Catching up

Well, it seems I have fallen behind. Sunday night for kicks I tried to put some LED lights on a cactus. On Monday we went to a fancy mall. On Thursday Katie and Kris had their respective Christmas concerts in quick succession several miles apart. They did well. On Friday my wife kidnapped me for a date. We enjoyed "Hugo" at the Alamo Draft House. On Saturday I took the took the kids to a mall to play in an artificial snow pile. Lots of people, but the snow pile was underwhelming. Katie had fun and we made a couple tiny snowmen. On the way back we stopped at an overlook for a local landmark, the Pennybacker Bridge. That night we got a free carriage ride at a local mall (after waiting in line a couple hours). On Sunday we had a great time with a visit from the Fritzes (who traveled from Peoria to Dallas for a wedding and took time out to see us). We went to this location west of Ft. Worth called Mineral Wells Fossil Park. It has a really impressive density of Pennsylvanian marine fossils (brachiopods, crinoid stems, even a few trilobite and sea urchin and crinoid head parts - picture) in a soft claylike matrix - easy picking! On Monday another proposal got turned in - this time I was just a Co-Principal Investigator so it was a lot less work. We have been prepping for Christmas. Winter begins tonight, and we are getting more rain. The total so far this month is over 3.5 inches, surprising the weathermen and putting December on track to be the wettest month of the year. The grass is green and we have seen dandelions like spring, but the trees are still turning like the fall. People out here are bracing for "cedar fever". It's like hay fever, only, well, with cedars. There are lots of those trees around here and many people do not like them. From what I have heard from locals (and the local news), any day now there will be a massive release of cedar pollen, which will make a lot of people miserable until about mid-January. Katie has been showing cold-like systems, and I have had a sore throat. Today is also the 20th anniversary of my graduation from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.