Tonight in the Haunted Basement

One of the first things we realized when we moved in to our house was that we had a set of classic rickety horror movie basement stairs. We spent significant amounts of time in June and July speculating about the future awesomeness of the haunted house we would create for our Halloween party. Needles to say, we did not create a haunted house because we are lazy. We are, however, hosting a Dream Bitches CD Release themed Halloween Party. And there will be delicious amounts of homemade beer.

"yum" - Jenni

Jennaayyy's Jamz

Jenni's First Pie A Delicious Success!

Turns out the Whole Neighborhood is Haunted

These last two really deserve their own post. The first time I saw the house I almost had to end a phone conversation from overwhelming amusement. There are cameras on top and the owner watches them always, maybe even when he isn't home. There is only one close-up because Jenni and I scrammed when Dracula wanted us to do something strange to him. Someone on the inside told me to go there on Halloween night, to be properly spooked. ALRIGHT!
(FYI Click on the photos to get a bigger image.)

Only in Dreams

Last night, my sleeping brain proved to...um...itself/my waking brain that I am a good and moral person. In one of my dreams, I received a phone call from Melky Cabrera of the New York Yankees.

"Hi Jenni, this is Melky Cabrera," he said.
"Hi," I said.
"Do you maybe want to go out with me some time?"
"Well, I don't know. I'm not sure that that would be right."

You see, I remembered, even in my least-conscious state, that Melky Cabrera is RACHEL'S baseball boyfriend. And that's a bond I fully respect.

"Stand by your man...."

Anyway, the world knows I'd rather date Robinson Cano.

The Power of molasses, 'Cause she likes molasses

We bake in our house, and often we bake well.

Thursday night I made a "fresh ginger cake" from The Joy of Cooking. I have a great relationship with The Joy of Cooking. The strangest (and most beautiful) thing I ever cooked from it was a grape pie, which can be credited to Matt Blake*. Matt Blake once cooked a banana pie.


The cake turned out deliciously. (Although I let it cool more than the recommended 10 min, and it still fell apart when flipped!)

The truth is that this cake is a molasses ginger cake. Lauren and I did some reading about molasses to understand it better. Look what I learned:

In 1919 there was a molasses FLOOD in Boston, because a tank holding molasses for alcohol exploded. !


People actually died because of a 35mph wave of molasses. "It was like any horrible disaster scene, with the addition that everything was covered in smelly sticky brown molasses."

On a better note, I have a 78 that I love with The Andrews Sisters singing a great 1950's song called "Molasses Molasses"

"I went to see my sweetie just the other day.
She had supper ready; wanted me to stay.
She didn't have no 'taters; didn't have no meat.
Just a big black jug of molasses was all she had to eat.
'Cause she likes molasses, good ol' country sorghum.
She eats 'em in the summer and the fall.
When they trickle down my chin, I let her lick 'em off again;
That's the way I like 'em best of all!

Molasses, Molasses, That icky sticky goo
Molasses, Molasses, It always sticks to you . . ."



*Matt Blake, where is your internet presence?

Finally, Someone Who Fully Appreciates Me

The Fifth Roommate Resurfaces

While I hate to sound like a broken record, everyone knows that October is paranormal prime time, and so, supernaturally (ha ha), I had another run-in with the ghost last night.

For those who haven't yet heard about my first encounter with the ghost, here is an illustration of what happened:








As you can see, it was a fairly simple affair. The ghost appeared, hovering above my bed. I said "Hello?" And then nothing happened. It wasn't THAT scary.

Last night, though, I woke up screaming! Granted, it was a pretty pathetic-sounding, I-just-woke-up-and-my-voice-is-still-stuck-in-my-throat-scream that Rachel may or may not have heard through our newly semi-insulated walls, but nevertheless, I was terrified. In my dreams, the ghost had wrestled me to the floor while I struggled to put my hands into its mouth. Unfortunately, its mouth kept multiplying until its whole face was full of mouths and those mouths were full of different kinds of travel-sized toiletries: one mouth full of mini-toothpastes, another full of mini-mouthwashes, another full of tiny packages of anti-bacterial hand wipes, etc. There was no way I could get my two hands inside of all of those mouths. I'm pretty sure that the ghost was about to eat me when I woke up.

As I gathered my senses, I became aware of a woman's voice speaking very loudly to an unheard second party. It sounded just like Lauren! But this was at 4 a.m., and I'm pretty sure that the phantom-woman was in the process of ordering a pizza.

So, to recap, this is what we now know about the ghost:
1. It has a man's face but a woman's voice.
2. It likes pizza.
3. It can shape-shift into a multi-mouthed toiletry-carrying nightmare creature.
4. It doesn't like me.


Additionally, here are a few things that may or may not be true:
1. I am possessed.
2. I am a pathological liar.
3. I am crazy.
4. No one else in my house has been bothered by the ghost because I, alone, have the special capacity to be serially haunted, perhaps because of some horrific crime I committed in a past-life. Or, you know, some other reason.

You can vote in the comments, if you'd like.

Happy Birthday, Lauren!

more photos here.