Halloween in The Office

We had our annual office Halloween Party today. Different floors competed for best decoration and my department had some nibblers and brought in TONS of candy!

I found the cute bags above on sale at CVS last Thursday, it was something like 40 bags for .99, so that night I watched the real "Office" (as well as all of the shows that come before and my favorite new show of the season "Prime Suspect") and filled the bags with candy.

The plant above is on the ledge behind my desk so we decided to give it some eyes and hang some punkins from it (yes, I like to say punkins as opposed to pumpkins).

I found the Halloween candy rings above at CVS and HAD to get those to give out.

Our floor dressed up at "Puns" or "Word Plays." The Kiss of Death (above) won the costume contest.

Copycat was a pretty close second.

Party Animal (above) made some super-yummy brownies with orange frosting. They were so good I had two!

Probably the funniest costume went to Drag Queen (above).

Survey Monkey was the most departmentally appropriate because he works in MI (Marketing Intelligence).

Holy Mackerel was the most difficult to figure out but once you did it was like... Duh....

Kiss of Death and MCAT.

I love our costumes but some of the decorations on the other floors were phenomenal. The 7th floor has to be the winner of the decorating contest with their "Mad Hatter's Tea Party" theme.

They transformed one of the conference rooms into a "Wonderland" with a large display screen playing the Alice in Wonderland movie and projectors showing creepy and cool oversized images from down the rabbit hole.

They lined the halls to the Tea Party with life size mushroom drawings.

Alice and the Queen of Hearts are very good friends in this Wonderland.

Another set of decorations I really liked on the 7th floor was the "80's Rocker" theme.

I loved the KISS punkins.

And yet again on 7-- another team created a graveyard bar--

and headstones for the people who drank there.

Great job everyone and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

October's Winter Wonderland

Bully Hill looks awesome under snow.

But Snowtober is a little outrageous! 

MetLife Stadium has Gone Organic

I am wildly surprised and extremely happy to see that MetLife Stadium (formerly the New Meadowlands Stadium) has introduced organic and vegan fare. A couple of weeks ago when we were at the stadium to see the Jets kick the bejeezus out of the Chargers (well, the game was actually a bit of the nail-biter), Mark and I got the dogs below.

Mark got the "Jersey" which is an organic all-beef dog with chili on top and I got a soy dog on whole-wheat flatbread with onions and yellow mustard.

I'm still a big fan of Nathan's but it's nice to have a choice and these healthy dogs were mighty good!

The Hunt in Far Hills New Jersey

This year we decided to head out to Far Hills and attend The Hunt once again. It's been a couple years since we had headed out to the races. My Aunt Terrance and Uncle P have been attending the races (and parking in the same spot on the hill for over 20 years.

The race is actually a huge charity event to help raise money for the Somerset Medical Center. It originated out in Montclair on 1870 as the Essex Hunt. It was moved out to Moorland Farm in 1916.

Over 40,000 people attend every year and I have to say, if Occupy Wall Street is all about the 99%--then The Hunt is really kinda about the 1 %--or those aspiring to be the 1%--but it's fun and it's for charity.

I found the tin below for $10 on one of me and Mark's "Adventures in Antiquing Weekends" so I filled it with carmel and gave it to my aunt and uncle for inviting us to join them every year.

The race track is turf. People park their cars and trucks in a loop around the track the set out extensive tailgates.

I brought a plater of Sloppy Joes from the famous Millburn Deli--the best deli in New Jersey and perhaps the country!

We are parked by the finish line but we still need binoculars to see the details. There is a flat-bed truck that takes bets on each of the six races with purses over $250,00. 

This was Kitten's first time at the races. She drank some of Ivan's home-made wine and had a great time!

Our family friend Ivan helped us understand how to read the racing stats and Mark ended up picking 6 our of 7 winners. Too bad the cap on betting is $20. Next year Mark and I are thinking about getting our own spot and you are ALL invited. Let me know before next year!

Our Lightness to Dark Halloween Soiree

This weekend we had our Lightness and Dark Halloween Soiree. At Bully Hill we like to have a lot of small intimate get togethers that involve a little food, crafting and card reading.

We decorated masks using the theme "Lightness to Dark."

Baby Dog Stitch Luv dressed up in her bat wings.

We had apple cider, cupcakes and...

Kitten made Ghosts in a Graveyard with instant chocolate pudding, cool whip & cookie crumbs.

After we decorated our masks we had ricotta and pumpkin stuffed shells, arugula salad with lemon and tarragon dressing, Spanish chickpea stew and breadsticks (we were going to make witch-finger rosemary breadsticks but ran outta time). 

After that we had our Lightness to Dark Mask Parade.

Missy.

Mr. Mark.

Kitten.

Aunt Terrance.

Amelia

Then the night came and darkness covered the land so it was time to begin our mystical activities. We started by grounding ourselves and reading Angel Cards.

And then moved on to Tarot Cards.

After that we were supposed to top off the night with a marathon of spooky movie watching... but I only made it halfway through Disney's "Watcher in the Woods" before I fell asleep on the floor. Aunt Terrance had to head home after that and Amelia and Kitten fell asleep too.

Twiggy came to the party as well, she loves visiting Bully Hill where all good dogs are welcome. She was tired after a long day of Halloween-inng!