Trunk or treat

This past Wednesday our church held a Trunk or Treat party. While John and Sarah were lukewarm on the prospect, Janine took to it with her usual gusto. Here she is at Greg's car. Greg is in Senior High youth group with Sarah. Pretty nice decorations. I bet he even vacuumed beforehand.

The idea is that folks at the church dress up, decorate their cars and the kids come around the parking lot. Thankfully the rain stopped for most of the event.

Here's some of the costume prize winners below. Carolyn, the lady in the photo, won best adult costume for her Homecoming Queen in the convertible. The boy was dressed as a jar of Jif peanut butter and won the best kid's costume prize. Afterward we all went inside for hot dogs in the Fellowship Hall.

Janine's Birthday Party

Now that Janine had her birthday pie, she now gets her birthday cake and what a dandy. Schorr's bakery in West View came through again with balloons, raised letters and everything.

This is the cake from her birthday party this past Sunday afternoon. It was quite an event with eight little girls all sitting around the dining room table.

As Bobbie said, it was a success because no one threw up or got hurt. Overall the girls were very good, but we were thankful it was a nice day, so they all got to burn off some energy outside beforehand.

Finally, here's the big moment with the cake. Drat! Those candles!

Replacement time

Take a look at the date on the inside of the upstairs smoke detector- January 1996! I showed it to John and he remarked that it was older than him.

The safety experts say to change the batteries in your smoke detectors when daylight savings ends in the fall. The battery was new in our downstairs smoke detector but the unit itself was quite old. In fact it started to peep intermittently with both new and old batteries. Replacing it prompted me to replace both.

Glad I did.

Janine's Birthday

Yesterday was Janine's birthday and we all celebrated with our traditional birthday pie. Her request was peach/blueberry and it tasted great. I think partly because we ate the pie about two hours after it came out of the oven. It was just enough time to cool, but still taste fresh.

As you can see from the video Janine wanted to make a separate wish for each candle. Then all decorum broke down. Sarah as the oldest is the rule keeper saying, "you can't do that!" John as the brother in between started blowing out the other candles! But it was all in fun and we all dug in after that.

Traveling with Han Solo

In all of his intergalatic travels, I don't think Han Solo ever dove into a dozen oysters until now. Well a few weeks ago that is. Here's Han at the Red Drum in Nag's Head, NC.

The oysters were interesting. They were a variety found in Chesapeake Bay with a tiny crab inside. At first we weren't too sure about them. After we checked with the waitress, Sarah, Bobbie and I dug in with gusto, tiny crab and all.

Back to Han for a moment. Sarah has brought Han Solo along on all trips she has taken in the past few years. We have photos of Han in Washington, DC and New York more recently. So finally, here's Sarah setting up a shot of Han when we were at lunch in Manteo, NC at an outdoor cafe. I guess Han likes good food.

Sarah Surfing...sort of

Here's some more vacation posts.

Sarah went out one day to surf and found it a bit difficult. I think the waves were not high enough. She got out past the sandbar and tried to catch the waves as they broke, but as you can see the waves would wash over her without much propulsion forward.

The sound gives you an idea why the Wright Brothers made their first flight just a few miles away. The wind is almost constant so it's a great place to fly a kite, or try out a new contraption that just might fly like a bird.

Elizabethan Gardens

In Manteo, NC there is a special place called the Elizabethan Gardens. Bobbie and I first visited it in 1991 while staying at an Inn in Manteo. Later, we returned in 2002 as part of our history lesson for the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

This year we just went back to enjoy the gardens. It is primarily a shade garden featuring many statues and walking paths. The girls particularly enjoyed walking around, but John was bored. So the two of us each got a bottle of soda and sat at the tables near the entrance.

My favorite part was the live oak that had lasted since the days of early exploration in the 1610s. It's mainly held together with cables now, but still has most of its branches and leaves.

300th Post

This is the 300th post to Little House. But I have to remember my heritage and pay homage to another 300th milestone passed this Saturday in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.

This is a record unsurpassed in college football. Notre Dame is the only one close at just over 200 consecutive sellouts.

It started on November 3, 1962 when Memorial Stadium on the University of Nebraska campus sold out for a 7 to 6 loss to Missouri. Most sources say there were about 39,000 at that game.

My dad took me to my first NU game soon thereafter. I remember loosing my prized blue St. Louis Cardinals cap in between the seats and under the bleachers on the near end of the field. I soon recovered when they won the 1964 World Series. Since then the old stadium has been expanded many times and now seats more than 80,000. Like Wrigley Field, Memorial Stadium now has lights.

The football culture is strong throughout Nebraska and the Husker Nation. There is a Californians for Nebraska group, Texans for Nebraska and just about every other state. But keep it all in perspective. Nebraska has a lot of land and not a lot of people. Since Memorial Stadium was expanded in the late 1960s, it has been the third largest city in the state on game day, only Omaha and Lincoln are bigger.

One of the recent traditions has been the tunnel walk video that runs on the Jumbotrons just before the team hits the field. (Somehow that is missing from my childhood memories.) Here's the one that ran on Saturday.



Then, there's this one. Oh let me tell you about it! Listen to how he says Bob Devaney.

There are many other good videos. More to come later.

John at the beach

Here's John getting ready to go into the surf on Monday. He actually did later, but I had already gone back to our spot on the beach.

The weather this year has been great. Sunny every day with rain predicted for tomorrow, our last full day here.

I will admit that I had hoped I would get to the beach more than I have, but that's the point of a vacation, doing what you like, when you like.

Last night's dinner

Here's Janine with last night's dinner, a baker's dozen of blue crabs.

That's right, we are at the beach and having a great time if Janine's hair is any indication.

We love coming to Duck, NC at this time of year. The ocean is at its warmest. The rents are at their lowest and there are no crowds. In other words, it's possible to relax and enjoy each other, and that's exactly what we are doing.

We have had sunny weather all week long. It's been in the 70s for the most part, so we have not used the pool at the house at all. That is until last night right before dinner when Janine took a bracing dip.

Sunny day in Oakland

This past Sunday Sarah got together with some of her Wizard Rock friends. They met at their favorite spot, on the Schenley green in Oakland. There is a nice open space between the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University campuses. Because I like that area too I like to go to a nearby coffee shop or restaurant to read or write.

But because Bobbie had a full afternoon of yoga and a tea party, I took John and Janine with me as well.

They were great, but we spent more time at Wendy's instead of some of the more interesting spots. Next time no Wendy's. In fact no burgers at all. Next time it's the Original Hot Dog shop. We also need to take the tour of historic Oakland and visit the last remaining part of the outfield wall of Forbes Field.

A final thought. A friend of mine of a certain age tells a funny story about Elroy Face, a pitcher for the Pirates in the '50s and '60s. According to the story, when Face came up to the majors, he parked his car at a gas station near Forbes Field. The owner charged him a dollar to park but told him his parking was free if he won the game. I don't know if Elroy Face was a cheapskate at heart, but he lost only about three games that season.

Early fall

This morning John and I took a walk on the nature trail behind our house. On the way we spotted this tree at the neighbor's. It is only mid September and this tree is well on its way to peak color. Before too long it will be bare, perhaps before all the surrounding trees.

As you can see the pin oak on the right is beginning to look peaked and wan. That is if one can use those words to describe a tree. Here we are in the last days of summer. Everything is overgrown and looking a little brown around the edges like these trees.

We will return to this tree later this fall to find out how it's head start turns out.

A fine evening

Here's a photo of our front yard on this beautiful evening. It's about 70 degrees, clear and fairly dry. Finding all three together is unusual in these parts, except at this time of year. This was a perfect evening to sit out on the front porch and take in the sunset.

Please excuse the state of the garden. Bobbie has a perfect combination of perennials that bloom from April to July. August and September are what annuals are for. (The dahlias are out of the photo on the far left next to the driveway.)

Indeed the best time to visit Pittsburgh is in May, September, and October. Perhaps that's why Bobbie and I got married 20 years ago on October seventh.

I would love to place the weather for a day like today in a bottle to break out on a rainy November day or a dank one in July. But not being able to do that makes one better appreciate days like today.

Mad Men Yourself

You find the craziest things on the internet and here's one of them. I created this avatar here. As a former ad man myself, this probably best captures what I would have been if I worked at an agency in the '60s rather than the '80s.

So it's 1962 and here I am, although I'm not sure what the missus is up to. Either I have a cold and will quaff a TheraFlu instead of a Martini, or I am about to be scalded for the rampant adultery depicted in the program.

Mad Men is an interesting show, but I find it a bit pessimistic. In fact I find it very pessimistic. Every time someone does something nice, the ulterior motive is revealed in the next scene or two. While it is very well written and researched, I also think the writers like to play for a little shock value to our contemporary sensibilities.

For example, I would like to keep a scorecard for the number of times the now pregnant Betty Draper lights up a smoke or has a drink in her hand. I'm sure the scene in which the kids were rolling around in the back of the car when Betty stopped suddenly was a shock to many 20 somethings. Heck I remember opening up the back seat to look at the battery in our VW bug while my mother was winding through traffic struggling with the stick shift. Was it safe? No. But my mother was a safe driver with her children's and our family's best interests in mind.

Oh my! While I was setting up my Kennedy era domestic bliss, my oldest daughter created her avatar shown here. I'm beginning to worry...

Tea party

This past Friday evening Sarah had a tea party for a few friends. She went all out with a full range of fruit, tea sandwiches and homemade scones.

They all had a ball. They all started very properly, enjoying the tea and snacks. But they soon changed back into their jeans and t-shirts and started to roam the neighborhood.

In fact I had to go over to the nature trail park behind our house to tell them all to come in after dusk. I bribed them with the supreme currency of teens, pizza.

Sarah was great because she invited Janine and the girls next door. They came dressed for the occasion, but they were called home as Sarah and company moved into the yard. A good time had by all.