a few new pictures

There are a few new pictures up on our picture web site. Highlights:

what happens when you stick your nose in a firepit with hot coals

Hamm family cousins

My kickass birthday bike!

RIP Basil

Someone who shall remain nameless pulled my basil up out of the ground and left it by the back door. le sigh.

Now for some Christmas humor:
Dad and I rode bikes around White Rock yesterday. It was gorgeous outside and he was suitably impressed with my new wheels.

Pene has been to the dog park twice now and it is without a doubt her favorite thing ever. She runs and runs, sideswipes dogs to get them to chase her, wrestles, gets knocked over, and generally goes crazy. She is very well-behaved with the other dogs, though, which makes us proud. I was worried her lack of socialization in early childhood would've made her a little squirrelly, but apparently not! She has her first dog training class next week at Flagpole Hill and we're excited. :)

goodness

If you were wondering what the hell happened to me, our (new) DSL modem kicked the bucket two days after my last post. We had to wait for a replacement modem to get shipped to us, and my first call to AT&T on November 5 didn't get the job done. The nice customer service guy I talked to forgot to place the order. So our new modem didn't get ordered until I called a second time to see what the hold up was, last Thursday. The new and functioning modem arrived about an hour ago.

I'll fill in the blanks some more, I think, in future posts, but here are the highlights of the last two weeks:
- three fun-filled nights in Austin
- Xbox 360
- quality time with Matt
- my birthday (thanks for all the birthday wishes, by the way!)
- a new road bike, my present from Matt, and a bunch of riding gear from the fam
- Emily's engagement to Rick (WHOOP!)

Halloween letdown

I was disappointed in the number of trick-or-treaters we got this year (12). It was our neighbors' fault - about half had their lights all turned out, including both houses on the end of Vistadale. The natural course for trick-or-treaters was proceeding down Vistadale and looping down promising streets. Ours hardly qualified. Our house was itself extremely inviting - orange and purple twinkle lights, candle-filled pumpkin lanterns, lights ablaze. But alas, the hordes just didn't think our street was worth it. :(

The good news is it is now November, aka my birthday month. =D

Pene has developed an unfortunate new trick of getting into everything. So far the casualties include: my sewing kit, a kit-kat, a bag of cheetoes, a loaf of bread, some Christmas decorations, Matt's middle school football jersey, and some crackers. She doesn't actually eat much of anything, just plays with them. Mostly she does this when we're gone or separated from her (like when Matt leaves in the morning and I'm still asleep). We're combating this two ways: 1) putting things away or up higher, and 2) putting Pene outside when we're both gone. I hope she gets over this phase quickly.

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Video game poll results:

Video games:

Yes, often!	4 (36%)
Sometimes.	3 (27%)
I did when I was a kid...	3 (27%)
Nope.	1 (9%)