the unlikely orange

we carved pumpkins earlier this week, and i thought i would share the results with you.  from left to right, you've got quin's tropical scene (carved mostly by mommy), my spiderman, shannon's sea-alien creature, jackson's moon and planet, cade's crooked face, and my starry night.

friday night was date night for shannon and i, and we had decided to go do some antiquing and then catch a nice dinner a bit later.  we love to look at and shop for antiques, but with three energetic boys under the age of 10, it's not an activity we get to engage in very often. so we left little notes for the babysitter like, "make sure they pee at 8:30," and it occurred to me that parenting puts you into all sorts of compromising positions, like having to write the word "pee" in little notes to people who you will then pay for reading said notes and not killing your children.  still, we practically ran to our minivan, and headed for the glorious galleria of old objects. we had some great finds, including the stuff you see below: but at one point i heard shannon gasp out loud.  what could it be?  maybe she found that bulldog tin we've been looking for?  but alas, that was not it.  instead, she was looking at her watch.  it was already 7:30.  there

 i don't have much time for this this week, so i'll have to let the pictures tell the story.

wow! what a monday night in southern california!  the steelers took their backup quarterback show on the road to balmy san diego and it didn't look too promising at the beginning.  the steelers first drive stalled, then the chargers moved down the field with ease and scored a touchdown on 5 or 6 plays.  most of steeler nation must have felt, as i did, that it was going to be a long night.   but where mike vick acted the part of a rusty backup quarterback for most of the game, leveon bell shined with greatness.  he is a true joy to watch.  he takes the ball play after play, runs and passes.  he took snaps in the wildcat.  he handed the ball off.  he made almost super-human cuts to elude tacklers, and when players finally got to him, he often dragged them for 3-5 extra yards.  he is tough and elusive and creative and relentless and fast and just really, really good.   in the end, though, the steelers needed more than just leveon.  they needed vick to do something, and

i've been running again. i started on august 31st.  so it's been over a month now, and i finally feel like i can take a moment to reflect on how i've been doing.  here's what its looked like so far.... 8/31: 3.1 miles 9/2:   3.3 miles 9/4:  3.5 miles 9/7:  4.16 miles 9/9:  3.18 miles 9/11: 2.82 miles 9/14: 3.24 miles 9/16: 3.10 miles 9/18: 5.00 miles 9/22: 3.10 miles 9/24: 3.14 miles 9/25: 7.00 miles 9/28: 3.10 miles 9/30: 3.20 miles 10/2: 7.24 miles 10/5: 3.14 miles 10/7: 3.10 miles that's over 64 miles in just over a month.  i know it's not really that much, but for me, it's become a consistent thing, and i am proud of that.  i don't know how much weight i've lost, if any, but i know that my clothes are fitting better, and i am feeling much better about myself.  and i know that when i'm sweating, and i'm just not sure if i want to keep running up the next hill; or when it is 6:15 in the morning and i just think i

well, that was underwhelming.   three.  stinking.  hits.   yikes.  oh well. tonight the wild wild card journey continues, with the pirates hosting the chicago cubs.  now, if i didn't have very high expectations of the yankees this year, i did have very high expectations of the pirates.  and they didn't disappoint.  the buccos are a really good team, and had the second best record in all of major league baseball.  unfortunately for them, they play in the same division as the st. louis cardinals, who were 2 games better than them over a 162-game schedule.  pretty close. still, the pirates had a great season, and ought to be among the best teams in baseball playing for a pennant and a world series championship.  but it will all swing on this one game.  arrieta vs. cole.  since it's in pittsburgh, i'm going to give the pirates the edge, but this thing could easily go either way, and one of the top 3 teams in baseball is going to go home very disappointed, no matter

sadly, the baseball regular season is over.  the bad news is that there are only a limited number of baseball games left in 2015 (i would be happy if baseball was played year round). the good news is that playoff baseball is here, and there's nothing like playoff baseball, when stadiums full of people hang on every pitch, less distracted by hot dogs and beers and t-shirts being shot out of cannons.  it's october.  which means these games really matter. and none matter quite the same way as a wild card game.  it's a one-game playoff system.  two teams from each league make it to the wild card game, and the winner moves on to the division series.  the loser goes home to watch on tv.  yikes. and it just so happens that my two favorite baseball teams both are in a wild card game, one in each league.  and both are the home team.  i will write about the bucs tomorrow, but the yankees play tonight. it's been a crazy season for the yankees.  to be honest, i never exp

i don't know how they're going to do it, but i believe...