On the other hand, my last winning costume had been the Fandango paper bag hand puppet, a costume which apparently had charmed the crowd to victory, so I knew it was possible to win on ye olde character charisma.

Win or lose, it was bound to be a fun night, because I was teaming up with Scott Holden in his "garbage man holding Oscar the Grouch" costume.

At the edge of the garbage can, you can see the glove on his phony left hand. His real hand is going inside the can to operate the Grouch puppet. Ingenious, right?

People LOVE it.

After a quick supply stop for costume ballast, we were on our way to Cal Expo for the Zone ball.

With a large costume, it is important to start the evening with a heavy weight, but to slowly empty out the weight until the costume is lightest when you are most fatigued.

Bringing in your own costume ballast is technically against the rules at the Zone ball, probably because they sell it for $8 a cup inside.

The Zone ball is a really big costume party in Sacramento. It is put on by a local radio station and it is huge, attracting perhaps 5,000 people. No other halloween event in this area comes close.

I guess it is a bit of a monopoly because if you are going to spend $60 and four hours on a costume, you are going to want to show it off to as many people as possible, right? Tickets are $33.

Friends as Wall-E and Eve.

What is wrong with this picture?

These gals are not taking a picture of me. They were probably taking a picture of Scott!

To get onstage for the costume contest, you've got to qualify at the preliminary "Costume Audition" stage. These four had one of the worst Jonas Brothers costumes I've ever seen.

Anya Guilty.

There are vendor booths at this party, and this year they were even offering tattoos. It didn't look like they were getting a lot of customers, but I appreciate their efforts.

Greg, in his Predator costume, had made improvements from last year, including the addition of a telescoping spear. He was in the costume contest, and it was likely that Scott, Greg and I would take first, second and third in this contest.

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