Picture Sunday

Can you believe? Picture Sunday is back!

As you all probably know, the past few weeks have been a bit of a trying time here in Betland. My mom in the hospital (she still is), and not doing well, my sister and I splitting duties of getting my dad where he needs and wants to be and seeing to him, Milo's once-a-week lessons at the Hi D Ho Academy in B'burg, and, of course, Oktoberfest.

My house is a wreck, my car looks like a family of four has lived in it for a year, and my brain is on vacation. And Betland got neglected.

So most of the above is all still the case, but Oktoberfest ended last night and I got about 1/4 of the crap out of my car this afternoon. And may I just say that the reason for that is because, using the "sit and stay" exercises learned at the Hi D Ho, I can now get Milo to stay at the door while I go in and out to the car. Doesn't sound like much to the non-Milo Owner, but is a big deal for me.

So maybe things are looking up a bit.

So, Oktoberfest. For the most part, Oktoberfest kicked my ass this year. I was tired through a lot of it, the traveling started to get to me, worrying about Milo's arrangements was a bit of a headache (many thanks to Mr M, my cousin Jacob, and my sister for helping out there), and on Saturday I was so tired I was about an inch away from calling the whole thing off. But hey - it's the last night. The last night is always something special.

I started off the day by trying to get into the Halloween and Oktoberfest spirit by getting some pictures of Milo in the great Oktoberfest hat I bought him up on the mountain. "Trying" became the word of that little photo session, because, and let me make this perfectly clear, Milo hates hats. Hates them. However, a cute photo did come out of the morning.

























This is titled "I Will Not Pose."

Then, holding Milo in one hand and the camera in the other, I got one for posterity.



















Then it was into the dirndl and to Mr M's. He drove me up the mountain, Milo in tow, dropped me off, and headed to the DeepFatFriar's for a while. (He was coming back up the mountain later on to celebrate a little and drive me home.)

When I got out of the car, I realized two things quickly. First of all, seems I wasn't the only one who'd brought a few Halloween fun things for the night, and second, the "costume contest" Ed had mentioned the week before seemed to be for real.

Band member Russell had really done up the stage. He had put little tombstones on the stands of all the players on the front row. Then he'd put up engraved signs for those of us on the back row: clarinets were the "Insane Asylum," trumpets beside us were the "Dead Zone," and the trumpets at the other end of the stage, the trumpets who normally make our knees go weak with their gaseous activities throughout the night, well, their sign said simply "Toxic." We added my police "caution" tape to that, hoisted Mr M's vulture Hiram up on a rafter, and things were looking pretty spooky.

Now, the costume contest - I found out at the judging that the prizes were pretty spiffy, and so that's why the partygoers went all out, I suppose. There were people there with some serious Halloween costumes on. I mean, store bought stuff costing big bucks. Of course, my personal taste runs to the more, "Hey, let's be this and head out to the rummage store," and there was some of that too.

So this is Picture Sunday, right? Let's get to some pictures! Halloween Oktoberfest!

Yoko brought her Walrus, there was magic in the air.

























And speaking of musicians, we were honored to have Slash with us.

























(I loved Slash.)

Popeye and Olive Oyl made an appearance.

























I thought probably the cutest idea of all came from a fellow who works the drink ticket booth Mountain Lake. He's such a nice guy, and when he came up the mountain last night, he was dressed as - our Fearless Leader, Ed!




















Ed even let him count us in with an "Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier" to start the first song of the show, a rare honor indeed.

However, when it was down to the finalists, there were, let's see, four girls dressed as the Village People, cute idea and homemade, but not enough people, and a little girl dressed as Pippi Longstocking, which I loved, my clarinet-mate and friend Mary and I were screaming for Pippi.

And when it was all over, the winner was...

...wait for it...

Pippi!

























Then it was much fun and frivolity, drinking (I threw out the Goldschlager for whiskey shots and beer - good idea), lots of solo pieces ("Clarinet Polka" twice, once without Mr M, once with), many hijinx, and a final drunken breakneck rendition of "Unter Donner und Blitz," (which we do only on the last night), and it was over.

Afterwards Milo, who'd been sleeping the car, came in to meet everyone, got fed a sausage by Eddie (bad Eddie, bad!), and then we headed down the mountain and it was all over. If only all the nights had been as fun as the last one.

The last night always makes me realize how much I love the Sauerkraut Band. We're like a gang, really - we always have each others' backs.

OK, more pics!

Fun and frivolity on the patio. Crazy glasses pic!



















Mary, Susan, me (in cat ears), Leslie, Deidre (visiting us from her new home in DC), Tim (or Binky McBinkerson, as I call him), and Tom.

This picture either needs no explanation, or needs more than I could ever give.
























Mary and me. We've had those mustaches since Halloween about four years ago. They're pasted in our music books, both on the same page - 70B, "The Baby Was Born With Lederhosen."

Of course, Sherman and Peabody joined in the fun. Sherman wore a fez instead of his normal Bavarian hat. BTW, the Skull and Clarinet Crossbones was printed by Russell from a creation of Mr M's.

























And Mr Peabody went as "Monsieur Peabody," with beret. The glasses? Well, color me surprised he'd don those.

























Here's a question - what do SKB members do between dinner and the performance? Well, throw knives, that's what.




















(That's a season full of knives. How the fork got there, I've no idea.)

And finally, and I promise I'll let you go, a couple of pics not from Saturday night.

Back before the season started, the band had a gig down in Raleigh, NC. Russell, Susan, and I stopped on the way home at a Steak 'N Shake, and Russell got a bunch of their hats. I like to call this one, "You Want Fries With That Polka?"


















And finally, Marla (marlamarla) asked for one of these, so I'll see if I can salvage a halfway decent one (there weren't many).

See, Susan had this hat, she found it at a thrift store. It was a magnificent hat. In fact, I'll show you the hat.























(Hi, Jude the Corruptor!)

Mary and I fell in love with this hat, and we decided we needed official SKB Chicken Hats (for the Chicken Dance, of course) along those lines. We started surfing the 'net looking for beanies and figuring out how we'd make them, which is fine, but this was with only one week of the season left. So I took it upon myself to see if I could come up with something makeshift for the last weekend.

I worked on them all week, found some kids' Halloween hats at a craft store, did some painting, feather-adding, rubber chicken spearing, hot-gluing, and spring stretching. Frankly, I'm surprised they lasted the two final shows, but they did.


















Hard to see, pictures on the stage are always iffy.

So there you go. Oktoberfest over. Three more weeks of Hi D Ho Academy left. Granny still in the hospital. This is life. Things are, well, things. But it's OK.

Happy week!

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Good God's Hat, "Mad Men" rocked tonight.