June 2022

June was a good month! But it went by fast as it usually does. School is out for the summer, which means that Rose will be a senior in the fall and Emily will be a freshman. This will be the only year that they both attend high school together. And it means that Rose will be graduating around this time next year! That's hard to believe. Also, she applied to Coe College and was accepted! Welcome, class of 2027:

Since Cynthia works at Coe Rose's tuition is free, so we're only on the hook for room and board (which isn't cheap, either). Even though Coe is close enough that Rose could easily live at home, we felt like Rose living in the dorms and being on campus full-time would be an important part of the college experience and a step towards becoming a fully independent grown-up living on her own.

For Cynthia's birthday one of the things she asked for was a series of drawings of each of the houses we've owned. It's gonna take a while to get all three done, but I had the Des Moines house done in time for her birthday. With some help from Alice:

The finished drawing:

Alice in a rare moment when she's not tearing the house apart or climbing the curtains:

I made the trip out to Boston for the first time since the pandemic (and I'll be going out again in July). It was good to finally meet so many people in person that I had only spoken to on zoom calls. Also, I feel like I barely know anybody there anymore. The company has hired roughly 500 people since the beginning of 2020, so there are a lot of new faces.

Somewhere over Ohio:

Random: this groundhog apparently lives under our shed in the backyard. We occasionally see him waddling around out there:

I made the 30-mile roundtrip bike ride to Center Point. A few years ago I made this trip regularly, but then got tired of riding the same route all the time so since then I've changed it up.

I usually turn around to head back when I'm just north of the Center Point train depot:

Cynthia went with some friends to see the Indigo Girls:

Emily and Alice taking an afternoon nap:

That cat is growing like a weed:

We went to Double Z's to see Stryper! I've never seen them before and it was a pretty cool experience. Those dudes are gettin' old, but they can still rock like it's 1985. I was impressed, they can still tear it up and Michael Sweet has an incredible voice. And the only non-original member of the band is the bass player. There were a couple stages set up and Fresh Fighters played the smaller one in the background of our lovely date night pic:

It was cool to see all the die-hard fans and people who knew the lyrics to every song. Out of their 90-minute set I think I knew about 6 songs. And they have a new album coming out this summer. Lots of energy:

I always heard that Stryper threw Bibles into the crowd at the end of their shows... and guess what? They still do. We caught this one:

National Honor Society and New Cat

Rose was accepted into the National Honor Society (Adastra) and attended the ceremony to receive her certificate on May 9th. She was one of 50 students at Washington HS accepted into Adastra. Go Rose!

She's to the right of the tall kid in the gray shirt:

And we got a new cat. Emily's best friend Cora gave Emily an 8-week old calico named Alice. Alice alternates between tearing the house apart and climbing all over us with her sharp claws... and sleeping peacefully. 

Seriously, when she's awake she doesn't sit still for two seconds:

But eventually she conks out again:

With all the rain we've had this spring I haven't been able to ride my bicycle as much as I usually do by now. I've also had to change my normal route on the Cedar Valley Trail because all the flooding has washed out the bridge I cross as I head north toward Center Point. It's great to be out riding again, though.

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:

Social-Distancing October

Some random stuff from an unusual October. We stream church services at home and talk to everybody via Zoom. It's a weird time.

Bike rides are a great social-distancing activity. So... we did lots of that:

A lot of cool murals keep popping up around town:

The Warriors games were sparsely attended since it was mostly immediate family members who could attend, plus each student could bring a friend. Check out the rainbow behind the uprights at the start of a game:

There's Rose cheering!

My license plates are being retired after 10 years. I dunno, I feel like the front plate was still OK:

People who take selfies with my phone get their pics posted:

We went on the Cider Stroll for one of our date nights:

Carving pumpkins! A fun family past time where we use knives and drills to put smiles on those pumpkin's faces:

Cynthia's pumpkin:

Emily's:

Mine:

Rose's:

October is breast cancer awareness month and Alliant Tower changes their lights to pink:

Wednesday Addams and a skeleton:

A flapper and I don't know... some dude from the 70s: