Hungry squirrels

L went to a neighborhood park on Sunday where a fall festival was happening and brought back these two pumpkins. She had them inside and I moved them to the porch on Monday. The squirrels ate a bit the other day but when I looked at them today, they had eaten so much the seeds were scattered all over the porch. Guess I'll move them to the patio so I don't open the door and be greeted with a squirrel on my porch.

Drama

I brought this home today for L because, you know, middle school has a lot of drama and she doesn't need it. I'm going to pin it to her backpack as a friendly reminder.

Blood moon eclipse

L couldn't wait for nightfall last night to see the lunar eclipse, in conjunction with a full harvest moon, creating a blood moon. Above is the first picture she took before she enlisted Andy's help. She watched the eclipse with us for at least an hour. B went to Barrie to watch it there with some friends. It was cloudy, but the clouds cleared out for most of the eclipse. It hasn't happened for 33 years (1982) and won't happen again until 2033.

This obviously isn't a great picture, but I was working with a crazy telephoto lens and it was dark outside. However, I love L's expression upon seeing the eclipse happen before her eyes. Andy looks pretty impressed, too. Andy took the following photos. He steadied the camera on the traffic signal box alongside our house and used a really slow shutter speed. We didn't stay out late enough to see the moon turn really red.

Return to college life

Andy and I took E to Union Station to catch a 4:05 train back to Urbana today. Here she is before we entered the station, not sure what she was looking at (wasn't me). She was pretty loaded down with her Vera duffel bag, a reusable shopping bag full of groceries (and homemade chocolate chip cookies, which I was carrying at the time), her backpack and purse. She'll take a bus to her dorm once she gets to campus, around 6:15 p.m.

This afternoon she took a quick catnap next to Andy, who's apparently wiped out from his reunion.

And she had to make some time to play with the cats. She's wearing a skeleton necklace her BF P made for her and gave her last night when they went out. She gave him a shirt that said, "College."

On the way to the train station, she showed this picture P drew of the two of them. He told her he drew it when he was grumpy. I'm sure a psychiatrist would have an interesting explanation of it. I just thought it was kind of cute.

30th reunion

Andy went to his 30th high school reunion tonight at a bar in Forest Park. Of course, he met up with his best friend forever, Claude. Apparently this is the best picture they could get. Kind of looks like a mug shot, eh?

This morning, L had a confirmation class. I'm not sure what she's doing in either of these pictures but the leaders said fun was had by all. While she was at class, E and I did some shopping for she'll have some groceries to take back to school. B was at home getting ready to go to a video game tournament with his friend IB.

A visit home

I left this morning to drive to U of I to pick up E for the weekend. She was going to take the train home but she's done with classes on Friday at noon and would have had to wait around til 6 p.m. or so to take the train. I figured I could have her home before she would have left on the train and there was nothing else on my calendar so road trip it was. This is picture was taken in front of her dorm when she came out to let me in. I had her winter coat, karate gear and a couple of 12-packs of soda to take up to her room. She's planning to take some winter clothes back to school when she leaves, on the train, Sunday afternoon.

After we dropped the things off in her room we went to a bookstore where E bought a new jacket than went to the Firehaus for lunch. We shared an appetizer of cheese curds (yum) and E's turkey club sandwich was humongous. She ended up bringing about half of it home. I had a tasty cheeseburger.

Pretty as a picture

L was walking home from school the other day when she saw Muffles sitting in the window. She had to pause and take his picture.

Buntastic

L asked me to put her hair up in a bun this morning because she was doing a science experiment at school. She has a lot of hair and it turned into quite a big bun. It was a bit floppy - bobby pins can only do so much - but she said it lasted halfway through science, which is her first period class.

Extra credit

L is trying to memorize the Periodic Table song to earn extra credit at school so she's been sitting in front of the computer playing it over and over again. Apparently, B's friend, IB, successfully memorized the song in eighth grade and got extra credit so it can be done. She'll have to sing it in front of the class to get the extra points and she's not sure when that will be. Hopefully, it will be a ways off.

Fire alarm

Here are E and her roommate, S, standing outside their dorm last night around 10 p.m. because of a fire alarm. Apparently, a bulletin board was set on fire. She walked down from her 10th floor room and said lots of students were frustrated because they needed to get back inside to finish their homework.

Flowers and a pumpkin

Not sure what kind of flowers these are but they started blooming this week. Pretty purple blooms that attract a lot of bees.

E's sorority posted this picture of Saturday's outing to an apple orchard near campus. She got herself a pumpkin.

Pledge pin

E received her pledge pin at a sorority ceremony last night. Here are a couple of photos the sorority posted today:

This is E and her fellow new members, the Beta Mu class.

And this is all the women. Can you find E?

Convention booty

One of L's favorite things about Andy going to conventions is seeing what novelty items he brings home. This time he got loaded up on T-shirts and brought back a few things we aren't sure what they are. I think the telescoping back scratcher may be my favorite. I may have to confiscate that.

Andy didn't put his suitcase away, but Muffles is OK with that.

Totoro & August

Dallas and Urbana

Andy left this morning for a quick trip to Dallas for work. Here he is at the Dallas airport trying on hats. He made a good decision and didn't buy it.

And while he was trying on hats, two of his traveling partners decided to get their shoes shined.

And then E sent me this photo of her in chemistry. Good to see she's going to class. Now, if I can get her to smile!

Finally returned

We bought these chip magnets in April when Andy and I went to Vegas. One is L's; one is mine. I can't remember which is which. She took them to school last year to show one of her teachers and I never saw them again. She was pretty excited when she found them in her backpack the other day.

A bid for E

E said there are 23 new girls who are potential members. Here she is with a few:

Fall decor

... and a cat.

Beer festival

This afternoon Andy and I went to Millennium Park downtown to the Samuel Adams For the Love of Beer Fest. We each received 20 tickets for 3-ounce servings of various Sam Adams beers (no, we didn't use them all). Some were good, some not so good. And we got to keep the souvenir tasting glass.

There's a reason these beers are tried and true - they're tasty. The innovation beers, no so much. I had to try The Sphinx, one of the innovation beers, as a nod to my sorority's mascot, and let's just say it's not something I will be buying.

Andy had a good time trying different beers.

And they had a band.

This morning, the church had the youth group's bake sale. It rained early on, but by time L and B got there to work at 9:30 a.m., the rain was over. It turned out to be a beautiful day and when I picked them up at noon, the bake sale only had a few items left. L was thrilled they were able to sell her cake pops at $2 each. She must have had close to 50 so she alone made the church about $100.

Ready for the bake sale

While Andy and I were at the high school's open house last night, L was busy at home making these cake pops for the youth group's bake sale tomorrow. She baked the cakes, one vanilla and one chocolate, Wednesday night then brought a friend, E, home with her from school to make the pops and decorate. She must have at least four dozen cake pops. It took me over 40 minutes to wrap them this morning. L started making cake pops last year with these Christmas tree cake pops and cornucopia ones. She's quite good at it.

I also made some chocolate chip cookie bars (above) this morning and yesterday made an apple spice bundt cake and banana bread (below). I baked a lemon bundt cake but half of it stayed in the pan when I tried to invert it. Sadness.

Open house

Tonight Andy and I went the high school for the annual curriculum night. Parents first had to wait in crazy long lines to pick up their child's schedule. We later found out there was a fire alarm at the school and apparently they let parents back in the building just before we arrived, creating the long lines. Once we had the schedule we walked through B's day, spending about eight minutes in each class.

When we got to his Japanese class, sensei asked about E, of course, and even posed with her Brad Pitt stand-up so I could send a picture to E.

And during B's "lunch" period, we looked through the Boosters' clothing sales but didn't find anything particularly interesting.

This is B's English Lit room. He has the same teacher E had. All of the classrooms look pretty similar with the overhead projector.

And we didn't even skip gym!

L's dream car

L spotted her dream car in Berwyn the other day and had to snap a picture. She does, though, think it would be even cuter with eyelashes.