Day 243

We awoke to snow on the ground (and on Pikes Peak) and a birthday breakfast celebration! The celebration included most of the kids getting up an hour earlier than normal to accommodate the birthday boy's 7am departure for school. Nana, Papa, and Matt had lunch at the Club (always fun). Bummer news... Kansas is out for Thanksgiving. So is the add-on trip to the Cosmosphere in Hays, KS. One of the kid's schools says anyone traveling to certain states with high COVID levels must quarantine for 14 days after returning from one of those states. Kansas just hit those levels. Tracy is already booking more local getaways between now and Christmas, "got to get out of this house for a bit." Dinner at the birthday boy's request was Fettuccine Alfredo and garlic bread (thank you, Olive Garden).

A Fina project.

He made his own birthday cookies!

Day 242

Fina is way out ahead with decorating for Christmas! Nana, Papa, and occasionally Lexi and Simba had a televideo with Vickie and Rob. All are hanging in there. And Vickie is retiring in 20 school days! Soon we'll have only Rob's schedule to work around for fun and excitement.

Ready for foster twins if need be.

Day 241

It's Sunday, so off to TimberCreek Church for the morning, including the two new babies for the weekend (respite care). Fuzzy Tacos for lunch (what a name, but good tacos). It was another fairly quiet day with much attention around the babies, and Christmas movies (including Christmas Chronicles and Die Hard). Fina went on a double date to the Zoo (she said the colder air made for active animals!). And Matteo's church youth group (middle school) met at our house in the evening.

Childcare at the Church.
All of the Kids program is in the gym.

Day 240

Saturday! Matt took the kids to the pool while Tracy and Nana made the baby swap. There was a little respite exchange between the baby we've had most of the year and two other babies in foster care. Also while most of the clan swam, Jamie ran a Parlor Car Chat wherein Karl Hovanitz (of Bitter Creek Western fame) talked about a Davenport trench locomotive they've restored at Norgrove Railway. We watched more than our share of movies afternoon and evening, including some Christmas movies.

Here's the status of the election. Most mainstream folks believe Biden has won the presidency. Trump is fighting in court over election process issues. We'll see. But let's say today Biden is declared the president-elect. Let's put down some markers... Gasoline is currently $2.99 per gallon and $3.08 per gallon diesel in CA. Milk is $4.47 a gallon, interest rates are 2.65 percent for a 30 year mortgage. The stock market closed at 27,848, even though we have been fighting COVID for 9 months. Our GDP growth for the 3rd Quarter was 33% (a record). We had the best economy ever until COVID and it is recovering well. We have not had any new wars or conflicts in the last 4 years. North Korea has been under control and has not been testing any missiles. Isis has not been heard from for over 3 years. The housing market is the strongest it has been in years. Homes have appreciated at an unbelievable rate and sell well.

A Davenport 2-6-2 trench locomotive.

Where'd all the hair go? Hint: different baby.

Lexi did all kinds of drawings for the new babies.

One down center, one in the crib upper right.

Day 239

Pretty much a normal Friday. Had lunch at Beasts and Brews, just down the street, but we hadn't been there for some time. Uniquely good food and fun how they work the taps (beer, wine, and booze). Friday is Jamie's volunteer day at Flying Horse Foundation. They gave him a volunteer sweatshirt today (see below)! And since it's now quite dark by the time his group ends, he caught a nice shot of the Foundation offices (see further below). Today's activities at the Ranch were a little different. A main hand was out today, so the three groups that were meeting during the 4-6pm time slot all took on various chores. It was actually very interesting (and they didn't have them work hard at all). But they did get some stuff done, mainly feeding, which included soaking some pellets (too make a mush, one horse has trouble swallowing) and, separately, soaking some hay (to remove some sugars from the hay) for some of the horses on special diets. They also got to move two Percherons (big draft horses) from their "offices" (yes, in that same building) back out to the pasture. And in the process they caught some "thundering hooves" sounds as the four horses that were now back together bounded off quite energetically. Pretty cool. Some of the staff members were quite excited about having driven those horses pulling a wagon earlier in the afternoon. They're developing/expanding the wagon-pulling program, mostly for the Flying Horse Ranch Events Center.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Beasts and Brews

Flying Horse Foundation offices. For horses, too.

Day 238

By end of day, still no president-elect. We're starting to hear "Thanksgiving" given all the legal challenges. Our day went on pretty much as normal for a school day despite the election crap. And Jamie's play rehearsed tonight  in the church (which is the venue) after a couple previous Zoom rehearsals. Zoom is pretty hard to get used to for rehearsals.

Day 237

Still no president-elect. But check out Fina's election results video (here), it's pretty cute (and does end abruptly at Wy[oming]). I particularly like the "Needs to get it together" category. Beautiful day. School day. Lunch at Sushi Rakkyo which we really like but haven't been to in quite a while.

The video is here.