I was one of four finalists for the costume contest, but my luck ran out there. 

The emcee very carefully instructed the audience to ONLY cheer for the costume they wanted to win first prize: A ROMANTIC TRIP TO PUERTO VALLARTA!!

He then proceeded to call out the costumes, Dr. Octopus first.

There was only a smattering of applause. I was crushed.

What the audience could see, on the far side of the stage, was the couple they wanted to win. A couple in their 50s dressed like a Cuervo tequila bottle and a bright green margarita.

So they held their applause. King Kong got a little more applause than me, and the Space Anteater got a little more still.

When the Emcee announced Jose Cuervo and Margarita, the crowd went apeshit. They won. Not only the trip, but the $2,000 top prize.

I dragged myself off stage. I was going home empty handed.

Scott's wife found me and was the first to offer condolences, "you were robbed".

The crowd, who had been maddeningly quiet when I was on stage, were happy to embrace me on the main floor of the party. I was asked to pose in photo after photo, perhaps 200 in all. It was great. 

Each photographer was caught in a conundrum, trying to get a closeup photo at first, then creeping backwards to try to get every bit of the costume in frame.

Many, many people expressed their appreciation for the imagination and skill evident in the spiderman over my head.

I nearly closed the place down, just showing off and people-watching.

Unfortunately, by the time Sunday night night rolled around, I wasn't up to driving to San Francisco. Carting and surviving an oversized costume in the Castro just didn't seem like it was going to be worth the trouble this year. Parking is a nightmare and public transportation isn't an option when you destroyed a subway train in the last spiderman movie.

Back to Incredible Stuff I Made.  - The Dr. Octopus costume on ebay.