Knott's Scary Farm 2007!

I went to Knott's Scary Farm last night.

I had, for want of a better, more intense, more descriptive phrase, a blast. Everyone in our party of six got spooked at least twice.

Some friends from my happy hour group got together and we carpooled down to Buena Park. For dinner we went to the pre-scare dinner special buffet - Mrs. Knott's fried chicken, mashed potatoes, assorted salads, dinner rolls (with boysenberry jam!) and pie. I, of course, had to have a slice of the boysenberry pie. The fried chicken was most delicious.

Entering the park, the first maze we went to was the Beowulf-themed maze. It's very easy to startle me, so everyone wanted me on point for most of the evening. The Beowulf maze was one of my favorites of the night. The photo above was taken when I exited the maze, and was so delighted I started jumping up and down waiting for my friends. The ghoul came up to me and asked me why I was jumping up and down. "Because I'm happy!" I replied. "Happy? I'm happy and I'm not jumping up and down."

For some reason when I get spooked, my natural reaction is to scream, then laugh hysterically. Maybe that means I can laugh at myself?

We went to the hanging show at 9:30. This was pretty much a plotless 15 minute gore-filled satire of pop culture, ending with a public "hanging". They fit in so many things, from Alec Baldwin's parenting skills to David & Posh Spice to Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton. The movie 300 to American Idol. It was a brilliantly scripted performance.

I got really scared at the Lore of the Vampire maze - there was a guy sitting in a chair. I *knew* his whole purpose of being there was to scare people. And he succeeded in scaring me anyway! Oh, it was good times.

There were a couple other good mazes - the psychedelic Feary Tales in 3D was, to my imagination, what nightmares on acid would be like. The Clown College maze and the Asylum Maze were really good too, and my friends like the Red Beard's Revenge maze. We weren't as impressed with The Grudge 2 Maze, but mostly because the "scare quality" wasn't consisted throughout. It started out really creepy and then became less so by the end of the maze.

Throughout the park there are goon and ghouls wandering around for the sole purpose of catching you off-guard and scaring you. It's great fun watching one of them (or a pair!) set up a scare.

We ended up leaving around midnight - by then the park was completely packed and we opted to avoid the traffic problems of leaving later (it was raining a bit and traffic would have been horrid around 2:00 AM). We were pretty much scared out by then too. I didn't know there was an upper threshold to how much scaring you could handle in a night.

Kaylee's Teddy Bear Jumpsuit, Pt 2

I think I figured out that third character on her pocket; it's 幸 (xing4, "lucky"). Now I just need help for figuring out the middle character.
I got the teddy bear patches from Cheep Trims today; I should be putting the extras up on eBay soon.

Halloween Costume 2007 - Kaylee's Teddy Bear Jumpsuit, Pt 1

Yes, I'm a nerd, and yes, I'm a big fan of Halloween. Did I mention I have crazy fugue states in which I compell everyone around me to question my sanity?

I usually decide early what I want to dress up as, so that if there are unforseen complexities I can still have a nice costume ready on time.

This year was a toss-up. I was either going to do Shane Vansen from Space: Above and Beyond, or Kaylee from Firefly. Kaylee won out, only because my sweetheart replied to my e-mail with, "That would be PERFECT!".

Others have trod this path before me. Apparently Kaylee is a popular choice among fellow female geeks. One girl has her notes on making the costume here, and Serenifly has screenshots of everyone in the cast and notes for some of the costumes worn on Firefly and Serenity. I will probably not worry about the jacket or parasol. The shirt I'm going to substitute something from Urban Outfitters.

Something tells me that this will be a project not unlike the one I half-heartedly started for Arwen's chase habit one year (and left undone - it would have been financially disasterous).

So for others who wish to venture into the abyss with me, this is what I've found so far:
Kaylee's Teddy Bear Patch - this is the "correct" bear patch to use, but the site requires a $65 minimum order. I ended up getting some trim and eyelet for future projects - I might end up making my own translation of her "Prairie Harpy" dress (except I would use a blue floral print and probably different lace). I'll probably E-Bay the other 9 bears that I won't need. I tried to contact Trim & Button Expo (mentioned on the how-to site), but they're out of stock.
The Bead on Kaylee's Necklace - This is as close as you will get to the bead in the promo photos; Murano glass is very individual. This site also wants a $20 minimum order, but if you like jewelry making this won't be hard. I bought two extra beads to make matching earrings.

The character on her right pants leg is the "xi3" from "xi3huan", which means "happy": 喜
I think the character near the teddy bear is "ai4", which means "love": 爱 (simp) 愛(trad)
The characters on her pocket are a puzzle. The top one looks like it might be "ping2" from "ping2jing4", which is one of the two translations for "Serenity" they have on the show: 平静 The middle character doesn't look like "jing4" to me though. The bottom character has "tu3" ( earth - 土) for the radical but I can't make out the rest of the character to try looking it up in a dictionary.

My mother (who is suffering from empty nest syndrome) offered to make the jumpsuit for me, so I'm squared there. I don't care for Kaylee's jumpsuit in Serenity, but I really love the embroidered flowers on it. My mom mentioned painting the flowers on, which seems more in line with Kaylee's character. We'll see what happens.

For those who are just altering a jumpsuit, I recommend getting a military surplus one (in cotton, not high tech fabric), cutting off the arms and finishing the edges on the armholes, and putting the patches and writing on. If Mom does end up making the jumpsuit from scratch, I'll see if I can post photos of the pattern pieces.