Need to get in my Happy Halloween quickly before it passes.  Enjoyed the blog activity.  I had been thinking about adding some thoughts but thinking doesn't get them on to paper.

We had a glorious fall with lots of great color as the view from my study illustrates.  Boulder has a lot of non native trees that add some brilliant reds to an otherwise yellow/orange palette.  We had no rain all month and many days where lunch on the deck was a delight.  We even got to Rocky Mountain National Park with a bit of color around.  Of course, that was all rudely ended with the foot of snow last Wednesday.  We lost a number of smallish branches that Rico and Reid got to the street pile for us on Saturday.  We have lost some leaves but the view from my study still has some color but rather tarnished.  I hope we get some wind to get more leaves off before the rain and snow return tomorrow with 8 more inches expected - of course, almost all of last week's foot of snow has melted except against the southern fence.

Mom was east for the weekend and I'll let her tell her story but it too involved weather.  I had a quiet time but very enjoyable while she was gone.  I moderated a very interesting discussion on Pakistan: Friend or Foe with three guests from CU - all PhD candidates - two men from Pakistan and one woman from India. They all spoke well, were informed and had many interesting things to say.  The woman was a film critic and talked about the villainous presentation of Pakistanis in Indian film - no way to change attitudes of the young.  It was all very civil and I think the three really enjoyed the exchange and the chance to meet some local people and others from South Asia.  I heard two great concerts - Mozart's Requiem on Saturday and,on Sunday, an electric violin quartet  that was amazing.  It included cymbals, and water filled glasses all played with violin bows.  The highlight of the weekend was an overnight visit from Fritz from Leadville.  He seemed in very good shape and it was fun to talk.

glad Rachael is enjoying Sydney, Emily survived her camp, Drew had a good parent's day and Sarah has the app off!  Good luck on the soccer when it comes.

Happy Halloween to all, as well. 
We have NO SCHOOL today! :) Sarah is home, too. No power or heat in the buildings.
It will be nice to have a calm celebration, enjoy trick or treating in town (streets closed, merchants give out candy), and carving pumpkins.
Drew arrived home safely after a fun and satisfying Parents' Weekend. He was able to spend some time with Matt and Joanie and her parents, watch a rugby match, and go to a class.
Sarah is still waiting to play the first round of sectional soccer play-offs. First game, on Saturday, got snowed out. The refs called it 5 minutes before kick-off. The rescheduled game was for Sunday but not possible with snow, power lines, tree limbs, etc,...Rescheduled for Halloween but no school,....Maybe tomorrow? I'll keep you posted,...yuk, yuk.

Where's Ours?!!

Okay, so where's our snow?  I'm feeling just slightly left out here...!

Sadly there's nothing even resembling snow here at the moment.  On the contrary, things are starting to heat up and the humidity levels are on the rise.  We've had a week of cloudy weather, with a few downpours.  Unfortunately for Emily, several of them happened while she was on camp...she was NOT, as the saying goes, a happy camper!  But she survived and even has a sunburned nose, so it wasn't all doom and gloom.  She had a very peaceful solo night perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking a secluded cove, with NO RAIN! I'll ask her about photos and post them when available.

Rachael is still in NSW - last we heard (on Saturday) she and her friends were heading inland to visit a guy from the trip who lives on an alpaca farm.  No phone reception out there, so we haven't had an update.  Ken and I rather enjoyed the slower pace during our 4 childless days, but it's nice to have Emily back!  Tomorrow is Melbourne Cup Day, and can you believe there is a horse running this year by the name of "Niwot"!! You know who my money will be on!

By the way, HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

October Snow, East Side!

Can you find the ghosts among the snowflakes? How about the morning glories?

So bizarre,...a cane with a red ribbon appeared in our hallway last week. Now, it's snowing,...???

Big Snow

It's wild to hear about Sarah moving forward in the college choice journey! Closing up the shore seems a long way away from waking up with temperatures in the teens in a winter wonderland. As forecasted, we did get the big snow and it turned out to be a solid foot here at our house. There were a huge amount of tree limbs down around town and thousands without power. We were lucky that we didn't lose any limbs because our big tree had lost most of its leaves already. Of course we didn't have a snow day- Colorado schools are tough! I snapped this photo after lunch recess today from the back door of the school. It looks like February with a little october color thrown in.

October

Hmmm,...those "lasts" are starting to roll along. Beginning with, "The next time I sleep in this bed, I'll have graduated from high school and I'll probably know where I'm going to college.", said Sarah as we were closing up the shore on Columbus Day.

Sarah has played her last regular season Varsity soccer game. Sectional play-offs start on Saturday. After the last home game (it was quite late), the traditional flowers, gifts, speeches, and hugs were given by the coach and underclassmen. It was also MAC Field Day so Sarah looked a bit like Brave Heart - blue and white face paint.
Last moment before a college application has been submitted,...was last night before she clicked the submit button on the Common App. - so different than addressing, sealing, and sending those heavy envelopes!
Yes! We got pumpkins and Drew is taking one down to Matt for Parents' Weekend. I will send along some goodies from the oven since I am staying here to cheer for the soccer team.

Back to Fruita

We loved seeing the pictures of Rachael's fun and festive European voyages. Toga parties and parasailing? Sign me up!!

We just got back from another october mt. biking trip to Fruita, and I got a new sticker for my bike tool kit. It was originally intended to be a big full-family camping experience, but people kept dropping out due to the busy-ness of this time of year, so that the only remaining family were Boden and me. He had a couple of 2nd grade buddies who went along with their families, so it was a perfect set-up and good father-son bonding time for the two of us.
 I walked away relatively unscathed from an epic crash where I landed on my ass going way too fast for a trail I didn't know well (lesson learned!) and everyone else had a great time and did a lot of riding. Boden couldn't even get off his bike after we got back to the campsite- he just kept riding around in circles and making jumps by laying the camp chairs over the firewood pile. The weather couldn't have been better- high of 70 and clear, chilly nights that were great for campfires. We're expecting the first significant snow tonight (6-9 inches!) so these Indian Summer memories are going to feel very far away soon.

I dealt with a project that I've been sitting on for too long last night. Jenny gave Reid a seaplane tour of Great Pond in Maine for his 12th birthday, and I got to go along and do some filming. I messed around with some of the new iMovie templates and made this in about 10 minutes. Coming soon to a theater near you!

Rachael's Return

Our European traveller has returned safe and sound with lots of stories and great memories.  One unfortunate acquisition is a suspected case of Legionnaire's Disease - apparently the "Contiki Cough" that was joked about on the tour is not such a laughing matter!  She is taking 2 antibiotics and resting, and as of this posting she is feeling much better.  Well enough, in fact, to plan a trip to Sydney next week to catch up with many of her fellow European travellers!  At least Legionnaire's is not contagious... 

Rachael plans to spend a few weeks visiting with friends in the greater Sydney area and seeing a bit of that part of the country.  She will be home in time for our annual Noosa holiday in early December, and then plans to work until university starts in February (as long as she gets an offer...!)

Rachael on the Dover-Calais ferry

Partaking of the traditional fare at Oktoberfest...

Having way too much fun at a toga party on Corfu!

Parasailing over the Aegean (that's Rachael on the left!) 

Emily is heading off to Yuragir National Park on the northern NSW coast on Wednesday for 4 days and 3 nights as she participates in her Year 10 Outdoor Education camp.  They will hike along beautiful coastline, work on a "progressive painting", and celebrate the transition from junior to senior school.  We're hoping for fine weather and small tides - Rachael's campsite was hit by a rogue wave when she did this camp!

Ken and I will have a very quiet few days at the end of next week with both our children away - a taste of the "Empty-Nest Syndrome" still to come...

Sorry for the bad links

I realized from Dad's post that I'd put a couple of bad links on my last post because I copied them from an email I sent to someone else. The ones below should get you to the videos. Sorry Dad, I can't help you with the computer, but I can give you directions to the Apple store :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rw3HSjk7IU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H986GrD13As&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt8rapOwt3Y

Great Photos

Kudos to Rico for the quality of his photos - they are sharp and capture the kids very well.

I am afraid I can't report being in his technology phase but I do admire what Steve Jobs did.  He is such a role model of what an entrepreneur can be compared to the Wall St. financial wizards who have produced nothing in recent years to benefit us all.  I may join a Wall St Rally!  To  illustrate my technology level, , I can't view all of  Rico's posted videos.  When I click the middle one I get a page  from Office Outlook Web Access that asks me to sign in with a password and I have no idea what Office Outlook is or how I sign up - certainly don't have a password.  I copied the address for the Magnolia Drive video and after long loading, got to see half of it.  It is again great and the colors and details of the trail give us a deep feeling for what biking there must be like.  However, we only got 3 minutes of the almost 8 downloaded.  We let the computer sit for an hour, the wheel turned, but no more content showed.  If we have to buy a new computer every year, I am sure it is good for the economy as a whole, but not for individual's pocketbooks.    On the brighter side, we are mastering our new cell phone, I even took a photo today but don't know what to do with it as the guidebook has nothing on picture taking but it was fun to do.  Also, Mom is mastering her new camera.  We'll see what photos we can produce.

I hope to post some photos of our trip Wednesday to Rocky Mt. National Park.  It was a beautiful, cloudless, warm day.  We left a little before 4 and got there at 5.  We saw six herds of elk and finally, about 6, heard our first bugling and saw some action among a few young bucks.  It was all we could hope for in a viewing.  The aspen still had yellow leaves and there was snow on the peaks above moraine park.  I'm so glad we went, partly due to Reid's saying he has seen and heard elk the on  Monday when on a school trip up there.

Coming Back!

I don't really have a good explanation for my absence from blog postings, but my falling off seemed to coincide with the beginning of summer break. I have to say that this past summer was one of the most fulfilling in my memory. When I came back to work this fall, my pat response to every query about my break was "I feel like I made the best use of my time because I spent as much time as I could with my kids." There was a lot of biking, swimming, geocaching, camping, playing in the yard and treehouse building, as well as the always-anticipated trip back to Connecticut and Maine. It was a wonderful time of memory- making for us all.

Recently, I feel like I've reached a technological watershed moment in my life and, weirdly, it's coincided with the passing of Steve Jobs. I got a new MacBook from my school and Kate switched our wireless carrier to get a good deal and set us up with iPhones. I feel like it's opened up a whole new world, and it's given me a profound appreciation of SJ's contributions to the world. I think it's going to inspire a whole new level of blogging for me for the school year. (Hold me to it!)

At any rate, the cool new camera on my iPhone, Reid's GoPro camera (he got it for his birthday) and Kate's camera should provide a lot of fun visuals for us to contribute. So without further delay, I'll start loading the imagery- first up is a few links to mt. biking videos that Reid and I have posted on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rw3HSjk7IU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H986GrD13As&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt8rapOwt3Y

And here's a buffet of photos from the summer

Fall has come

We're heading to our fifth concert since we got back.  We are taking Reid to see and hear a group of Japanese drummers who look great.

We're very busy.  Mom started painting class on Monday and is planning to paint every morning after breakfast.  I am planning to take one day a week off from the computer and other new fangled technologies - that should reduce the blood pressure if not the cholesterol .  I have had all my annual doctor visits and seem in pretty good shape but my cholesterol has gone up so I am joining Mom on medication.

We had a nice drive up to the Peak to Peak highway last week. The colors were spectacular but the camera's battery died before we got to the top so all we have to show are some Boulder Creek scenes and one of Nederland   Quite different color scheme from NH.

Looking forward to getting some details of Rachael's trip.  Does anyone else have anything to say/

Dad

PS - Elli - Could you send me again the directions for putting together a folder of photos to appear on the screen rather than having them all come up?

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to create a group list for use in emails?

Back in the daily computer world

We're back in the swing of Boulder - moderated a discussion on the Muslim Brotherhood Thursday that turned out to be very enlightening and well attended.  Enjoyed the Farmer's Market Saturday and the Kelloggs for hot dogs last night.  I've been frustrated by technology regularly - my problem now is we can get our phone messages on the computer but need a voice program to do it.  I downloaded it and I still get the message I need to download the program so it is a vicious circle.  Decided to try the blog instead and its is working. I have a few shore photos to add to Julie's good ones.

Spent thursday night watching the end of the season baseball games - I must say that when the Red Rox do something they do it big - 100 years between pennants and setting a record for a September downfall.  I always get a bit interested when we get to the shore and the local paper covers the Yankees and Red Sox but what a disaster Sept was for them.  Thursday night was a roller coaster with it looking as tho the Red Sox would go to the playoffs until the end of the 9th where they were one strikeout away and lost the game and the chance by a 4-3 score.

We're well at the moment - I have my yearly checkups this week with four different doctors and can't think of any to talk about except for the aching joints!

Love to all.

Dad

PS - shouldn't have said anything about the blog working.  when I went to add photos, I found the format changed and no was to place them or size the, but here are four photos  first one includes Joanie and last one has Grant in the picture.