Holidays are coming and plans are being made. Lots of pulling schedules together trying to see lots of family.

Bryn suggested the family do a Thanksgiving/Turkey Trot run. Bryn just got cleared to run again by her trainer and is itching to get out there. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving in Indy, so with Meg's help we found the FitLivin' Thanksgiving Run in Noblesville nearby. Jeff decided he is going to go with the older kids and has been training. It was so nice today that Paige, Jeff and I went out the Bugline Trail: Jeff and Paige to get a run in and I decided to walk Theo, 11 years old today. Theo started out strong, but puked 7 times during our 3-mile walk making the last mile pretty slow for the old guy. I though I was treating him to a day outdoors with lots of new smells to enjoy, but instead I feel like I tortured him. He's resting comfortably in his dogloo now with plenty of water.

My freelance and contract work got super slow the past two weeks. Luckily a new freelance project came in to fill some of my time, but my steady freelance client just lost 2 key personnel who push work my way. I spoke to that client and they asked what my comfort level was with taking over some of the organizational/communication tasks required to pull the project details together (typically done by someone else before forwarding the job my way), and I welcomed the opportunity. It'll get me working again and help them out until they have their new hirees in place. I'll start those new tasks on Monday.

In the meantime, my parents came to stay with us — twice— in those past two weeks. The first time was for a few days on their way back from Florida and the second was just for a night before a company retiree luncheon for my Dad. The timing couldn't have been better as I could spare the extra time to visit with them.

I'm also proud to say that I'm also done clearing everything off my old iMac so that it may be recycled. I've archived to disk all my freelance files and am still working to burn all my iPhoto libraries to disk. If any of you know me well, this burning photos to disks is a task of epic proportions. I average about 1200 pictures/year and like to organize them into yearly albums per kid (Abby_UWL Senior, Bryn_CarrollFreshman, Paige_11thGrade, etc.) My little old iMac has been working diligently for just over a week on this.

Jeff's annual hunting weekend with his college buddies in Waubeno was the first weekend in November. It wasn't as well attended as other years, just 7 guys, 2 of their sons and 3 dogs. Jeff was able to go up early on Friday to get an extra day of hunting in and had a great time. He always comments on how he can hear the mice running around in the cabin when they go to bed. Only one guy shot a bird, and as directed, ate it up at the cabin.

Jeff and I attended our high school's Scholarship Auction a couple Fridays ago. Always a good time. The buffet dinner that the Hilton Garden put out was stupendous and the company at our table was so fun. During the evening, there are several auctions to partake of: a Silent Auction around the entire room, 50/50 raffles that are action participatory, several large ticket item (iPad, sports event tickets, big screen TV, etc.) raffles, and a live auction for really large ticket items (Bucks game booth, resort weekends, sailing excursions, etc.) Jeff and I came home with a MSOE sweatshirt and a round of golf for 4 at Ironwood.