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| Our neighbor goes all out for Halloween and every other holiday. I think he displays every available inflatable holiday decoration every season! I'll try to remember to post his inflatable turkeys in November. |
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| Who else but the Grateful Dead? |
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| Kitty cats are a favorite on our street. |
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| Hell's Angels? |
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| Otis is washing up with his Jack-o-lantern soap. He'll be an astronaut for Halloween. |
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| Mya is going to be Minnie Mouse. |
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| River is going to be a Teddy Bear. I don't think he even needs a costume! |
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| Sista DonnaLynn completed the Jazz Half-Marathon in New Orleans on October 29, 2011, in 2 hours and 28 minutes, averaging about 11 minutes per mile. Go DonnaLynn! |
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| Ginger and Colton are ready to leave for the big event. Oh Ginger! Please tell me you wear a size 8 shoe! |
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| Destry and Camille were chaperones for Colton and Ginger. |
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| Colton, ready to pick Ginger up for the Homecoming Dance. |
| OK, I still have much to learn about moving photos around. I copied these from an email DonnaLynn sent me. Ginger's shoes! I obviously don't get to the mall enough. |
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| No more tomatoes! But the bell peppers are still producing. Papa Tom has dug up the area to plant in, removed tree roots that have grown up over the summer, leveled out the dirt, and will be applying compost from the Natural Gardener. Then, he will turn the soil and plant the seeds. Remember choosing seeds with us at Natural Grocer's, Emma? We'll be putting the catnip in its very own pot for Baba, Mily, Lucy Fur, and Einar. (Lucy Fur, living up to her name, hissed at P. Tom and scratched him when he rubbed her under her chin today.) |
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| Bye-bye tomatoes and honeydew melons! The vines are all pulled up and ready for our compost heap. |
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| We can't believe how quickly this house was framed and dried in! It's 2300 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and a double garage. Quite an anomaly for our neighborhood of 2 bedroom/1bath single-car garage (if at all) homes. |
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| How quickly things change! I honestly thought Jay's house would be there forever. This house takes up most of the lot. |
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| Emma's coming to join us right after the performance. The choir's opening number, "Wade in the Water," is one of my favorite old spirituals. |
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| The River Valley Intermediate School girls' choir. The iPod Touch did a pretty good job with the photo, considering no flash was used. But, alas! Emma is standing behind someone on the left. BTW, I've heard that stand-alone cameras are becoming passe thanks to the ever-improving cell phone camera technology. |
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| We met Emma's cousin Jill for the first time. She teaches Spanish in China Springs, about 20 minutes from Waco. Jill and Joyce are studying the concert program. That's Al's arm and water bottle in the background. |
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| I thought maybe this was some of the red tide, washed up on the beach? Red tide is an algae. What do you think? |
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| See how Papa Tom's hair is nice and smooth and flat in the Gulf breeze? See how my hair defies gravity? The laws of physics do not apply to my hair! |
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| We took Evelyn to Island House, on North Padre Island near Corpus Christi, on October 14. She loves the beach. Here she is at sunset at Doc's seafood restaurant. |
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| We didn't get to swim because of the red tide. The red tide is an algae that attacks the nervous system of fish and kills them. Thousands of fish had washed up on the beach. |
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| So many fish washing ashore! The wave action breaks up the algae, emitting an aerosol that causes the throat to tickle and the eyes to sting. No way were we going into the water! |
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| A little eel washed up with the fish. |
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| Still, it was nice to walk in the sand. Sarah and Kirk came down after work Friday. |
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| The sycamore tree had to come out to make room for the new driveway. See the tree trimmer high in the branches? |
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| Here's a close-up of the tree trimmer. |
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| The foundation required about six loads of cement. |
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| I'm not sure, but I think the cement was loaded into this other machine then spread inside the wooden forms, kind of like icing a cake. When dry, the cement was as smooth as could be. |
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| Papa Tom's hair has been growing! |
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| Papa Tom trusted me with scissors. I didn't dare take any "off the top," even though Papa Tom told me I could. |
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| Papa Tom has such great hair! That is, unforgiving if I don't really know what on earth I'm doing. |
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| Emma placed second in the 5th/6th grade math competition and fifth in the spelling bee at the Heart O' Texas Academic Rodeo. Congratulations, Emma! |
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| Never in a million, zillion years will I ride the pirate ship that swings back and forth like a pendulum until it finally loop-de-loops. This ride involves my two definite "no thanks" experiences: being slung upside down and backwards! |
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| This ride involved spinning and hurtling toward the ground before zooming up into the sky. P. Tom is braver than me. But he confessed after the ride the he kept his eyes closed the entire time. And Emma's the bravest of all. She kept her eyes opened and liked the ride! |
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| Ah, yes. No upside down or backwards, even though P. Tom tried to make this look like a sideways carousel. |
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| Here's our singing cowgirl with Joyce. |
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| This longhorn calmly eyed P. Tom at about the same time that the other Longhorns were being barbecued by the Sooners. |
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| Future Bevo? I'd never seen a longhorn calf before. So cute! |
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| Emma was the singing cowgirl in an impromptu play performed at the county fair. |
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| The piglets were so cute that Emma and I decided we'll never again eat bacon. |
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| Sharon and I (I'm The Other Sharon) have been friends since 1986, when we worked together at The Williamson County Sun in Georgetown, Texas. She held Amon the day he was born. Anyway, after trying a zillion times to be randomly selected for the Austin City Limits audience, Sharon was notified barely 24 hours ahead of time that she had two passes for the Fleet Foxes taping on Friday, October 8. She asked me to go with her; thanks, Sharon!!! |
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| Wow! I'm really here! Back in 1978, when I was a Radio-TV-Film master's degree student, I inquired about working for Austin City Limits, but there were no openings. So, 33 years later, here I am! |
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| The Fleet Foxes' harmonies are reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Portlanders listen up: the lead singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold is from Seattle but has relocated to Portland. He and his best friend Skyler Skjelse formed the band. |
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| ACL needed a New Year's Eve segment for this year's December 31st show. They taped us pretending it was New Year's Eve. Happy 2012, everyone! |
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| The trees are fake! |
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| So on Friday, October 7, I parked at Austin City Hall, one block from the Austin City Limits taping. Wall Street protesters were out, flashing the peace sign at passing cars and getting honks of support in return. Notice that this guy's flag has corporate logs instead of stars. |
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| Speakers talked about wanting jobs and access to medical care |
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| OK, so if you're going to hula with your neck, you probably do want to wrap the hula hoop in yarn. Or do they come that way now? I haven't shopped for a hula hoop since around 1959. |
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| This guy apparently runs out of tortillas before he runs out of fajita fillings. Been there. Yes, more tortillas! |
