brrrrrring on winter

Yeah, it's cold again. But it wasn't for most of the fall.  Let's reminisce a bit on this frigid "fall" day.

Our neighborhood park got a playground makeover this year.  We only went a couple of times, but we're excited for next year.

 Clara has been practicing taking photos.  Maybe 1 in 10 is okay, which is not too bad.  Thanks to her skills, I can show a picture that has both me and Jill.  I'd say we've still got it.  Feel free to agree.

 Another photo taken by Clara.  Yes, Jill is often happy now that the babies are growing up.

 Clara and Janny are learning violin from Nikki for about 15 minutes per week.  Clara enjoys the lessons, and maybe is making some progress.  Janny's ability to focus is, um, limited.

 Leaf pile 2014!   That's somewhere around 2000 gallons of leaves.  Last year, my last batch of leaves remained uncomposted until about Sept.  I'll try to be a bit more proactive this year with turning them over and crushing them.

Thanks to Jarrod's photo on facebook, I learned a better method for transporting leaves.  Sadly, I didn't learn it until I was about 70% done.  The trick is to rake the leaves onto a tarp.  I had been cramming them into leaf bags.  Productivity is up about 50%.

 Jill is doing some end of the year prep for next year's garden.  Janny is cold!

 Last night, we watched Mulan together. Janny used one of my favorite Janny-isms when talking about it afterward.  She said something like, "Remember that one guy? [Pause]  Could you tell me what he looked like?"  Well, Janny, that's not much to go on.

She used to ask us to tell her about her dreams and get really upset when we didn't know what happened.  I can relate to Pharoah's magicians, and there doesn't seem to be a Joseph around.  We're pleased that she hasn't thrown us in the dungeon yet.

Finally, I participated in the 2nd annual Joker's Jaunt.  I hung with the lead pack through the roughest stretch of road (where I got dropped last year).  But I got dropped by Jeff (and Larry) when he ramped up the pace into the wind with about 3 miles to go.  I feel silly writing that (how can you get dropped in a headwind???).  So here are some excuses:  (1) I rarely ride more than 30 miles in a day (2)  Jeff and Larry are both pretty small on a bike, so there isn't much draft to catch.  Plus they ride fast, (3) I really worked hard on the bad stretch of road and every other time Larry and Jeff rode hard, and (4) I should have eaten more.