First!  Before you read, go see my guest post over at Backpacking Dad’s blog, where I profess my undying love for him.

Now, read:

While I’m sure it’s obvious, the reason that I haven’t mentioned the party until this late in the game is that it’s not happening this year.

There are several reasons, including the divorce and upheaval that’s happened over the last year, but in the end, every year it was becoming more and more stressful and less fun. I enjoy throwing the party for my friends, and I will continue the tradition next year with a new Halloween party, but having a year off to rest, figure out my life, and not build props from May until October, was really, really nice.

So what should you do for Halloween this year now that you’re disappointed, dejected, and your social calendar is empty?

1. Watch “The Walking Dead” on AMC at 10 PM.
2. Hand out razor blades with chocolate bars hidden inside.
3. Start saving to fly out to Orlando for next year’s huge Avitable Halloween Party.
4. Take your children out trick-or-treating.  If you don’t have kids, find some.
5. Watch “The Walking Dead” on AMC at 10 PM.
6. Wail and gnash your teeth about the lack of party this year while going through the old photos from the last four years worth of parties.
7. Dress up as me and walk around asking children if they want candy.
8. Decorate your house to look like an abandoned abortion clinic and jump out of the shadows dressed in bloody scrubs.
9. Come to Orlando and hang out at my old house until my ex-wife calls the cops on you.
10. Watch “The Walking Dead” on AMC at 10 PM.

But prepare yourself for the 2011 Halloween Party.  It’s going to be off da hook.

Take a trip to Lexington, Kentucky. Toss in a mani-pedi with Becky and Heather.

Combine with a dare to get my nails painted what is likely the gayest color known to man.

Add togas.

Mix thoroughly with booze.

Toss in some karaoke.

Season with a close call with an undercover cop who decided not to ticket you for driving 95 in a 70 on the way to the airport, maybe feeling sympathy because you looked like death warmed over.

And you have one amazing, successful weekend! Thanks to Brad and Liz for throwing a great party yet again!

(Here’s the whole Flickr set if you care.)

Click the tiny Stormtrooper to go see all of the Invaded! studio photos on the Halloween blog!

Those of you who sent in vacation photos helped us out with our decorations immensely. As I said yesterday, we converted my game room into a war room and covered three walls with “Recent Sightings”, which were all 122 vacation photos submitted that had aliens photoshopped in. You can view the whole set here, but here are some of my favorites, and I’ve also embedded a slideshow of all of them, too. Thank you to each of you who submitted a photo!

Bluepaintred

Karl, Cissa, and Becky

Britt

NYCWD

Hilly

LeSombre

Mew

RebTurtle

P.S. I’m considering going to Las Vegas on December 11-13th for the huge blogger birthday bash. Any of you planning on it? When are you flying in? Inquiring Avitable braincells want to know.

(cross-posted to the Halloween blog)

I wish I was able to write a full recap of the party the day after it happened, but that would require preparation, motivation, and finished photos, none of which I currently possess.

If you had your photo taken in the studio, those should be done and up within the week. I’ll post them here and on the Halloween blog.

If you have photos of your own, there is a Flickr group all set up – just upload your pics and add them to the group!

Before I write anything, I wanted to thank some people. First and foremost, thank you to James, aka Clown. He invested just as much time and energy into this party as I did. He spent hours on the computer working with the photos and creating the two videos that were at the party (I’ll go into more detail with regards to those in a later post). James and I alone couldn’t have done everything, though. If it hadn’t been for the hours of effort by some amazing friends, none of this would have happened on time or even at all. Thank you so much to Jess, Todd, Baby James, and Hilly for putting in so much effort over the last few months. More thanks go out to Marc, Eric, Dave and Carolina for helping out over the last couple of weeks too! And thanks to Dave (and James and Jess) for designing the T-shirts to help raise money. Am I forgetting anyone? God, I hope not. Thank you so much for all of the work you put in for no other reason other than just being good friends. I’m blessed.

I plan on posting some photos of the props and a little of the behind-the-scenes in how we made them for the two or three of you that actually care about that. And I’ll also show you what we did with the vacation photos you submitted. Not tonight, though. Tonight I just wanted to post a little by-the-numbers:

Number of tickets sold: 100
Number of attendees: 88
Number of crashers: 5
Amount of time I got to use my taser that I bought just for party crashers: 0

Guests who arrived drunk: 2
Guests who arrived high: 5
Guests who arrived naked: 0
Guests who looked naked: 1

Time the party started: 8:00
Time the first guest arrived: 7:55
Time the first guest flashed her boobs: 9:15
Time the food ran out: 11:00
Time everyone got the munchies: 1:00
Guests who passed out: 0
Guests who vomited that we know about: 0
Time the last guest left: 3:00

Real Canadians in attendance: 4
Fake Canadians in attendance: 3
Real 80s musicians in attendance: 0
Fake 80s musicians in attendance: 3
Han Solos in attendance: 2

Age of oldest attendee: 60ish
Age of youngest attendee: 15
Apparent drinking age in the country of Avitopia: 15
Number of years in prison I could have gotten: 4

Costumes related to the Invaded! theme: 15
Costumes that went the obvious “illegal alien” route: 12
Costumes that went with a Star Wars theme: 4
Costumes that went with a Star Trek theme: 3
Number of guests who dressed up like me: 1

Total hours it took to design, build and create the party: 480
Total hours it will take to break it all down: 5
Number of days before we start planning for next year: 60

Oh, and I guess that I will share a little bit about the vacation photos. We decided to turn one entire room into a war room, and the walls were going to be plastered with “alien sightings”. So all of your submitted vacation photos had aliens Photoshopped in, and as soon as I can, I’ll post them so you can download them. Here’s one to show you what I mean, though!

Original photo:

Invaded! photo:

Thanks again to everyone who attended – you were the reason it was such a huge success!

Today’s the day.

Over 100 people will be storming the house at 8 PM to party until I kick their asses out (last year that was at 5 AM). If you didn’t get a ticket, gnash your teeth and wail, but never fear. There’s always next year.

T Minus Three Days and Counting . . .

In six days, the following bloggers will be coming to my house for a quiet evening of checkers:

1. Miss Britt
2. Hilly
3. Dave2
4. Hellohahanarf
5. Sassy
6. I’m Wendy
7. Certifiable Princess
8. Kim
9. Libragirl
10. Bellaventa
11. Ren
12. Mommy Melee
13. NYCWD
14. Poppy Cedes
15. Angie (A Whole Lot of Nothing)
16. Hockey Man Dad
17. Finn
18. Karl
19. Floating Princess
20. Marty Mankins
21. Deb on the Rocks
22. Karen Sugarpants
23. Coal Miner’s Granddaughter
24. Blondefabulous
25. LeSombre
26. Cheeky Sweetie
27. Turnbaby
28. Bubblewench
29. Little Miss Sunshine State
30. Faiqa
31. Sheila, Charm School Reject
32. Employee 3699
33. That Bitchy Chick

This list, of course, doesn’t include the 60 or so local friends, spouses, dignitaries, and members of the royal family who are attending. It is shaping up to be a fun time, although hopefully someone will bring some box wine and Cheez Whiz because I’m only supplying Ritz Crackers and PBR to drink.

If you’re attending and I didn’t include your name, it’s a complete accident and it’s due to the fact that I’m writing this after midnight on a Sunday after working on decorations all day with Clown, Liquid, Dave, Hilly, and two other friends. All that’s running through my brain are lists of things that need to be done, made, hung, painted, bought, and adhered. We’re making real progress, and my hope of being done by Friday afternoon so I can visit with some of you who are in town on Friday night has increased from a 1% chance to a 25% chance!

P.S. I have been asked by a service technician, a pizza delivery guy, and a taxi driver if they can come to the party this year.

P.P.S. I said no.

P.P.P.S. But in a nice way, not in a “You don’t even fucking know my last name, weirdo” way.

P.P.P.P.S. My hand may be permanently stained from using fake blood to create blood splatters:

There are six days until 100 people show up at my house to party. I think I need each of these upcoming days to be 40-50 hours long so that we have time to finish everything! Oh well, if I don’t get a chance to get those engraved iPhones done for each guest, I’m sure everyone will understand*.

Today is the last day to buy tickets to Invaded! The party is next Saturday, October 24th, starting at 8 PM, and I hope to see you there!

Also, if you’re still interested in purchasing an Invaded! T-shirt with designs by me and Dave2 among others, you can get 10% off all weekend long by using promotional code SWEETESTDAY9! Go visit the store and see both the T-shirts and the coffee mugs that are available.