Well, it's begun. I hauled out the boxes out Halloween decorations, and they're presently occupying the majority of the living room floor. I spent a couple of minutes last night getting reacquainted with what I bought on sale last year after Halloween... some I'd remembered getting, some I hadn't. It was like opening presents on Christmas.

Now I have to go through all of them and decide where to put them. Want to come over and help? Please? I'll let you take home some of the 20 or so orange votive candles I bought last year as payment. Frankly, I have no clue where to start. A lot of the stuff can't be put out until the day of Halloween, and where they go depends on whether it rains.

So, as you can plainly see, I'm under a lot of serious stress. So much stress, in fact, I can't even begin to deal with Shasta, my rottweiler, being tormented by my cat, Butler. Butler's perched in the closet and won't come out, which is distressing the poor little 80 lb. doggy to no end.

But, no, I can't deal with that now. I have more important matters to which I must attend. For example, should the 6 ft. tall skeleton lady go by the porch, or should it be mourning over the coffin and tombstones? Should I have the glowing skeleton head coming out of the coffin, or should I use the strange rotting flesh head? If I put the talking full-body skeleton dude on the porch again this year will it scare away any children? Should I play spooky sounds or Hallowen-themed music? Or both? If I hang the flying bat (he flaps his wings and goes around in circles) over the walkway leading up to the porch, would that totally freak out the kids?

It's a delicate balance between spooky and just too scary. I know some kids were afraid last year to come to the door, so I need to do some experimenting with different decoration placement this year. I want it to be fun, not creepy. Well, not too creepy.

I'm off to go sit amongst the boxes of decorations and ponder these heavy, thought provoking questions. That, and I have to ponder how I'm going to make a pumpkin look like an M&M character. It was my mother's most excellent idea. Take care, friends. If I don't return, it will be because my brain, after trying to figure out the mass of confusion that is my Halloween decorating crisis, just gave up and I'm rotting somewhere amid the boxes.

Which, come to think of it, would make an excellent Halloween decoration.