Happy Halo-ween
Nov 02, 3:12 am

Even though I can still go Trick or Treating because I’m the size of a ten-year old, I decided to hold off this year and throw a party instead.  I missed dumping the loads of candy out of my pillowcase and sorting the Reese’s, Snickers bars and Tootsie Rolls into different piles for organized consumption.  But the nice thing about being a grown-up is that I can just go to the store and buy my own damn candy (which I did).  I don’t even have to ask permission!  I also made brownies, and got a whole platter of different assortments of cheeses for the Halo-ween party.  That’s right, it was a Halo 3 Halloween party.  Halloween was a good excuse to invite a bunch of people over for an H3 LAN, frosty beverages and a feast of cheese.

Actually, setting up pretty displays of food is one of my favorite parts of throwing a party.  I usually spend a good couple hours, slowing down and making my food display picture-perfect before the crowd arrives.  It gets eaten into wonderful bits soon after, but that first 10 minutes of beauty spreads a warm comfortable happiness through my chest and up my throat.  This is how I know that I’m still a girl.

Anyway, Hobb3z was the first to show up.  We ate cheese and brownies and played online while my Ben carved up an appropriate party punkin’ to help everyone else find the house.  Witness the beautimousness!

Here’s our Halo-ween setup:

• 42” Flat screen with surround + Xbox 360
• 32” Flat screen with fake surround + Xbox 360
• 60” Projected image with surround + Xbox 360 (xbox supplied by Peter)
• And!  Brian and Chris brought another 42” Flat screen + Xbox 360

We were set!  With two people per Xbox, we played Team Slayer, Rocket Race, and Infection (gotta have zombies on Halloween) for the first hour or so.  It was a pretty even match with Hobb3z and I split up on different teams.  It was when we teamed up that things turned ugly for everyone else. 

This continued for another 10 HOURS!  After 3AM, I no longer had power over my fingers.  After a game ended, I would switch the map and hit Start before anyone could make a comment about how they should be getting home.  We played Halo 3 until 5 in the morning.  By the end of the night (or beginning of the morning) I was half laying down, with one eye open trying to focus on the TV and drooling a little in the corner of my mouth… all the while holding down the trigger and running around the maps hoping to get kills.

After everything was said and done, I was happy because I still got to eat a pillowcase load of candy (minus the pillowcase)… which somehow didn’t taste as good when it wasn’t given to me by strangers.  Funny how that works.