Death in daylight

Some quick pics I snapped of the cemetery in the daylight. I will be posting some of the night ones soon to show off the lighting grid I have worked out this year. At this point the cemetery is about 60% populated. I will bring out the big guns on Halloween night!

The most beautiful sound in the world...

   I am sure we all have our version of the most beautiful sound on earth, but I am sure mine is pretty unique.
   Laughing children? Hardly!
   The popping and cracking of a camp fire? Getting warmer.
   The growl of a my super charged Mustang? Close, but no cigar.

   There is no sound more beautiful to me than the sharp crack of a carefully laid out Halloween spending budget as it shatters into a million pieces.
   We did some shopping today. We spent way too much. We don't care! It's all for the best holiday ever!
   We hit Halloween Express and BOTH Spirit Halloweens (Kingsport and JC) that are within our area and I am ready to rank these two for the 2011 season.

  I will start with the biggest let down. Spirit Halloween.

  This was our first stop in our haunted shopping spree today. I have always been a big supporter of Spirit,  but this year I was sorely let down by the Johnson City TN store located at the corner of SUNSET & N.ROAN 2219 N. ROAN STREET JOHNSON CITY, TN 37601. 
   It was poorly laid out, with isles you could barely fit one person down, much less the throngs of people that were out in force today. What few props they had out were hastily set up and missing pieces or were not even hooked up.
   The prices of items were through the roof. I saw items carried by Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart at nearly half the price such as LED black flood light for $15.99  (Target $8.99) and animated zombie hand $19.99 ($12.99 Kmart). The biggest disappointment was seeing the EXACT same Walgreen Skeletons ($30) on sale here for $49.99.
   The staff did not help this dismal scene. The workers were huffing and puffing with faces all screwed into frowns as if they were working in a turd recycling plant. Unfriendly, unhelpful, and full of lathing at working at a Halloween store... BOOOO!
   To be quite honest, the store looked as if it has been thrown together overnight, even though they have been setting it up for over 3 weeks. It was dirty and cramped and dismal. We briefly looked over the high priced packages of despair and quickly went on our way.
    The Kingsport store was a different matter. Located at EAST STONE COMMONS2003 N EASTMAN RD,  KINGSPORT, TN 37660. It was spacious and clean. The staff were all smiles and helpful. While they did have a good number of props that were not working, you could tell the displays were put together with more care than their sister site. We actually spent a good deal of time here shopping, but were still met with staggering prices for items you could easily build or purchase at other stores for less.
   A prime example of this were the skull torches :

    These were $12.99 and consisted of a plastic skull with peeling paint and a standard bamboo tiki torch.

    Compare this to my $2 dollar Skull Torches:

Article on the torches can be found HERE.

   I usually spend at least $500 or more with Spirit every year, but this year they will get $87.58 from me for the following :

 

   The candelabra is just amazing in person and I used a 20% coupon on it ($99.99 before coupon). It comes with LED candles or you can use real ones if you choose! The glow in the dark bottle labels could not be passed up for our glowing bar display this year.
   I found 2 of the 5 LED candles broken. The LED "guts" had popped out and I had to glue them back in. Small frustration seeing what I paid for it. but the finished product is pretty amazing :

   All being said and done I am very pleased with my first and last purchases of the year at Spirit Halloween. I would rank them a single Grimace but thanks to the superior service at the Kingsport TN store and the online/catalog ordering aspect, they are wicKEDly ranKED at two out of five grimaces this year!

   Halloween Express, located at 112 A Sunset Dr Johnson City, TN 37604 423-794-2810 was our second big destination of the day.

   I had high hopes for the store and it did not fail me. When you walk in there are HUGE and FULLY functional displays and scenes of the props and decorations (the dinner table scene was very disturbing). There was a ton of merchandise to view and we happily shopped away an hour in this store. I even bought my costume for the wicKED weeKEnD Halloween party this year (old west zombie sheriff).  Below is a the loot we brought back :

   The costume, wig, and badge are all part of my costume. The $1.50 wine bottle labels are for our glowing bar scene this year. The foot pad is to activate my Dead Lift Zombie I bought 3 years ago. Loot continues in next picture:

   These were for whimsical touches at this years party. The zombie hand out of a bloody toilet seat cover is great. The 3D scenes are AWESOME! One goes on the fridge and the other the bathroom door. They really look like there is a hole torn in the door and you can see this scene inside. They were a great buy (in my opinion) at  $6.99. The cat decal is for my girlfriend's car window(sigh).
   This is a great place to just go gawk at the VAST amount of Halloween merchandise offered as well as the great scenes they have set up. The staff was very friendly and helpful, and they had costumes galore! I still found a few items that you can get cheaper elsewhere, like black lights, fog machines, etc,  but overall they had some very unique items at good prices. This year, Halloween Express gets wicKEDly ranKED at 4 out of 5 Grimaces!

   We hit all the usual spots on this trip as well such as Target, Kmart, Walmart(ick), TJMax, and ROSS's. I was not overly impressed with the offering of any of them. Walmart really did not have much at all (at least in our neck of the woods). Below is the rest of our wicKED treasures :

    Target gave us some good items.We got our craft pumpkin for this year at a decent price. The glow in the dark skull was very cool, but not as cool as the fully articulate glow in the dark skeleton for $40!(gonna see if these go on sale as I have an idea for a nice ghost prop). I always try to get one of their poly stone tombstone each year. This year they had only one that was not covered in glitter or garish paint! Glad I only grab one a year. The metal serving hands are just great. I wanted them last year and let them slip away so I grabbed them! The Sleepy Hollow book for $1 is for my god daughter's treat bag this year.

   Walmart always has some home haunt items. I grabbed 10 bottles of tonic water for glowing drinks and potion bottles, black lights for the party and the yard haunt and wire hangers. I had "no more wire hangers!" for my cheapo ground breaker arms so I grabbed a 10 pack.
   Today was a great day for me and my girlfriend. What sane person would not love to shop for Halloween stuff on a beautiful Saturday? Not to mention testing the limits of the endless pasta bowl at Olive Garden.
   With less than a week away before we drag out decorations, I fear it was the calm before the storm. It's going to be so much work, but I cannot wait! I am sure I have the B.A.L.Z. to pull it off! Do you?

Let there be fog! (chilled not stirred)

   I have had a very productive weeKEnD and was able to cross of several Halloween "to do's" off my huge list. The most prominent among them was the creation and completion of my GOTFOG inspired fog chiller. You can get the same how to project plan I used HERE. I veered from the plan in a few steps and I made some slight wicKED modifications for the greater good, but in essence it is the same one from their pages.
   I substituted PVC for ABS plastic simply because it was thicker and seemed like it would hold up to wear and tear. When I built this thing, I built it to last until my final Halloween. Other than that, I followed the same part list as shown on the website.  I went ahead and cut and fitted my external PVC parts that would connect the fog machine to the cooler. The cooler I went with was a $15 dollar Igloo 48 quart cooler. It had a big sticker saying it was a 3 day ice cooler and it lived up to that name. There was still ice in it this afternoon after being used this past Friday. I was impressed especially since the two big holes I cut in it. After my pipe was done I went to the biggest part of the project, cutting the cooler.

    Here is my tools and supplies I used to cut and wire up the chest.

 I did not go with the $25 dollar 4"bi-metal hole saw bit. I could use $25 bucks for some other good Haunting gear so I went with a 1 inch drill bit and a cordless reciprocating saw for my hole creation (it was also handy in cutting the PVC). Here is where I deviate from the path slightly.

   Instead of putting the hole and wire cage tube directly in the center of the cooler like instructed, I went down closer to the bottom.  About 3 inches from the bottom to be exact,  leaving about 2 inches of space underneath the wire tube instead of nearly 5 inches. Why? Elementary my dear Watson. You see hot air rises and cold air descends. By putting the tube lower, it allows more ice to go on top of it. As the hot fog enters it will melt in a more upward fashion and there will be more cold to radiate down. In the end I think it will give me roughly 2 more hours of chilled fog. Seeing how I would like to see it run roughly 6 hours for my party and for my yard haunt, those couple of extra hours without adding more ice are crucial.  You may be asking yourself  "Won't the ice melt under the wire tube faster and make it not chill as well?"  The answer to that is false. The hot fog will be hitting the cooler and rising upward. As the super cooled water runs down and collects under the tube, it will chill the fog even better than just ice (anybody who watches Mythbusters will know that water and ice are a better conductor of cold than ice alone).I also slanted the tube holes just slightly so the fog would have a somewhat angled path to travel.
   Using a grease pencil I traced out the plastic hub I would be putting in the side of the cooler. Just remember to cut INSIDE the line for a snug fit.

   I started by drilling a 1 inch hole inside the top of my mark. Be very careful and make sure you go very slowly as the bit my kick out.

Then using the reciprocating saw with the blade teeth facing up (so I could guide the saw and keep it in the line better), I started to carefully cut out the hole.

   Using the box cutter, wire pliers,  and Xacto knife to clean up the hole, I soon had 2 nicely fitted hubs in my cooler. I just followed the website and soon had my cage tube built and attached inside with the clamps. I then sealed it all up with silicone. Except for the lower placement of the hubs and wire tube It looked exactly like the one on GOTFOG.

   I then custom fit my outer PVC "arm" to fit the fog machine. I did not glue any of the outer PVC pipes as you may need to swivel twist or adjust. Besides they fit snugly together and there were no signs of leaking in the tests. Do not paint your chiller until you have tested it for leaks around the hubs, arms, etc.

   I then went to test my creation. I even ordered the fog machine featured on GOTFOG's buying guide to keep the test, and ultimately my review, of this project pure.

   Here is my new fog machine in action for the first time without the chiller. (all test performed using high end premium low lying fog juice).

  I just can't say enough good things about the Eliminator EF1000. It produced so much fog when I was first playing with it that my neighbors came to check on me. This is a work horse! It was a great deal too at $56 bucks (brand new + free shipping) off Ebay.

   Next I attached the fog chiller completely empty of ice for test two!

   Even with no ice, the chiller helped place the fog lower on the ground!

   Test three involved the ice at long last! I only put in 15 lbs of ice (just enough to cover the tube). The chest will hold almost 40 lbs. Keep in mind two thing when you view this video. #1 Hurricane Irene was causing a very steady but mild breeze in my normally windless backyard. #2 it was 89 degrees  and humid as heck.

    Despite being less than half full of ice, despite it being hot and humid, and despite the constant breeze, it performed like a champ! I can't wait to unleash the full fury of this beast in the much milder and cooler weather of October.
   We performed a few more test. For test four, we just added a cardboard box with a long, thin slit cut out at the very bottom to help direct the fog.

   After test four, our neighbors walked by again to "check" on us.  At this point I am impressed all to heck with this thing. Then a full 10 minutes after I unpluged the fog machine, it was still performing!

     
   After it had dried out over the weeKEnD, I painted it black to help conceal it. I did not primer the unit as suggested by GOTFOG, but rather used a Krylon flat black spray paint that bonds to plastic. It took one and a half cans of this paint and it worked out perfectly.

Behold the wicKEDly built GOTFOG fog chiller!

 I cannot tell you how pleased I am with this project. It was cheap (well under 100 bucks), easy, and it works great! With most commercial fog chillers of this capacity you would pay $300 to $600 bucks and then I am not for certain it would be as effective. You don't have to go out and buy a big 1000 watt fog machine either. I am positive a simple 400 watt machine would do just as well (maybe even better as I think the fog would cool faster). 

For all this GOTFOG gets wicKEDly ranKED at a full FIVE Grimaces!

   While I was at it, I went ahead and built a couple of test tube racks out of some scrap wood. These will be great to hold shots of glowing go go juice at this years Halloween party (remember my Martha Stewart test tubes I bought over the weeKEnd?).

   So what are you waiting for? Head to GOTFOG.COM and check out the SPECIAL PROJECTS section and get to building your very own creepy fog factory! 

   Hmmm.... I wonder if I remembered to cut my fog chiller off.......