Halloween Craziness & NaNoWriMo

Yes, I’m running late with blog posts this week. Our Halloween yard haunt takes up a lot of my time, and since the hubby is out of town this year, I’m finishing things up myself. But I have a couple hours to wait while I get the windshield and back window replaced in our truck (finally – they’ve been cracked/broken, respectively for over a year now), which seemed like a good time to catch up on a little posting.

Our theme for the haunt this year is a 13th anniversary celebration, which seemed fitting since our own 13th anniversary was back in September, and we’ve put up at least some sort of graveyard every year since. I’m kind of scatterbrained though, and planning for both the masquerade party we went to and the haunt got my mental wires a bit crossed. Which is to say, I forgot about the “bad luck” part of the theme I was going to include with the yard haunt, and after the truck is done, I need to go pick up some horseshoes to hang upside down (so the luck runs out). I’m not sure where to find three-leaf shamrocks this time of year, or small hand mirrors to break…*sigh* But I should be able to bring a ladder out for someone to walk under. Hubby asked me if I wanted one last Saturday, and I couldn’t think of why – that’s how discombobulated I was (we were getting ready for the party that day).

In any case, lots of work yet to do on the yard, which is why I have today (Monday) and tomorrow off work. So much to do, so little time…

Then on Wednesday, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts. I’m not even close to being ready…I mean, I have the novel I want to write and the basic plot, but getting 1667 words per day (which is what you have to write to “win” with 50k words at the end of the month)? Yeah. I’ve been lucky to get 500 words down a few days a week lately. I don’t think there’s any possible way I can win this year, but I really do want to write this particular story, so I’m still going to give it a good try. The Matter of Misty Mardeaux has been rolling around in my head for over a year now – just shortly after I started my tattoo sleeve, and it’s time to at least start getting it down “on paper”. So, we’ll see.

The party was great fun, as always, though several other couples chose the same costumes we did (Red Riding Hood & the Wolf), so that was a bit of a bummer. Next year we’ll have to pick something more original. Or try, anyways. Still, always fun to go see everyone else’s costumes!

I think next year’s yard haunt will be more fun too, with hubby here so we can work on it together, and we’re finally going to do the creepy carnival theme we’ve been thinking about for years. Plenty of ideas swirling around for that already! We should be a bit more on top of things next year.

Now, break time is about over, and time to get back to work…

Happy Halloween, and for anyone else doing NaNo this year, many words to you!