Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Mapping Out Halloween Spirit: Festive Pacific Northwest Displays

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Mapping Out Halloween Spirit: Festive Pacific Northwest Displays · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  Last year Gina's, um,
• 0:04
  Gina's theme was,
• 0:06
  "Scooby-Doo."
• 0:07
  She had all those "Scooby-Doo" characters,
• 0:09
  but she had them as skeletons,
• 0:10
  and then she had,
• 0:11
  she had a custom built mystery machine.
• 0:14
  There was a photo off.
• 0:15
  You could actually get it and take pictures.
• 0:17
  That is making her reappearance this year.
• 0:19
  That is so cool.
• 0:21
  [Music]
• 0:39
  Hello creepy people.
• 0:41
  My name is Cassie,
• 0:42
  and this is PNW Haunts and Homicides,
• 0:45
  where me and my co-host Caitlyn
• 0:47
  usually chat about true crime,
• 0:48
  the paranormal,
• 0:49
  and all things creepy
• 0:50
  in the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:52
  She will not be joining me today,
• 0:54
  but I have a very fun bonus for you guys.
• 0:57
  We're going to be talking about Halloween display maps
• 1:00
  in the Pacific Northwest in Beyond.
• 1:04
  Hello, this is Jason.
• 1:05
  Hi, this is Diana.
• 1:07
  We are with PNWCL.
• 1:09
  What's PNW stand for?
• 1:12
  Pacific Northwest.
• 1:14
  Silly person.
• 1:15
  We have PNW in our name too,
• 1:17
  and everyone's like, "What does that mean?"
• 1:19
  [Laughter]
• 1:20
  Pacific Northwest.
• 1:22
  So what is the CL stand for?
• 1:23
  Christmas lights.
• 1:25
  That's what we started with.
• 1:26
  Oh, okay.
• 1:27
  But now you're doing Halloween stuff.
• 1:31
  Is that correct?
• 1:32
  We do Christmas, Halloween, Easter.
• 1:36
  We've done St. Patrick's Day.
• 1:38
  We've done Veterans Day.
• 1:39
  Fourth of July.
• 1:40
  Fourth of July.
• 1:41
  Whatever people want to put up a display for,
• 1:43
  we'll do a map.
• 1:44
  We even did one year during COVID,
• 1:47
  a decorated porch parade for mardi gras.
• 1:52
  Oh my gosh, that is so fun.
• 1:54
  I missed that.
• 1:55
  Where was I?
• 1:55
  That one was mostly in Portland.
• 1:58
  I was dealing with the Portland mardi gras crew.
• 2:01
  Great folks.
• 2:04
  We actually zoomed chat while I was driving off the McLeod heel fairy.
• 2:08
  That was fun.
• 2:08
  Oh my goodness.
• 2:10
  Remember that.
• 2:11
  That was interesting.
• 2:12
  So tell us a little bit more about this map,
• 2:15
  because I'm a very intrigued.
• 2:17
  Well, we've been mapping holiday displays now going on.
• 2:21
  This is our 11th year.
• 2:22
  Eight of those we've done Halloween.
• 2:25
  So far this year, we have 50 unique Halloween displays
• 2:31
  so far on a non-published map.
• 2:34
  Last year, we had close to three or 400 at the end of the season.
• 2:40
  Oh my goodness.
• 2:41
  That is a lot.
• 2:43
  Across Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
• 2:45
  British Columbia, and last year, we expanded included parts of Utah, Montana,
• 2:51
  other parts of Montana, Denver,
• 2:54
  Nevada, Northern California.
• 2:57
  Yeah, it kind of blew up.
• 2:59
  Oh, this is so cool.
• 3:01
  Request of the display owners themselves, but why not?
• 3:07
  Yeah, I love that.
• 3:09
  So can anyone be on this map?
• 3:13
  If they decide to be on the map, they can be on the map.
• 3:16
  We prefer to take submissions from the owners themselves just for the sake of
• 3:23
  their approval and all that.
• 3:25
  Right.
• 3:25
  That makes sense.
• 3:25
  We have open to community submissions.
• 3:28
  When we get those, we're going to personally vet them before we actually publicly host them,
• 3:34
  just because we have had some issues in the past where display was on the map and
• 3:40
  they didn't want to be and it was causing them undo issues.
• 3:44
  So you're very respectful of the display owners if they don't want to be on the map,
• 3:48
  they're not going to be on the map, but I do keep a record of them.
• 3:52
  I have a private map that I keep for my personal use.
• 3:55
  So what's the purpose of this map?
• 3:58
  What do people use it for?
• 3:59
  To just for family fun, getting out, you know, doing things during COVID,
• 4:07
  it was a great thing to get people out of the house without having to necessarily be in a crowd of people,
• 4:13
  things like that.
• 4:14
  But for years and years, I'd be at a display, you know, that my friends were on or anything like that.
• 4:19
  One of the biggest things they'd always ask is, "Hey, do you know of any other cool displays in the
• 4:24
  area?"
• 4:24
  And they're really, after Steve Poole stopped doing the Parade of Lights on Como 4,
• 4:30
  for Christmas, there really wasn't a resource.
• 4:34
  We felt that we were going to be that community resource. It started with Washington and well,
• 4:39
  his kind of grown to be a uncontrollable beast.
• 4:43
  We love that uncontrollable beast.
• 4:47
  Yes, it should be barely controlled.
• 4:50
  Yeah, it's mostly been me and Diana running things.
• 4:54
  What we have had a, a couple of editors that have helped in the past,
• 4:59
  unfortunately, they have moved on and it's back to us doing
• 5:03
  three times the size of map that we had then with just the two of us.
• 5:08
  Oh my gosh, do you guys need volunteers or anything like that?
• 5:12
  We always are looking for people that are willing to scout and report back.
• 5:19
  You know, if I've got displays that I have from last year that I don't have any information
• 5:23
  this year, yeah, we love, we love scouting, we love, you know, we love the community.
• 5:28
  I mean, we're not doing this for ourselves.
• 5:31
  We're doing this for the community.
• 5:32
  We're not out to make a buck by doing this.
• 5:34
  Yeah, right.
• 5:35
  Because you guys don't make anything, right?
• 5:36
  It's free.
• 5:37
  It's free.
• 5:38
  We don't charge anything for it though in the last few years,
• 5:41
  we have been taking some sponsorships from some local businesses.
• 5:44
  Love that.
• 5:45
  We love our costs because running a website and 40 to 60 hours of work for Christmas,
• 5:52
  on top of a 40 hour week job, the money's got to come somewhere.
• 5:57
  I can't, and I'm not going to work 60 hours for free.
• 6:01
  You know, you know, if I can help it.
• 6:04
  Oh, yeah, we totally get that here.
• 6:06
  This is just our passion project.
• 6:09
  We are, well, we didn't start off getting paid to do it.
• 6:12
  Now we're kind of starting to get ads and things.
• 6:15
  So it is nice to be able to fund your work that you love.
• 6:20
  Yes, yes, and we're slowly trying to work our way into finding a way to make our community
• 6:27
  project into an actual 501C of some level.
• 6:32
  What is that again?
• 6:33
  I don't.
• 6:34
  Charity.
• 6:35
  Okay, okay.
• 6:36
  Like a nonprofit.
• 6:37
  So nonprofit.
• 6:37
  Yeah.
• 6:38
  That is awesome.
• 6:40
  So we will include contact information if anyone listening is interested in volunteering,
• 6:46
  so they know how to get in touch with you.
• 6:48
  We can put that in our show notes for you.
• 6:51
  You'll also have like a submission form for people to submit their displays.
• 6:56
  We have a submission form on our website, pnwcl.com.
• 7:00
  And link is there for both Halloween and for Christmas.
• 7:04
  Awesome.
• 7:05
  And the map isn't live yet for Halloween, correct?
• 7:09
  Correct.
• 7:09
  The map will go live October 1st, even though I do have two or three displays that are already live.
• 7:14
  Oh my gosh.
• 7:16
  This is so exciting.
• 7:17
  I love spooky season.
• 7:18
  I'm wearing my, I'm just, I'm just here for the boos.
• 7:22
  Sure.
• 7:23
  We're wearing branded.
• 7:24
  Yes.
• 7:26
  You got a rep, you know?
• 7:27
  Absolutely.
• 7:28
  Well, so have a little witch hat.
• 7:30
  Don't have my signs behind me with our QR code or anything?
• 7:33
  No, no.
• 7:34
  Oh, perfect.
• 7:35
  That'll make it easy if anyone's watching or Patreon.
• 7:37
  They can just scan the QR code behind you.
• 7:40
  What has your favorite display been?
• 7:45
  Every display has their own charm.
• 7:47
  It's like trying to say what is your favorite child?
• 7:50
  You know you have one, but you don't really want to say it.
• 7:55
  But for absolute insanity of display, just the display itself.
• 8:02
  Historically.
• 8:03
  Davis graveyard in Portland.
• 8:04
  Yes, I have heard of that.
• 8:07
  That is awesome.
• 8:09
  That is very epic.
• 8:10
  It is, it is an absolute amazing, amazing display.
• 8:14
  Now for the fun changing theme every year,
• 8:19
  display, I'm going to throw one of my good friends and display owners under the bus
• 8:25
  Gina laws who runs the spectacular Halloween house down in Covington.
• 8:30
  Where is Covington?
• 8:32
  Near Kent.
• 8:34
  Is that Washington?
• 8:36
  It is Washington.
• 8:37
  Okay, Washington.
• 8:38
  Yeah, I'm from Oregon.
• 8:40
  So, Portland area.
• 8:41
  So, southern part of Seattle, but East.
• 8:45
  Yeah, a lot of spooky stuff up there.
• 8:47
  Gina's been doing displays for both Halloween and Christmas going on 20 plus years.
• 8:54
  Oh, that is so cool.
• 8:57
  Do you guys do any displays?
• 8:58
  Minor decorations here and there, nothing major with everything else we got going on.
• 9:04
  We don't have time to manage a display.
• 9:06
  You're right.
• 9:06
  But last year Gina's, Gina's theme was Scooby-Doo.
• 9:12
  She had all those Scooby-Doo characters, but she had them as skeletons.
• 9:16
  And then she had a custom built mystery machine that was a photo op.
• 9:21
  You could actually get it and take pictures.
• 9:23
  That is making reappearances here.
• 9:25
  That is so cool.
• 9:27
  A couple of years back she had a big devil statue on a throne and the theme was Shout of the Devil.
• 9:33
  Nice.
• 9:34
  I love this.
• 9:36
  I am so happy.
• 9:37
  I'm going to take a look at the map this year and maybe go on a little tour.
• 9:41
  And the best thing about the map other than a couple of displays,
• 9:46
  they are all family, friendly.
• 9:48
  Oh, well, okay.
• 9:50
  Maybe I won't just give it.
• 9:51
  We try to keep it all ages.
• 9:55
  Once I have the intentional jump scares and other things like that,
• 9:59
  I'm thinking of the small children that, in a parent's,
• 10:02
  they're looking at my map for a family resource.
• 10:06
  So, not that I don't have some more PG-13 or adult ones on their occasionally at request,
• 10:13
  but I marked them differently than the other ones just so people are aware.
• 10:17
  Okay.
• 10:17
  Yeah, I was going to ask you have a mark, does like, scary not for children or?
• 10:21
  Yeah, I had a handful of those last year on my map.
• 10:25
  One of my favorites actually down in the Portland area, he's, I think he's an actual Milwaukee
• 10:31
  address. He does an animated light display and he does Halloween and a few others.
• 10:36
  It's chilling lights on Lark.
• 10:39
  He puts on a fun show.
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  He's got the big, the big Skellies and other, other aspects there.
• 10:47
  He puts on a fun Halloween show, a little bit of a spook, a lot of fun.
• 10:54
  He just has a good old time with it.
• 10:57
  Are most of these kind of interactive where you can kind of go through the display?
• 11:02
  Some are view from the street.
• 11:05
  There are a handful that are walk through.
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  Then there's others that are actual light shows.
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  Like you see on like, Great Christmas light fight.
• 11:12
  Were there any major to music?
• 11:14
  I love that.
• 11:15
  That is like one of my favorite, one of those, you know, the tick-tock videos of the light displays.
• 11:22
  That's mainly where I've seen them.
• 11:23
  I don't think I've actually seen one in real life.
• 11:26
  There is a ton in the Portland area.
• 11:28
  I'm going to have to go check, but I know last year I had a really cool house in the Portland area
• 11:34
  where you drive by the house of the day.
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  Can't see anything at night.
• 11:38
  He's got a projection map of all across this house.
• 11:42
  When I saw that, I was literally blown away.
• 11:46
  I mean, I've seen projection mapping before,
• 11:48
  but I've not seen it done on a residential house, and that was amazing.
• 11:52
  I would love to see that. Is that on the map this year?
• 11:56
  I haven't verified him yet for this year, but I'm pretty sure he will be running.
• 12:00
  Okay. I'll be looking for that one.
• 12:03
  That would be pretty reliable.
• 12:04
  Yeah. We have in the past partnered with a
• 12:08
  Halloween specific group called the Northwest Haunters. He's been doing Halloween about a year.
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  He started his page about a year after I started
• 12:19
  he and WCL. He's specifically Halloween and all that.
• 12:25
  There are differences in how we run things.
• 12:27
  He just maintains everything that's there and requires people to say,
• 12:31
  "Okay, if you change anything or update anything, let me know."
• 12:33
  Okay.
• 12:35
  Me, I vet everything every year. It more work, but it guarantees when somebody goes to a display
• 12:42
  that it's there. Yeah. You don't want someone showing up to like an empty yard and me like,
• 12:47
  "Well, what the heck?"
• 12:48
  In there, done that.
• 12:50
  They're ghosts. You can't see them.
• 12:51
  Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, it's a lot of extra work to develop a meat year, but I find it just
• 13:00
  it provides a better experience. Yeah. That is a ton of work. So that's very
• 13:04
  understandable that you need volunteers and stuff. So, creepy people, listen up. If you need some extra
• 13:11
  volunteer work, you know where to go. And we'll take them from all of our map areas.
• 13:16
  So, you obviously probably don't visit the ones that are out of state, but do you try to actually
• 13:23
  physically visit most of them? We try to visit as many as we can every year.
• 13:27
  For Halloween, we usually don't travel too far. We might do a trip to Portland.
• 13:34
  And then we'll stay locally around the Seattle area. Christmas on the other hand, we go crazy.
• 13:40
  Oh, I bet.
• 13:41
  Well, one year we literally drove from Seattle, scouted all of Vancouver, checked into our hotel,
• 13:48
  then drove to Albany. Oh my gosh. All in one day. And then back to the hotel in Portland.
• 13:53
  Wow. That is not a day trip. But yeah, around Christmas, we're known to go as far south as like
• 14:00
  Medford, as far north as Northern Vancouver, British Columbia, as far east as
• 14:06
  Cordelaine, Post Falls, Idaho. Yeah, we've covered two thirds of the mileage of our map
• 14:16
  at one point or another. Some years, we get to all three points last year because of the weather.
• 14:22
  We couldn't do anything with Spokane or Eastern Oregon. But snow and ice and all that.
• 14:29
  I had three Christmas displays that literally could not set up because of the weather.
• 14:35
  Oh my gosh. Well, that sucks. Yeah, because when you started much earlier than typical,
• 14:41
  meant to a much higher severity that year. And one of them, it was there going to be their swan song year.
• 14:48
  It was going to be their final year. But they're like, yep, nope. Sorry. We can't do this.
• 14:52
  Oh, did they do it again the next year or no? No, this would be the next year. No, they.
• 14:57
  Oh, I see. They have sent sold off the display to other display owners, which
• 15:02
  that's one thing my community does is, you know, we, you know, we partner that we partner
• 15:08
  the display owners together as well, not just make a map. We have a group that has that's
• 15:13
  all of our display owners like 300 300 strong display owners across the Northwest. It's a community.
• 15:19
  We built of them and they can network with each other, feed off each other, get ideas of each other,
• 15:25
  buy, sell, whatever they need to do. Oh, that is awesome. Do you have like a Facebook page where you
• 15:31
  connect everyone or. Yep. Yep. Yep. It is called Pacific Northwest display owners.
• 15:38
  It's a sub, it's a subgroup of the Pacific Northwest Christmas lights Facebook page.
• 15:43
  Do you ever have any crossover with like the Halloween and Christmas kind of like a nightmare
• 15:50
  before Christmas type five? Yes, I have multiple displays that have done nightmare before Christmas.
• 15:56
  And some have actually done nightmare before Christmas for Christmas. I love that. That is
• 16:04
  that's what I do for Christmas. My tree and all my decorations it's nightmare before Christmas stuff.
• 16:09
  So it's like starts October goes through Christmas. It's the easiest decorating. I even had one
• 16:16
  one display one year. Do they're nightmare before Christmas for Easter for Easter? Oh, because they
• 16:23
  do have an Easter bunny in it. Yeah. So they they wouldn't put bunny ears on Jack and Sally and
• 16:29
  put some, you know, eggs and other things out. Yeah. They just they ran with it and made it hilarious.
• 16:35
  I can't remember either, but it was years ago now. I love that. That's my kind of people for sure,
• 16:42
  because I feel like nightmare before Christmas in the beginning it shows all of the holidays, you
• 16:47
  know, little doors on the trees. So I think that movie can be used for any holiday. Absolutely.
• 16:53
  Is there requirements for how big the display has to be to get accepted? I don't set any set
• 17:02
  requirement on size. If I let's say someone submits on display and then I go to and see the display
• 17:10
  and it's one string of lights, I'm going to be like, yeah, no, sorry. And take you off the map. But no,
• 17:16
  if you if you put your if you put your heart and soul into it and you you feel it's worthy,
• 17:21
  I'm going to take your word at it and put it on the map. That's just what we do.
• 17:26
  Awesome. That kind of reminds me though of the Grinch decorations, where it's just a Grinch and
• 17:31
  then one strand of lights because he took all the decorations. Yeah. We've had a few of those. We've had
• 17:37
  we've had one of my favorites at least for Christmas, this house up in Canada, this is monstrous
• 17:45
  display every inch in other house, every inch of the yard and all their bushes was all covered
• 17:50
  in lights and they've even slotted over into the neighbor's yards a little bit. But they've got all
• 17:54
  there. But then across the street, just this one little light up hippo, a little sign saying,
• 18:01
  I'm lost. Oh, that is so cute. Yeah. Across from the mega display and then just,
• 18:07
  it's a little hippo. I'm lost. Were they on the map too? Oh, yeah. That was
• 18:13
  there. They're on the Christmas map. They're called Rudolph and Friends. They're they're on
• 18:18
  amazing display. Older couple have been doing it for 30, 40 years now. They amazing people.
• 18:24
  Oh, I love that. Well, on our show, we usually do kind of a tarot reading or I have an
• 18:32
  Oracle deck. Are you guys interested in me pulling a card for you at all? I don't know how you
• 18:37
  feel about tarot. Yeah. I do have an Oracle deck. It's not it's totally different from tarot. It's
• 18:45
  just the cards all have their own meanings and they're all generally positive. So there's nothing
• 18:50
  like there's not like one of those death cards in there. But it's really pretty. It's Halloween
• 18:57
  themed. Kind of witchy and cute. I thought it would be perfect. So I'll show you. It's called
• 19:02
  a moon Oracle deck. That is definitely pretty from the visual. Have you guys ever played with
• 19:09
  any of these Oracle cards or not in the slightest? Okay. So we're going to pull a card for
• 19:18
  the Halloween display map. Diana and Jason? Yes. Okay. Let's see what we got here.
• 19:30
  Ooh, we got the enchanted card. Me look. It's kind of interesting because this is kind of like one of
• 19:40
  the least Halloween-y type of cards on there. It's like a little fairy lady with a cat.
• 19:46
  Well, let's see what the definition says. Okay. Enchanted. Charmed mystery belief. It is your choice to
• 19:56
  live an enchanted existence. Open the doors to mystery and magic in your life. Discover all that is
• 20:02
  in store and waiting just for you like maybe a Halloween decoration. A life that is mysterious,
• 20:10
  playful and filled with hidden treasure is waiting for you to unearth it. That's so cool because you're
• 20:16
  talking about kind of like a map and it's talking about treasure, like a treasure map.
• 20:21
  Keep your mind open to all that is possible. Your world will be filled with many surprises,
• 20:28
  like jump scares. Sometimes it is helpful to reminisce and look back on your childhood years.
• 20:38
  Re-kendle your carefree natural feelings. Children seek out the extraordinary with inquisitive
• 20:44
  imaginations. They believe in magic, fairies, unicorns and being able to fly just using their arms
• 20:51
  as wings. They are not frightened and they know these are good spirits who bring joy.
• 20:56
  And then the intention says seek out the mystical and magical feelings and life of enchantment.
• 21:02
  That was so perfect. Like the childhood feelings and stuff that is all about like Christmas lights
• 21:11
  and you were even talking about that. Child-friendly and always keep a family friendly but you know there's
• 21:18
  those displays that have a lot of blood and gourd and we have them too but it's not our focus.
• 21:26
  Yeah, but definitely when you go see something like that you're going to have this at least I do
• 21:32
  anyway because I love Halloween and decorations and stuff but you get like this child like
• 21:36
  gettiness and excitement. Absolutely. We feed on the feeling that we get from people when we're at
• 21:46
  displays. So we're out visiting display and we feel people getting excited over the display and
• 21:51
  all that. And then if we hear that actually used our map to get there that just feeds our soul.
• 21:57
  I mean it doesn't get the better feeling than that.
• 22:01
  Do people take pictures and post them of all the displays or do you guys do pictures of them?
• 22:07
  Yes and yes. One of our other subgroups is we have the PNW CL fan group which is a community group
• 22:16
  where anybody can post up pictures or other things in there. It's all moderated so anything
• 22:23
  that comes in we have to physically approve just because spam happens. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:30
  People have people try to post to the main page all that gets denied flat out because I don't
• 22:36
  it's a page not a group not a public group. That makes sense. But yes and we do post up
• 22:42
  hundreds if not thousands of pictures every year of displays we visited and all the galleries are
• 22:48
  still there from last year. So you know there's plenty to see. Do you keep those up or do you delete them
• 22:55
  as a whole? After a couple of years I usually will archive them. I'll use you move them to an
• 23:00
  archive folder. Otherwise I do maintain copies of them digitally in my inventory but not always
• 23:10
  on the Facebook they're going back too far. But I usually keep two or three years with the photos up
• 23:16
  there. Okay. Awesome. So you can kind of look back on past years and maybe get ideas and inspiration
• 23:23
  of what to do maybe what not to do if it's already been done that's kind of cool. And you know there's
• 23:30
  there's nothing around with doing the same thing someone else has done. I mean
• 23:34
  last two years ago I had three nightmare before Christmas displays. They were almost
• 23:39
  identical within 10 miles each other. Oh wow. But I mean you can never get too much nightmare before
• 23:45
  Christmas. Yeah. Well it's a call they all went to Walmart and got the same things. So
• 23:52
  is there anything else that you guys want to put out there that you want people to know?
• 23:56
  Well here we can be found on the web on Facebook Twitter/x whatever you want to call it these days
• 24:06
  we're on there not as active. Yeah. And um through Instagram and also threads.
• 24:14
  Threads. What is threads? Threads is Facebook's version of Twitter. Okay. I'll make it easy for you.
• 24:22
  Just go to our website pnwcl.com and in the corner I have links to the Facebook, the Instagram
• 24:29
  and the Twitter all right there. All the things. All the things. Awesome. What is so nice chatting
• 24:36
  with you? Oh when does the map go live? October 1st. Okay. I feel like we talked about it but just
• 24:43
  saw it just saw me make sure. Well that was mentioned at the end of the show too. Yeah. So October 1st
• 24:51
  map goes live everyone check it out if you are interested in being featured on the map you can submit
• 24:58
  your display. And if you want to just help out and scout just then this email which is also linked
• 25:07
  on the website with any displays you might find preferably as much information as possible.
• 25:12
  Have a creepy day. Yeah. And as we always like to say on our page happy haunting. Yes happy haunting.
• 25:20
  [Music]
• 25:28
  [Music]
• 25:52
  I feel like a another question for you. Was it? This is why we edit.
• 25:59
  There's also a dog whining next to me. Hey Molly you need to be quiet.
• 26:06
  Shh. Her mom left my co-host left me alone. How do she? I don't. Oh okay I remember.