Halloween Treats

I was shopping at a Wal Mart today. After I dropped off for processing a roll of Jane's film she wanted developed I ran into (innocently!) the Candy and Halloween goodie islands, which were jammed with Halloween supplies needed for Halloween Day, October 31st.
About that Halloween candy....it is a glorious time of the year for me because I know that I will buy too much candy for the trick or treaters. Hence, leftovers will be available. So the routine for Jane and myself is to split the buying between us. She selects some things and I others. of course, we buy our favorites in the knowledge that there will be leftovers to eat after Halloween is night trick or treating is finished.
Like all kids who shop for candy (I am old but still a child at heart) the array of candy I saw was seductive, and I had to make my choices knowing there would be many favorites omitted. Jane will make her selections later, as she was in school when I made this shopping trip. I picked Necco wafers, a bag of chocolate 10,000 Grand Bars, Tootsie Rolls, Dots, and a bag of Halloween chocolates shaped into various monsters (some filed with fudge). This got me in the mood for the holiday and the eating. So I wondered to the next section to see what new Halloween decorations are available this year. I probably have too many decorations already, but can't resist more. My mother loved the holidays and always decorated our house elaborately with both nice and tacky looking decorations. (I give thanks now to my mom for making me appreciate the joy of being a child during holidays) Halloween is a time for the tacky stuff. So I got more today.
I bought three felt decorated trick or treat bags for a dollar apiece. They will be hung on the balcony upstairs when we decorate the house. Then I found two ghosts and a skeleton we will hang from the trees in my front yard, and a nice cotton Halloween Advent Calendar we will use to count down the days until October 31st.
I will spare you the litany of decorations that I have stored away for the inside and outside of the house. We will break out those around October the 1st and start decorating. We already have some edible monster stencils for the cookies will we eventually make and decorate. I am pumped up and ready to yell "trick or treat". Happy Halloween!
One guy that won't need a Halloween costume this year is Gary Weddie, 46, a science teacher at Ephrata Middle School in Ephrata, Washington. You see, Gary has neither shaved nor trimmed his beard in five years- dating from the 911 murders when he vowed not to shave until Osama bin aden was caught. Gary says he expected bin Laden to be captured within a month of the vow George Bush made to catch him, but he says he still won't touch the beard until the day comes. Each school year he gives his students a brief explanation of his beard, which is a meter long and straggly. His wife hates the beard, but Gary's three high school aged daughters think it's great because their boyfriends like the look.
Happy Halloween to Gary, and I hope it doesn't come to pass that real life Monster Osama bin Laden outlives Gary's beard.