Well, this blogging thing apparently takes a bit of conscious effort to become a habit It’s been an eventful couple of weeks, and I haven’t even gotten around to mentioning the Grand Canyon trip, much less posting photos…

But one thing at a time. We had a surprise visit a couple of weeks ago, from some former neighbors, Chip and Diane. They’re a young couple who weren’t really happy living in a big old house with a big yard to take care of, so they bought a sailboat and moved to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. It was a lot of fun catching up with what they’ve been doing, and meeting their new daughter, Summer, who is about a year old:

I have to say, I was a bit skeptical about their plans to live on a 30-or-so-foot sailboat in Baltimore - neither of them had ever sailed before, so living on a sailboat seemed a bit of, let’s say, an unexpected choice However, they seem very happy and were on their way to Florida in the Intracoastal Waterway. This is Diane’s first time spending extended time traveling on the boat, although Chip had taken the boat up to Maine with a friend, and they spent the summer there.

It would be interesting if they happened to meet up with my mother and her husband Leo, who are also on their way south on the Intracoastal for the winter.

I thought this was pretty funny:
Turkey Day

I’m late for last week’s PhotoFriday, but here it is anyway. The topic was “Warmth.”

I took this about a week ago, of a tree at the corner near our house. It’s a gorgeous tree this time of year, and I took this photo late in the afternoon, with the sun shining on it. Right after its peak color, it drops its leaves really fast, like in two days. It’s almost bare now.

From http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20051104-1626-cnssummit.html, on Friday in Venezuela:

In a brief question-and-answer session with reporters later, Bush said he would be civil in anticipation of a possible face-to-face meeting with Chavez during the two-day summit.

“I will, of course, be polite. That’s what the American people expect their president to do, is to be a polite person,” Bush said.

I don’t know about you, but I expect a helluva lot more than politeness from the president, like, maybe a minimum knowledge of diplomacy. Does he really not realize how idiotic he sounds when he talks like this?

I’m joining MQABlog in applauding Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid for using a parliamentary maneuver to force the Senate to investigate the possible (?) misuse of intelligence in leading the country into the war in Iraq. Way to go, Harry!