"Baptised" puts it a bit lightly, perhaps, considering that we were tied in a burlap sack at the time. We were fortuitously able to chew our way out of the bag and scrabble back to the river bank, though, proving to dear old Dad that we really were his loin fruit and not the local rat-smasher's. Our relationship greatly improved thereafter.
Having survived the ordeal, we have always felt Halloween to be a serendipitous sort of day, one worthy of celebration and consumption of legendary quantities of beer (in this it differs from Guy Fawkes Night and Kwanza, when the amount of beer consumed is merely epic). Proper celebration of Halloween naturally demands Bacchanalian feats of debauchery, theft of candy from small children and the besmirchment of the local zoo's monkey house. On years when things really get crazy, the Ritual Shearing of the Kittens is observed.
An essential element of Halloween is the Techeye family's annual costume contest. During this event everybody dresses up as a different seminal invention and the best (often most destructive) costume wins. Bribery, blackmail and kidnapping all influence the voting, thus we've managed to take the top prize twice - once as a Large Hadron Collider (2005) and once as an "electronic wife thwapper" (2001). Last year we went as a late 19th-century can opener - a natural metaphor given our sharp wit and edgy gadget-fondling habit - but lost out to Cousin Jesus Techeye (of the Argentinian branch of the family) and his elaborate International Space Station costume.
This year we're planning to celebrate yet another fantabulous invention - the computer mouse. We're feeling a bit lazy, though, so instead of making a costume we're planning to order a bunch from Swiss mouse-makers Pat Says Now (PSN) and just strap them to our body. PSN's large variety of computer mouses range in price from around zł.110 to zł.460 and come with a three-year warranty - useful to have if we plan to prune any kittens in our Halloween costume.
