Christmas Tree
last update: 12/08 @ 23:21

We walked over to our favorite tree lot yesterday.

Not quite as planned, it was no longer light as we had some kitty calming to do before we could go: Panzer had found a paper bag and…

Trapped himself inside it. There was a brown, paper bag streak racing through the house; downstairs, then up.

We found some of the bag. But there was still a rope handle wrapped around him as he was hiding under Robert’s bed.

We got him out with treats, checked him over, gave him some dinner, then went to get the tree.

So the decorations went up today.

I think we did well.

And I think Panzer agreed.

Robert is working on replacing the Christmas train around the tree with a Christmas Hot Wheels track.

But he’s still working on getting the curve and loop to work as he’d like.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

And we can barely wait…

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Onions, Stat!!!
last update: 12/01 @ 12:04

We had a great Thanksgiving meal at the Hargadons, following a fantastic Wednesday dinner here and before the now traditional Caps Hockey games on Friday. Which was followed up by a lovely feast at Lee’s house on Saturdy (after the traditional billiards games).

As family branches make their ways back across the country, Ian stopped by before his flight and he and Robert picked up Overcooked. It sounds like a great game, but will it translate into more self-sufficiency for Robert in the real kitchen?

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Passing of a friend
last update: 11/25 @ 21:00

We drove down to Richmond last weekend for Martha Mabey’s memorial service. She was a family friend of decades and I’m sorry that she’s gone now.

But it was not unexpected to her or her family and friends.

She did all she could to make the arrangements ahead of time to make it easy on her family, and to exert her sense of style on the service.

Because her life (and her husband’s) was so intertwined with my parents lives, Loren, Susan, Steve and Helen also traveled to Richmond for the service.

That gave us time to play Catan, enjoy several nice meals, and tour the James River rapids Steve and I grew up on (and Loren had some occasion to enjoy).

It also gave us time to remember Martha and Gordon and all the shared memories with our parents.

Jessica, her daughter, seems to be handling it well and has lots of support in Richmond.

One thing Martha did was pen a book of Contacts about her friends and what they meant to her. That included a a page about my mom, which I’ve added to related information about her.

And if you’d like to know a little more about Martha Mabey, she wrote THE LAST DOCTOR IN AMERICA about coming to terms with a life threatening medical issue. Something which clearly helped to motivate her to plan for her end of life.

I like to think she would have enjoyed the serendipity of running into a parade in Ashland on our way home. And of the flexibility of the organizers to deal with a parade route cut in two by train tracks.

As she and Gordon lived in Ashland for a while, they may have enjoyed the parade (and the trains) years ago.

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Doing well in school
last update: 11/21 @ 23:12

Robert continues to do well in school.

He made all A honor roll this semester at TC!

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Pipes!!!
last update: 11/21 @ 22:54

We went to go see Gaelic Storm at the Birchmere and it was a great, fun show!!!

Thank you Sasha for having a birthday align with the show, and for inviting us.

A new band, more bag pipes and great folks to hang out with.

Extra bonus, Eleanore (from Burgundy) was able to come and brought her friend Katherine (Also from Burgundy, but a couple years ahead of them).

Eleanore and Katherine are both Irish dancers; they managed to stay in their seats for the first half of show.

And no people or furniture were damaged when they got up and started dancing in the aisle.

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It’s Science …
last update: 11/17 @ 13:26

This year Robert is tracking what’s the most efficient angle for your windmill blade.

The anemometer is new for this test, but the VOM is one I built probably 40 years ago. So, on average, we’re just using things we’ve had around for awhile. (The motor / generator was from last year’s fan powered car classroom experiment.)

It’s a lot faster to get data from this experiment compared to last year’s argon soaked wetsuit.

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Cloudy day
last update: 11/10 @ 22:49

Kind of a cloudy day on the river today. Yesterday was pretty cold so I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was to see so many folks at Angler’s Inn today (when it was a bit warmer).

It was cool, but not too bad.

Then again, I did decide to try to stay mostly dry.

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Beautiful Weather in West VA
last update: 11/03 @ 14:06

And extra bonus, after hours of raking and some digging, Sarah and I played hooky to head to the bald on a spectacular day.

Now we just need to help Robert settle into homework since the trip was distracting.

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Group Muse
last update: 11/01 @ 23:07

It’s like this, see…

Sarah arranged another Group Muse for us. And we invited Will and Anna (and parents).

Before the musicians started to play, the teenagers had a contest to see who could make the best Nationals logo. I think Will won (but John thinks Anna won).

However, I give Robert props for most creative — baby shark (with pacifier and baseball cap).

Which is pretty cool.

But not as cool as the musicians: we had duet to start with.

And then a quartet.

It was great!!!

About a quarter of the audience were musician friends. About a quarter found the concert on group muse and came by.
About half were our friends.

It was great mix. We all liked the music; the musicians seemed to enjoy the audience.

It was a lovely way to wind down from a long week and celebrate Dia de los Muertos — Martha would be proud.

And we managed to get some of the excess Halloween candy eaten :)

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The Haul…
last update: 11/01 @ 18:06

Much of this is courtesy of the cross the street neighbors who saw the writing on the wall: not too many kids trick or treat on our street and the tornado warning was signaling an early end to the evening.

9.7 pounds should keep Robert in candy for another year…

(Photo by Sarah — I was early to bed last night.)

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