getting ready for school

(i saw him doing this...i just had no idea he was filming himself!)

yesterday morning

7:10 a.m. about 18 degrees out.
i watched from my bedroom window...in bed, but olivia went outside and got this shot.
(what makes this more remarkable...if you know olivia...is that she was even up at all.)
thank you, peanut.

black panthers

practice time and a little bit of saturday’s game.
sam is number six.
it doesn’t look like it...but they do actually get it in the basket sometimes.

zombie

found this on our photo booth.
probably taken while they were supposed to be doing homework.
but a little insight on the skeleton zombie costume.

red

my neighbor, carol, has lamented that color-wise, this fall has been pretty dull.
and for the most part, i agree. but then there’s this.
a japanese red maple we received as a wedding gift from our friend jim.

$9.95

at anthropologie.
yes, you read that right. honestly, i think i bought it solely because i was in shock
that i actually found something there that was marked down that low.
the fabric did catch my eye. and i thought, how bad could it be?
(to anyone who sees me today...im really not expecting an answer to that question.)

post-halloween update

a little late, i know.
and although we didn’t get too many photos (read:none) of the actual event,
brian did take some of our display with his “real” camera.
if we get any cool ones, i’ll post them later.
a huge thank you to aunt sheryl and uncle john for passing out the candy
and manning the fog machines. couldn’t have done it without you.
i saw a lot of dorothy’s this year. which surprises me because
i think it’s such a weirdly scary movie for kids.
but hey, i walked around town with a skeleton zombie...so what do i know!

penumbra

brian williams said it last night during election results...and i had to look it up.
the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object.
i forget just how he used it in a sentence...but i liked the word.
i feel like today, we came out of the penumbra and into the light.

vote

like anyone could forget.
awesome images found at designforobama.org.
and like olivia says...go OBMA!

butter

what a difference. butter instead of olive oil.
i know, not as good for you, but hey, it’s once a year.
and i didn’t rinse them this year either...following a tip from extremepumkins.com.

craft

this has always been one of my favorite things.
the foot ghost.
this is olivia...we have one of sam too.
what was i saying about being sentimental?

the view

across the street.
he isn’t moving it...he just lifted it to redig the basement before he renovates the rest of it.
long story, but topper, the owner, grew up in this house.
and i thought i was sentimental.

type

i love type treatments like this.
like when the type is wonked, but you read it correctly anyway?
the wine isn’t too bad either.

anybody free this weekend?

100 more days

(my car air freshener.)

overheard

“let’s pretend that i found you from the undead...and that we’re friends.”

james, sam’s best friend.
sam was dressed up in his halloween costume...a skeleton zombie.

skip

skip erb is our best friend heather’s brother. he has terminal metastatic cancer of the pancreas. but more importantly, he has a wonderful wife, 2 beautiful little girls and friends and family that love him dearly. heather has put together this awesome fundraiser so skip can worry less about them and just concentrate on beating this thing. it’s friday, november 14 at the mayfield heights boneyard...starting at 7:00. $65. run avril run and will cheshier and his tiny orchestra are playing. along with food, drink, raffles and games. (and in case you haven’t been to the boneyard, it’s a kids paradise! so many video games i think it makes sam’s head explode.) hope to see you there.

plum tomatoes

remember all those tomatoes from the food store?
instead of making sauce, i decided to roast them, then freeze them.
they tasted so fantastic, i’m lucky i had any left to freeze.
i did them cut side down this time...the skins just lifted right off when i was done.
i hope they taste as good in all my soups and chilis this winter.

october

i guess it’s tradition now.
we have been going to a&a acres in bristolville to get our pumpkins the last 3 years.
we really overdid it this year.
but they have such a wonderful selection of heirloom pumpkins and gourds.
it’s hard to resist. the ones in the last photo are actually french baking pumpkins.

reduce, reuse, recycle

brian came across this article in the october 2008 national geographic.

INNOVATION & DESIGN: VOYAGE OF THE PLASTIKI — National Geographic Adventure Contributing Editor Paul Kvinta talks one-on-one with explorer David de Rothschild about his proposed 7,500-mile trans-Pacific journey from San Francisco to Sydney aboard the Plastiki — a 60-foot, rudderless raft made of plastic bottles. Navigating through a man-made disaster called the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating landfill located between California and Hawaii that's twice the size of Texas, de Rothschild wants to demonstrate the unlikely and amazing things people can achieve when they recycle their junk — and to show what happens when they don't. De Rothschild's grand vision includes swapping out crew, marine biologists, anthropologists, even celebrities such as Johnny Depp and Jack Johnson, for different legs of the journey. Is the young Brit pursuing one of the most visionary expeditions yet proposed, or has he gone off the deep end? "There's a risk in everything," says environmentalist de Rothschild. "But, really, how hard can it be? ... We have got to attract people's attention. Our oceans are out of sight and out of mind, but they're facing enormous changes because of what we've done." Page 66.

eastern pacific garbage patch? we had never even heard of it. it’s pretty unbelievable. there has already been lots of good reasons to stop buying water in plastic bottles....but this tops them all. and there is a lot of information online...but i did find a really nice site done by the 2007-2008 fifth grade class at mount madonna school in california. and this one is pretty informative as well.

the food store

that’s what sam calls our neighbor’s garden.
black raspberries, tomatoes, rhubarb, green beans, soybeans, basil, all kinds of peppers, sweet potatoes, broccoli...
thank you, carol and charlie, for sharing!

summer fun

sam read to me his paper from today...

i skateboarded it was really fun and i invited james.
and the sad thing is my dog died.
but it’s ok.

it’s the drawing that gets me.
it looks just like pico’s bed, just like pico, and even more bittersweet...
just like pico when she left us.

(the little picture of the dog is pico when she was a baby)

first day

the do-i-really-have-to-stand-here-for-another-picture look.

olivia...not doing her homework.

we named the monkey jack

let us introduce you to bonzai, jumper, dexter and the little one, swinger.
no jack yet, but i keep trying.
these are sam’s monkeys. he sleeps with them and often carries them around.
this day, i found them on our bed...just like this.

personal hygiene

this photo is a bit misleading.
in reality, it was worse.
i guess this one bath a month thing really isn’t working out.

strange...er

i think they are ready to go back to school.

sunday

just a quiet afternoon at aunt sheryl and uncle john’s house.
(we are still stuffed. except for olivia...i think she would like some more killer brownies.)

mushu

i know, mushu was a dragon. but it seemed to fit this one.
we hope he’s lucky.

hotel

why we love hotels.
they are mesmerized by the movie, the terminator.
yup, we’re good parents.

commander

even though it rained so much this trip that water came streaming in through the frame,
we still love our car.
we had a great trip both down and back.

and a special thank you to a lot of truckers out there...
you made two kids very happy (and freaked me out) when you honked at their signals.

sea cow

otherwise known as olivia’s favorite animal...or a manatee.
brian carved a mom and her baby spooning in the sand.
it was so beautiful, and gone by morning.
yeah. i don’t know what to say either. he’s amazing.

a few more

sammerjam and peanut.
the best thing about vacation is spending non-stop time with you.

pico

we’ll miss...

your underbite, your expertise in picking out christmas trees, your clicking toenails, the way you cocked your head when we said your name, the way you barked at our cars when we pulled in the driveway, your pickiness when it came to treats and who you would let pet you, your prance-like gait, the way grandma always thought you were going to talk, the way you always sat in our plants, racetrack, you running off...but always coming back, your sweet dark eyes, the way you howled when neighbors and friends came to the door, the way sam squeezed your face and told you he loved you, the funny noise you made when you held furry man, how much you always wanted to go running with us, your warm furry smell...

ha ha bird

picture and sound.
otherwise known as a florida least tern.
they laughed at all our jokes. even mommy’s.
yup. ha ha bird.

treasure island

travel

have you heard us say what good travelers they are?

fyi

nothing drips more dramatically or faster than a spongebob juice-pop.
be warned.