Got my car back today, had it in to get a new windshield. Over the weekend it was hit by a rock while driving and shortly thereafter a large crack grew across about 2/3 of its length. The new one sounds kinda funny when I hit bumps, but hopefully that’ll go away once it settles into position more.

Other than that, not much has been going on here. Lots of work in preparation for a business trip to install a solution we’re building. Hopefully all will go smooth and the last 2 weeks of hell won’t be for naught

We all had a very good time at the concert last night; it was nice to take a few moments out of a busy holiday season to enjoy good music and family. There were several impressive portions of the concert – two of which were an 11 year old violinist and the St. Andrew Society. The St. Andrew Society featured some 12-14 bagpipes and another 12-14 drums. We were sitting in the very front row, so being less than 10 feet from their very intense sound was absolutely amazing.

At the concert Ana and I ran into our highschool physics teacher, Mrs. Langford, and learned that she’ll be retiring at the end of this school year. She’s not sure what she’ll do with her time off, but it will probably include some particle physics research in St. Louis. Her research sounds very intriguing and I hope to hear more about it in the future.

On another note, Ana has finished the quilt for her grandmother and is delivering it to her today. She spent the last 18 awake hours hand sewing on it so that it would be completed by today and it looks great. Congratulations Ana!

Today we are heading to Champaign to catch the Illinois vs. Valparaiso basketball game, should be a lot of fun and we’ll probably be picking up some BW3s while we are there.

As you may have noticed, I have disabled comments for the time being. I tried enabling them again for a short time yesterday but was again flooded with spam. Hopefully the next release or so of Serendipity will have better/working spam protection. Who knows, I’m just tired of the crap.

Today I put in the second of three new circuits in the basement. I feel bad that I had procrastinated so long, but there really wasn’t a driving need to get it done since the computers were all put on the first.

This one went pretty quickly, and it worked correctly on the first try this time – ground fault protector and all. I’m very pleased.

Tonight we are heading to dinner and the symphony for a Holiday show with my family, we’re really looking forward to it.

Today was a busy day, setting up all of our decorations. It was worth it though, we heard many great comments about how our house looked fantastic. The music/sound effects created a very spooky atmosphere – a group of neighbor kids playing in the next yard over thought our house was haunted. Much fun!

Full pictures can be seen in the gallery.

Ana and I have decided to do up the house with Halloween decorations and scary stuff for the trick’r treaters in the neighborhood. It should end up looking pretty cool and provide a fun evening tomorrow. Some preliminary pics can be seen here.

Ana and I are preparing for the anticipated onslaught of trick’r treaters next weekend. We have several pounds of candy, in addition to a few things we’re going to decorate the house with (which is to involve some motion sensors, scary beings, and creapy music). Should be pretty fun, I’ll take some pictures if it turns out
ok.

Can’t wait for carving some pumpkins, mmmmm toasted pumpkin seeds….

A few weeks ago while I was outside with my telescope for a few hours I was visited by a stray cat. He was pretty curious about what I was doing and stayed around for a while.

Since monday, this cat has been hanging out on our front porch, sleeping on our chairs out there. It’s driving Dozer and Neo crazy and they frequently stand on their hind legs at the window and stare at it. Ana and I have nicknamed the cat Copernicus, for his liking of hanging around while I stargaze. I sure hope he leaves soon, I don’t want to be tempted to bring him in and give him a home, we’ve already got 2 that happily coexist!

In other news, watching the Cardinals right now try to secure a game 7. Go Cardinals!

Dave graced us with his presence this evening on his way through Springfield to St. Louis. We gave him the nickel tour of the house before heading out to Smokey Bones for a delicious and filling dinner. It got late pretty quick and he had to get back on the road. Was very nice chatting with you Dave, have a safe drive!