UPDATED: My First Purchases of the Halloween Season: 2009

This post should have gone up last Sunday, but I was having technical difficulties.  Begin post now...

Hi my name is Steve and I'm a Halloween Addict.
"Hiiiiii Steeeeeve."
It's been ... well I fell off the wagon today.
I know it's still early, but I made some of my first purchases of the 2009 Halloween Season.

There was a time where I would try and wait until October 1st...
then there was a time when I tried to wait until at least Target or other major stores had completely put up their Halloween merchandise.
Well I set a new standard for myself:  Now I'll buy when I see it in the store even if it's only September.

Wandering around my local Target, they had one row of Halloween candy up.  You can tell the Halloween candy aisle from the normal aisle of candy at Target by the pillowcase sized bags usually featuring a bat or Frankenstein's monster-version of the candy within.
None of the costumes or novelty candies were up yet and there were still the remnants of back-to-school notebooks and backpacks lying around.

But then I rounded the corner and found the "first wave."  Papergoods and assorted baking products.
These aren't the things I usually buy... ever.  But I have a site to run, things to review and a jonesing to buy Halloween gear. 

You say:  "Enough already, we know you have a problem, you run a website called Halloween Addict.  What'd you buy?"

Ok, here's the rundown:
First up:  Tissue boxes.
Target usually has these on an end cap with all the other paperproducts.  I can't resist them.  They're just tissues... not even anything that fun.  But the fact that they're in packages of two, and cubes with multiple designs on all sides makes me buy 'em every year.

If you don't already know, Target's "Halloween theme" this year is Skelanimals which look like cartoony pets wearing skeleton costumes, or cartoony versions of dead cute pets.  You decide.

So as you can see from the pic, in the pack of two you get two different designs each with a lenticular panel.  One (which I tried to photograph on the right) has a Skelanimal spider on a web, the other (not pictured) has a Skelanimal getting struck by lightning.  Nope. Not kidding.
I appreciate the dark humor, Skelanimals.

Right next to the tissues were the Bounty paper towels with Halloween prints.  I've never purchased the paper towels before, and if Bounty keeps up the crappy prints like this year, I may not buy 'em again. 

Akin to the tissues, you get two in the pack and each has a different design.
Design 1 has a few jack o' lanterns stuck to some barbed wire.  Looking like a child's drawing of a Saw trap, it's not that great.  The jack o' lanterns are more goofy than scary, and--- BARBED WIRE???  Barbed wire isn't Halloween!  Lame.

Design 2 features ghosts making googly eyes.  Seriously you can practically hear them say "Boogie boogie" in an effort to try and scare you, Scooby-Doo style.
In fact, I'd also say that if you were to slap a red circle with a diagonal line through it "not" symbol on top of them, they could pass for a poor-man's Ghostbuster symbol.  
Side note:  They ARE super-absorbent.  Gotta give credit where credit is due.

Next up, something else I've never purchased.
One word:  Funfetti.
I don't know why I bought this stuff.  Maybe it was the Pillsbury Doughboy holding a jack o' lantern...
Maybe it was the tiny bat-covered cupcake papers...
Maybe it was the word "Funfetti."
You see it's confetti for food... that's fun.
Funfetti.
Someone was paid a lot of money to come up with that word.
And it worked.  I bought the damn stuff.

The packaging is trying hard to be in the Halloween spirit.  But a closer look reveals that it's some smoke and mirrors.  That's not a Bates-style Victorian haunted house in the background... it's a house... with orange windows.  Probably from a warm fireplace.  Mmmm sleepy time...
I guess Pillsbury thinks people who are scared don't eat much.
I will TOTALLY let someone else make these for me.
I'll update the post later in the month on how they taste.

UPDATE:   They taste pretty good.  Without frosting on them they sort of taste like the cake version of a Lucky Charms marshmallow.  With frosting, they're little sugar balls of goodness.  You ever taste Funfetti by itself?  No?  Don't.  Yet directly on the cupcake--- delicious.  

Here's a pic of TOO many mini cupcakes in the house.  This is one plate of 5.  Seriously. 

Next item:
I'm going to say something that may be blasphemous to some:  I don't usually buy M & Ms.
I'll eat one of the trick or treat size packs from time to time, but the bigger bags aren't my thing.
Why'd I buy this one?
Because M & Ms added some color to this year's Halloween assortment.  In amongst the orange and black you'll find slime green and monster purple.  Grade:  A-.
I even love the spooky purple bag they put them in.
Don't get confused:  though the industry has led you to believe that dark purple = dark chocolate in candy color coding... that is not the case here.  These are plain old milk chocolate.

And what would a Halloween spree be without some real pumpkins?
I bought some... ok three.  I bought three.   They're small though.  Not for carving.
There's nothing for scale in the photo, but know that they're about Green Goblin Pumpkin-bomb sized. 

After my spree, I came home and made Pumpkin Ravioli.  PUMPKIN RAVIOLI.  Look at that photo.  Those are bright orange stripes on tiny pillows of pumpkin and sage.  I didn't even care it was 80 degrees out.
How were they?
Delicious.

That's it.  Not tooooo bad.
Watch what happens when I go back in October.
A lone Halloween Addict single-handedly supporting the economy.