Andy the Eagle

We attended an eagle court of honor for my nephew, Andy Manning, on Friday night in Odon. The ceremony was held at the Shiloh church, and I got to give him the Eagle charge. He's the son of Teresa's sister, Ann. Way to go, Andy! Good to have another Eagle in the family.

We made it back tonight from festivities in Ft. Wayne, and got to see uncle John for a little bit before we took off. Also had some good discussions around the recording session we're planning on 12/26 in Ft. Wayne at Tempel recording studio.

We drove for about 16 hours on this trip to Indiana, and it was a bit easier because we listened to a children's book on CD called "The Navigator." Courtney and Hal liked it a lot-- it involved time travel, adventure, and saving the world.

Thanksgiving on Coldwater Rd.

Having a nice Thanksgiving feast at Mom & Dad's. Enjoyed Pat's curry & raisin chip dip and Amy's pulled pork-- Yum! The kids are playing in the basement. Fun for ours to see Amy's kids after not being together for quite a while.

My pinewood derby

I made a pinewood derby for Cub Scouts. We are going to race them on a track at church. Mine is green. I am going to put a little Yoda in a slot in it. The saw broke while we were making it.

-from Tyler

...and more on the subject of caramel...

Somebody in our culinary center is definitely on a kick to have us try caramel corn in different types of dishes. This was very interesting-- sweet potatoes in caramel sauce, topped with caramel corn. Actually very good. I thought all sweet potatoes were orange, but there are many different kinds, as I learned. These were yellow.















This was one dish of many that we tried for the big Thanksgiving bash put on by the chefs. There were some traditional favorites, like turkey and cranberry sauce, and some interesting twists. We had a pumpkin soup that was very good, which had a light curry taste. One of my favorites was the sweet-spice roasted carrots. They were fresh carrot pieces baked in olive oil and a spice rub. Very nice.

They made a cool pastry cornucopia that was about 2 feet tall. The little plastic things around it were bags of candies for us. I learned the secret to a very large pastry-- chicken wire!

Dan enjoys making family night caramel apples

We love caramel apples in the Fall! This time we experimented with mini-chocolate chips.

A year with no shaving cream

I stopped using shaving cream about a year ago when it became annoyingly difficulty to transport liquids during travel. At that point, I was using my Gillette Sensor Excel razor. My thoughts were to use bar soap in hotel rooms, but that made my razor gunky. I even considered mixing up some soap lather, "pappy george style", but didn't know where to get such a thing.

So I started shaving with no shaving cream, I just used my razor and relied on the little lubrication strip at the top. I learned that it worked fine, as long as I shaved right after a warm shower.















I recently got a Gillette Fusion razor free in the mail, and it also works great with no shaving cream. I have several cans of shaving cream at home, but I am pretty confident they will not get used.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Hey everyone! It's Amy's birthday. My newly Hoosier-ized sister is another year older today.

Happy b-day!

Sam and Natalie Dance

To recognize more of our family members with dancing skillz-- here's Sam and Natalie!

Tyler football championship

Tyler's flag football team played for the city championship in the playoffs yesterday. They were runners-up in their conference. Here they are with trophies. Way to go, T-Bone!!

Pat and Amber - Disco Fever

See them in the 70's disco movie they never thought you would see. Hee hee! We're having a little bit too much fun with this :)

Culinary presentation today

Sometimes my job is interesting. I got to eat this really good dish called bacon cheeseburger mac 'n cheese, based on a dish from S'Mac restaurant in Manhattan. The weirdest things I ate today were ravioli the size of a dinner plate...














...and shrimp in carmel sauce with buttered popcorn on top. Both are dishes that our chefs have tried on recent restaurant culinary tours.

Night of the Living Democrats

This movie is so hilarious that I almost fell off my chair. The kids are great in this one, too.