Lovely ladies of La Porte

Jane and Laura strut their stuff on our weekend away in the sierra
foothills. When I showed this picture to a jrhi boy last night, he
asked, "That's not Jane's real hair, is it?"

"Of course not," I said.

"Oh, good," he responded, "it looks bad."

Ah, youth!

Halloween Fun

For the first time in many, many years, Walt & Company celebrated Halloween with costumes and a pot luck.

This is the delicious spread, which included everything from Hooter's chicken wings to pumpkin cheesecake. We gorged.

The costumes were creative, to say the least. Here you can see the Village People in the back, along with a nurse and cat, and then the group Hanson in the front. One of the girls here (the construction worker in the back) LOVES Hanson, so we made t-shirts and did a dance to mmbop for her. Good times.

Random

I booked a later flight today so I could walk around Chicago, since
I've never been here before. So I'm walking down Michigan Ave, trying
to stay warm and taking in all the downtown sites and beautiful
buildings, and who should I see walking toward me - none other than
Meg Loomis, who was in our youth group several years ago. She
graduated from college last June and is now working at the Ritz
Carlton here in Chicago. I didn't know she was living here, so both of
us were rather surprised.

I guess you just never know who you're going to run into on the
streets of one of the biggest cities in America.

When Middle School Kids Get Permission...

To paint all over your face, you look like this. Middle School
Halloween Party 2008, come for the candy, stay for the freakish
volunteers.

As Promised...

A real slice of Chicago pizza. This is the world-famous stuffed pizza from Giordano's (one of the original creators of the stuffed pizza in the 70s - thank you wikipedia!). I just got the small, and I swear it weighed about 10 pounds. That's a lot of pizza!

P.S. I like to pretend I'm Erik and do fancy food photography, but my little iPhone doesn't quite compare to his fancy digital SLR.

Disneyland?

Nope. That's the taxi line to leave the convention center right after the show floor closed. Luckily there is a shuttle that goes to my hotel, so I didn't have to stand in this. I considered walking, but a nice convention worker said it would be too cold for a California girl. And I think he was right, it's getting chilly out there!

Erik does his Lidabelle

This is the wig Erik will be wearing for his corrupt judge costume. He
reminded me of my favorite prayer-warrior Lidabelle.

The Windy City

After a month off the trail, I was feeling a bit claustrophobic being back in normal life, so it was time to hit the road again. Chicago here I come!

Ok, that's a lie, at least the first part. But I really am in Chicago. On my second day back to work I was told I was attending Graph Expo for Epson, and here I am.

It's always hard to travel toward the east, because you lose time and you end up doing what I am doing right now - not being tired at 12:30 because your body tells you it's only 10:30. But I'll be sorry in the morning.

Perhaps you will hear more stories of adventure, wonder and pizza (?) from Chicago, in the meantime, here's a picture of the fireworks over the Navy Pier (with the Ferris wheel on the left), taken from my hotel room.

P.S. First night the LandShark and Caterpillar have been apart in well over six months = a little hard and slightly weird.