Ghost Hunters Live at Fort Delaware

So last night was the reveal show for the Ghost Hunters Live show taped Halloween night at Fort Delaware.  I’m a huge Ghost Hunters fan and I religiously watch each new episode on Wednesday nights.  I was glued to my TV for most of the night on Halloween watching the live show.  I had my remote in hand to pause and rewind live TV (I love digital cable!) in case something cool was found.

While watching, two cool things happened that were caught on tape.  The first was when Grant, and the whole viewing audience, heard a disembodied voice say “You are not supposed to be here” not once, but twice!  Creepy.  Then, when Grant was trying to rewind the digital recorder, the batteries died.  Weird.

Here’s a video of that voice:

The next big thing that happened was Grant had his collar of his coat pulled…not once…not twice, but 3 times!  It was super obvious and the last time they caught it with the thermal imaging camera.  There was even a heat change.

Here’s video of the collar pull:

I watched the reveal show last night and these were really the only things they caught that night.  I thought it was all very cool.  I’m a believer in the paranormal (see my post on the Ghost Dog) and when I see things like this, I like to be on the believer bandwagon.

Then, I saw this:

It made my heart sink, to think that these guys could have faked the evidence.

It is possible that there was outside sound contamination from the security guards, staff or something telling someone they weren’t supposed to be there.  I believe that this could happen.  I did notice there were quite a few people around aside from the investigators, camera men and sound guys, so it’s possible there were sounds that weren’t what they could have been.  There was the sound guy who supposedly came in to fix an audio problem in the kitchen when the feed was live.  That just goes to show how many outside people were around and in the building during the night.

But the coat thing at the end, when Jay pats Grant on the back and the fact that Grant never takes his right hand from his pocket where his thumb was tucked leave me dumbfounded…If it were me getting my coat pulled on like that I’m sure I’d be waving both arms around my head trying to feel for something,  but that’s just me.  It really makes me scratch my head and wonder if they were faking things that night…it makes me wonder how much other evidence could have been faked over the past 4 seasons.  It makes me wonder if they were faking evidence, whose idea was it?  Would Grant and Jay stoop to that level to keep the show on the air or do the producers want that?  Are people just reading way to much into things?  Are those people such non believers they need to prove things aren’t real?

On last nights episode, they also had another investigation in a house where the woman was afraid to even sleep.  There were 2 major pieces of evidence from that investigation.  The first was a bathroom door shutting violently on the camera man who was focused on Grant and the other was a coat hanger flying off a coat rack between Jay and Grant who were sitting on separate couches at opposite ends of the room with the camera man to the left of the rack, focused on Jay.

Having viewed the third video, it put that little seed of doubt in my mind that everything was faked, and I started to see where and how it could be.  I noticed that you don’t see Jay when the door shut on the camera guy.  The room he was in was off to the right, behind the door and out of view.  With the coat hanger, the camera was focused on Jay and not on the coat hanger itself.  Was there someone else in the room who could have tossed the coat hanger across the room making it look paranormal?  Could there have been someone behind the door when it closed on the camera man?  Could it have been Jay or another crew member?  You can’t see who could have been behind the door. There could have been someone in both places.  Do I believe that?  I’m trying not to.

I really don’t want to believe that they’ve been faking the evidence.  I love watching the show and I love Jay and Grant and the rest of the TAPS team.  I don’t want anything to have been faked to get ratings.  I don’t want all the people they’ve helped to have been faked.  I’ll continue to watch the show, but I think that seed of doubt will be looming for a long time.  I’m going to beleive that if things have been faked, it wasn’t Grant or Jason’s idea, but the idea of the people at Scifi so they can get ratings.

I’m sure this has been suggested before, but I wish that the TAPS team would invest in something like head cameras so we could see what they were seeing, especially when the camera is focused on them and away from where the action is taking place.  I think it would help prove that they are not faking things and would give me peace of mind that what I believe in actually does exist.

I don’t think Jay or Grant will ever read this, but I still beleive they are truthful in their investigations and findings.  I just wish the filming of the show was a little different to prove to those who don’t believe that there really is paranormal stuff out there…Debunk all the bunk that’s out there.  Like I said before, I’m still going to watch the show.  I’m a loyal viewer and until something besides speculation about faking evidence comes to light, which I don’t see happening, I’ll continue my Wednesday night routine.  I don’t beleive that Grant and Jay and the rest of the TAPS team would stoop to such a low as to fake evidence.  This is just my 2 cents.

The Day After ‘Ween

It’s November (and also NaBloPoMo – I’m starting off strong)!  Halloween is over now and we can get ready for my favorite holiday, Christmas…cause we all know that the Christmas decorations were out in most stores several weeks ago…along with those scary Halloween decorations and costumes.  I did see someone dressed as Santa Claus…I’m wondering if they got confused.

We had a good time yesterday. Bug was so excited about wearing his costume.  He’s been asking for weeks when he could wear his costume and go trick or treating.  He was so excited when I told him it was the day…then he asked if he could put on his costume and go trick or treating every second until it was time to go.

Despite him wanting to go the second he put the costume on, I managed to get a few pictures of him with our Halloween decorations in the front yard.

He loved showing off his webbing ability.

Mommy and her Spider-bug

Bug and daddy being scary monsters.

He had a grand time “webbing” daddy with the shreds of material from our cemetery sign.

After taking pictures in the yard we went to Toys R Us where they were having hourly parades and goodies for the kids.  Bug really wanted to participate in the parade.  It was cute.  He got a nice Trick or Treat bag, some candy, some stickers and coloring sheets, a thing of silly putty, and a light stick for going out Trick or Treating.

After Toys R Us we came home.  We had originally planned to go straight to “Mall-o-ween” at the local mall, but I anticipated the thing at Toys R Us lasting longer than it did and despite wandering around and looking at all the toys, we still had over an hour to kill before the mall thing started.

Instead, we raked leaves.

He refused to take the costume off.  Apparently, Spider-man likes doing yard work.

The mall was a lot of fun.  This year we got there early enough that all of the stores still had candy and he got a pretty good stash, including a water bottle from the Apple/Mac store, which Bug is currently drinking cranberry peach juice out of.  We stopped at Friendly’s for dinner and it was a nice treat.  Our server, Laura, was great.  She made sure we had everything and even gave Bug a big bowl of extra pickles with his meal.  He was in heaven.  lol

We got home around 5:30  and got ready for trick or treaters.  We got about a dozen or so before I decided to take Bug out for a little more trick or treating so he could get the whole Halloween experience.  I had originally planned to take him to the houses on our block, but since there we only a couple giving out candy we went around the corner to the next block.  He had a lot of fun knocking and ringing doorbells.  He knows he’s supposed to say “Trick or Treat,” but chose rather to say, “I love candy!”  Silly boy!

This year Halloween was a big hit.  He understood the whole I get candy thing and the whole costume thing, much better than last year.  He really looked forward to it…and I can see that the next couple weeks are going to be tough on mommy.  Not because of the candy that we scored (and the ton we had left over) but because he’s going to want to wear his costume every day.  lol  I can see next year is going to be a lot of fun!

Halloween – Past and Present

My friend Shannon posted some pics of her daughter Cassie in her Halloween costumes over the years and it made me a bit nostalgic of Bug when he was littler.  I dug through my old pics and pulled out some of his past costumes.

Here he is October 2005 about 9 months old. I whipped this costume up Halloween day in a few minutes from some red Christmas felt I had floating around (after I insisted for months that he didn’t need a costume cause he was too little). It worked out well that I had a pair of red sweatpants with a hole in the tush that was the right place to add a little devil tail. I think this is my favorite costume of all!

Here he is dressed in his “Purple Paloo” costume in 2006 at 21 months. He was some sort of little monster and he was most adorable!

Last year he was on a big superhero kick and wanted to be Superman. Here’s my little Superman at 33 months in 2007.

Superman and Mommy

And I know it’s not Halloween yet, but Bug has been dying to wear his costume so we’ve taken him to a couple Halloween events so he can wear it. Here he is at 45 months (again – since I’ve posted this picture once before) donning his Spider-man costume. We are still on the superhero kick…and I have a feeling he’s going to want to be a superhero for the next few years…we’ll see.

Don’t worry, I’ll have more pics from Friday of Mall-o-ween at the mall and maybe some trick or treating at the neighbors if it’s not too cold and rainy. (Hopefully I’ll get them uploaded and edited this weekend so I can start NaBloPoMo!)

Ghost Dog and Other Freaky Tales

So this past Monday at craft night, the girls and I were talking about scary ghost stories and I shared a couple personal experiences that I’ve had over the years at my parents house.  I thought I’d post some here.

Let’s see…let’s start with the Ghost Dog.

When I was in 8th grade or so, my beagle Samantha, who was 10 and a half years old, died during the night.  All was quiet in the house for a while until one night I woke up in the night to go to the bathroom and I heard the sounds of a dog drinking very loudly from the water bowl in the kitchen, just down the hall from my room.  I automatically assumed it was one of our other dogs, Sheba or Gabrielle, and went to get out of bed.  I found that Sheba was curled up on the rug next to my bed and listening closer, realized that the sound was much too loud to be Gabrielle drinking…she was just a tiny poodle and often never got down off the bed in the night.  I left my room and ventured across the hall to my mom’s room to see if Gabrielle was in there and upon waking my mom learned the poodle was curled up on the foot of the bed…I continued to hear the sound, as did my mom.  Together, we walked down the short hallway to the kitchen and as soon as my mom flipped on the light switch, the lapping sound stopped.  There was no one in the kitchen.  Freaky.

That wasn’t the last time Sam could be heard in the house at night.  My mom claims she’s heard her jump up on the back of the couch (where she wasn’t supposed to be when she was alive) and has also heard her rubbing her back on the edge of the bed and underneath the kitchen chairs.

On to “Wedding Day Tugs”

The day after I got married in 2002, Darling Hubby and I drove down to my parents house to spend a little more time with family and to see my brother Frank who, for various reasons, was unable to attend the ceremony or reception.  My Uncle and Aunt (my mom’s brother and wife) flew in from Illinois to meet me for the first time, to attend the wedding and to see his sister, whom he hadn’t seen in over 25 years.  While we were  visiting in the living room, I assumed my usual spot standing in front of the fireplace.  Don’t ask me why, but that’s always where I stand when we are just talking in the living room.  I always have, whether there was a fire or not.  This time, as I was standing there, I felt something tug at the back of my right sleeve.  I turned and looked and there was no one behind me.  I mentioned it to the room and we kinda laughed about it.  We’ve always had the running joke the the house is haunted anyway.  A little while later I was standing in the archway between the living room and the kitchen and it happened again.  Same sleeve, same tugging feeling.  This time I was a bit creeped out.

We got talking about different freaky things and it turns out that my mom, during the time my Aunt and Uncle were staying with them, began smelling her Daddy’s (My grandfather’s) snuff.  My aunt also smelled it, but was reluctant to say anything about it, because she figured she was going crazy.  We came to the conclusion that my grandfather was around visiting his children and wanted to congratulate me on getting married.  Weird.

Since we are on the subject of my grandfather, my mother is convinced that he comes around, a lot.  My mom has a set of those battery operated candles.  You know the ones that people put in their windows during Christmastime.  Well, they used to sit on the entertainment center in the living room.  One day, one of the lights was lit, but no one turned it on.  Mom went to unscrew the top to turn it off and the top just fell right off.  She tried to get it to light again just by putting the top back on, but it wouldn’t light.  She found you had to screw the top down quite a bit before it would turn on.  This type of thing would happen fairly often so eventually she took the batteries out of the light and they got moved into her bedroom above her bed during some rearranging.  My dad was walking out of the bedroom one day and noticed that the light was on again.  He mentioned it to my mom who went in to check it out and saw that it was on and there were NO BATTERIES in it.  Explain that one….

A while ago, my mom was talking about her sister Clarice in our kitchen and she watched the wooden cutting board that was stored standing on end between the wall and the microwave slide to the right as if someone was pulling it from it’s storage place.

Just recently, my mom told me she was sweeping the back porch while my dad was working outside.  She distinctly heard a male voice ask, “What are you doing?” to which she replied, “Sweeping.”  When she looked around she saw no one was there and when she looked around for my dad, saw that he was up on top of the hill at the horse barn, very far from the house.  Strange.

There you have it…some of the freaky, creepy and just plain strange things that have happened at my house.  I’m just waiting for Thanksgiving when we go back.  If was stay over night I might just have a haunting tale to tell about Blossom returning from the grave!  Ooohhh!!  Happy Halloween!

Fun Filled Sunday

So yesterday was a day filled with “experimental” fun, Halloween costumes and spur of the moment decisions.

To start, Darling Hubby and I took Bug to the NYS Museum where they were holding thier annual National Chemistry Day.  Darling Hubby is a chemist and the year that I was pregnant with Bug, both he and I went and worked a table making goop out of borax and glue.  It’s been a few years since then and we figured Bug would be old enough to do some of the experiments and get a few goodies to take home.  Plus, he would get to interact with other people.

When we arrived the first thing he received was his very own pair of safety goggles.  It’s chemistry so even the littlest scientists had to have eye protection.  Bug calls his goggles his Wobble Goggles like Mover Scott from the Imagination Movers.  He loves that show!  After donning his safety equipment we proceeded to check out all the tables.  The first one we stopped at was making ice cream using dry ice.  Bug was very happy to have a cup of ice cream at 10am.  He then got to get inside a giant bubble.

Then he got to blow some bubbles in a lunch tray to measure lung capacity.  He just wanted to blow the bubbles.  He also learned what Dawn dish detergent tastes like.  Now I know what to use when he swears!

He also enjoyed popping the bubbles.

He also enjoyed making a paper car that moved by wind power using paper, straws, life savers candy, and pipe cleaners.

I think the highlight of the morning, for me, was watching a college student attempt to explain why oil and water separate when shaken together to a 3 year old.  Bug could have cared less about why.  He just wanted to use the droppers to mix the red and blue liquids together and shake them up.  I got a giggle out if watching it all.

After a quick bite to eat at the Subway Cafe in the museum, we went down to the lower level where they were holding a Monster Mash and Bash.  Kids got to wear their costumes and do some Halloween crafts and even get their faces painted.  Bug was just so excited to finally wear his Spider-man costume.

Bug wasn’t really into doing the crafts, although he did do a couple to humor mommy…and so he could stay for the little parade around the museum.

After the parade we came home and I made the spur of the moment (well, spur of the day, really) decision that I wanted to cut my hair.  Lately with my friend Suzy needing to cut off her hair because of the chemo making it fall out, the fact that I only ever where my hair pulled back in a low pony tail anymore, I clog the drain when I shower and that my hair was getting in the way more often than not (i.e. Darling Hubby was always laying on it or pulling it accidentally.)  I did want to donate my hair to Locks of Love to be used for wigs for kids, but I’m not sure they will be able to use it since it’s been colored several times…I’ll send it anyway and if they can use it, they can.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a before picture.  My hair was only slightly longer than this picture taken in July.

Before:

After:

This is actually the shortest my hair has ever been.  I had it chin length for my Junior prom in High School, but the back was the same length as the front.  This time it’s shorter, much shorter.  It’s weird to wash it now.  I’m used to using a ton of shampoo and conditioner and having to comb it in the shower and all the time afterwards.  This is much easier and I love the look of it.  Everyone in the salon told me I looked much younger (being only 28 I’ll take that as a compliment).  What do you think?