BAT! HOODIE! FOR! THE! WIN!
I put my Halloween costume together based on plans from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. With shopping help from Pirate* I spent Sunday afternoon with an umbrella, a black hoodie, pliers, a screwdriver, EMT shears, needle, thread, and a thimble**.
and came up with a pretty damn awesome costume, if I do say so myself. Pirate took a short video of me doing a quick test-ride Monday morning to see if could wear it on the bike or if I'd need to pack it and put it on when I got to work.
The advantage of the character is that it didn't matter if I was banging into things and bending the wing struts (like I was) or looking ungainly when Pirate insisted I run around in circles in the park after work so he could take more video.
Surprisingly, a number of people (who didn't have the excuse of having grown up elsewhere) didn't get it. "You're a... bat? A devil?"
For pete's sake, my garment had a hang-tag that said "Genuine ACME Corp. Bat-Man Suit", I kept pulling an ACME catalog flyer out of my pocket and offering to show it to the person I was speaking to in case they might be interested in any of the other fine ACME products (although I myself could not personally recommend the rocket-powered unicycle or the boomerang, good sir or madam), and I was wearing a name tag that said "HELLO MY NAME IS Wile E. Coyote, SUPERGENIUS - Have brain, will travel"!
Pirate and I were down at Jack London Square goofing around and taking pictures with the statue of Jack when two women walked by. I wanted to hug the one who looked at me and said "...so, where's the Roadrunner?"
After the park (and the Trappist) and the stop at JLS we went to one of our favorite points overlooking the estuary (deserted at that time of night), put some music on, and danced on top of the empty picnic table. It was an amazing way to spend an evening.
I so, so need a bat-hoodie for day-to-day wear. I'm going to shorten the ears and wings, replace the metal struts with something flexy (maybe boning from the fabric store, or else hello TAP Plastics), and use snaps to attach the wings to the body of the hoodie so it's backpack-compatible. But bat-hoodie there must be.
Running in a bat-hoodie? AWESOME. Riding a bike in a bat-hoodie? AWESOME. Dancing on a picnic table in a deserted park at night in a bat-hoodie? AWESOME. Highly recommended.
* Including being very sensible and, late Sunday afternoon, as I was sitting on the living room floor dealing with black thread on black fabric and not-great instructions and cursing under my breath, saying "Hey, sweetie, I know you were going to make cookies to take to the potluck, but how about I go by Arizmendi in the morning and get some cookies and drop them off to you? You don't need another thing to do tonight."
** AKA "OMG THIMBLE stay on my damn finger!" I feel so thimble-illiterate. Thimble-incompetent. Utterly clumsy and with two left hands. Argh. #21stCenturyProblems
and came up with a pretty damn awesome costume, if I do say so myself. Pirate took a short video of me doing a quick test-ride Monday morning to see if could wear it on the bike or if I'd need to pack it and put it on when I got to work.
Click to viewThe advantage of the character is that it didn't matter if I was banging into things and bending the wing struts (like I was) or looking ungainly when Pirate insisted I run around in circles in the park after work so he could take more video.
Surprisingly, a number of people (who didn't have the excuse of having grown up elsewhere) didn't get it. "You're a... bat? A devil?"
For pete's sake, my garment had a hang-tag that said "Genuine ACME Corp. Bat-Man Suit", I kept pulling an ACME catalog flyer out of my pocket and offering to show it to the person I was speaking to in case they might be interested in any of the other fine ACME products (although I myself could not personally recommend the rocket-powered unicycle or the boomerang, good sir or madam), and I was wearing a name tag that said "HELLO MY NAME IS Wile E. Coyote, SUPERGENIUS - Have brain, will travel"!
Pirate and I were down at Jack London Square goofing around and taking pictures with the statue of Jack when two women walked by. I wanted to hug the one who looked at me and said "...so, where's the Roadrunner?"
After the park (and the Trappist) and the stop at JLS we went to one of our favorite points overlooking the estuary (deserted at that time of night), put some music on, and danced on top of the empty picnic table. It was an amazing way to spend an evening.
I so, so need a bat-hoodie for day-to-day wear. I'm going to shorten the ears and wings, replace the metal struts with something flexy (maybe boning from the fabric store, or else hello TAP Plastics), and use snaps to attach the wings to the body of the hoodie so it's backpack-compatible. But bat-hoodie there must be.
Running in a bat-hoodie? AWESOME. Riding a bike in a bat-hoodie? AWESOME. Dancing on a picnic table in a deserted park at night in a bat-hoodie? AWESOME. Highly recommended.
* Including being very sensible and, late Sunday afternoon, as I was sitting on the living room floor dealing with black thread on black fabric and not-great instructions and cursing under my breath, saying "Hey, sweetie, I know you were going to make cookies to take to the potluck, but how about I go by Arizmendi in the morning and get some cookies and drop them off to you? You don't need another thing to do tonight."
** AKA "OMG THIMBLE stay on my damn finger!" I feel so thimble-illiterate. Thimble-incompetent. Utterly clumsy and with two left hands. Argh. #21stCenturyProblems