Feels like spring

I was experimenting with the zoom on my camera, and was actually surprised to catch the cardinal in the lilac bush.

It really does feel like spring! It's sunny and about 70 degrees. I've got my windows open and my sheets hanging on the clothesline. Birds are singing, and we've had so much rain this last week (about 4 inches), that the usual fall dust isn't in the air. The only drawback I've noticed is that there are billions of GNATS. If I go outside, I get covered with them. My sheets are covered with them, too, so I'll have to shake them well before I bring them in.

This is a picture of our red oak in the front yard. I love this tree. I planted it about 12 years ago. Hannah named it something -- Phil, maybe?. I think everyone, including the city, should plant these trees. It grows really fast for an oak, it's drought-resistant, it's pollution-resistant, and it doesn't drop anything annoying (like acorns). Oh, and did I mention that it's gorgeous? And, of course a picture of the boys, just because I can never resist when they're being all cuddly with each other.

We had an uneventful Halloween, with very few trick-or-treaters (maybe 20). So at about 8:00, we turned out the lights and headed to the back yard for a campfire. We even put Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price reading Edgar Allen Poe (Masque of the Red Death and Tell-tale Heart in particular) on the iPod for our entertainment. Now we're finally back to "real time." Damn, why can't they just leave it here.

Guerilla Bumper Stickers

This car parks in my parking garage. I've been thinking about it ever since I first saw it (and today was the first time I saw it AND had a camera AND nobody else was around), and sort of figure that if I write about it here, I won't do it (although I was really nice and blanked out the license plate). What I've been wanting to do is to make another sticker that looks just like the one on the lower left, only it'll say "Honk if you think I'm an asshole," and have him drive around wondering why everybody's honking at him. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

What gave me the idea was that a few years ago, someone replaced the fish like this one on my car:
with one that says "JESUS" and doesn't have feet. I noticed it one day at the grocery store while putting stuff in my trunk. It's anybody's guess as to how long I was driving around with that -- how often do you look at the back of your car?

I've never seen the owner of the car pictured above. For all I know, he's a nice (if misguided) guy, but I doubt it.

A Thousand Blessings on the House of Tim

Now, I'm never one to complain about cool weather, but I just saw that we have snow in our forecast for Sunday, and it's entirely too early for that.

On a warmer topic, our good buddy Tim has earned himself a double helping of my Christmas goodies this year for giving us this fabulous grate for our backyard firepit! It raises the wood up off the ground just enough to let air underneath, and pretty much stops the smoky-ness. We had a fire with not entirely dry wood the other night, and it worked GREAT!! I think even Beca will be able to hang out by it without being miserable.

Last week we attended a really fun house concert at Ember Schraag's, featuring her trio (including our incredibly talented son Günter), John Walker, and another band called You & Yourn. It got us thinking about how much fun we had at the one we had at our house a couple years ago, and makes us want to do it again. We're going to try to have one next spring, hopefully in the back yard. Maybe Hannah will be able to sell some more coasters!

We have so much fun living vicariously through our kids! I find that more and more I'm introducing myself to people as Hannah's mom or Günter's mom, and I'm amazed at how excited that makes people. Their lives are so much more exciting than ours, and it surely looks like we did something right in their upbringing.

Summer's being followed by a moonflower

Every time I look at or think about these flowers, I start humming Cat Stevens' "Moon Shadow" for some reason. Heh. Now that I've given you the ear worm, you will, too!

They're really, really cool. They're related to morning glories, except that they only bloom at night. They climb like crazy, and smell amazing! These are planted right by our front porch. Next year, though, I'm going to start them indoors in March or April and put actual plants in the ground. They just started blooming this last week, even though I planted them in early May -- I had just about given up on them.

This is what they look like during the day. I'm also thinking that next year I'll plant them in the window boxes and let them be a screen for the front porch. Then we wouldn't have to see the tatooed hillbillies next door jumping on their trampoline.