Weekend happiness

Much goodness has happened in the last few days...

1) Sloss Fright Furnaces is fun, if slightly overpriced at $15 (plus $3 for parking, sheesh!). My friend Roy and I checked it out, and he led our group of us and four idiot girls from the sticks ("Oh my God, y'all, I'm seriously about to pee myself...") through the former blast furnace, where we used to have our May Festival back during grade school. Take away the games and the hot dogs, and Sloss is a decently freaky, possibly haunted, place. What was great was getting separated and cornered by the guy with the chainsaw, and after a few minutes of half-heartedly screaming in an effort to make him let me by, the following exchange occurred:

Him (growling): Are you lost?
Me: Uh, yes.
Him: [points with chainsaw] That way.
Me: Thanks.
Him: I'm going to kill you and poop in your mouth.
Me: You have a good one...

2) I saw Phantom of the Opera with another Phantom fan, Dennis, last night. As in 2000, when it last came through, Phantom was excellent; the set dressing was perfect, and the Phantom, who played Raoul last time, was spot-on. The only downer to the show was Christine - her voice is lovely, but her vowels were far too American.

3) I just discovered that BBC America, channel 100 on my parents' cable, has reruns of Bargain Hunt, Cash in the Attic, How Clean is Your House, and You Are What You Eat. I'm stoked.

4) Ran 7 miles for the first time yesterday, with a mile-long walk home. Then I took the dog for a mile walk, which made a nice afternoon touch. This morning, I tried the Lakeshore trail for the first time, and the five-mile round-trip run is quite nice. One week until Vulcan...

5) Tonight - pumpkin carving!