A vintage Halloween pic

Vintage? Really? Halloween was only what - six months ago? Is that my timeframe for blogging? Can there BE any more questions (or Chandler references)?

Anyway, we cut a pumpkin on Halloween. 2007 - please. Wait...does the act of cutting the pumpkin turn it in to a jack-o'-lantern? I think so, but let's see. Wikipedia to the rescue!

Yes, it does.

So we made this jack-o'-lantern, and I kind of forgot about it for a while. Maybe just a week, but the spirit of Don King...you know, that traditional apres-Halloween visitor...came by and, well, this is getting out of hand. Picture, please.



Wow, that's a lot of buildup. Hmmm...I meant buildup in terms of raising expectations, but I guess it works in the hair/mold sense as well.

We were dreaming of a White Christmas!

I'm back!

We went to Copper Mountain, Colorado, for Christmas. The first leg was to Lubbock to spend the night with my brother and his family, and then we drove to Aurora, CO, to stay with some friends. Here is the view from their front yard.



We stayed in a condo, spent too much money and didn't ski enough. Here's another pano from the condo porch:



This is outside the condo, and you can see the dumpster.



We stayed in Silverthorn. Behind me is Lake Dillon, and we would drive over the dam to get from Silverthorn to Dillon.



These are icicles. Relax - it's just frozen water.



The morning we left it was 12 degrees below zero. That's not the wind chill! Including wind chill I think it was about 20 to 25 below zero.



We're on the road back!



We drove from Silverthorn to Denver where we stayed a few days with some friends of ours. Thanks Karen! Thanks Michelle!



We left Denver and decided to drive straight through the night just to have more time at home and not have to worry about finding a motel, carting in all the valuables, sleeping late, food, etc. It was 20+ caffeine-bombed hours.

I think this is Mt. Capulin that we passed on the way through New Mexico.

Happy Thanksgiving from...THE VIOLATOR!

I was flipping through a Bed, Bath and Beyond circular in the mail the other day. Imagine my horror and surprise when I stumbled upon this...product.



Luckily online viewers aren't treated to such a sight.

Back from vacation

Wow, I'm finally back online. Taking a vacation for us can be tricky. Sometimes we have "working vacations," where I take time off of work and we work around the house on projects. Even with the best of intentions we seem to have less time for projects than we expect.

My time off has also let me experience purchasing my first box of wine.




All in all, not that bad - I think we may just have it too cold. Great for cooking, though, and the no-mess...spigot?...is great. I agree that a lot of the "wine experience" is the presentation, uncorking, and pouring from a glass bottle. Cardboard storage may be a buzzkill for purists, but for my special spaghetti sauce, box wine is fine by me! At least there are games built in to your purchase....

We also started Phase 2 of our playscape, watched a few movies and are preparing for our youngest's third birthday, which will be Toy Story-tastic!

If I'm so "rested" from being off, why haven't I been getting up so early? Unfortunately we found a Jackass marathon just about every night this week.

Jumping for joy

Merry Christmas!

There, I said it. I can't stand it when people say "Happy Holidays" when they are too scared to say "Merry Christmas." And a "holiday party" at the end of December...with gifts...food...watching The Polar Express? Please.

Santa brought our boys (and their parents) a trampoline this year! They've always had fun on the ones we've visited, and my wife had been praying and dreaming for one since she was a little girl as well.

Being the mechanically-inclined dad that I am I asked Santa if he could just drop off the unassembled trampoline and I would put it together. He naturally agreed, but he said that I would need to put get it ready the night before Christmas, as he wanted to surprise the boys with it on Christmas morning.

That works for me, but I didn't realize how cold and rainy it would be after dark...when the boys would be asleep. I got most of it done that night (being out after midnight I think I got a Christmas cold too), and finished it early Christmas morning.

We even let the kids have some time on it too!

I'm not brave enough to do a flip on it yet, but I can manage a somersault.

Happy New Year too!