Monday, November 9, 2009

The Arizona State Fair



It has been a crazy fall weather-wise. First off, it has not rained since Labor Day Weekend, we should have seen about an inch and a half of rain during the past two months. Then the last week of October brought near record cold. Two of those days had lows in the mid-30s and highs in the mid-60s. To keep things interesting, the temperatures returned to normal for Halloween and then the first week of November featured near record high in the low-90s.

Sunday was the final day of the Arizona State Fair and we took advantage of free parking & shuttle and free admission to the fair if we were there before noon. We enjoyed a day of walking around at the exhibits and booths at the fair. It was a great way to be reminded that AZ is more than just the urban area of Phoenix and the deserts that we love. One of our favorite areas was the submissions for the photography contests and some of the other crafts that were on exhibit at the fair. We are encouraging Steven to submit some of his pictures next year. The girls also enjoyed the animals and the petting zoo that was setup at the fair.

We love this time of year because of the cool nights and warm days, so you know more adventures are being planned for the upcoming weeks.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Homecoming and Halloween



What a Devilish day it was.

This year ASU's Homecoming fell on Halloween and the devilish theme was played up by the Sun Devils. We started the morning very early by helping to setup the ASU Online booth, but because I had promised to hang with the girls during the block party, we were able to leave the booth and enjoy the festivities when they began at 9am. Once again we took in the parade featuring the AZ Governor Jan Brewer as the Grand Marshall followed by visiting various booths. One of the neat things is that ASU kicked off a really interesting program called ASU Challenges at homecoming. Meanwhile, the girls had a blast throwing footballs and winning prizes by spinning wheels. We decided to pass on buying tickets to the football game this year, so we headed home as folks started to head to Sun Devil Stadium for the 12:30pm kickoff.

While at home watching the Sun Devils lose a heart-breaker on ABC to Cal, I finally finished my chainmaille shirt. This has been a project that I start almost ten years ago, but had put aside until I rediscovered it when we moved into the house here last year. I have been working very hard on it for the last year and I finished it at 3:30pm. As soon as the game was over, we started setting up for a cookout in the driveway.

This year, we had some folks over before the trick-or-treating festivities began by having a cookout in the driveway. This worked out great as the girls wanted to go off on their own this year with friends. Dawn & I hung out in the driveway all evening handing out candy and chatting with the neighbors until 9:30 when we decided that we had seen the last of the trick-or-treaters and the girls were back home.

One final note, I am told that the other 49 states switched from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time, meaning that you are now only two hours ahead of us on the east coast (i.e. your 10pm = 8pm to us).

ASU Homecoming:



Halloween: