Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog

Halloween is exactly two weeks away and I needed to find a costume so that I could go trick-or-treating with Nic. I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in a long time. I think it’s been five years as a matter of fact. Donna and I had just moved into our (brand) new townhouse and I spent two hours in God-awful traffic trying to get home so I could get dressed and help hand out candy.

I got home and dressed up as a football player, complete with a Virginia Tech Hokies football jersey. Donna was dressed as a sexy referee. Of course, we aren’t together any more, but since there is only one Halloween, we are both taking Nic trick-or-treating in downtown Pulaski. Nic is going as Remy from the Disney movie Ratatouille. Remy, for those that haven’t seen the movie, is a rat living in Paris, France, who loves to cook and dreams of becoming a chef. It’s Nic’s favorite movie, so when asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, he said, “Remy!” As you can see from the picture, he has a little chef’s outfit on with mouse/rat ears.

Donna is going as Collette, the only woman cook in the film. I wanted to get dressed up for the first time with Nic, so I started searching for “chef costumes” online. The cheapest I found was $40 from Target. Uh, no way. That’s entirely too much to spend on cheap polyester that may not survive one night of trick-or-treating. So, I removed the word “costume” from my search and replaced it with “uniform” and found a ton of uniform supplier Web sites, where I found chef coats from as low as $12.99 and a chef’s hat for $3.50. Throw in $8 for shipping and I spend less than $25 for my Halloween costume. And, should I ever decided to become a chef, I’m set!

I didn’t get the black and white striped (houndstooth) pants because, well, I think they’re ugly. I’ll just wear black or gray pants. Oh, which character will I be from the movie? I’ll probably just be Linguini, the bumbling no-talent chef, though, rest assured, I can cook. I thought about being Chef Skinner, the short, pudgy, obnoxious French (oxymoron, I know) chef, but I simply couldn’t find the proper motivation. :)

So, if you still haven’t found a costume for Halloween, consider searching/shopping for the real thing before you shell out $40-$100 (or more, if you’re completely lost your mind) for a cheap costume that you’ll probably never wear again.

Stay tuned for pictures from Halloween 2008 and safe trick-or-treating everyone!