Costume Pics

Our crew sat in the lobby while the costume ball was going on, but we still got an eye-full.

Trade Show Floor

These pictures are from both Eric's and my camera. Enjoy them! Here's a close up of the above columns. These are really cool looking but the photo from far away does not do them justice. It was just meant to give you an idea of the height.

This "lady" rocked back and forth telling kids to quit playing in her yard and that her feet were cold.

Is Matt gonna eat that? Really? Even with the swine flu epidemic?

Not sure why this is painted this way. Maybe a 3-D effect in a dark room?

OK, the above picture is pretty crappy. I'll try and snag a better one from Pam. But, check out how realistic the center one is below.

Saturday Night Haunt Tour

These pictures come to us compliments of Eric who specifically requested I give him credit. I said it wasn't part of our original contract, but, being the kind and decent person that I am, I decided to credit him anyway.

After the initial long wait to get in, I only heard good to great things about this haunt. It's apparently three buildings and they are all good. I might try and give it a go in October.

Looks like someone used that castle facade I liked so much at Transworld.

Saturday was a hazy, haunty, fun blur

I got sidetracked when I tried to toss up some pictures yesterday and only managed to upload four. I'll try and get the rest up in the next couple of days.

But, oh so totally worth it!

Just got an update. All three houses they are at are amazing and totally and completely worth the wait. Very unlike the Transworld experience.

They're heading into the lights on tours now. I should have pictures tomorrow.

This just in. . . .

Much like the haunt tour in Transworld, there seems to be a delay at tonight's tour. My good fellow haunters have been standing in line, outside, in the cold Wisconsin air for about an hour and a half. Oh, when will they learn to stay in the warmth of the hotel like me?

Amateur Movie Night

After resting up in the room for a bit, we all met downstairs for dinner. There was still a little time to spare before everyone headed off to the Saturday night haunt tour, so we decided to visit the Amateur Movie Night going on in the movie room.

As Patti and I walked in we were joking that we should bring in one of our movies. See, the joke is we feel our's are soooooo far from even a good amateur movie that folks would pretty much just sit around laughing at us a calling us names if we ever showed it here. Well, after sitting through a few, we had a whole new respect for us, our movies, our actors and our story lines.

Sure, some were pretty good, especially the music videos. But some were just so bloody awful. But, we do appreciate all the work that had to go into them. We know how hard it is.

So, next year? Should we bring one of ours? Like, maybe that classic "Clowning Around"? We're seriously considering it.

The making of bloody eyeballs

As we were checking out the sign up sheets for all the make and takes, a nice gentleman by the name of Scott Morrow swung by and said we should really sign up for the "Make Your Own Eyeballs" session that starts in 20 minutes. Well, wouldn't you know it? This is the same guy RUNNING the make and take. What are the odds? Turns out, in addition to being an instructor, he's one heck of a sales man and he talks us into it.

It ended up being so much fun. It was a great group of people in there. I guess they were expecting 10 but got over 20. There was liberal use of spray paint, so we all got a little extra bang for our buck, what with the fume inspired giddiness.

They turned out pretty dang good. Though, as with last year's LED eyes and flickering lantern make and take, the instructor ended up doing a large portion of mine. How do I manage to give off such a helpless vibe?

This first picture is of Scott.

Some pictures. . . .FINALLY

I know you all get a little fed up with my constant rambling. . . well, except for you mom.

I spent time loading up pictures from various cameras today and now have some good ones to show off. Let's start with last nights' haunt tour, shall we?

Morning Breaks on Day 1 at HauntCon

First things first. Did anyone out there know that Milwaukee does not sell packaged alcohol after 9pm? Cuz, if so, and you didn't tell us. . . . .

Luckily, we were in the store at 8:59 trying to figure out why the guy at the register was telling us to hurry, buying beer. It wasn't until we went to another liquor (lick her? you brought her, you lick her!) store looking for vodka that we found out this little gem. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! What's it's forced me to do is check out the liquor (lick her? I don't even know her!) laws in all the states/counties/towns where I will be traveling this year.

But, really, Milwaukee? Don't they know their baseball team is called the Brewers? Shouldn't that pretty much guarantee booze (didn't have anymore "lick her" jokes) sales into the wee hours? Oh well, back to Hauntcon-rific stuff.

After we got back from hour booze hunt, we settled into the room for the night and had the Omahomies come over. They had a paranormal investigation at Mystery Manor a few weeks back and shared pictures with us. They were pretty freaking awesome. I'll see about borrowing a few to post here.

The haunt tour folks rolled into the hotel between 11-12, which brought a tired Pam back to the room around 12:30. She'd been up since 3 AM our time and looked like she was about to fall over. We moved it into the next room (did I metion we have adjoining rooms?) and hung there for another couple hours. Then, it was off to bed.

Woke up remarkably early at 8:30 or so, feeling really refreshed. Went down with Patti and Eric to pick up their registration stuff and my badge and am now waiting for Pam to get back to go check out the trade show floor. I probably won't hit a seminar until either this afternoon or tomorrow. The ones I'm most interested in are all tomorrow. But, I will have info on all the vendors a little later on. And, I'll grill Pam for info on last night's tour during lunch.

A quick word about the hotel. If you read last year's HauntCon updates, you know that the hotel in Houston was frighteningly dirty, poorly managed and all the employees were angry. This year the hotel is not what one would call top notch, but, the staff are warm and friendly, the food is very good and well priced and the room is clean. The A/C, however, seemed to shut itself off in both our rooms for a few hours last night, and it appears there was a flood at some point because our bathroom has that musty basement odor. But, still, much, much better than last year. And, there's every fast food type restaurant in walking distance AND a bowling alley attached to the hotel. So, there you have it!

I'll be back later, hopefully with pictures and video from the show floor.