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We were the Addams Family for Halloween. Here's the song to get you in the mood:

They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're all together ooky,
The Addams Family.

Their house is a museum
Where people come to see 'em
They really are a scream
The Addams Family.

(Neat)
(Sweet)
(Petite)

So get a witches shawl on
A broomstick you can crawl on
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams Family.

Here's Jace making his pumpkin:

Here is Morticia and the Addams' baby:



Here's Gomez and the Addams baby:



Another:



Jon's pumpkin:



Sam's pumpkin:



Jace's pumpkin:



Jace eating some of the candy he got on his expedition:

This is my favorite video that I've posted so far. Check out how brave Jace is. He climbs up a playground set and slides down a slide without any help!

Also, look at this cool flower that is growing on one of our cacti. I've never seen one like it before.

A couple weeks ago a car built by Stanford students won DARPA's Grand Challenge (build an autonomous vehicle that can navigate an offroad course within a time limit). It's really amazing that 5 teams finished this year when last year's challenge (the first year) none of the vehicles left eye sight of the starting line.

I'm posting on this because there are some really amazing videos of "Stanley" (Stanford's car) and the race.

Samantha, Jace, Asha, and I were out on our daily walk this evening and on our way back to our house we smelled something kind of like burning tires. I didn't see any smoke though. Then Samantha said her head hurt, and I immediately felt very dizzy and nauseous. We moved as quickly out of the area as possible and I almost didn't think I would make it before passing out. We were by some ponds by the local golf course so maybe it was some sort of crazy swamp gas but I don't think that would smell like a burning smell.

When I got back I first called the Bay Area Regional Air Quality Board Complaint line (800-334-6367). The lady on the other end sounded very uninterested and said she would "make note of it". I then called the non-emergency # for the Brentwood Police and they seemed even more unintersted and said "we haven't received any other complaints".

There are several gas lines that run underground around here plus the local schools have chemical spill drills because of all the chemical factories near here. You'd think that people would take something like this more seriously or at least half-heartedly promise to have someone drive by. I don't even want to think about how poor our government's response will be when and if there is a chemical attack...

The event happened about an hour ago and I still have a headache, feel nauseous, and I'm a little dizzy.

Jace walked his first outdoor long walk today. I estimate it was about half a mile. We went to the local park and back. He did really well and only stumbled a few times. I thought he'd be tired afterwards but he's still walking around inside. It was a good try-out of his new Vans.

After over 5 years of neglect I finally returned to San Luis Obispo.

Above I've posted a picture of Montana de Oro, my favorite place to hike. If you want to see more here is a zip file of high resolution pictures and here is a video.

It was really exciting to see what had changed and what had stayed the same. The Cal Poly campus was relatively unchanged but downtown SLO had several new fancy office and retail buildings. The town definitely has more of a "Beverly Hills" vibe than it used to, too bad. But, my favorite restaurants were still there.

At Big Sky Cafe I had a roasted eggplant sandwich with sweet potato fries. At Mo's Samantha and I split a rack of pork ribs, a basket of freshly made potato chips, a plate of fried green tomatoes, and a pitcher of Firestone Ale (a local beer). It was awesome.

Here's a picture of Linnaea's Cafe where I used to always get coffee and study:



The main reason Samantha and I went to SLO was to celebrate our four year wedding anniversary.

The secondary reason was for me to see about finally finishing my Senior Project so that I can get my diploma. I had a really great meeting with the Head of the Philosophy department. He agreed to sponsor me and I should have my diploma at the end of the year! Here is a link to my work in progress if you're interested to see what I'm writing about.

Also, I don't have any pictures of it but I have to share a story about Jace. He likes to play with a flashlight we have. It's just a little black flashlight and he turns it on and shines it on things. Last night I realized it would be more interesting for him to use it in the dark so I turned off most of the lights. He was a little scared at first but he got used to it. Then I ran away from him to see if he would come after me. He followed and shined the flashlight everywhere looking for me. We repeated this dozens of times and if he had a hard time finding me I would make noises to help him out. I had a lot of fun and just had to share that.