at last. a thanksgiving post.

Here are some photos from the trip Joel and I made to New Jersey with our roommate Rocco. After getting in at 5:30am Wed. morning, we had all day to get our costumes ready for the "board game" themed costume party that evening. Joel worked studiously at his costume, creating 25 letters (some even double-sided!). Rocco and his siblings, Marie and Carmello, came up with some creative costumes of their own. Rocco and his girlfriend were the boy and girl from Candyland, Marie was a battleship (we didn't plan this!), and Carmello was the guy on the Scattergories box. Part of the evening's charm was creating words on Joel's tray.







The main highlights of the weekend were playing board games. I can't wait to play with all of you this weekend. It will be so fun.



We hit up an sweet park on that Saturday.

o holy night- an oldie but a goodie

just wanted to share this again for some more laughs. happy holiday season!

anders, jeff and i just returned from our thanksgiving break in minneapolis. we ate a lot, did some christmas decorating, saw a few friends and avoided the mega mall.

Finn

Maggie just took Finn in for his 4 month check up. He's 95% for both length and weight!

Chokecherry Wine

After taking 12 pounds of chokecherries to "Vintner's Cellar" about two months ago, we got a call that our wine was ready to be bottled. Tom and I went in on Friday evening for this new experience.

First Carol washed out the bottles and let them drain. Then Tom filled them from the large bottle called a "carboy". Then Carol put each bottle in a special device that inserted a cork with one easy push of the lever. (Meanwhile, we were tasting the wine, of course, and finding that our chokecherries make pretty nice wine!) The final step was putting a shrink-wrapped seal on each bottle.

The 30 bottles have been stored upright for a few days to let the cords expand. We are working on a label - nothing fancy, just cheaper than paying an extra fee.

We look forward to sharing a glass with family, and we're already thinking that we should do this again next year. Cheers!

Highlander Owie

If I had a camera, I'd take a picture of the Highlander. Tues. night I backed into Ander's car parked by the bricks in the driveway (in the right place). I guess I was on automatic pilot and did the usual swing out of the garage. Fortunately I only scraped the Buick, but bashed in the bumper cover on the Toyota. Grrrrr. Part is ordered and will be fixed promptly and noone to blame but me.

bunch o' snow

We got hit with an early storm that's hung around for 3 days. Tape measure says 18" and still comin down. Everythings closed today. Got a couple hours on my new Craftsman snowblower!

broken foot

so if you have not heard the news by now i am now the proud owner of a broken foot.
here is the long version of what happened:
on wednesday morning i was getting ready to go teach and since anders and i were out of coffee and we were feeling too lazy the night before to go to the store and buy some more i decided i'd make a cup downstairs before i left. (they have a nifty one-cup-at-a-time-deal) the staff was in the midst of setting up a new show in the gallery. since the kitchen (where the coffee is) is on the other side of the gallery i had to cross the boxes, art, and whatnot laying around... the lights to the gallery space are also across the gallery but in the opposite corner of the kitchen so i didn't bother to turn them on. made it to the kitchen and on the way back i stepped on a broom-handle/ dowel they were using to paint with, landed really bad on my right foot, went into the clinic and turns out its fractured in a few places on the 5th metatarsal (that's the outside of your foot between the pinky toe and ankle) i am in a walking boot and on crutches for 6-8 weeks, we re-xray nov 3 to see if it has been healing right. the good news is that i am not in much pain, just sore arms from hopping around on crutches.
.
tomorrow i go back to teaching at all of the different schools, which will be interesting because i can't drive and not all of the schools are handicapped accessible (and i teach on the 2nd floor at washington and lincoln) anders and grandma will be driving me around, so thank you to them for helping me out!

also, sally who works at the art center's husband broke his leg a few years ago and they bought a lightweight wheelchair (so they could go on a cruise to mexico!). she brought it in for me to use today which is helpful because i don't have to do as much hopping around.

spooky

It was fun to have Laura and Anders here for the weekend. We learned how to play Settlers of Catan and carved up a few pumpkins. I played my best but was bested by Anders in the board game. Further, I was credited as an underachiever in the pumpkin department - disappointing my fellow carvers.  The seeds were salted roasted and consumed in short order.

Happy Photos

Here are a few of my favorite pics I have taken since I got my Canon SX110 IS Camera this semester. Rocco (our roomate) is in a photog. class and he's been teaching me a few things. Hope you enjoy! (more to come later)

ps. I gave them titles just now, because I felt like it. And it helps to see each picture as unique. If you have better titles. I'm all for it. I don't have all the good ideas after all.

Mother Goose and her eggsThe Sunday Afternoon Slumber

The Night Patrol

Fight or Flight

Sniff

Wary Watcher

Crouching Grasshopper, Hidden Dragon

Starry, Starry Streetlights

Manpri/Moustache Midweek

Starting Small

Punch Brothers

My Precious

Michael: One-tooth Rocco: "How" Indian Joel: Lion

Dying Flames

Alive

snow

just wanted to let everyone that it has snowed 3 of the past 4 days in jamestown. nothing sticking, but this is not okay with me.

Stage project

I'm working on a fun project at church...the last of the renovations this year. We're doing a joint project with an other startup church who rents space from us. We have a basement room we're wanting to have for multi-use; smaller kids programs, coffee house, music, movies, drama, etc. The other group knew a desiger who was willing to provide us with some free ideas for the stage area. I'm attaching the renderings for his designs. We'll have a 50" plasma in the window opening, hanging speakers, and a tech booth, for projection, sound board, mics, and stage lights.

Here's a video a guy did featuring some of the work. He made this video taking a photo every minute for a couple days of work. About 80% complete, should be done this week. I'll send a final photo then it's all complete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTNFEbg2-Fw

Black Canyon Vultures

Julie and I took a quick overnight trip down to Black Canyon of the Gunnison last weekend. The aspens were changing and we happened to see big congregation of Turkey Vultures hanging out. Isn't that red hairless head attractive? With a 6 foot wing span it was really cool to see them gliding around the canyon.

mrs. art teacher (or so they say)

I wanted to share some of the class work I have done with my 3rd-6th graders in Arts After School at the Art Center. It's fun but EXHAUSTING!

frisbee golf

Joel and I played 36 holes of disc golf last Saturday. What a great sport. I also had to include the shot of our friend Erik. Such an intense throw.

What's the deal with the blog? It's slowing down big time. C'mon!

A DECK AGAINST TIME

There have been a couple of requests for a blog update on the deck. (Thanks for sending the most recent photos Carol).  I found a shot from July 2004 of the old deck before we had completed the retaining wall to the west or before we were really using that as a walking path to the boat dock.  I'll upload a couple batches of photos.

 I did a bit of photo retouching in the last two photos to show how I think the bench will look once all of the posts are cut short, and how the landings might look on the east side when that is completed next summer.