Charlie the next door neighbor's dog, yawning. Photo by Liam.   After a summer of no plant growth on the island in the lagoon at Humboldt Park, these flowers bloomed in November. Does anyone know what flowers they are? I'd really love to have some of these blooming in our garden this late in the season!   

Mom photographing John testing the turkey   mmmmmmm stuffing. This stuffing is like a big jumbled up, delicious BLT.  Expertly carving the turkey!   The feast   Liam, perhaps thinking –should I go for seconds? Or save room for sweet potato pie? (due to the pumpkin shortage we had sweet potato pie this year in place of pumpkin pie.)  

You'll note that like the state dinner for India, we went with a bold and lush color scheme.  

We visited the historic area of Pullman last month–by chance there was a reptile expo going on there at the same time. Pullman is where the Pullman cars, or luxury rail cars, were manufactured and it has an interesting history as well as a big preservation movement going on now. Burmese python who was also visiting the Hotel Florence that day. I'm not sure what I find more ick, the color of the snake or the size. Miles does not share that ick feeling. not original wallpaper or lamps in the Hotel Florence, but kinda cool nonetheless. These colors were…

These photos are late in posting, but just to step back in time a moment…we had an extremely fun visit with our new best friends Isabel, Olivia and Nate over Columbus Day last month! Here are the kids outside a taqueria in Pilsen, at the bean in Millenium Park, celebrating Isabel's birthday with LOTS OF CHOCOLATE! and at Underdog in Wicker Park. You guys are the best!  

I liked having Halloween on a Saturday this year! Lots more time to prepare our costumes… Unfortunately (ha) we have no photos of John and I in costume. We were both very out of character, John all smudged and wrinkled as a hobo and me wearing a lot of jewelry as a gypsy.  Liam carved this pumpkin and then practised the ancient art / science of trepanning on it. Zombie Rocker Miles just before going over to his friend's house for an evening of trick or treating and scary movies!

We went to Indiana to pick some apples, eggplant, and a pumpkin today. We went with the Groves and some friends and it was a lovely day. After a week of rain the weather cleared up and it was one of those perfect fall days, as one native of Indiana put it "the best time of year to live in Indiana."    I just love industrial buildings. This one had a lot of potential but I just couldn't find the right angle.    Dad, these are for you, since I know how much you like Red Delicious apples!   Oriental…

Liam and myself set up a desk at Logan Square Farmers Market to get 70 volunteers for Liam's science fair project.  It was a cold day, but we got all 70 respondents in about three hours.  In exchange for a free chocolate volunteers had to unscramble a sentence describing either large or small objects. Then they were asked to draw a square.  So far he's found that people who were exposed to the sentences about large objects drew squares that were on average TWICE the size of people who were exposed to sentences about small objects.  Thanks to everyone at…

John's group at work won a prize for a promotion for the post office, and the awards ceremony was last night. Fortunately John's very oscar-worthy acceptance speech was captured on video. Bravo for not crying, listing name after name, or having to be swept off stage after going over the time limit! He did a better job than a real star! Download RLL 2

Liam got his upper braces yesterday. He gets the bottom ones in a few months. He says it doesn't hurt all that much, it's just really annoying. He also got a bag full of bizarre implements for cleaning food out of braces–including a floss threader for flossing above the wires. Miles continues to give advice which, while very accurate, is not what Liam wants to hear. "Liam, next time you go to the movies, you shouldn't eat popcorn." So far, Liam's been eating applesauce and soup, but I think he'll move on to more normal stuff soon. Here's a before…