Happy Hallowe'en!

Tom & I went to a costume party last night at our next-door neighbor's house. My costume was inspired by finding this dress at a thrift store: originally, I bought the dress because I thought it was cute. However, when I brought it home, Tom said, "Hey, Marilyn!" ... and the rest is history....

P-SHHHHHHHH, P-SHHHHHHHhhh

We woke up this morning to a very strange sound -- which seemed to be coming from our backyard. I looked out the window, and this hot-air balloon was cruising by. It appeared to be only about 100 yards away, and as you can see, not very high in the sky!

it doesn't get much better

I took this picture 2 days ago, while Tom and I were out for a walk around our neighborhood. It's still been 70 degrees and sunny where we are, but the mountains have started to get some snow. The result: picture-perfect.

photo shoots with toddlers are fun & easy!

Somewhere along the line, the band members got the idea that they wanted to shoot a series of photos with themselves, and then a parallel series with a bunch of toddlers (representing each of them). They thought it would be funny to have a bunch of little kids knocking back fake-drinks at the bar. As you can imagine, this didn't exactly turn out as they'd planned.... hahahaha.

They did, however, end up with a bunch of nice photos of the band, courtesy of our neighbor, Jack.

my rock-star husband

Tom's current band, the Whiskey Bottles, is preparing to release their debut CD. They've had a couple of photo shoots, so that they'll have some artwork for the cover. Don't you agree that Tom is very photogenic?

10/10/10

We returned to Phoenix a little early this year (we usually don't go back 'til December) for Steve & Karen's wedding. It was lovely. This first photo was, of course, one of Tom's signature self-portraits. He took this photo at the church before the ceremony began.

This was Steve & Karen and their four children (Zak, Adam, Amber & Tyler) practicing for their Unity ceremony, just before the "real deal."

The four beautiful teenage (now) step-siblings.

Of course, we had to have a picture of Karen & Steve cutting the cake! This was taken at their church Fellowship Hall, where they had their reception.

we only got photos of two of the courses

This was the carrot & butternut squash soup with green chili oil and roasted pine nuts. AWESOME.

The most popular offering of the evening turned out to be the fresh corn hushpuppies with tomatillo sauce served on field greens. One of my work-partners is southern, and she said these were the best hushpuppies she'd ever had! I would have eaten this course for the whole meal...

another successful journal club

As usual, Tom went to town for journal club. His inspiration for the menu was all of our wonderful local produce. Since the ingredients were so pretty, I couldn't help but take a prep photo.

our turn-around point

Tom and I had to laugh that this water tank turned into a historic landmark. We were imagining that when it was built in the late 1800's, that the construction workers were NOT envisioning this to be a "tourist site."

walking along the Boreas Pass Trail

Tom had a wedding gig in Breckenridge, so I went with him -- and we made a little weekend getaway out of it. We had gorgeous weather & great fall foliage.

The day after the wedding, we walked a path that used to be a narrow gauge railroad route. Thus, it was a nearly-flat route -- which made it pleasant even at the elevation of 10,000 ft. I had been on this trail once before: on x-country skis, with my parents, circa 1990.