Cockeyed reader Jeff Johnston requested a round up of my halloween costume contest adventures, and now, two months later, I'm going to give it to you!

I was super excited for the public debut of the Downton Abbey costume. The construction website and video got a ton of press in the UK, no doubt due to the fact that new episodes of Downton Abbey were being aired in the UK during October.

The costume started with two small eye holes, but I came to my senses and cut a hole large enough to put my face on the castle.

Halloween was on a Friday night, but there were a few contests in town before that. On Wednesday night, a club called "the Mix" had a "$1,000" Costume contest.

These are more appropriate costumes for a packed nightclub costume party. Unfortunately I was dressed as a building.

The club was navigable at 10pm, but by 11, it was a heaving mass of humanity, impossible to slip through with a large costume. A few over-enthusiastic fans grabbed at the outer wall and pulled it down, ruining the costume.

The castle was destroyed. I had duct tape in the car, but this couldn't be fixed, and I'd never be able to make it back inside the nightclub.

It was about an hour until the costume contest and I was screwed.

But I had a solution! The center tower of the castle pulled loose and fit right over my head, slim and trim!

I was back in action!

The costume was much less impressive, but I was free to have more fun. I shared the costume with some fellow party goers.

My chances of winning the costume contest were slashed, but I still felt like I had a chance.

This battery-powered light-up jellyfish costume was the only other oversized costume at the party. It looked very polished.

In the back of my mind, I had an idea that the crowd would remember my whole costume, and give me costume credit for braving the club with a huge, ridiculous getup. That may have have happened. The costume didn't actually take place until 1 am, and the worknight crowd had thinned to a few dozen audience members. As I faced off against the other top costumes, there seemed to be just 9 or 10 people who actually cared about the results of the contest, cheering in front of the stage.

I came in second place! The glowing jellyfish gal got first place, $500 cash, while I had to settle with a $200 gift certificate for "gold VIP seating" during a future visit.

Downton Abbey was a fun costume, but it wasn't my best shot at winning a costume contest. My best shot was the costume from last year, Disneyland. On Halloween I took the Disneyland costume to Thunder Valley Casino, to their $5,000 costume contest.

Assembling the Disneyland Costume in the parking garage at Thunder Valley. Eric and Victor agreed to join me and help out, because I was nearly helpless once I was strapped into the Disneyland costume.

Posing on the casino floor. This gal is dressed in a straight-from-the-package "60s" go go dancer costume.

That isn't a complaint. She looked great.

The party itself wasn't too huge, and was remarkably well behaved.

I wouldn't call it easy, cruising into a party with an oversized costume. Sometimes the staff at the party recognizes your disability and helps you negotiate roped off queues, doorways and stairs, sometimes you are left to make your own way. The people at Thunder Valley were very accomodating.

Posing with the gumball machine. The original design had plastic covering the whole dome, but her costume had to be modified to adhere to the "no covered faces" rule at the casino.

Apparently a sheet of plastic can reflect a flash, obscuring a person's face from security cameras, and here at a casino, that was an important consideration.

Snow White and another princess visiting Disneyland.

Cop and Dorothy. In this photo you can see my white gloved hand holding a beer with a straw.

As midnight approached, I was weighing my competition. There was an 8' fawn (on stilts), the umbrella jellyfish girl (again) an amazing Cletus, the football robot from Fox, and a few other old friends. I liked my chances to win the whole thing.

There would be five winner announced and welcomed on stage, who would each be in the money. Audience applause would determine who would win first ($2,500), second ($1,500) or one of three runners up ($500).

Around midnight they started announcing the names of costumes who were finalists. There were five finalists.

Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them.

They were the Winter Queen, identified by the yellow arrow in the picture above, a robot woman, the trailer trash Barbie and Ken, and the Aztec dancer, identified by the red arrow above, and one more. I didn't win. I wasn't even a finalist!

It took a while to sink in that I had lost to these ordinary costumes. I wish I had snapped a picture of the robot woman, who was made up kind of like a sexy woman with the lower half of a Dalek. She had blue skin makeup on and tons of flashing lights. I think there must have been a mistake, or maybe I skipped the judging area when I entered the party. Who knows.

I was really mad. It was inconceivable that I wouldn't be among the top five costumes at this party. I lost my cool and started up the stairs to the stage. I was here to win, and absolutely didn't care if I got thrown out. I was stopped by security and turned around. What a disappointment. I left.

As I walked away from the stage, I heard robot woman winning first place.

There was no one to complain to. After Victor and Eric and I left the ballroom, we made our way to the exit through the crowded casino. Halloween was over.

My disappointment was tempered by the embrace of the adoring crowds in the casino. I was swamped with attention, with people climbing over one another to snap my photo. It was insane!

I would have preferred to leave with $2,500, but being crushed with affection and admiration is a pretty good alternative!