Socks with no matches

There is another load of laundry to go, but still, this is a lot of unmatched socks. A LOT.


Edit:  In the process of picking these up, I found three more matches, so you can mentally subtract six socks from this photo.

Blokus

Blokus

Tonight's game was Blokus. My daughters tied for first; Kim was second; I was solidly last.

House portrait

Here is a black and white house drawing I finished this morning. It's 11 x 15 inches on smooth bristol.

House portrait in pen and ink

detail shot

Accidental snapshot

I was getting ready to take a photo when someone said something that my voice-activated phone thought was "shoot," causing it to take this photo. I sort of like the result.

Saturday night family game

I wanted so badly to play some games this weekend: X-Wing, or Wings of Glory, or Memoir '44, or Dominion.  Plans for that fell through, so I ended up playing Up the River with my wife and daughters.  It was fun, I enjoyed it, even though it's not really in the same class of games.  I did, however, get to play a couple of rounds of Pitchcar Mini with them yesterday, and that was pretty good.

No knitting, vanishingly small sports

I think I should probably mention how much knitting I have done lately: None.

Regarding sports: Last night I saw, out of the corner of my eye, small fragments of a televised football game. I also heard someone at work mention going to a game of some sort.

Messing around (digitally)

I have never really gotten into digital art. It's not that I dislike it or disrespect it. It's more a combination of not having the technology on hand, and placing a priority on tactile real-world media.  However, I have long been envious of digital artists.

I still do not have the capability (and nothing remotely resembling expertise) for good digital artwork, but I recently downloaded a free drawing program onto my phone, and I have been having fun with it.  I doodled these last night:

It has really whetted my appetite to learn and do more.

Fried green tomatoes

On Sunday I picked a dozen green tomatoes from my back yard. I left behind ones too small or scarred. 

I made a bunch of fried tomatoes slices, and have more tomatoes for later, too. Maybe I will make some green tomatoes salsa.

Fried green tomatoes are sort of a big production,  but I have finally gotten good at it, and streamlined it.  These came out pretty tasty.

Ticket to Ride

A friendly game of Ticket to Ride with the family

We got Ticket to Ride last Christmas, but have hardly played it.  We got it out on Saturday and played a game, and I had a great time. Not just because I won, either.

Halloween post - action report

The French policeman and the wizard

We participated in the St. Matthews Halloween parade in Grandpa Len's neighborhood, then trick - or - treated there. It was quite cold and breezy. We would have been out longer were it not for the biting chill. Then we stopped at Mimi and Grandpa's new place, and on the way home we hit some pretty heavy snow showers.

Here is a pumpkin I carved Thursday night:

I took him over to my daughter's 5th grade Halloween Party on Friday morning, along with three more pumpkins for them to carve.  I think they had fun with it.  As you can tell from the photos, the boys tended to have more of a heavy-handed approach, with pumpkin destruction becoming an art of its own.

These boys are performing brain surgery on the one I carved:

The girls were more likely to aim for a more classical style of pumpkin sculpting.

 This one looked rather elegant:

In the evening we went to Len's and participated in the 65th annual St. Matthews Halloween Parade. Although it was coooooooold and breezy, and only my wife seemed to be dressed appropriately for the weather, we waited for the costume contest. My oldest daughter won a prize of $20 for her wizard getup.

costume contest

a wizard in the cold

After that, we trick-or-treated around the neighborhood.  Enthusiasm waned more quickly than it would have were it no so frigid, but the girls both still had baskets full to the top with candy.  Some people were giving out generous portions.

During the day I watched the movie "The Awakening," which had a lot of creepy parts but, as I had heard from reviews, a silly ending.

It was a good day.

Spookifying our house

Dirty dirty we fresh

House portrait finished today

Black walnut ink on Bristol paper, 9 x 16 inches. 

Pumpkin horses carved

The horses I drew last week, carved today.  They are probably not going out tonight, but maybe in the next few days.

Jack-o'-lantern bank

The ATM in this building does not work.

Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular

My haunted graveyard pumpkin at Iroquois Park

One of my pumpkins, illuminated in the show at Iroquois Park.

Jack - o'- lantern spectacular

Here’s a picture of Travis, one of the guys running the show, drawing the Titanic on a titanic pumpkin.

Here are the two that I cut last night--a haunted graveyard and a triceratops.

The show opens Thursday, October 9. It looks to me like they will have even more pumpkins than last year.

I don't have as much time this year as I did last year. I'd really like to do more.  Maybe next year I will schedule a little vacation time just to work on pumpkins.

I not only like the results (the display is a grand spectacle), but also the guys who manage the show and the other artists who work there are a great bunch.

Messing around

Wings of Glory, X-Wing Miniatures

The Baron's Fokker swoops in on the poorly positioned enemy

Last night I played a couple of games with Aaron. First, we played two quick aerial duels with his new Wings of Glory pack.  In the first match, I totally screwed up in maneuvering, and the Red Baron shot down my Sopwith Camel.  In the second match, we charged one another in a blaze of guns. He hit me and my engine started smoking, but his gun jammed and I knocked him out of the sky.

Rebel ion cannons keep Imperial ships in disarray while the HWK shimmies through picking off the wounded.

Then we played a (roughly) 100-point X-Wing Miniatures match. Aaron's young son Collin and I were the Rebel team, and Aaron was the Imperials. It was a tricky match-up: Collin's Y-wing and B-wing were using disabling ion cannons, while my HWK made most of the actual kills with a blaster turret. The Rebels won with no ships destroyed.

I had a great time.

Magic Labyrinth

With the family. It's one of our favorites.