Thanksgiving Break, 2012 - Part 2

On Saturday morning we went to my parents cabin briefly in order to drop off some lumber.  The northwoods look pretty even in November.  On Saturday night, after a good dinner at Happy Joe's Pizza in Green Bay, Karen and I went to the Green Bay Botanical Garden's Garden of Lights.  Our expectations were exceeded - the lights were nice!  Although the displays were not as extensive as the Festival of Lights in East Peoria, you could actually walk the route rather than drive through the park in a car.  There were no single large lit objects like in East Peoria (they were not parade floats), but there were "scenes" made of many smaller items.  We did a horse-drawn wagon ride, too, which was OK, but the drivers seat was so high it obstructed the forward view (we walked the chilly route later).  The main building had hot cocoa and munchies, and a nice train display. I was amused that the paper wasp nests were used to adorn the indoor tree. This morning we woke up to 1.75 inches of pretty snow at my parents house.  Traveling south, the snow petered out before we got to Oshkosh.

Thanksgiving Break, 2012 - Part 1

We headed up to WI on Wednesday - it was foggy from Peoria to Rockford.  It was warm in Green Bay on Thanksgiving (61 F, broke daily record, tied Thanksgiving record).  We had Thankgiving dinner with my parents and my sister.  At night, Karen and I went to Shopko - I felt weird about it, though it was my idea and we did get good deals.  Today was colder and windy with flurries.  We went up to Sturgeon Bay to meet Karen's dad.

All she wants for Thanksgiving is her two front teeth...

Katie lost her second tooth at school today.

Transitioning between seasons

This afternoon we put up outdoor Christmas lights.  We do not plan to light them much until after Thanksgiving. Our pumpkin person has both a leaf rake and a snow shovel now. Tonight, PBS is showing the Ken Burns film "The Dust Bowl".  We were interested in watching the movie because we read "The Worst Hard Time" in the spring, and as a result drove through the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle region in the end of June.  The dusty weather we saw then (note the horizon in the picture) was enough for us; I can't imagine the big dust storms.

Frosty day and lights at night

On the way in to campus this morning I stopped down by Kickapoo Creeck to take pictures of the frosty plants.  This afternoon Kris and I worked a science demo event at the new Riverfront Museum.  It went OK.  The museum is nice, but  it seems a bit small for the admission price (we got in for free as volunteers, though). This evening we went to the Festival of Lights Parade in East Peoria.  East Peoria is known regionally for its extensive light displays, and I have previously posted pictures of our visits to the park where they are posted.  Many of the displays are paraded through East Peoria to kick off the event.  This was the first time the parade has ever been held the weekend before Thanksgiving (rather than after), so we finally got to see it (although we thought it was bit on the early side to do a lot of Christmas stuff).  We were near the end of the parade route where the crowds were thinner.  Temps were about 50 F, so we were well chilled when the parade reached us after an hour or so of waiting.  Alas, my camera battery died so I have no pictures of the floats themselves.  It was nice to get close to the floats all lit up.  Some played music; most sounded like portable generators!  My favorite sight of the evening was Kris holding Katie up as she excitedly waved to Santa at the end of the parade.

Windy Weekend

Yesterday was warm, which tempted me to put up Christmas lights, but it was really windy so I opted to stay off the ladder. I did move a bunch of decorations out of the shed into the house - I thought we were more unpacked than this! Tonight I noticed that a downspout has blown off my house. On the plus side the wind has blown most of the remaining leaves off the trees in our yard, so I was able to finish mowing/raking for the year (I hope).  Today the weather turned colder (chance of a little snow tonight) and wetter.  While Kris went to her friend's concert, Karen dragged me away from paperwork to go to the Bass Pro Shop.  As you can see by Katie's hair it was still windy.  Santa was there, and Katie (who lost her first tooth at school this past week) got her picture with him.  She blanked out about what she actually wanted for Christmas, but Santa reassured her that she could send her request to him.  We (not Santa) also went bowling there.  The alley has an under-the-sea theme (for example, our ball return looked like a shark).   As usual, I was best in my first game, beating Karen and Katie.  I faded fast:  Karen won the second game (overall we actually tied) and Katie beat me, too!

Election Approaches and Other Things

Thanks, Barak Obama, for your ad encouraging early voting - the content polarized me enough to do so. I was 4th in line in West Peoria on Friday morning. The check-in computer crashed after voter #1, but the very-stressed judge kept things moving and I made it to my 8:30 office hour. It was more annoying not being able to vote in some regional races where we still had to endure the advertisements. Karen voted later in the afternoon. 

The cool weather has been driving mice indoors - we set out traps last night and caught 3 of them, but none tonight. Many of the leaves are off the trees and we have been keeping up with the raking. 

Saw something interesting at Sunday school.  Eight Kindergarteners (all Caucasian and suntan free, mostly blond-haired and blue-eyed) were asked to describe themselves.  Their responses to hair and eye color were immediate, but they all struggled to describe their skin color.  My favorite response was "skin-colored".  Nobody said "white".  I hope I am not somehow insulting anyone, but I thought it was was kind of inspiring that they were not quickly categorizing thmeselves as white, black, red, yellow, purple, green, or any other color.