The Think Tank

Last night was our annual holiday party.  Getting everything ready was a bigger challenge this year than normal because we took some time out to go to Montana for Thanksgiving this year.  It was a great time, but it did cut into the decorating time quite a bit.

The party was a lovely evening and I am very grateful to everyone who came.  It was an odd party both in terms of who came, and who didn’t:  Stephanie was noticeably absent, only the second party she has missed in the last 35 or so years; and on the other hand, Chuck & Jon Reali came for the first time in almost twenty years, and Lorene and Lorielle  Ludeman came for the first time in many many years as well! And Donna Thurlow was here after a year long absence do to cancer treatments and surgeries.

The only bummer of the evening was that the Blazers fooled around enough to let Dallas beat them.

We finished up our pumpkin carving tonight, with a grand total of 27 jack o’lanterns.  I think they turned out excellent!  Thanks to everyone who came and helped: Joel & Sarah; Jim, Jamie & Camden; Alan; Marcie & Brett; Miranda & Kyle; and then of course Mom, Maure and Shannon.  Here is a peak at this years crop, and I’m sure there will be more to come after the big night tomorrow!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/77946448[/vimeo]Hi everyone!  As you know this is my favorite time of year.  We did a great job of getting all the Halloween stuff up pretty early this year.  I’ve continued to mess around with a few things, but everything has more or less been up and running since around the 10th of October.

Saturday night was our annual Pre Halloween Party, and it was a really nice night.  The weather cooperated beautifully, and we had about 20 people over the whole night.  Some of those folks were old friends, and several were folks from the neighborhood we met as they were admiring the display out front.  The other part to the Pre Party is to test out all the effects and props, and that went well too: the teeter-totter died and had to be fixed, and the air line for the Crypt Popper sprung a leak as well.  Hopefully that will be it now, and Halloween night can go without trouble.

For those of you who aren’t going to be able to make it over this year, I used my shiny new iPhone to shoot a video tour of our haunt.  Hopefully I will get some more on Halloween night with the hoots and hollers of scared kiddies, but this should suffice for the time being.

Talk to you soon!

Kyle, Joel and I are riding in the Seattle to Portland bike ride this weekend. We got to Seattle late last night because Kyle had work calls planned all afternoon, and we thought it would be better to get up here Thursday night so we could get a good nights sleep before the ride. And if you get injured in a bicycle accident, a Boston, MA bicycle accident attorney should be able to help you file a claim.

Of course, that is not how it actually turned out. Our friends Connie and Jennifer were in Seattle on vacation from South Carolina to tend to a few things at Marcie’s house in Seattle, so we stayed with them Thursday night, and there were a few projects that needed taking care Friday after work, so we didn’t get to the camp area (right by the start line) until around 11 o’clock. Mom and Connie dropped Joel off around 8 so he was already in his tent by the time we arrived at 11, coincidentally enough right at the same time as Kyle Boyd, who had spent The day with his family and friends.

About the time I was getting in bed, a fellow biker parked a few cars over from the van came over because he had locked his keys in his car and wondered if we might have something he could use to get in it with. We fished around and came up with some metal skewers and electrical tape, and he set off to his task. A few minutes later we checked in on him and he was still having trouble getting in, so mom and I started helping. Around 12:30 we finally got the car open, thank goodness. So now I am in my tent and going to sleep. We will be getting up at 5am so we can be on the road by six, hopefully.

I’ll try to post some more and maybe a few pics when we get to Centrallia tomorrow.

Hi everyone…

As always, I have been very negligent in keeping this site up to date.  I made a few changes which will allow me to post from email very easily, which hopefully will spur me into doing a better job of updating this for the few of you who watch it.

Mom and I are up in Seattle this weekend so I can shoot in a couple of the Pacific Northwest Shootup Tour events that are going on in Bow and Mt. Vernon.  I shot pretty well today, which is nice given all the trouble I’ve had over the last several weeks.  I qualified in second and won both my elimination rounds to end up in first place.  Not many people came to this leg, so the prize money was a little less than normal, but I still walked away with a cool $100 bucks which covered the registration fees for both days.  Now, if only I can pick up a little extra tomorrow, I may be able to cover the gas!

After shooting today, Mom and I took a jaunt down to Mukilteo Lighthouse because she had head a rumor that it was decorated for Christmas, which it was indeed!  You can click on the photo to see a few of the others that I took tonight.

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Holiday season and that the upcoming New Year sees you all in good health, good spirits, and good fortune!