Christmas 2009

Hope everyone is having a good holiday. We think Oliver had the most fun today - unwrapping and playing with his gifts (and very willing to help us with ours!). If it squeaked, crinkled, or came in a box - it was his! The photos really don't show how much he had shredded and spread the wrapping paper.

Trains

As part of my duties as a Bill Long Foundation board member I am serving as a part-time "engineer" during the display of trains at the Oberlin Public Library. This continues a tradition started by the manager (Bill Long) of the Oberlin Co-op Bookstore many years ago. Every 3 or 4 years the board sets up the train display and then runs them for a period. More information and archived photos showing the set-up of this year's display and the trains in past years can be found on their site's Trains page. Clicking on the above photos will take you to my entire collection of larger versions of the train photos (more than a hundred so far). I also serve as the website's webmaster (no surprise there).

Oberlin's Frank Lloyd Wright House

Nicki and I finally toured the Weltzheimer/Johnson House - designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948. Only 3/10's of a mile from our house - we frequently walk our dog past it - we've lived in the neighborhood for almost 30 years and we're only now taking the tour. Small, compact house on a good sized piece of land in a very quiet part of Oberlin. Many typical Frank Lloyd Wright elements. Very informal leisurely tour. I took a few photographs - hard to resist.

Chicago Trip - St. Joseph

Final day - stayed Monday night in St. Joseph, Michigan, at the Boulevard Inn looking over Lake Michigan. Good dinner, good breakfast, good walk down the hill past the Amtrak station and on the beach.

Chicago Trip - Porter Grandparents

Monday Martin, Nicki and I drove up to Beloit and had a very nice lunch and visit with the Porter grandparents.

Chicago Trip - Millennium Park & Lakeshore

Martin, Nicki and I drove into downtown Chicago and visited Millennium Park and walked over to the lakeshore and had a nice long walk south to the Shedd Aquarium. We didn't actually tour the aquarium - the walk outside was our focus.

Chicago Trip - Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House

First day in Chicago - took the photographic tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House. A little more than two hours of wandering through and around the Robie House with a small group led by the Assistant Curator. Time to see the details and areas not normally part of the tours. Between Nicki and myself we probably took 400-500 shots. Nice sunny cool autumn day.

Tree Fungi

We have an unusual fungi growth on a tree we had trimmed 4 weeks ago where a dead branch had been removed. You can see growth just in the 3 days between the first and latest photos were taken. The tree advisor contacted a professor from Ohio State and they may remove the growth this Wednesday for use in his classroom. Unfortunately the tree will need to be taken down as the fungi is an indication of problems within. I'll update this entry as growth continues and as the tree disappears.
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Update - 9/30/09 - The fungi is gone. The arborist and the OSU professor ooohhhed and aaahhhed and cut it off late this afternoon. We'll hear about the class reactions soon I hope. More photos were added to the series above. For a couple of them I climbed to the very top of our house roof to try to get an angle to show the top of the fungi - successfully.

Crushers Game

Nicki and I attended the September 9th playoff game between the Lake Erie Crushers and the Kalamazoo Kings. Crushers won 4-2 and now lead the series 2-1. Very good game to watch, friendly crowd, lots of park food, and fireworks after the game. More satisfying than an Indians game. Nicki even managed to snag a game ball. The couple behind home plate are neighbors Rick and Sue. They attend Crushers games regularly and got us the tickets.

You can never get enough of Oliver

We've been through a series of exercise balls but Oliver never tires of chasing and herding. We have major playtime at least 3 times a day. We can't end the day and head for bed without a late-night bout of chase the ball. It's what he does best. And now he's on YouTube.