Misty Monday Morning....Ticking down till Turkey Time!

 
 Wow, what a busy weeKEnD! We did manage to get all of our Thanksgiving dinner shopping out of the way amid the Christmas decorations and pre-Black Friday shopping that had the stores PACKED!
   Our turkey is resting peacefully in the fridge awaiting his Thursday debut. I also have enough stuff to make 2 batches of my 2 most famous (and heavily requested) Thanksgiving treats.  Green bean casserole ala Ked and pumpkin cheesecake with ginger snap crust. The casserole is my own creation far removed from your standard Campbell's soup can recipe. It is something we have year round due to requests from our friends and families. The cheesecake is beyond words. We are making 3 to avoid fist fights breaking out at the dinner table.

Me, "having a moment", with the first slice of pumpkin cheesecake last Thanksgiving.

    Things are shaping up to make one heck of a Thanksgiving this year. Since it is a rainy, dreary Monday, I figured I would lighten the mood with some topical comics.... enjoy!

   In closing, it would seem that there is one voice of reason in this over commercialized holiday season. Way to go Nordstrom! Hopefully this sanity will be contagious and we will see more clear thinking in the years to come by others! 

   

What a wicKEDly good Saturday!

    To my utter surprise and amazement, I just got home to find my yard haunt featured on PUMPKINROT.COM! I have followed Rot's blog and his unbelievable Halloween creations for years. He is, undeniably, the biggest influence on all things Halloween for me. This has to be one of the biggest honors, any yard haunter could hope to receive. 

    If you find yourself wondering, "What the heck is pumpkinrot?".  First, crawl out from under whatever rock you have been hiding under and head over to his blog, PUMPKINROT.COM ASAP! Thank you Rot for featuring the Wicked Woods!

   Today started out looking like one heck of a beautiful Saturday. Lilly went into solar power mode as soon as she woke up and started soaking sunlight. 

    M and I headed out to Tennessee today to do a little shopping for the upcoming holidays. I was surprised to find Halloween items still out and about. Hallmark had tons, but they were only marking it down to 50% so it was still pretty pricey. We did luck into some 90% deals at K-mart such as wigs for ground breakers, and treat bag toys for next year. 

   We did find this little hidden gem I have never seen before :

   Today has been a great day all around, one that I will remember fondly for years to come. Hope everybody else is enjoying this weeKEnD as much as I. 

Freaky Friday! Time for News of the wicKED (or not so wicKED).

   Happy weeKEnD before black Friday yall! To celebrate the occasion, I have dug around to bring you strange news stories currently circulating in the media. Here goes :

Woman eats late husband's ashes!

   A 26 year old woman has found herself unable to stop eating her late husband's cremated remains. While transferring the ashes from a cardboard box to a permanent earn, she spilled some on her hand. Unwilling to just brush them away, she licked the ashes off and has since then been hooked. So far, she has consumed a full pound of the original 6 pounds of remains. Full story HERE.

    This poor woman is obviously distraught so I will not make the usual "kiss my ash" or "eat me" joke here.

Toronto chef cooking dishes made with blood. Canadian Vampires Rejoice!

Torta sanguinaccio, a blood dish features at Buca in Toronto.

    Rob Gentile asks, "You eat the meat, why not the blood?". Rob is the chef at Buca, an Italian restaurant in Toronto Canada. The chef makes several blood dishes now for his guests.

   It seems the blood cooking started when Rob wanted to "not waste a single drop of the butchered pigs" he was ordering.

    The "bloody good cooking" seems to be taking off as several other high end establishments have started serving blood dishes as well. Full story HERE.

    At least the Twilight Wedding reception will have several places to choose from for catering. I bet they go with the one that serves glittery ice cream cake!

 Cat has uncanny ability to predict weather!

Instead of a purr you get a brrr!

    Lilly puts on a sweater and crawls under the covers when the weather is going to be cold. Shockingly, her fur gets wet when it starts raining! Creepy!

Despite the state of the economy, American's still dressing up their pets for Halloween!

   The National Retail Federation claims that Americans will spend 7 billion dollars on Halloween in 2011. Of that sum, almost 2.6 billion will be spent on costumes alone. That breaks down to 1.2 billion in adult costumes (mostly slutty girl costumes YAY!) , 1 billion going to children costumes, and a respectable 310 million dollars going to dressing up our four legged friends!

    What exactly are we dressing our pets up as?  The NRF has listed this top 10 purchased pet costumes of 2011 :

1. Pumpkin
2. Devil
3. Hot Dog (pictured above)
4. Bee
5. Cat (Dressing the dog up as a cat)
6. Witch
7. Bowties or bandannas
8. Pirate
9. Dog (Dressing your cat as a dog)
10. Ghost

   According to Dr Peter Venkman, dressing cats as dogs or dogs as cats is one of the signs that America is "heading for a disaster of biblical proportions". 

   The Doctor was qouted as saying, "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! "

Florida woman pitches a tent and camps out 9 days early to be first at Best Buy for Black Friday sale. Stupid people of America cheer for their new poster child.

Insane link HERE

   In another shocking sign of the Apocalypse, this woman has decided to camp out in front of Best Buy NINE (9) days early to be the first in line to get Black Friday Deals.

   Best Buy associates claim that it is most likely for naught as there are HUNDREDS of people pressing at the doors come Black Friday opening and she almost assuredly be overrun from other over zealous shoppers. 

    To make matters worse, I do not think this woman has thought things through. According to close friends she bought a new dome tent and sleeping gear for the event ($200). She has a small gas powered generator she also purchased ($375).  Gas to run the generator for 9 days will most likely run her  ($300). A new portable heater ($100). Also, she is eating her meals from fast food places so if she has 3 meals a day at roughly $6.50 she will end up paying out  at least ($175) for food.  Not thinking about other incidentals costs she may happen upon, she is already out over $1000 bucks.... hope her shopping is worth it. 

In local wicKED news, brand new laptop has PORN on it! Discovery helps break up Kitty Porn ring!

   Miranda recently purchased a brand new quad core laptop. After charging it overnight, she was shocked to find porn on it!

    Trying to figure out how PORN got on her new laptop, she set up a trap camera and discovered this shocking photo!

   Archie looking at Kitty Porn! Archie was unavailable for comment but was overheard saying, "meh".

    Hope everybody has a great weeKEnD by NOT camping outside of a retail store or eating blood and ashes.

Even in winters brown grip of death, Autumn shines through.

   It is very cold today, and our dreary rain has turned into snow flurries. As I was leaving the house, I noticed that the wind had whipped all sorts of leaves into the pond.

 
   Even though the early frosts have long since killed the ferns, frog grass, and hostas around the pond, some of the lily pads hang on just beneath the surface. The leaves get blown in and trapped on the mirror like surface of the lower pool. I just thought that was a great picture of Fall still hanging around defiantly in the death grip of winter.

   As I mentioned, we did get some snow today. It actually stuck on some of the higher mountain tops for a while :

   I was surprised at the amount of Christmas Decorations up all over town. I really do love all holidays, and when the time comes for M and I to take pictures of some wicKED decorations, there will be no end of them. Till then, I will be taking my holidays in order and one at a time. It has always been my personal tradition to put the tree up on Thanksgiving night. Then, when all the crazy women folk are off to do battle in the Black Friday Arena of Death, I put out the outside decorations. Then, I go back in and have me some Turkey Day leftovers. It's a tradition I will carry on for as long as I walk this earth.

Ancient feline prepares for Creepmas with spooky impersonations.

   Another gloomy rains day is upon us. It is getting cold so that means the cats are sticking to me like glue. That has inspired me to do a little post on the old crotchety man we call Archie. He has a number of great impressions he likes to do, but before we get into that, some background on the old grey man.
   Archie has been with me for 8 of his 18 years. He is a rescue cat that I, quite literally, snatched from the jaws of  death. He is a rare breed, an Egyptian Mau. He is even more rare in that he is a Shadow Mau and you can only see his spots and stripes when the sun hits him just right. He has a flabby belly that Miranda makes fun off all the time, but in reality, it is a great boon for his kind. The extra skin on his abdomen allows him to stretch almost in a backwards crescent, which greatly aids them in running. This makes his breed one of the fastest domesticated cats in the world.
  He is one of the most vocal animals I have ever met. He talks to you almost constantly. He can also open some doors if the handle is just right and when he can't open it, he "knocks" with his paws and screams to be let in.
   Archie really gets into the Holiday spirits very easy, regardless of what we are celebrating. He even loves Thanksgiving!

   I think he likes the decorations more than anything, that and opening presents. He is not a fan of large crowds but will mingle with adults. If a child (or even short person) gets near him, you will not see him till they leave. 

    His favorite spot in the house is on the back of the computer chair:

   I think he likes that because he is very nosy and likes to see what we are doing online. His second favorite spot is on Miranda..... any part will do, but he prefers legs :

     He always sits next to Miranda during dinner and his favorite foods are grapes and vanilla ice cream. 

   Archie tries to help out by ironing my shirts:

   I think he puts more wrinkles in than he takes out. 

   You can never go to the kitchen without him. You never know when you may drop a piece of cheese.

  Now that's out of the way, lets get on with the impersonation!

A vampire in the sunlight.

A vampire waiting for it's victim to fall asleep.

Werewolf.

Archie does all his own stunts. Here he is doing a scene from Batman. POW!

Here he is practicing for a 3D movie.

Gargoyle

Road Kill.

Professional Boxer.

Captain Stinkydoo of the Starship Litterbox.

   Archie is ready for Thanksgiving, Creepmas, and Christmas (In that order!). He is just as upset as the rest of us when people skip seasons or rush one holiday over another. In fact, he has a message for the lady down the street who went psycho with the Christmas lights on November 1st :

Don't skip Holidays!

      I hope that Archie has entertained you on this dreary day. With his help, we have almost completed all 13 posts for Creepmas. 

    Before I end this post, I have to show a picture of Lilly when she was a kitten. Here she is pretending to be a Predator as she blends in with her surroundings.

Rainy Autumn Day Perspective.

   Today is your typical rainy fall day, except for the unseasonably warm temps. I spent the majority of the morning drinking too much coffee and trying to find a legitimate publisher. So far, I have failed to find one that will take me serious, or does not want me to foot the bill, so I will be going a bit longer as an unpublished author.

   To brighten my spirits, I started working on one of my Creepmas projects. I am almost done and pretty pleased with it thus far. That, and the view from my front porch, set me in a much better mood. 

   During the day, these beautiful Bradford Pears do the perfect job of hiding the one house in our neighborhood that decided to go full Clark Griswold on Christmas decorating on November 1st. 

   It would appear we have a traitors element in the wicKED household. Some soul that seeks to spread the Christmas Cheer before we have had our Pumpkin Pie and Turkey Gravy. I am not going to make any accusations yet, but here before you is proof of this holiday insurrection! 

   Miranda's Christmas Cactus is in full bloom! I assure you I will investigate this mutinous behavior at once and bring whomever is responsible to justice!