out, so it goes away after a few hours.

Last night I dreamed my name had been Changed to Ashlee, and I was back in College.  I was doing my thesis on oil drilling platforms, and their impact on the planet, when I was invited by the CEO of a small oil company to tour one of his local platforms.  I took him up on the offer, and when I arrived was told (as most of my dreams involve some stupid crazy thing I have to do), I would have to SWIM to the platform where this oil rig was located as they were currently out of boats to take me there. 

Ok.  It was only 100-150yds offshore, so I thought no problem... and as it turned out I'm an excellent dream swimmer because I was there in no time, and apparently didn't even get my clothes wet!! 

So When I arrive on the platform I am shown to an area where there are 2 other girls also working on things.  One was doing a mathematics thesis, and the other a political piece.  We all got to talking and quickly became friends while waiting for the CEO to arrive.  He arrived, we did our thing..then he jumped in the water and said he was out! And then he was gone... back to shore.  We apparently weren't told that we should have followed him because a few moments later our oil rig took off at high speed.  We asked where it was going, and were told LONDON... WTH.  There was NO WAY for us to leave at this point, and no way to call home and let them know what happened.  So we stuck it out.

Upon arriving in london 3 days later (sped up in dream time it actually felt like seconds), we were filthy, gross, tired, and desperately needed a change of clothes.  We found a payphone and i told the girls (Sierra and Shawna) it would be a few minutes, so they decided to go off in search of a hostel, hotel, or SOMETHING where we could get cleaned up.  A short while later they come strolling back to me all cleaned up and in new clothes.  We hadn't brought anything with us, so I asked... where?  They took me to a little shop called "ODO SALON"... Turns out in my dreamworld, SALON means COMPLETE Salon, including showers!! 

The little asian ladies that ran the place were THRILLED to see me, and when I asked how much a shower was they said 59... thinking 59 pounds I said hell no, and then she goes no... .59, 59 pence!...  The equivalent of about $1 US... I was in FRICKEN HEAVEN... So she shows me to the shower room, and I realize there's a bunch of people showering... hell, $1 a shower.. hell ya!  It turns out to be the nicest, most incredible shower EVER... So I get out of the shower thinking... ok. I need clothes.... So I yell to Asia (irony that the asian was named asia? no. i just apparently have little imagination), and she brings me BEAUTIFUL designer clothes.  While I'm standing there though in a towel and not much else, other people start to emerge from the showers as well... and then in walks HUGH LAURIE in nothing but a towel!!  (If you don't know who hugh laurie, he plays HOUSE on TV...google it).  He started talking philosophy and whatnot, and mentioned that we had stumbled upon the greatest secret in all the world.. ODO's.  It was then that I was awoken by a MEAN little kitty who thought 6am was a good time for me to wake up.

So now I'm on a life quest.  To find ODO's SALON... I know it can't possibly exist, but a girl has got to believe that such a place must exist...somewhere... complete salon for a $1...everything was $1.  Nails. Hair, Shower. Tanning. EVERYTHING.  Even the designer clothes.

Some Dreams are good.

Haunted Places I want to visit

so in surfing the web (as I often do), I found a list of 25 places someone who loves halloween should visit...So now this is my goal.  To visit all of these places!

Shocktoberfest, Reading, PA


Terror Behind the Walls, Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA  (This one is a MUST SEE!!  I am seriously excited this is on the list!)

The ScareHouse, Pittsburgh, PA

The 13th Gate, Baton Rouge, LA

The House of Shock Horror Show, Jefferson, LA

Erebus, Pontiac, MI

Wisconsin Feargrounds, Waukesha, WI

Fear Itself, Mishawaka, IN
Necropolis: City of Perpetual Darkness, Indianapolis, IN

Nightmare New England and SpookyWorld, Litchfield, NH
Dead Acres, Pataskala, OH

The Dent SchoolHouse, Cincinnati, OH

Terror Town, Toledo, OH

7 Floors of Hell, Cleveland, OH (I heard this one gets increasingly scary and violent as you go!)

Ghostly Manor, Sandusky, OH

The Fear Haunted House at Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
The Haunted Hotel, Louisville, KY (we have this here in Daygo...)

CHAOS, Kennedale, TX

Reindeer Manor, Red Oak, TX

Thrillvania, Terrell, TX
Farmaggedon, Near Formby & Ormskirk, Northwest United Kingdom

Shipwreck Halloween at the Queen Mary, Long Beach, CA (DEFINITELY want to do this! I've seen pictures and it's super creepy!)

Hobb’s Grove, Sanger, CA

Hacker House, Pilot Mountain, NC

Woods of Terror on Church Street, Greensboro, NC
 
Honestly though, I am quite shocked that Forest of Fear was not on this list.  I've heard it's among the BEST.  It's actually on my list of places to visit.  I don't see me getting to the NW UK any time soon so I'll probably substitute forest of fear for Farmaggedon....
 
So who wants to be my sugar daddy and fly me to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas?

Tutorial of the Week: Cheap Halloween Fencing

Havent you always wanted to enclose your entire front yard in wrought-iron fencing for halloween, only to find out that it's so expensive there is literally NO WAY you can afford it?  I felt like this. I then tried to find alternatives.  Like Plastic Fencing from one of the Halloween companies, and found out that it too is extremely expensive (and often flimsy!).  So I went in search of do-it-yourself fencing on the internet.  I found a few good tutorials, and some excellent references for parts (I'll tell you later!) but nothing that stood out at me as perfect for what I wanted.  I wanted simple Black fencing with pretty little finials on top.

I searched http://www.hauntproject.com/ and http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/ but everyone had their own odd ways of doing things.  Seeing that I work for a Countertop/Cabinet manufacturer I have access to all kinds of tools and workspace I could possibly need, but for you at home, this can be done with just a drillgun, and small nails.  I of course used a nailgun with the large compressor, and found out the hard way that I was totally overkilling the nail stapling.  The wood is soft enough that a simple hammer should suffice.  The drilling of the holes is another issue entirely... I totally recommend you find a drillgun that has a cord and plugs in, otherwise you will definitely run the batteries out on the cordless drillguns...and quickly.  All in all I found this project although time consuming, well worth the effort.

Tutorial Guidelines:
What you need:
8 foot long pieces of 1/2 in x 1 1/2" wood (From Home depot they are $.82 each)  You will need 2 for each 8 foot section of fencing, so plan accordingly.
2-3 pieces of 1/2" PVC Pipe per 8 foot section (approx $1.10 each), depending on how tall you want your fencing.
a Corded Drillgun with a 3/4" bit on it.
Small Nails (like the ones used for hanging light pictures)
Hammer
Black Paint - you can hand paint the pieces or spray them like we did
1 Can of Silver or Gold Spray Paint (Your preference - we went with silver) 
6-10 Finials per 8ft section of fencing (we ordered these online - http://www.kingmetals.com/Catalog/CatalogListing.aspx?CatalogId=C39&CatalogDetailId=594  )
Heatgun or really hot blowdryer.

Total Cost of an 8ft section of Fencing is about $11 or so depending on what you buy.

Pictures are worth a thousand words so here's the pictures....

Basically you will want to cut the 10' PVC into even heights (we used 30 inches - which is 4 pieces out of each piece of PVC), and we spaced ours out to use 12 pieces per section of fence.  You will want to drill the holes leaving less at the ends (when you match up the fencing it will appear even spacing)... Just get a pencil and mark it out on a piece of wood. 

You will want to drill holes using a 3/4" drillbit in the dead-center of each piece (on the wideside people)  After you have drilled ONE piece, then use that piece to MARK your marks on all subsequent pieces.  This insures that you get even fencing...

Check your fencing by putting it together... make sure it looks right.  Then pull it all apart.

Finish with your cuts of the PVC and the drilling of your holes.  Next up: PAINTING! Yay!

We suggest getting a painters tarp (the cheap cheap ones), and stretch it out and lay out your pieces on this.  line them up, a bunch at a time.  The Spray them with the spray paint, or handpaint them or whatever.  The tarp keeps the paint contained...

Make sure you get it all good and dark, but you don't have to be a stickler. No one will see the holes, so you don't have to paint those... REALLY.  Once all of this is dry you can go ahead and put it all together like in the first picture again.  Make sure your bottom row is FLAT... Stand it up and check.  What I did was put a nail in the bottom rung on one end, stood it up, matched the other end, and did the same thing.   You will want to make sure you don't put nails in the BOTTOM wood of the middle, or whatever pieces you are going to stick Rebar in for your yard (btw, rebar is AWESOME for making this stuff stand up!!) 

Once you have your nails in your wood (one nail PER piece of PVC should be enough.) comes the fun part.  Getting the Finials on. 

Some people glue them onto the top, but it looks tacky imho.  I used a Heatgun, and basically MELTED the top of the PVC and wearing GLOVES cuz the melted PVC is FRICKEN HOT!!, I mold the pvc inwards and shove the Finials in place.  Once it dries, it will retain the shape of the inside of the finial (thus making a SQUARE fit on a Circle! yay!). 

As you can see in this picture we have already done the silver painting.  This can be done at ANY point.  We brushed it on as we were doing the finials, but it's really a personal choice.  We then LIGHTLY sprayed the finials with the silver spray paint... REAL LIGHT.. Like a DUSTING really.  You don't want them silver, but you want them to seem...castiron.  And once you have done this you can pull off some of the finials and glue them down permanently.. Although they stay on PRETTY well on their own.

You are Done.  It takes the better part of an entire day to do this.  I'd say the drilling of the holes took the longest, followed by the painting.  But I ended up with a pretty awesome looking fence for my front yard... Check out the pics of it being used:

We had one side leaning so it looked sort of old and abandoned...