Rather than focusing on the depressing political news of late, let’s talk about more positive stuff. Like, say, Halloween.

For the second year in a row, General Assembly threw a killer party down in Georgetown. Last year, a group of us went as variations on Abraham Lincoln:

From left to right: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Lincoln, Zombie Lincoln, Roller Rincoln, and Abrahim Lincolnstein

And having been last year, I knew the space had really high ceilings, so this year I went big. Like, 15-foot-tall-giant-squid big:

Originally, I’d hoped to use just helium balloons to hold the top part of the costume (the body of the squid) aloft, but it turned out even 1.1 oz ripstop nylon was too heavy (or more accurately, I couldn’t get enough helium in there to provide enough lift), and so I had to add some support in the form of a thin bamboo pole running up my back. It was definitely the easiest costume to spot at the party (what, being 8 feet taller than almost everything else there), but wasn’t so much the best in terms of being social (my beak cut off peripheral vision and it was hard to hear) or practical.

Lots more pictures (of everyone at the party, this year and last) here.