Happy Halloween!

Another fun Halloween! Annabelle's friend Katie, who moved off-post this summer, came back to trick-or-treat with her, while Mike went around with his buddies.

Annabelle went in a different costume direction for tonight from yesterday's updated Little Red Riding Hood, dressing up as Brandon Lee in the film The Crow:





Mike's costume was inspired by a Saturday Night Live Christmas skit:





If you can't go a little crazy at Halloween, when can you?

Halloween preview

The kids got to wear Halloween costumes to school today. Annabelle went as a 21st-century Little Red Riding Hood:



I didn't get a picture of Mike in his costume, as he had to wait to wait until he got to school to put it on. So you will just have to visualize Mike in normal clothes with several helium balloons tied to his belt loops. Balloon Boy, get it?

Victory banner

I went to pick Annabelle up at school today and was touched to see this banner hanging in the commons area:



Here's to "new Knox!"

Sweet, sweet victory

FKHS football has been having a rough time of it for the past 4 years. In fact, word on the street the other day was that we were just a handful of games away from setting some sort of losing state record. The Eagles turned that around tonight though!

Annabelle and I had stayed home to watch TV, but when Mike texted me to let us know that Knox was winning, we hopped in the car and headed over to the school. It was really incredible to feel the emotion in the stands.

I wish I had thought to grab my camera on my way out the door. "Borrowed" from my friend Corey Mason's Facebook page:



Go, Eagles!

Stinky status report

I am in paper-writing hell (deadline got extended by a week, but I want this out of my life ASAP). I just realized though that I forgot to post the latest picture of Mr. Stinky. I took this 4 days ago:



The blossom is a little bigger today but still shows no sign of opening. I'm glad I didn't miss seeing him in all his stinky glory!

Homecoming 2009

I can't decide what hurts worse right now: my feet? my eyes? my ears? Just got back from chaperoning the high school homecoming dance, and I think I have had enough vicarious partying to last me a while. I have got a paper and a freelance project both due on Tuesday, so the next few days will be insane. I'm putting up my photos from tonight without editing them because if we wait for me to have time to play with them, we'll be waiting quite a while.

Last year homecoming happened in September, and it was still light out in the evening to take pictures outside. This year we had to take them inside, so I rigged a makeshift portrait studio in our music room. Here are Mike and his date:



Annabelle's friend Katie moved off-post this summer, but she came back for the night to go to the dance (there's a sleepover going on now in Annabelle's room, but so far there not much sleep involved):



The theme for the night was "Hollywood." Here's another couple shots of Annabelle in front of the stars so that you can better see her dress:

How am I supposed to work under these circumstances?

Character study

Today was "character day" for spirit week. Here are 2 characters you don't often see together. Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes and Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd:

Perfect day for PJs

We had some sincerely crappy weather today: rainy, and I don't think it ever got out of the 40s. It was pajama day for spirit week, however, plus PSAT day, so if there's a better day to stay all day in your jammies, I don't know what that might be.

Annabelle wore her YTHC shirt from Wizard of Oz that she had signed by all the cast members (including Toto--click to see the front bigger and look for the "paw"-tograph) plus the penguin pants I made for her to wear after swim practice in seventh grade:





Mike had a field trip today, so no jammies for him!

Happy nerd day!

This is spirit week at the high school, and today is "nerd day." Here are some happy nerds for you:

Bullets over VA

I'm never going to get caught up on our trip to Virginia last week if I don't just dive in and hit the highlights. So . . .

One of our friends emailed me this photo of Fred and me at Wednesday night's formal, and I thought it was pretty good:

On Thursday, Annabelle was feeling sick, so she stayed back at the hotel while Mike and I toured UVA. Very impressive! All of these college tours make me wish I could get a do-over on college.

Friday morning we met Fred's big brother from his fraternity at Bodo's for breakfast:



Fred's conference ended around noon. After lunch we drove up to NoVA to hang out with my friend Miki and her family.

Virginia seems to have better pumpkin patches than Kentucky, so we headed out to one Saturday morning for a souvenir gourd. We took advantage of the colorful scenery to get a couple family photos:





(These photos are making me ponder the idea of sending Halloween cards instead of Christmas cards this year. Hmmmm . . . )

Mike, Annabelle, and Miki's daughter Victoria posed for this picture to commemorate their long-standing devotion to Godzilla:



And Mike found a tiny house to hang out in:

The kids are past the age where they grow that quickly, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get our traditional back-to-back pictures:





You can see the pictures from June here Or, if you really want a shock, go here to see the back-to-back pics from when he deployed to Iraq in 2004.

My favorite Thai restaurant in the entire world is House of Siam in Springfield. Their pork with garlic sauce sets the standard by which all others are judged. From 1995 to 1997, I ate their at least once a week, or rather I would get carry-out, which I would enjoy while Annabelle took her nap and Mike vegged out in front of his afternoon TV shows. Any time we go back to NoVA for a visit, I have to eat there at least once, and they always remember us and are just so nice. The owner was horrified to hear that Fred isn't allowed to drink in Afghanistan, so he insisted on treating him to a beer:

We dropped Fred off at the airport Saturday night. Seven more months until R&R, which he is taking late in order to be here for Mike's graduation in May.

I meant to blog all this last night, but after driving 600+ miles in one day, I couldn't summon up the energy to do more than veg out in front of the TV. The kids had one final day of fall break today, which they spent working on homework (Annabelle) and college applications (Mike). I'm glad this will be a short week!

Party time!

Tonight was the formal dinner for Fred's conference. We enjoyed the benefits of having another licensed driver in the family by having Mike be our chauffeur so that we wouldn't have to worry about who would drive home. We had a formal picture taken, but those will be mailed out in several days. I grabbed an innocent bystander and micromanaged an impromptu photo shoot, so I would have something to post tonight:



Long-time readers may recognize the dress from May 2005 when I wore it to the JAG prom in Germany on the arm of a less handsome escort:



One of the fun traditions at the dinner is when current and former members of particular units stand up and sing (for better or worse) the unit song. Here's the 82d Airborne Division Song from tonight:

Having a great time!

Greetings from Charlottesville! We have been having a wonderful visit, just keeping very, very busy. Fred's folks have been in town for the past couple of days, visiting with the kids while Fred and I are in class all day and then going out to dinner with us afterward. Tonight made our second visit to St. Maarten Cafe, which is one of our favorite restaurants in C'ville: