Pumpkin Pickin'

Back on October 28th Emerald and I went out to see some friends of Liane's parents who owned a farm and sold pumpkins every October. I forgot to post them until now, so I apologize in advance to anyone who's been waiting for these pics.

Here's Emerald waiting to be taken out to the field to pick her pumpkin.

And what farm would be complete without a bouncing happy dog?

In the field, Emerald took her time wandering around, looking for that perfect pumpkin.

I think she just found it.

While we were there I took a shot of Marty (Liane's mom) and her friend. Marty is the one in the purple shirt.

And here's a shot of the couple who owns the farm. I can't remember their names, but they were very nice and made it a lot of fun for us.

Here, Emerald is getting ready for the trip to the pumpkin washing station. It was a pretty bumpy ride. She was offered the chance to ride up on the tractor, but I think she felt safer down in back.

Yep, that's me and Emerald posing with a huge piece of quartz dug up on the farm. It was very bright that morning and the photographer's back was to the sun, so you can understand why we're squinting.

Another shot of Emerald riding on the trailer back to the farm buildings.

The couple was very nice and insisted we take numerous pumpkins home with us. Ironically we didn't end up carving any this year, but we still had a lot of fun picking them out. Also, after Halloween was over and done with, a squirrel made several of the pumpkins we left out on the porch into meals, so our cats were happy with the arrangement as well.

-Bob

Rakin' Leaves

One of the fun things Liane and I have had to deal with every year since we got our first home is the annual ritual of raking leaves. Unfortunately, as we're both rather lazy in the leaf-raking department, we usually have to trick-, er, talk Emerald into doing it for us.

It amazes me, really, just how many leaves end up under the tree and all over the yard at the end of the year. In the front yard alone Emerald managed to pile up a huge pile. Of course, what good is a pile of leaves if you can't jump on in and have a party?

Star Trekkin'

By now you've no doubt figured out that Liane's posts are the serious ones and mine are all pretty much nonsense.

In keeping with this tradition, and in honor of the new Star Trek movie to begin filming later this year, here are two super-neat Star Trek photos in the format of those corny workplace inspirational calendars:

Hope those brought a smile (or a roll of the eyes) to your face.

-Bob

The Look And Feel...

Hey, something's different in here...

Wait! I know!

The colors have all changed!

Hmmm...Change is nice, but I'm not completely sure I'm liking this much.

On that note, let me warn you that I will be playing with the templates, colors, and page elements for the next couple weeks, so things might change a few more times before we find something that works for us.

If you don't like change, blame me (Bob).

David got his DOC band!

We went to Cranial Technologies (http://www.cranialtech.com/ for those that want to check it out) for David's moderate to severe plagiocephaly. That's a fancy word for "his head is flat on one side". Here is David in his brand new DOC band (helmet)! He seems to be doing very well with it so far.

It comes plain white...

And then Mommy and Emerald just had to decorate it!

It's kind of hard to tell with the flash, but the helmet has been painted a light army/olive green. It has blue letters that say "Little Tough Guy" and three sparkly snowflake-like stickers that big sister picked out especially for David.

He will have to wear it for about the next 3 months so there will be more pics to follow in the weeks ahead.

And we all wish a very happy 92nd birthday to Uncle Tim!