![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellymellI thought since the day was going better, I should post about all the fun stuff we did this weekend.
Friday night, we went to Ghouls at Grassmere. Jonah in his parrot costume and I decided at the last minute to throw together what I had of my pirate garb (still need sash for the waist and a weapon or two and perhaps a tricorn hat). I got a few compliments on my corset and bodice, but I'm not sure anyone got that I was a pirate. Some people thought Jonah was a chicken (when was the last time you saw a red, blue, green and yellow chicken?) or a toucan, but oh well. Hopefully if we're all three in costume and more. . . piratey, people will get it.
The event was a lot of fun and I think Jonah really enjoyed himself. He kept going around to the places where the animals usually are saying, "night night". They had tons of little booths set up giving away not just candy (thank god), but little toys and trinkets too. We didn't hit up every single booth, but we went to quite a few of them. We got tickets for the haunted hay ride which was fun, but short. Towards the end of it, I said to Chris that I'd like to volunteer to help set up next year. Seems like the sets would be fun to build and it would be fun to help create new features, since I'm sure they add to it every year. We're already zoo members, I might as well get involved, right?
Since we had enough tickets left, we let Jonah ride the carousel as well. They were playing spooky sound effects and organ music instead of the typical African/tribal sounding stuff they usually play. Jonah also spent a little time in the Monster Mash, a pavilion they had set up with lights and a DJ. Chris and I called it the baby rave, it was hilarious! He was spinning remixed versions of songs like the Monster Mash and Don't Fear the Reaper and there were nothing but toddlers and young (under 10) kids dancing.
When we first walked up there was a guy in a giraffe costume (think mascot type costume) and at first, Jonah seemed excited. He held my hand and slowly approached him, but when we got close and moved around to his front, Jonah got scared and started shaking his head and whining and wanting me to pick him up. He was fine again once the giraffe was out of sight. It's funny because he loves giraffes, especially the real ones at the zoo.
We finished out the evening with a show about gross animals as well where they brought out various animals that either had notorious gross habits or appearances or cute fuzzy animals that have secret gross habits (like rabbits eat their own poop and have corrosive urine). After that it was about 8:45, so we decided to take off and go get some dinner at La Hacienda.
Saturday, after my run and a shower, we went to the Duck Race down at Riverfront Park. The deal was you could buy/adopt a duck to put into the race for $5. All proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee. It was a little less fun than we were expecting. I was kind of imagining that 7500 rubber ducks on the Cumberland River was going to be a little more of a presence than it was. Also, they didn't just let them float down (in fact, I'm not positive, but I think they were going upstream), they had 2 people on wave runners coaxing them along. I guess it helped to keep them corralled as well (duck wranglers). We got there right at the start and watched until the finish. We didn't stick around for the announcement of the winner (1st prize was a golf cart). As we were leaving though, Jonah had another encounter with a mascot-type costume. There was a guy in a big duck costume on our way out. I tried to stop and get a picture of Jonah with him, but again, he shook his head and said, "NO!" so we made our way around him. We joked, "mental note, don't take this kid to Disney World." Of all the ghoulish and wicked looking things he saw on the hayride the night before, he's scared of big fuzzy animals.
From there, we went to The Dog of Nashville in Hillsboro Village for some lunch and had huge hot dogs and lots of fried food. I figured it was only fair since I had run two miles that afternoon. I had a traditional chili cheese dog and Chris had a smoked dog with pulled pork bbq and slaw on it. They have dogs that are wrapped in bacon and deep fried and smothered in cheese sauce as well. I think that one is called, "the diet starts tomorrow dog." We had some fried jalapenos (different than the usual stuffed ones, these were just sliced, battered and fried and served with Ranch) and of course fries.
From there, it was homeward bound to get ready for the next event, the Fall/October/Peter Jackson's Birthday moot for the Tennessee Fellowship at Edwin Warner Park. Chris for some reason decided he was going to try to put up a new satellite dish he had just gotten in the mere hour and a half we had until the gathering. Between throwing together some pasta salad and helping him by holding the ladder while he drilled some holes in our eaves, I wasn't getting ready very quickly. With 30 minutes before gathering time, he finally gave up and jumped in the shower and I was finally free to get ready. I wore my Arwen Blood Red gown. I dressed Jonah in a little (and by little I mean slightly outgrown) outfit he had with a button down shirt and vest and paired it with some brown corduroys for a makeshift hobbit. I had my dad's plain gold wedding band and a gold chain that I shortened and put around his neck. Unfortunately when the sun went down, he had to put on a jacket and that ruined the whole effect, but oh well.
There was much good food and nice fellowship by a warm crackling fire on a crisp evening in a stone pavilion in the woods. I can't think of a better way to spend a Tolkien themed evening (or a regular evening for that matter) short of going through all the efforts we saw at ALEP. I had my anxieties about how the gathering was going to turn out, since there just wasn't as much effort thrown into it this year (which is funny since last year it was kind of impromptu and planned maybe a week in advance and this year we had a good month and a half notice or more). There's also just been a lot of, well, weirdness, yeah, I'll just say weirdness in the background of this group. From my perspective, it seemed all that melted away for one night at least and we could all have a nice relaxing evening. I haven't heard of any discomforts from anyone else that was there, so I'm going to assume everyone else feels the same way. This was kind of a make or break event for me and may have been for some others as well. I'm happy to say it was "make" and not "break".
We unfortunately did not make it out to the Nashville Zombie Walk on Sunday. Though honestly with the way I sort of moped around and dosed all day long between helping Chris hold by holding the ladder for him again, I could have definitely passed for half dead if not undead. I'm not sure why, but I was just absolutely exhausted. And this was before my run yesterday! Last night I did manage to sit down and get back into my routine of planning my week on Sunday evening. I got all organized and no longer felt lost and actually felt energized to get everything on my lists accomplished this week. Hell of a lot of good it did me this morning when I realized I didn't have the means to get half of my to-do list for today done. Oh well, I had plenty of other to-do lists to work on and it looks like most everything else is going to work out for today as well.
Friday night, we went to Ghouls at Grassmere. Jonah in his parrot costume and I decided at the last minute to throw together what I had of my pirate garb (still need sash for the waist and a weapon or two and perhaps a tricorn hat). I got a few compliments on my corset and bodice, but I'm not sure anyone got that I was a pirate. Some people thought Jonah was a chicken (when was the last time you saw a red, blue, green and yellow chicken?) or a toucan, but oh well. Hopefully if we're all three in costume and more. . . piratey, people will get it.
The event was a lot of fun and I think Jonah really enjoyed himself. He kept going around to the places where the animals usually are saying, "night night". They had tons of little booths set up giving away not just candy (thank god), but little toys and trinkets too. We didn't hit up every single booth, but we went to quite a few of them. We got tickets for the haunted hay ride which was fun, but short. Towards the end of it, I said to Chris that I'd like to volunteer to help set up next year. Seems like the sets would be fun to build and it would be fun to help create new features, since I'm sure they add to it every year. We're already zoo members, I might as well get involved, right?
Since we had enough tickets left, we let Jonah ride the carousel as well. They were playing spooky sound effects and organ music instead of the typical African/tribal sounding stuff they usually play. Jonah also spent a little time in the Monster Mash, a pavilion they had set up with lights and a DJ. Chris and I called it the baby rave, it was hilarious! He was spinning remixed versions of songs like the Monster Mash and Don't Fear the Reaper and there were nothing but toddlers and young (under 10) kids dancing.
When we first walked up there was a guy in a giraffe costume (think mascot type costume) and at first, Jonah seemed excited. He held my hand and slowly approached him, but when we got close and moved around to his front, Jonah got scared and started shaking his head and whining and wanting me to pick him up. He was fine again once the giraffe was out of sight. It's funny because he loves giraffes, especially the real ones at the zoo.
We finished out the evening with a show about gross animals as well where they brought out various animals that either had notorious gross habits or appearances or cute fuzzy animals that have secret gross habits (like rabbits eat their own poop and have corrosive urine). After that it was about 8:45, so we decided to take off and go get some dinner at La Hacienda.
Saturday, after my run and a shower, we went to the Duck Race down at Riverfront Park. The deal was you could buy/adopt a duck to put into the race for $5. All proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee. It was a little less fun than we were expecting. I was kind of imagining that 7500 rubber ducks on the Cumberland River was going to be a little more of a presence than it was. Also, they didn't just let them float down (in fact, I'm not positive, but I think they were going upstream), they had 2 people on wave runners coaxing them along. I guess it helped to keep them corralled as well (duck wranglers). We got there right at the start and watched until the finish. We didn't stick around for the announcement of the winner (1st prize was a golf cart). As we were leaving though, Jonah had another encounter with a mascot-type costume. There was a guy in a big duck costume on our way out. I tried to stop and get a picture of Jonah with him, but again, he shook his head and said, "NO!" so we made our way around him. We joked, "mental note, don't take this kid to Disney World." Of all the ghoulish and wicked looking things he saw on the hayride the night before, he's scared of big fuzzy animals.
From there, we went to The Dog of Nashville in Hillsboro Village for some lunch and had huge hot dogs and lots of fried food. I figured it was only fair since I had run two miles that afternoon. I had a traditional chili cheese dog and Chris had a smoked dog with pulled pork bbq and slaw on it. They have dogs that are wrapped in bacon and deep fried and smothered in cheese sauce as well. I think that one is called, "the diet starts tomorrow dog." We had some fried jalapenos (different than the usual stuffed ones, these were just sliced, battered and fried and served with Ranch) and of course fries.
From there, it was homeward bound to get ready for the next event, the Fall/October/Peter Jackson's Birthday moot for the Tennessee Fellowship at Edwin Warner Park. Chris for some reason decided he was going to try to put up a new satellite dish he had just gotten in the mere hour and a half we had until the gathering. Between throwing together some pasta salad and helping him by holding the ladder while he drilled some holes in our eaves, I wasn't getting ready very quickly. With 30 minutes before gathering time, he finally gave up and jumped in the shower and I was finally free to get ready. I wore my Arwen Blood Red gown. I dressed Jonah in a little (and by little I mean slightly outgrown) outfit he had with a button down shirt and vest and paired it with some brown corduroys for a makeshift hobbit. I had my dad's plain gold wedding band and a gold chain that I shortened and put around his neck. Unfortunately when the sun went down, he had to put on a jacket and that ruined the whole effect, but oh well.
There was much good food and nice fellowship by a warm crackling fire on a crisp evening in a stone pavilion in the woods. I can't think of a better way to spend a Tolkien themed evening (or a regular evening for that matter) short of going through all the efforts we saw at ALEP. I had my anxieties about how the gathering was going to turn out, since there just wasn't as much effort thrown into it this year (which is funny since last year it was kind of impromptu and planned maybe a week in advance and this year we had a good month and a half notice or more). There's also just been a lot of, well, weirdness, yeah, I'll just say weirdness in the background of this group. From my perspective, it seemed all that melted away for one night at least and we could all have a nice relaxing evening. I haven't heard of any discomforts from anyone else that was there, so I'm going to assume everyone else feels the same way. This was kind of a make or break event for me and may have been for some others as well. I'm happy to say it was "make" and not "break".
We unfortunately did not make it out to the Nashville Zombie Walk on Sunday. Though honestly with the way I sort of moped around and dosed all day long between helping Chris hold by holding the ladder for him again, I could have definitely passed for half dead if not undead. I'm not sure why, but I was just absolutely exhausted. And this was before my run yesterday! Last night I did manage to sit down and get back into my routine of planning my week on Sunday evening. I got all organized and no longer felt lost and actually felt energized to get everything on my lists accomplished this week. Hell of a lot of good it did me this morning when I realized I didn't have the means to get half of my to-do list for today done. Oh well, I had plenty of other to-do lists to work on and it looks like most everything else is going to work out for today as well.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2008-10-27 08:52 pm (UTC)He was a very cute little hobbit and of course I'll always remember his adorable Gnome outfit last year. I need to dress up a child as a Gnome at least once in my life to be completely fullfilled now. lol..
I didn't feel any weirdness during the gathering and haven't heard of any and of course I'm very relieved. It was definately "make" and not "break" and I'm even over my J phobia now.
It was funny I was still feeling a bit depressed prior to the Gathering and hadn't been able to muster enthusiasm for it or for anything else but ended up having a good time.
OMG! DO NOT let me anywhere near The Dog, I can just imagine me having some kind of breakdown after these last few months of hard core dieting and eating something like a deepfried, bacon wrapped, cheese covered, twinkie topped hotdog in a fit of crazed hunger. :-O)
(no subject)
Posted by(no subject)
Posted byheh
Posted byRe: heh
Posted by