11/30 - Beaker and the vicious umbrella

Poor Beaker!  He somehow got caught up in the umbrella when it closed up, like Snoopy and the attack lawn chairs at Thanksgiving.   (I rescued him, don’t worry.)

Then, at home, he was sequestered by sinister elves.  Not sure what they were up to, but Beaker said, "Meep!"

11/29 - Gold Camaro counts it up

It must be getting close to the new year.  Here, Gold Camaro poses with a fancy number.  Do you know what it is?

At lunch time, Gold Camaro goes with me and Gio to eat big salads.

“You must cut up your salad,” says Gio.

“But I can’t.  I don’t have a knife,” I say.

“Then don’t do it,” says Gio.

Gold Camaro then decides he doesn’t want to be in the big salad club with us.  Can’t say I blame him!
 
* Spelling words are in bold!

11/28 - Gold Camaro meets a reindeer car

Meet Rudolph the red-nosed…  car?

Gold Camaro and Robot Dog had a race.  It was a really good race until someone tossed a piece of grapefruit on the track…  Whoopsie.

Mark and I had a nice dinner in the Mission (Thai food) and caught up on all kinds of stuff.

And that amazing rainbow full moon was back...

11/27 - Gold Camaro finds the sweet spot

I had to explain that the frosting was not a new kind of gasoline, but chocolate.  *MY* chocolate frosting...

There was a rainbow around the moon tonight!  Whatever could that mean?

Full moon or not, Gold Camaro and I sure were happy to find a huge box of tastyness waiting for us at home.  We have such good friends...  :)

11/26 - Gold Camaro finds a golden Christmas tree

While I was away for the long Thanksgiving weekend, someone came and sprinkled Christmas all over the city!  This is the first thing GC and I saw when we came up from the BART station.

My work building did not have a big tree, but we did have a Very Large Silver Reindeer instead.  (Lil' Gal – is this one of your friends?)

More sparkly came at dinner time, where we helped Sheila ring in her birthday week with a festive tiara.  Happy birthday!!

11/23 - Mr. Waternoose calls for his Mommy

I worked from home on Friday, and Mr. Waternoose kept me company.  Here, he models Lil' Gal's placesetting for me.

After I signed off, it was time for the twins' first slumber party.  We had pizza and corn dogs picnic style in front of the fire, played Candyland, and had pie and cocoa.

Oh, no!  Chipmunks in jail!

Then we read stories and got tucked into our sleeping bags.  (Lil' Guy loves his, so no teasing, please.)  It took a while, but slumber did come.  And it stayed!  Those kids stayed on the living room floor all night and slept in for a record time the next morning!  Woooo!

In the morning, we had pumpkin pancakes and attempted potato sack races in our sleeping bags.  Um, Lil' Gal, you're doing it wrong...

11/22 - Thankful Thanksgiving

This was the year I cooked my first turkey.  For a vegetarian, this is a big act of love, so I was quite relieved and extremely proud that it turned out well.  I was also relieved that my guests were willing to carve it up and take the gruesome bits home for soup making.  :)  The twins were great helpers.  Lil' Gal made place setting tags for each guest, and she and Lil' Guy set the table.

Lil' Gal chopped the veggies for the appetizer and all of the broccoli for dinner.  Both she and Lil' Guy helped me make the stuffing.

They were very interested in the turkey and gobbled a lot of it up!

We had a wonderful feast and lots of laughter with our friends.

The twins even helped do the dishes afterwards.

Good night!

11/21 - Aliens in the mist

Here is Sneep in the mist.  Or in our midst.

Thanksgiving turkey was very thankful that aliens do not eat turkeys with hats.  Phew!

11/20 - Bullet did not get the memo about Green Sweater Day

Bullet does not want to be a work of art.  This frilly frame on a building made him feel penned in, so he zoomed away, faster than a speeding bullet.

Then he surprised a dragon, who ran off in fright.

Jeanine and I wore the same thing to work today!  How funny is that?

11/19 - Lemon Meringue surprises a scooter

Doesn’t he have such a cute little face?

Lemon Meringue found a dirty duck.  Someone loves their rubber ducky – enough to take him along everywhere!

11/18 - Weekend fun: Roller derby edition

It was my team's last bout of the season.  We were hungry for another win, and were preparing for this bout with an intensity that was new for us.  I was also preparing a mountain of snacks and toys to keep the twins busy during the bout, in case they were not into watching me skate...  That morning, there was a most excellent good luck spider in the kitchen and a good luck rainbow in the sky when we hit the road.

The bout was in a vintage roller rink that was leaking from days of rain.

The other team was better than us and hit harder.  They had plays that foiled us multiple times.  We lost by a heap, but what we won was better than points.  We came together as a team in this bout, communicating, devising new strategies on the fly, and we were hitting b*tches like never before.  (And we participated in the other team's flash mob, dancing Gangnam Style at the top of the third jam in the second half.)  As far as I'm concerned, we were winners that day.

And I was a hero to my biggest fans.  :)

A million thanks to Kingpin for his kid wrangling assistance.  (And for being outraged at the officiating!)

Photo credit: Thank you, Russell Reno Limprecht!

11/16 - Dalmatian Dog and the red rainberries

We were looking at this car and then realized it was looking back at us!  Dalmatian Dog said, "Mobile eyes."  (He's clever like that.)

These berries and the vase matched Dalmatian Dog’s nice red collar and reminded him of fire engines.

11/15 - Ham weighs the issues

Ham is so pretty in pink.  He saw this pretty pink scooter and wanted to ride out of town.
Whee whee whee!!

We saw this fancy old scale at lunch.  Ham wanted me to hop on so he could guess my weight, but I said no.

11/14 - Ham has a heart

Who knew that pig hearts were blue and filled with teddy bears and confused woodland animals?

Ham won the staring contest.  Linda was a good sport about it.  She hung in there for quite a while!

11/13 - Ham says, "Happy Diwali!"

Today is Diwali, the Indian festival of lights.  Raj brought us in some Indian sweets, including my favorite gulab jamun.  They are like doughnut holes soaked in a sweet syrup.  NOM.

 David helped Ham get a hoof up so he could smell the pretty flowers.  Thanks, David!

And -- happy birthday to Uncle Tod!!