Halloween until the start of December 2018

Fall was beautiful if too wet. Megan loves throwing knives and jumping on the trampoline and being a rock star just now.

It has been gray and wet but still colorful.

Megan had a birthday. She is now 7!

7!!!

I got to see my sister and grandparents somewhat unexpectedly.

That was fantastic.

Megan didnt go with us. She went to a Girl Scout Camp instead.

I missed her a ton and poured over the camp photos to see if she was happy. She looked a little unsure and off by herself in most of the pictures and that made me worry more.

Here is a nice one though.

It made me feel the distance to Hawaii where Dad and Mary are more keenly.

They are having warmth and settling in.

 

Meanwhile back at the lake...

I did a very social thing and went to a Haven Halloween party. I am a plague zombie from a lab.

I got very costumey that day and went through a number of permutations.

I enjoyed the party but felt a little out of place from not knowing many people well. It was loud and the costumes were great and there was a movie room where I sat in a comfy chair and watched Resident Evil (which I enjoyed)

I made gross looking cinnamon roll intestines for the potluck and they turned out spectacularly.

There was a quiet room fall out shelter that I took advantage of, gratefully.

I think this is the first Party Party that I have ever been to on my own.

I am glad I went but I wish that David had been there. I saw some people bring their kids. The kids would have loved many things about this one. So I will bring them next time.

At work I was introduced (thank you Donnie) to the strangest pie I have ever eaten.

Those are the ingredients above.

It is an apple pie...

It freakishly tastes like a mediocre apple pie.

I made one for thanksgiving.

Its crazy.

 

Kelsey went to Sleep No More. Sleep No More is a thing I have wanted to do ever since I first heard about it in 2012.

Please click the link to learn about this amazing show.

We had our company winter party. It has been a long time since we had a big fancy winter party.

I really enjoyed getting dressed up and going out with my friends.

David looked amazing as usual.

I did something complex with my hair and it pretty much worked and I was quite proud.

Here we are looking spiffy

 

Megan and I both woke up with crazy hair afterwards. 

I got a new drum and took a drum class and am looking forward to trying out some instrumentation during bardic.

I finished up Inktober. 

I liked drawing something every day so much. It was meditative and satisfying.

I hope to keep doing crafty things. I'm not sure why I haven't been generally...probably too busy but I am going to try to keep it up in one form or another.

Michelle and I have decided to get good at the laser. Here was our first nights work.

The glowforge is so cool and Haven is so cool for teaching us how to use it.

If all goes well you will see many laser cut projects from me here.

I continue to adore my coworkers.

This is a bit out of order but just before Halloween we went to Gaver Farm.

It was cold but as always we had a good time.

Megan thought she needed glasses (in fact her dr thought so too but it turned out to be a keep a watchful eye on her vision sort of thing rather than a get lenses right now sort of thing).

She says they make her look like a teent-ager. lol

I love that girl.

Also she is not entirely wrong.

It was warmer then and the axes were sticking.

We had a rousing night of carving and scooping.

We were all happy with the results. Check out my owl on the edge there.

Licia bought a house in Mount Airy and we went out to eat to celebrate her massive amount of debt.

ha

Hot tub season got into full swing. 

We use it at least 4 times a week

David got a cool new arcade cabinet.

We had a costume party at work.

Then Trick-or-Treating at home.

The kids found the arcade cabinet box.

Inktober ended and I took a picture of my implements (minus a cool Japanese pen I got from amazon)

I made a 3 dimnsional thing on the glowforge. It is a box for a die.

Kiernan had to go to the doctors office.

He broke his foot jumping into a leaf pile on the driveway.

It was not a bad break and the dr said that if he listened then he could just have a boot instead of a cast.

We went to see Aunt Licia's house and were duly impressed.

Megan found a good climbing tree there.

We hada midterm election that I was super into.

I worked on a moving 3 dimensional thing on the laser cutter.

I am having real problems at work and have asked to get a department change. I love the people I am with so much but the stress is so bad that I cant sleep or eat sometimes and I need to go. I am very disappointed by the entire situation.

I don't want to bad mouth anyone or say libelous things but if you want the story let me know and I will tell you my tale of woe.

I took a make a custom wax seal using a 3-D printer and laser cutter class at Haven.

I hadnt cut anything acrylic before and the #-D printer looked approachable. I will probably learn that next.

A group of us from work went over to Scearce's to split some wood.

The log splitter is down so it was all manual stuff.

We got above a months supply in and that is good but the winter is longer than a month.

I am worried about that.

Kathryn's dad had a fall and hurt him self. This worries me as well

We had Thanksgiving and it was delicious.

Licia brought pies and Kathryn's parents couldn't come because of convalescence.

It was cozy and homey and just right.

After we ate we threw knives and axes.

It was cold and none of our throws stuck very well.

Megan figured the archery bale was the best bet. She was quite right.

We had a random snow.

At work, we took a long walk in the snow to pick up lunch and came back regretting our life choices.

Megan got all excited to see Santa but when she got to him she had no requests lined up. She just wanted to see him.

She fished around for a thing to ask for. It was adorable.

I got a hot glue gun for wax and worked on my seals at home.

I made an entry for our group for an inter company diversity contest. I need to get better at photo manipulation.

I am actually working on learning that. Here is another update on my personal seal.

The kids made a ginger bread village.

I made a dice tower.

We went to Chris and Pammy's and made pens.

I'm quite proud of this pen.

Also I feel like we might need a lathe in our lives.

I had a brutal series of weeks at work and the kids have kept me sane.

We had our annual Fondue hot tub party. 

Good stuff!

We went to the New Market Christmas parade.

We cheered for our Girl Scout.

We had pancake breakfasts.

We wore many hats.

We got serious about the holidays.

Kiernan serenaded us on his violin.

And here we are almost all the way caught up.