Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

The brakes on our car began to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. They needed some work. Since this kind of thing can take some time, I decided to take the car to Sears so I could hang out at the mall during the procedure. I selected Alyssa to be my mall buddy today. We had a great time, and I let her call the shots. We ate a pretzel, looked at the Disney store, and rode on the merry-go-round. The time estimate on our car was long enough that we decided to take in a movie. The only one I really thought she would like was Alvin and the Chipmunks. I have to agree with one of the reviews I read - it wasn't as bad as you would think. Because I expected to hate it, I was pleasantly surprised and actually kinda liked it.

Santa brought me a Mr. Coffee Cafe Motion for Christmas. Since we don't drink coffee at our house (although I could probably use it some days) I was a little confused at this gift. Then I realized it could be used for making hot cocoa. We don't often drink cocoa either, but that's mostly due to the fact that it's a pain in the neck to make, especially on the cold but rushed school mornings when a cup of warmth would do the most good. This little appliance takes the hassle out of cocoa making and provides the perfect cup every time. Just add water (or milk) and the correct amount of cocoa, turn the timer, and the little motor spins and stirs while the heating element adds just enough thermal energy. Getting the right temperature for tender little mouths has taken a few tries, but now that the correct warming time has been worked out, we will never again have to deal with too hot, watery cocoa with large clumps of unmixed powder floating around on top. We have also run th...

Christmas Day was great. Boxing Day - not so much. It turned out to be "Doctor Day" instead. Kara had two doctor's appointments, and I took the girls. We were in the two offices for a combined total of five hours. Not a good way to spend the day after Christmas. The girls were not pleased. I'll have to admit, I wasn't either. But as soon as we escaped, Kara took Anna home to play and I went to Ikea to celebrate Boxing Day by buying some more metal boxes for storage. While there, Alyssa and I got dinner. She got the shrimp and egg open faced sandwich - two of her favorite things. At home, Anna was using her Bratz Stop Motion Video Camera. She has never watched a single episode of Bratz, but she has been interested in stop motion video for years, and she's been having a great time. The camera holds 40 frames. With the new 1Gb SD card, it will now hold 26,500+. At 4 frames per second, that's around 110 minutes of video - longer than many features films. That ...

Despite some last minute scrambling and tossing nearly every tradition out the window this year, we have managed to pull together a pretty good Christmas anyway. We decided not to have Kara come home for Christmas, so the girls and I made plans to spend Christmas at the condos in Dallas with her. We were unsure just how to fit the tree and presents into her room, especially with all of the accompanying smells - take a good wiff of that wrapping paper; it's got some punch to it. The solution was getting permission to use a room that is temporarily empty. I drove home in the truck yesterday to finish my wrapping duties and pick up the tree. It's not a tall tree, and with the top removed it fit into the back of the truck intact. Anna had made a bunch of origami ornaments for the tree, and the girls and Kara redecorated it. They then helped me put all of the presents under the tree (except for the ones Santa brought later that night). This arrangement worked out very well, because ...

And just in time for Christmas. You used to be able to watch the dance here .

To prove that I'm not just trying to kill off the tags, I've picked up an "I tag everyone" Christmas Tag from Nicole . 1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for all but the most odd-sized presents. 2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. 3. When do you put up the tree? Traditionally the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year halfway through December. 4. When do you take the tree down? What? I have to take it down? Grumble, grumble. 5. Do you like eggnog? Absolutely. The really rich stuff we dump straight into the ice cream freezer. Eggnog ice cream is amazing with a good pumpkin pie. 6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got a kitten from Santa at the Ward Christmas party. My parents worked it all out, and it was really, really cool. 7. Do you have a Nativity scene? A plastic one for the porch, a ceramic one for the mantel, and a little acrylic one the kids can play with. 8. Hardest person to buy for? Me. Yes, lately I have had to buy for myse...

I was tagged for Seven Things About me by Stephanie Humphries . Rules of the Meme: 1) Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog. 2) Share 7 facts about yourself. 3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs. 4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. 1. In my youth I had a freckle on my right earlobe, and it looked like I was wearing an earring. 2. Before I will wear anything , it needs to be washed. My wife and kids are the same way. 3. I still read the Honolulu Star-Bulletin online almost daily. 4. I've recently grown a beard again. It is much more gray than it has ever been in the past. 5. My beard really itches, but I can't shave it yet. It's there to camouflage the extra roundness in my cheeks. I'll shave in about 12 pounds. 6. For several years, I taught one computer programming class per semester at Utah Valley State College. 7. My LDS mission was in the Misso...

Actually, there were five winners over at LDSPublisher's Christmas Story Contest. One of them was me! I'm very excited! You can read my story here . Congratulations to the other winners , and everyone who entered the contest. I enjoyed reading the stories.

This morning when the girls went to school, I spread all of the holiday loot out on the bed and did a quick inventory. I've been picking away at the shopping for months now, but I wanted to make sure that everyone is covered, both as givers and receivers. Because although there really isn't anything I want for Christmas that will fit in a box, it simply wouldn't do to have Santa forget Dad. I found a few inequities, which I fixed with a quick trip to the toy store - closing out the last of the gift cards in the process. I am now just 1 (one) gift away from being finished. And maybe a few treats for the stockings. On a completely unrelated topic, by the time Alyssa gets dressed tomorrow, she will have been in pajamas for around 60 hours. Not the same pajamas, but pajamas nonetheless. This is due to the fact that today was pajama day at school, but she at first told me that yesterday was pajama day at school, so she wore pajamas two days in a row, plus three nights. Good thi...

I have some freezer dinners. I bought them before my trip, so the sitter could use them if she wanted to. There are some left, and I'm using them on special occasions. Like today, where the occasion is that there are still dinners left in the freezer. That and we're taking a Christmas shopping trip to Wal-Mart. The problem is that I put them in our good, big upright freezer, which freezes much colder than the one over the top of the fridge. How is this a problem? I'll tell you. I cook the food as long as the instructions say, but the instructions are designed for 20 degree F food. My food is at 0 degrees F. When the time is done, the food is not. Just thought you'd like to know.

Each year we buy Christmas dresses for the girls. Since they are both very particular about what they will wear (as in fit, not fashion), it is usually a bit of a challenge to find anything. And given their vastly different body shapes, I gave up long ago trying to find them matching dresses. Well, yesterday I worked early and through lunch so we could have the whole evening to maybe finish this task. And here's where the miracle comes in - we found matching dresses at the very first store we went to (Macy's). Both girls like them, both girls look good wearing them, they were half off , and they are MACHINE WASHABLE! Double Bonus! I will take better pictures later, but this gives you an idea, anyway. We then had time to shop for two pair of Sunday shoes, plus new tennis shoes for Alyssa (Spiderman, of course). Anna's shoes are a women's size 6. Yikes! Her dress is a size 16, which is as big as the girl's clothes go. That means next year she's into the Juniors...

I was tagged for 10 things by Marcia Mickelson . Here we go: 1. About ten years ago, three of my sisters all had their babies on the same day. I sent a little note to the Associated Press and, as a result, the story took on a life of its own. It hit the local news, national news, lifestyle feature pseudo news, and the talk show circuit. They were in papers around the world, had a full page in People magazine, were drawn into a Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoon, written into a textbook , and were interviewed by Oprah, among others. The sad irony to this tale? The three births took place the day after my 30th birthday. Had the cousins been born a day earlier, I could have been part of the story. But as it was, fate robbed me of an appearance on Oprah by a mere 24 hours. 2. Speaking of cousins, Secretary of Health and Human Services and former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt is my second cousin. Our great-grandfather Thomas Dudley Leavitt had 24 children, so there are a lot of cousins ou...

There's a Christmas Story contest over at LDSPublisher's blog . There are some pretty good stories there. One of them was authored by yours truly. But I won't tell you which one - that wouldn't really be fair, would it. I will tell you that mine is one of the baker's dozen in the unpublished author's category. Check 'em out. I'm curious to see if anyone can spot my voice among the entrants.

This has been a somewhat stressful trip for me. The work part of it has gone well, but Kara has had a hard time, and it was tough being away while she started back up on TPN . Also, I have had a coworker along on this trip. This is good in that I have had someone to talk to and do things with. However, mostly what we have done is go to nice restaurants and eat good food. Good food and stress go together really well. Except I now have guilt because I've been eating so well while my wife is getting food through a tube in her chest. In addition, I'm going to lock the bathroom scale in a closet until around St. Valentine's Day.

I took my girlfriend for a walk to the little gazebo behind the Hawaii LDS Temple. We had gone there often during our courtship, but on this day I had a plan. I sat her on the bench, knelt on one knee, and proceeded to spend the three longest minutes of my life trying not to pass out. Finally summoning sufficient courage, I asked her to marry me. She said yes. Get well soon, sweetheart. I love you.

Cleanupalooza ended a few hours later than hoped on Saturday, but by and large it was a great success. This type of event usually draws protests on par with those directed at the WTO and G8 summit, but Cleanupalooza was relatively complaint free. Unfortunately, Guest Bedroom Gutting went into overtime, so Child Bedroom Floor Finding and the Halloween Decoration Roundup were canceled. We'll get 'em next time! The girls and I drove to Dallas Saturday afternoon, and spent the evening and Sunday morning getting Kara situated and settled before my big trip. We also helped her try out a tanning salon, on the advice of her nutritionist. UV = Vitamin D. She was 2 whole minutes in a stand-up booth. We'll see how this works. The girls and I raced to church Sunday, where I got them set up with the babysitter, and then I was off to the airport for a few days in Atlanta. Our plane was delayed because the flight crew hadn't arrived. I offered to help fly the plane so we could leave o...

It's time once again for the Great Cleanupalooza Festival, that always exciting event aimed at preventing potentially fatal Embarrassmentitis. The fun began last night with the Three Basket Laundry event, and continued this morning with Shave-And-A-Haircut. On tap for the rest of the day are: Three Basket Laundry - Bonus Refill Washing Of Alyssa's Thicker-than-should-be-legal Hair Child Bedroom Floor Finding Expedition Family Room Frenzy Halloween Decoration Roundup Guest Bedroom Gutting ChiCaInWriMi (Child Care Instruction Writing Minute) Business Trip Packing Sprint The festivities are to run through early afternoon, followed by a mini-vacation trip to Dallas. This fun and exciting event will undoubtedly be filled with the cheer and glee from all eager participants. It's the not-so-eager participants I'm worried about.

Things can go wrong. I know that. This is the reason why I scheduled an extra three hours for this surgery today. Those extra three hours ended five minutes ago. Kara is still not in the OR. It could be yet another hour before she is. The problem is that there is nobody to watch the girls tonight. They are at our home teacher's house this evening, but I'm supposed to get them between 7:00 and 8:00. It should not have been a problem, but to get them by 7:00 I would need to leave now. I can't leave Kara until she's done. I really, really don't want to leave her until she's stabilized. I don't know how long that will be. But I need to go home to my girls. Let me just say, I am stressed. Update 1: Kara was finally wheeled into the "Holding" area, and I'm in the family waiting room. The lady Kara is staying with here in Dallas is on her way to relieve me, so I can get home and take care of my other girls. Surgery started nearly six hours after it wa...

1 pack of elfa® Drawer In & Out Stops, #10030417 . Please. What do you mean, "Not for use with elfa® Mesh Drawers?" Aw, nuts!

Kara is getting a central IV line put in tomorrow. It's similar to the PICC line she had before, but this one goes in under her collarbone rather than up her arm. It should work better than the PICC - we'll see. We really want to get this line in before I leave for my trip next week, but it hasn't been all that easy. I drove to Dallas last Friday afternooon to go and meet with the surgeon, but when we got to the office we found that our appointment had been canceled because the doctor's surgery that morning went long. We were both very upset at the time, what with having to take time off work and find someone to watch the girls after school, not to mention Kara rearranging her appointment schedule to fit in this meeting. But I'm over it now. Almost. We finally got to meet with the doctor this morning, and it was really good. They set us up an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. Kara's understandably nervous about the surgery, as she reacts to pretty much every p...

Next week I will be traveling. Rather than ship the girls off to someone's house this time, we have found a college student in the ward who will be able to come and stay at the house with them. This will work out very well, as we won't have to pack a weeks worth of gear for the girls to take, and their morning routine will be a little easier to keep. However, due to recent circumstances, our home is - how shall we say - not quite house guest ready. Although it should be, and now I have a little extra incentive to get it that way. And I intend to give my daughters some extra incentives, too. After all, "this mess didn't make itself." This will come in addition to at least one trip to Dallas this week, and probably more like two or three. We had an appointment last Friday to meet with the doctor that will be doing Kara's line. I called an hour or so before I left to make sure the appointment was still going as scheduled. I got the machine, and left a message. Th...

I got the wall grouted today. As the title suggests, it was, um, messy. Standard procedure when grouting a floor is to dump a whole bunch of the stuff out of the bucket and use a large, rubber float to push it into the space between the tiles. Gravity is your accomplice. Grouting a vertical surface is much different. In this case, gravity is your nemesis, and the trick is to try and dump as little as possible. I found that the best way make this work is to grab a handful and smear it around the wall like, um..., like..., well, let's skip the analogy. Once the grout has been shoved into all of the cracks, the fun ends and the work begins. And the mess continues. Excess grout is wiped off by using a bucket of water and a large sponge. The sponges get covered in grout very quickly and need to be rinsed often. The buckets fill up with grout quickly and need to be changed often. Smart tile people use several buckets of water and many large sponges, but I only had one of each. Years ago,...

Thanks to a little inspiration from Tristi, I have moved the painted Halloween pumpkins from the front porch and replaced them with the indoor/outdoor Nativity. Anna set up the pieces while I used super glue to give the angel her wings. (Did you hear the bell?) Alyssa used the back-up camera to take a bunch of really fuzzy pictures, and these two good ones.

So I had a little trouble the other night, resulting in a damaged wall and a tough predicament. The holes in the wall needed to be repaired, because if left open the chemicals in the attic insulation would come down into the house even more readily than they are now. Plus a wall with holes in it just looks bad. Patching the holes was easy - just cut out the damaged drywall and replace it with a new piece. However, finishing the patch to match the rest of the wall was out of the question. It took nearly a month for the "safe" VOC-free paint we used last year to off-gas enough that Kara could be in the house, even for a little bit. And things are in enough disarray here that I can't stand having yet another half-way finished project around. I pondered and prayed, and was inspired to hang ceramic tile on the wall. Most walls in the Dallas condos where Kara stays are floor to ceiling tile, and it works well. Installing tile is messy, but the materials are all chemically iner...

We haven't found the camera yet, and hope fades that we ever will. But Anna used my phone to take some very cute pictures of Alyssa at the play area in the Galleria mall. Here are a couple of the best. And yes, we went there two different days.

We survived our stay in Dallas. Kara is still there - we're not sure for how long. It was difficult for me to let the whole weekend go by without doing any of the many tasks that need to be done here at home, but I think it was good for our family to be together for that time. Sunday night Anna and I were here at the house, trying to get everything Kara was going to need for the foreseeable future packed into the car. I was carrying out three glass pans (including a large glass stock pot) when they slipped from my hands and fell onto the tile. As usual, the tile won. The pots broke into thousands of little pieces, and my nerves shattered right along with the glass. I said a bad word with enough volume and frequency to make myself hoarse. In addition, a nearby wall was visited by the Flying Fists of Frustration, and like the pots, the wall did not win. So now, in addition to all of the chores that I didn't get done last week, I have a wall to replace. And the great irony? I'...

So in honor of Black Friday , I took the girls to the mall to give them a little education. I think they're still to young to be taught about pre-dawn Doorbuster Mayhem, but they're old enough to learn about Hustle and Bustle, which is more of an afternoon activity. Our mall of choice was Northpark in Dallas. This was chosen for the model train display, which I mentioned yesterday. Our day started between 7:00 and 8:00 - I didn't exactly pay attention to how many times I snoozed the alarm. We worked and rushed getting onion broth and acorn squash and two pounds of Brussels sprouts cooked up for Kara's breakfast and lunch, then got her out the door. We followed along behind. We made it to the mall after Kara's 1:00 appointment with the doctor, where we "convinced" him to have her central line put in next week. (On Wednesday he said he wanted to hold off since Kara's weight loss had slowed, but today he claimed that he was waiting on her.) She's curr...

Happy Thanksgiving. We decided at almost the last minute to all spend the Thanksgiving weekend at the condos in Dallas. Kara is not doing very well, and I wanted to try and help her get around to her appointments. Also, this gives us a chance to be away from home, almost like a little mini vacation. Almost. I managed to lock my keys in the car at one clinic - the same one where Kara has locked her keys in the truck twice. There must be some kind of curse on that parking lot. After sitting through the longest visit we've had in months with Kara's doctor, I rewarded the girls by taking them to the new American Girl store here . There were girls and dolls and accessories and really big numbers on the price tags. We were content to browse, fortunately. We also went through the Galleria mall, and found a toy store, a puppet store, and a play space. After dinner, Anna and I went next door to Blockbuster and got Hairspray and The Santa Clause 3. We also got a couple of Wii games - ...

Tagged by Autumn. Here we go. Five things found in my room: Stacks of magazines I will never have time to read. Three laser printers; one that prints onto rolls instead of sheets Two dead cell phones, one mostly dead phone that I'm trying to return, and one that works quite well Four computers and five monitors A box of tissue that is being emptied at an alarming rate Five things I've always wanted to do: Become a pilot Write a book Make a movie Start and run a successful business Become a philanthropist Five things found in my (computer) bag: My passport My Pilot's Flight Log Book (one hour and holding) A bag of foam earplugs Batteries - AA, AAA, and Dell Rechargeable Lithium Ion (the non-exploding kind) Business cards of people I will probably never see or speak to again Five things found in my wallet: Texas driver's license, but without the M endorsement this time Good Earth supplement card only needing 4 more stamps (too bad the nearest Good Earth is 1,000 miles awa...

I wish I could take credit for coming up with this, but all I did was steal it from somebody else.

I'm reminded of the old Westerns that show Chinatown with the big cauldrons of boiling clothes. That may not be the most politically correct portrayal , but it's the mental image I got as I boiled my own pots of clothes today. Boiling gets smells out lickety-split, and as it's turned cold here (ie no longer in the 80s) I've been trying to get some of Kara's heavy clothes so she can wear them. It's amazing how much laundry soap came out of clothes that have been in boxes for over two years. I had three pots going for probably 8 hours today. Hopefully I've done what is needed for her to wear some of these things without reacting to them. Also, as of today I am married to quadragenarian. I get my turn at it soon enough.

...Disapproval would be folly. So the radio stations here in the DFW Metroplex have begun playing continuous Christmas music. My guess is that your radio dial has been similarly afflicted. Now, don't get me wrong. I like Christmas music. A quick look into my iTunes library shows over 600 songs - that's nearly a day and a half of holiday tunes. And it's not that I really fault them for starting mid-November. I would prefer they wait until after Thanksgiving, but I understand the need for Yule. As a child I would smuggle my parent's Reader's Digest Christmas collections into my bedroom as early as September. No, the problem I have with playing Christmas music on the radio when the Halloween decorations are still out is that this leaves a lot of air time to fill, and they will play just about ANYTHING that mentions "Christmas" or "Holiday" or even "snow." And quite frankly, a lot of it sucks fruitcakes. Now, I'm not going to mention ...

I got a little bit of sleep last night. I think. I have no idea how much. Alyssa has a cough. I hate it when Alyssa has a cough. She coughs pretty much non-stop, until she throws up. I prayed before bed last night that Alyssa would please not throw up. That was a mistake, as she started coughing at midnight and she has coughed off and on (mostly on) ever since, despite all of the syrups and tinctures and drops and pellets I could throw at her. She has not thrown up, and she has not stopped coughing. She's currently in the tub with cool water and Epsom salts. She should be done right about the time my morning alarm goes off. I think I might be justified calling in sick today.

A few months ago, a cat began hanging around our house. He appeared to be a stray, although he seemed too healthy to have been homeless for long. The girls, especially Alyssa, began spending quite a bit of time giving him all kinds of love and attention, which he eagerly returned. Then one day, Anna showed up with some cat food "borrowed" from one of her friends. She asked if we could keep him, and was told no. Having a cat in the house is out of the question. However, having a cat live outside is something I didn't really see much harm in. So on a trip to Wal-Mart, I looked the other way as Anna bought some cat food and began a clandestine feeding operation. It lasted for all of about 6 hours before being discovered. There was some consternation and discussion, and finally an agreement that an outside only cat might just be OK. Anna decided on the name Tucker, then changed it to Tuckee after learning that cats respond better to names ending in ee (she read it on the inte...

OK. Well, I didn't get the dozens and dozens of guesses that others did with this game , but it was fun anyway. The answer is #2. Something similar to this did actually happen to my buddies J and D, but I was not along for the ride. Instead, if I remember my ancient history correctly, I was helping another friend with his Eagle Scout service project when the whole affair went down. Being anxiously engaged in a good cause has kept me out of trouble more than once. FYI, this is a PBY Catalina As for #1, the haunted house story was pretty much just as I described it. I personally never saw or experienced anything, and often spent hours alone in the house by myself after dark (reading like a true geek). But whether or not the house was truly haunted, most people believed it was. #3 - what can I say? Looking back, I still can't believe I thought concocting a pretend girlfriend would make for a funny joke. I guess everyone does at least something embarrassing when they're 16.

Tomorrow. Evening. After dinner. So hurry up and guess . Please.

I made it to Sarasota safe and sound last night, and today was a very productive day at work. The folks I am working with are singing my praises tonight, which is a little unnerving, actually. I've been working hard on this driver for quite a while now, and fortunately everything converged today, and we went from a barely-working-at-all driver to a nearly finished one in a few short hours. I'm enjoying Sarasota, what little I've been able to see of it. I'm staying at the Hotel Ranola , which is an old hotel from the '20s recently renovated into a little boutique. I love the stark contrast of modernist decor against the historic architecture. And having one of only nine rooms is quite nice. One of the other guys working on the printer from out of town is staying here, too. The hotel is not far from the ocean, and we walked down to eat at Marina Jacks. This is what the view from the restaurant looks like. At least, that's what it would have looked like had we gott...

Tristi is pressuring me to tell a lie. So much for positive peer pressure. I've never been able to lie very well. See, whenever I try, my ears turn red. However, you can't see my ears from where you are, so maybe I have a fighting chance at this Liars game. Here's how it works: I list four experiences from my past. One is a lie. It's your job to guess which one. Ready? Here we go. 1. I spent nine weeks in a haunted house one summer. 2. That same summer I spent several hours in jail. 3. I had a make-believe girlfriend turn real on me. 4. I used FedEx to ship a dead rabbit. Oh, you want details? Oh, OK. 1. I was fifteen that first summer on Lanai. The fifteen year old gangs could only work the day shift, and were given housing away from the main camp. My group lived in Hale Manele, an old wooden frame building at the edge of town set up barracks style. Some people said the building used to be a hospital. Most people called it Hale Spooky. The first few weeks of the summer...

I was tagged by Autumn over at Autumn Ables to come up with 5-10 classes to either take or teach, depending on which version of this game's instructions you read. In keeping with the new status of 'Rebel,' (which was given to me by Connie in response to comments I left at LDS Writers Blogk ) I've chosen to make my own rules and split the difference, coming up with 5 classes to teach, and 5 to take in hopes of improving my life. These are classes to help make my life better, and they constitute the curriculum of Deluded State University. First, the classes that I will teach. There will be weekly quizzes, and the final is comprehensive. Home Improvement 280: Project Initiation This course describes how to make detailed plans and solid preparations. It will involve a weekly field trip to Home Depot. Civics 125: Becoming the Neighborhood Oddity Subjects covered include aluminum foiling and taping, carpet ripping, window climbing, and vodka spraying Theater 305: Advanced...

Oy! This has turned into a wild weekend. I have been asked to take a trip for work the second half of the week, and the preparations have put me into overdrive mode. I worked hard all day yesterday, trying to get caught up and ready to go. There is still much to do today. And tomorrow, and Tuesday when I leave. It's the typical dilemma - there is a lot going on that I want to blog about, but but the events themselves are taking up all of my blogging time. Even with an extra hour today , I'm going to be struggling to catch up. But it will happen. Y'all are worth it. Autumn and Tristi - I'm working on your tags. I'm having fun with them, but they are not progressing quite as fast as I would like. But then what is?

I went to the store today. A sign on the door said "Only service animals permitted in the building," but I went in anyway. Nobody tried to stop me, and there were other people in the store as well. I guess some rules are just made to be broken.

We've survived. Hooray! Happy Halloween, everyone. Or as Alyssa would say, "How Een." This is the first year in a long, long time that I haven't carved a pumpkin. I got a couple for the kids, but both girls wanted to paint them. This fit my schedule nicely, as painting is much faster than carving, and requires much less supervision. We were supposed to paint our pumpkins last night, but due to circumstances beyond our control, that project got postponed until today. I blocked out 40 minutes between school and Anna's acting class, and the girls got the job done. After Anna's class, we came home and had pizza. I was going to do the rest of the Shepherd's Brain Pie for dinner, but it all got eaten at lunch time. My plan for tonight was to not go Trick-or-Treating, but I caved in just a little and let the girls go to two houses. This was more out of pity for our poor neighbors as anything else. You see, we sat around watching old Halloween videos for two whole...

There are those who claim to hate Halloween , and to be honest I can understand why they might feel that way. There are parts of the holiday I'm not terribly fond of myself. But we've worked to make Halloween fun at our house. Perhaps it helps that we have two little girls who dress up as puppies and kitties instead of some kind of undead creature. About the only thing that really causes problems around here is the candy - the girls don't hold their sugar well, and artificial colors have a Jekyll and Hyde effect on them. One thing we have done through the years is to have a Spooky Dinner for Halloween. This year Kara will be in Dallas on the 31st, so we had our Spooky Dinner tonight. We had Vampire Apples and Shepherd's Brain Pie. By pumpkinlight, of course.

I did something for myself today. I didn't tell anyone, I just did it. This kind of personal time is important, because it not only recharges the batteries, but being selfish for a few hours fills me with motivational guilt, and I'm extra productive afterwards. Today's trip was to Ft. Worth Meacham Airport , home of the OV-10 Bronco Association , for the Bi-Annual BroncoFest. I've been a fan of the OV-10 for more than twenty years now, and this was something I simply couldn't pass up. So, what's so special about the Bronco? Well, just look at it. My feelings for the bird were summed up very eloquently by a Vietnam Vet who was there with his wife. "I fell in love with this plane the first time I saw it. It's just the strangest looking thing." Then he added an opinion I hope to one day share through first-hand knowledge - "It flies like a dream." (sigh) The Bronco was used between Vietnam and Desert Storm as an observation platform for Forw...