Cyber Neighbors

I recently got a new cell phone number, and I've been getting lots of phone calls for the prior holder of this number. At first it was aggrevating, but in a way it's been kind of an interesting experience. She was apparently a very nice person and very connected (I think she's gotten more calls on this number than I have!) and I think she had been doing some charity work.  The people in her network are by-and-large quite nice: I almost look forward to chatting with her next caller!

Halloween!

Another Halloween come and gone. This year the kids were very excited about decorating the house, or rather the front yard --- probably because a house a couple doors down had done their place up in spades. So we added some more to our slowing growing stock of decorations (no pics, sorry!). Also, this year Son decided he would stay home and greet the trick-or-treaters instead of doing the rounds. I rather enjoyed this, sitting on the front porch with a warm drink and listening to the sounds of Halloween up and down the street.

The crowd pics are from the downtown merchants' Halloween event.

Weekend Getaway

We foisted the kids off on unsuspecting friends and relative (okay, they knew what they were signing up for) and headed for the hills - literally - for an anniversary get-away. We drove down to a place called Silver Falls State Park in the vicinity of Salem and did their "ten waterfall" hike. One hiking book described it as 1/2 mile, 5 hours: we think the park description of 7 miles is a bit closer, though I don't think it took us 5 hours. By my count we saw only 9 waterfalls, and one was just a trickle, but by any account it was beautiful! The pics don't do it justice.

Scene: An Office Cubical

[cell phone rings]

"Hello?"
"Hi Dad".
"How are you doing?"
"Just saying hi."
"That's a lovely thing to do."
"Um-hmm. 'Bye"

[cell phone disconnects]

Softball!

Daughter wanted to try out softball so she's doing the short fall season. Here are two pics from the diamond: the very first batter of the very first game, with Daughter ready on defense at third base. And the action shot shows Daughter's first base hit on her first at-bat. A lot of firsts there :-)

Welcome Our New Family Member

On Saturday, after months of concerted lobbying by Daughter, we found ourselves at the Portland Humane Society shelter signing the papers to take home this guy. He's 15 pounds of Poodle - Spaniel mix (probably), estimated at 5 years old. His shelter name was Reno (where I allegedly grew up) but Daughter has renamed him Rio. He's pretty mild-mannered so far, and getting settled into the family life well.

More Kauai: End with some miscellany

Well, it's been fun sharing our Kauai trip with you, but here's where we'll leave off.

Captions: She named this fish Buddy and made sure to feed it every day - finding a place to get a pastry is part of every trip now - yes, I was there! - roadside fruit stand because the Poipu farmer's market was described to us as being a bit fru-fru - the hula show at Coconut Marketplace is a benefit by a local hula school - the awesome playground at Lydgate Park (two pics) - and a family pic, make your own caption for those faces.