Halloween in NTW

Halloween in NTW is an event, not only for the hood, but for the entire freakin' island. You see, NTW is one of a handful of hoods where homes are close together like they are in the city. There are about 70 homes, so islanders who live on larger, more secluded lots will truck their kids in and unleash them on our hood.

This year there were roughly 250-300 kids roaming the streets in costume.

Last year, my lawn was destroyed by all the hooligans and their inability to follow the path to the the door. This year, I created a perimeter of tiki torches to help "illuminate" the path. It mostly worked, but there were still those kids who just didn't "get it" and decided to walk directly through the perimeter. Next year (per a neighbor's excellent suggestion) it's an electric fence.

Oh, we had some real winners from outside the hood this year. Some woman had the audacity to comment to her friend (while I was standing right there) that she didn't get our address numbers. They looked dyslexic to her. I turned to her and stated, "it's called 'Arts & Crafts'". She looked confused. One would think that common sense would tell you, A. A neighborhood full of only Craftsman homes is bound to have Arts & Crafts address numbers (which she obviously had no clue about), and B. Don't be an idiot and make such ignorant comments in front of the homeowner who is giving your kid free candy.

On a nice note, check out these cute kids in their kitty costumes! Vivienne and Olivia had fun making the rounds demanding candy from our neighbors. Mommy and daddy were lucky, too. At one house, we got a cocktail as our treat. Score!!

Autumn in NTW

Autumn in North Town Woods has arrived. The trees are rapidly dropping leaves, and the temps have dropped accordingly. It was cold enough yesterday that I had to empty the fountain, and cover it with trash bags, as well as cover the patio furniture. There was ice on the picnic bench! Brrr...

It's also dark here at around 5-5:30 pm. The peak will have us in the dark even earlier come winter.

I went around the hood the other day on a walk with the girls, and I thought this neighbor's tree was striking!

Baby Chucks

Along with the bitchin' Stones shirts, the girls insisted on sporting shoes just like their daddy. Since daddy is a sneaker freak, they naturally had to begin their shoe obsession with some killer All-Stars; in pink of course.

Vivienne is kickin' it here in her Chucks as she contemplates what to do with this sippy cup top.

Start Me Up

The girls were bummed that they didn't get to see the Rolling Stones when they hit Seattle the other day, so we got them these really cool Stones T-Shirts. You'll notice here that Olivia is attempting to stretch her mouth to the size of Mick Jagger's. They *totally* dig the Stones.

Fun With Boxes

The girls really like getting into boxes, and then demanding that daddy drag them around the floor as if they were driving or something. We did that with baskets while we were in China, and they obviously still enjoy it. Here is a nice shot of the girls riding in boxes sent by their generous Great Great (yes, two Greats) Uncle Carl and Aunt Sue.

The Great Pumpkin

The girls, Rachelle and I went to a pumpkin patch the other day in search of the great pumpkin. Unfortunately we didn't find it, although there was one time in my life that a couple of friends and I *did* find the great pumpkin. And...well, it wasn't with us for long, but that is a completely different story.

Anyway, we did find some good specimens to compliment the twin pumpkins that Mip and Pip brought over for the girls. Yeah, and where were our pumpkins, Mip and Pip? Heh, heh...

And yes, we did find a nice little mini pumpkin for Ophelia. We might carve it, and fill it full of catnip.

The girls seemed fascinated by the experience, and it was nice to be able to shoot over to a patch right on the island. It's nice that there is still so much rural land here. I fear it won't last for long.

Trash Sale

Man, poor Oscar the grouch. Today, we watched an episode of da street where Oscar had to make a decision whether to sell his trash or keep it. His pet elephant really needed the space to do his swing dancing, and Oscar wanted him to be happy, but sell all his trash!??! It was a tough decision...

I don't know ho it turned out, but I thought it was funny that as the story unfolded, I found myself watching alone while the kids busied themselves with throwing toys all over the house. Exciting Sunday afternoon!!

Speaking of exciting, I posted some Bay to Breakers pix from way back in 2003, just before we moved from SF to Seattle. We did this race a couple times, and it was a blast. The word "race" is merely ceremonial, btw.

Later...

More Pix on Flickr

I have been on a tear to get my older pix (2002-2004) up on my Flickr site! I have many photos to sort through, so stay tuned.

Carry on...

Joshua Tree Photos

I briefly posted back in January of this year about my solo trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Rachelle was in business meetings in Palm Springs (Indian Wells to be more precise), and I had a free day to do some adventuring.

Well, after nearly a year, I have finally processed the pix. Check them out on my Flickr site if you are interested. I think they turned out nicely.

Joshua Tree is a magical place, and I highly recommend visiting the park at the same time of year since the weather was perfect.

The China Group

Along with the red couch photo, I thought I would share a picture of our travel group. This was a really great group of folks, and we miss them already!

The Red Couch

Part of the China adoptive family tradition is to take a group photo of all the babies in your travel group. Since all American families go through Guangzhou to process the U.S. paperwork, they usually stay at the White Swan Hotel where the red couch lives.

This is our group photo.

Crazy Baby!

So I'm searching all over the net and I cannot find any reference to a show we loved while in Nanchang. It was called the "Crazy Baby!" show, and featured a wacked looking puppet (the Crazy Baby) and a dude that switched from Mandarin to English during the show, apparently as a means to teach young Chinese kids more English words.

Anyway, I really want to find some archives of the show, but I cannot find anything! It's making me a "Crazy Daddy!".

Yard is Done

I finally got the fence stained thanks to some help from gong gong. The yard is nice and finished, just in time for fall and winter to set and make it unusable. LOL!

The plants should be nice and established by the spring. I like our little perch above the green space.

Btw, sorry for the rapid fire short blog posts. I have limited cycles due to heavy duty kid time this weekend so, saying something is better than nothing.

Later...

One Leg Up

After a long morning of hanging with uncle Corey, and his folks, the dynamic duo (aka wonder twins) got to meet mip and pip for the first time. They really like mip and pip!

During the visit, Olivia decided to show off her LL Cool J "one leg up on the competition" pose. She must have gotten into my hip hop CD collection while I wasn't looking. Even the hard, gangsta stare is authentic.

Belated First Birthday

Just before grammy and gong gong (aka poppy) left for home, we celebrated a belated first birthday for the kids. They are 14 months now, but they didn't complain about having another birthday celebration.

Happy frist birthday Olivia and Vivienne!