Great KiltIn all my travels I never met with any one Scotchman but what was a man of sense: I believe everybody of that country that has any, leaves it as fast as they can. Saturday, October 28, 2000 This afternoon was devoted to our Halloween costumes. We went back to the Sunset shopping center and perused the offerings at the Goodwill store. Jack needed something to wear with his kilt -- the sweater he'd worn two years ago had been borrowed from a friend. Luckily we found something suitable. Then blue face paint from K-mart (now mysteriously known as "Big K"). Jack also wanted to find a small stuffed animal and a small purse. He was determined to make himself a sporran! We looked at K-mart and the fabric store before returning to Goodwill. I thought we'd looked at the stuffed toys there, but we hadn't. Sure enough, we found a suitable small creature, and a small woman's purse. We went home and I did some work on my costume while Jack ripped the guts out of the animal. I gluegunned a selection of flowers and fruit onto my hat, and cut some lengths of wire to use as earpieces (like on glasses) on my autumn-leaf domino mask. Jack deemed that he'd done enough surgery to the small racoon (?) and wanted to use the glue gun. That was fine, except that we discovered that the sack of glue sticks I'd bought didn't fit! Rats! They were oval in cross-section, rather than round. Jack carved one down in hopes of making it fit, while I urged him not to cut himself. We managed, but it certainly wasn't ideal!
I got myself into my outfit without much trouble, though I did ask Jack to fasten my stockings to my garter belt in the back. I was wearing a panne velvet brown dress with burgundy tee beneath (the bronze lace bra and garter belt didn't show, they just made me feel good). The autumnal picture hat and mask completed the set. It took a bit of doing to get Jack into his great kilt. The fabric, I think, isn't really wide enough to go round him with pleating and ease. We got it belted on, though, and the sword and dagger, and sporran in the front. He looked a treat! He topped it off by painting half his face blue.
I drove over to Paul and Julie's place. They love Halloween, and have been giving this party for several years. There were some people there already. Jim Kling was dressed as "Blasphe-Mouse," a character he invented -- little mousie ears and drawn-on whiskers. His superpower was the ability to swear a blue streak. (Jack urged him to let a literal blue streak be drawn on his forehead but no dice.) The party was fun, casual and lowkey. I was tempted by the TV playing videos in the bedroom, especially when The Nightmare before Christmas was playing. I do love that movie! Jack ended up spending a good portion of the evening smoking cigars on the back stoop, talking with a new member of the science fiction club. This was mostly because the sweater he'd picked was making him way too warm. Next year, if Jack wants to wear the same costume: a wider plaid, ghillie shoes, and a proper shirt! So I popped my head out there from time to time. What does a Scot wear under his kilt? Jack showed several folks -- they were gasping and jumping back at first, thinking he was going to moon them. But on Halloween, a Scot wears plain boxer shorts with jackolanterns on them, a very funny looking pair we'd found at K-mart. People howled with laughter (and relief?) when they saw them. We ended up staying a good while after I was ready to leave, but I didn't mind. We gave someone a ride home (not far out of the way), and collapsed at Jack's place.
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