Halloween

Well, Halloween has come and gone. Mich again made costumes for the kids - Julien was a Jedi, and Sofia ended up as some sort of wood fairy princess. (She had initially asked to be a "king in a boat" - not sure where that came from...) I somehow didn't end up with many pictures of Julien, but here's Sofia:



And a close-up of her hair-do:



We all had dinner at Nanny's down in Carson City, then went for a quick trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. Common sight, kids clustered around a door waiting to yell "Trick-or treat." Julien was very good about saying "Thank you" and "Happy Halloween" as well.



And here's a bonus pic of Sofia, enjoying the spoils and being VERY protective of that bag...

Sunset

Up at Nathan and Sarah's for the pumpkin party the other night, I took this picture:



Couldn't get the horse to keep his head up; he was too busy eating. And actually, the picture that I took was this one:



Took a little while with the clone brush to get rid of the power lines, but I think it was worth it. You can still see them if you know where to look, but that's about te best I can do...

Muffins with Julien

Couldn't decide what to have for breakfast this morning, and Julien talked me into making chocolate muffins. Actually, DOUBLE chocolate muffins - he was very specific about that. Here are the bakers:


(Yup, that's what it says. Mich's apron, originally, but I kinda took it over. Not true, though...)


The best part of baking...


Ready to go in the oven. Funny, I didn't take any "after" photos of the finished product, but they turned out pretty well. Maybe with this and my recent vampire cupcakes, I've finally overcome my weird mental block with being able to make cupcakes and muffins...

Vampire cupcakes

Saw the recipe for "Vampire cupcakes" that made the rounds on some blogs last week, and had to give them a try. This is the main post that the others referred to, with the recipe that I used. It was a little cakey; if I make them again I think I'll go with a simpler cupcake recipe. Still have some of the filling left over, so I'll probably make some to take to work next week.

Easy Halloween costumes

Librarian and a construction worker. Heh.

A head start

Not much more to say...

Bike ride

So I've been trying to get out for a mountain bike ride, ever since the marathon, but weather or other stuff have conspired against me. Finally made time to do it this morning, although the weather wasn't perfect - cold and windy, actually, with a little blowing snow at times. That sounds worse than it was, though - I wore shorts, a long-sleeve t-shirt and a light vest, with full-fingered gloves and it was about perfect. Here's the route I did:



And some pictures:


Some pretty clouds near the top, but this was where it started snowing a little.


Looking east toward Sparks.


The trail ahead.


Looking down Park Canyon toward Rancho San Rafael.

From there I rode through the tunnel under McCarran into Rancho San Rafael, across the dog park, and down Washington street toward home. Took a silly fall, though - I was stopping to adjust my seatpost back up as I got back onto the pavement, and coasted to a stop on a concrete sidewalk. It was pretty slippery, my foot went right out from under me, and I went down kinda hard. Landed flat, though, so it was OK. Embarrassing, though...