December 2021

Christmastime! Rose did the photography for the Old World Christmas Market at the Czech & Slovak Museum (& Library):

A lovely derecho sunset from our bedroom window:

Christmas day! Emily got a scorpion in resin on a necklace. Who wouldn't want that??

A collection of cocoa, yo:

Then we had Christmas with my parents in their church basement:

Rose took this picture from outside, I thought it was kinda cool:

And these people menaced the slopes again, posing in front of the "no sledding" sign as is their annual tradition:

Our church does this thing called "The Last Word" where people sign up to read Psalms all day on December 31st, starting first thing in the morning. Everyone reads in 15-minute time slots and then signs their name in the Bible with the date and time. Cynthia and I read during my lunch break:

Goodbye, 2021!

November 2021

So here's November; my birthday, new siding on the house, our anniversary:

This year I turned fortyschmchmmphsomething it doesn't matter:

After cake we went to Speedeez and tore it up on the go kart tracks. We started off on the normal track with the 15 mph karts. These people are bullies behind the wheel, always cutting us off and stuff:

THEN... we got on the racetrack where the go karts go 40 mph. Twelve laps go quicker than you think, it was so much fun:

Huh, our house was originally yellow. Who knew:

Looks like the house blew up:

New foam insulation and house wrap before installing the siding:

I forgot to take an "after" picture, but it looks great. Same color, just a lot cleaner... it looks like a new house.

Also, all the Wash cheer captains won post-season awards, which includes Rose. Go Rose!

For our 20th anniversary we stayed in an Airbnb in Washington, where I of course forgot to take pictures. Sheesh. Some photographer. I love Cynthia and I'm so blessed to be married to her.

October 2021

Boo!

October is always a fun month, better than some of those other lame months, anyway (I'm looking at you, February). With the change in weather and the shift into fall comes all kinds of cool things like the cider stroll through Czech Village and NewBo and of course all the skeletons and pumpkins that pop up everywhere you look. And in that spirit we went to TCR and saw "Let the Right One In" which is an adaptation of one of my favorite movies (watch the original Swedish movie with English subtitles, not the cringeworthy American version) and it was good to see something like that after social distancing for so long. It was a small production that took place in the basement allowing us to sit in the front row and be almost in the middle of the action.

Rose and her friends came over to our house for dinner before homecoming:

This was our first time making garlic shrimp pasta and man, it was good stuff.

Shuttin' down the cider stroll:

Rose cheered for football again and we went to most of the games. My parents and the Conrads joined us when they could as well. Freezin' our butts off:

And Emily got her hair colored and a septum ring! She's doing proper teenagering these days:

Rose and her friends went trick-or-treating:

Cynthia and I carved pumpkins. The girls felt they were too old/cool to be bothered with such nonsense, so it was just the two of us. Cynthia is cleaning out the inside of her pumpkin using a baking mixer attachment on a drill. Makes that normally messy process go a lot faster and easier:

Check out our sweet pumpkins; the vampire from Transylvania 6-5000 and Grumpy Cat:

Work Lunch

Today I had lunch with a couple of my coworkers who I haven't seen in a while. Since our office closed in November of last year (due to the fact that most of us were already working from home),  we don't get to see each other that often. At the time the office closed, there were 6 of us left, but only 3 of us were able to get together for lunch today.

I've worked with Lynn (on the left) since 2006 when we worked at Buckle Down together and then after BD closed she started at CA a few months before I did. Kristin started working in our office 2 years ago; just a few months before the pandemic shut everything down. It was great to catch up and actually see a couple of my coworkers in person after working remotely for so long!

Louis C. K.

Louis C. K. did a show at the Paramount and we got to go! It was a really fun show and it was cool to see that his comedy doesn't seem to have lost momentum. He started touring in August for the first time in a few years. So much fun. They didn't allow anyone to use their phones during the show, so this image from his website will have to do:

 

September 2021

 The summer went fast and our garden started producing kinda late. But once it caught up it did so with a vengeance. After this initial harvest of a pepper and tomatoes we had no idea the buckets of tomatoes that were coming along. We couldn't keep up. Next year... fewer tomato plants.

Emily's school picture:

Can you tell which one is Emily?

The view from the top of Mt Trashmore one Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day:

On one side of Mt Trashmore the composting plant could be seen where they were taking derecho tree debris and turning it into soil:

Every year during September I take off every Friday (and a couple other days as well) to go on bike rides while the weather is mild. The County Home Rd trailhead, newly paved: