October 2023

Fall has fell... and it was a mild, colorful fall. The pumpkin crop was lean, but our garden did produce three pumpkins. 

Alice is not crazy about being cradled like a baby, but she lets Emily do it. If anyone else tries she'll bite your face off.

We got front row seats at a Rough Riders game! It's fun when players get body checked right up against the glass. Makes ya feel like you're part of the action. And we ducked every time a puck came flying our way. Reminds me of when me and my friends used to go to hockey games in high school.

Fall colors! We hiked around Palisades one morning as the sun was coming up, right at the peak of the bright foliage.

There were three eagles circling near us and I managed to get a shot of one.

"The warm October wind gusted strongly and great shades of light and shadow seemed to pass across the world."

Carving pumpkins!

Cynthia finished carving her pumpkin first. This was the only pumpkin from our garden that got carved.

My pumpkin:

Are they too old to be trick-or-treating?? 

You don't mess with Rick Grimes. CORAL!

It was a cold, windy Halloween and we only got 2 trick-or-treaters. Later that evening we burned our pumpkins as is our tradition at the end of Halloween.

And then the glass table they were on broke, but I had already put my camera away and missed it. Guess we'll be burning them on the patio next year!

September 2023

My father in-law, Bud Conrad, passed away on September 6th around 11:22 am at 85 years old. He was a very big part of our lives and I was blessed to have him as father in-law. Over 500 people signed the guest book at his visitation, but quite a few people skipped the line to sign it (it was a long line), so it's hard to know exactly how many people were there, but it was an impressive turnout. Bud touched a lot of lives and was well loved. There were so many interesting stories shared about him and there can be no doubt he lived a full life. He will not be forgotten.

Little Cynthia hanging out with her dad.

On a separate topic, it's football season and Emily is percussion section lead in the marching band. We're proud of her and it's fun to watch her run between the pit and the field changing instruments. Also, you can never tell when you've taken too many pictures of your kids. I wish they'd let us know at least...

Homecoming parade! She can't contain her excitement.

It's a sparse pumpkin crop this year with only a couple of pumpkins that have survived the summer. The drought was tough on plants.

Gettin' weird in the kitchen.

Cynthia getting ready for work.

Rose and Cynthia hanging out at the craft show at Hawkeye Downs.

And Alice hanging out wherever she pleases.

July 2022

In July I went to Boston again for our summer team meeting and while I was there I was able to gather up a couple of actual, real-life books that I helped create to bring home:

Over the last 18 months I've designed/templated/worked on over 100 books that are now in print and sold in schools all over the country. That number is unusual because typically I work on maybe a dozen books during that same time span. And I have no idea how many books I've worked on since I started in January 2010. It would be cool to have them all on one bookcase at home, but not very practical!

Flying out to Boston again:

The row of tail rudders looked cool:

My company planned out every minute of each day I was there from 8:30am to 8pm, so it was kinda tiring. Even though they kept us so busy that week, a group of us (about 18 people) did get to go to a go-kart place and race for a couple hours. We did five races and I won a race (after starting off in 5th place) and then almost won a second race, but spun out on a turn right near the end. I did record the top two fastest lap times out of the 18 of us, though. The cars were governed at 50 mph, so the races were pretty intense.

Getting lined up to start a race:

Group photo afterwards. Some people kept their head socks on like a buncha dorks:

When I got back home from the work trip I discovered that the pumpkin patch had taken over a large part of the backyard, but I also spotted five pumpkins! Seems kinda early for them to start growing. I'm excited to see how many we end up with and how large they get. There are only three pumpkin plants, but they are monsters.

These are pictures of the same pumpkin taken a week apart:

And there are still more blooms, so possibly more pumpkins:

The garden has kale, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, string beans, pumpkins (at the far left), and radishes. The spinach and radishes have already been harvested:

Even though it's been so hot, I've still been riding my bike often. Here's a toasty Saturday pic just outside of Center Point:

Trying out a newly-opened place for date night... the photo's not blurry, we're blurry, just like Bigfoot:

Kitty cat knows how to enjoy summer: