Halloween 2026

October 31, 2026 9:54 pm

Corinne went as a witch. Heather went as a “dragon sorceress thing” (her words). Heather did her own face paint and carved her own pumpkin, the dragon face (minus the removing of the guts). Corinne did most of her own carving as well, the scar face (minus the removing of the guts). I made a tribute to Patrick Stewart’s role as Captain Picard (Stewart having died this week) with the image of a communicator badge from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Lots of kids–the neighborhood was packed again this year. Based on the candy we gave out we must have had around 200 kids. Heather went elsewhere with friends to go trick-or-treating. Corinne also went elsewhere with friends. So this was the first year since we moved into the house that I was at home throughout Halloween instead of out walking around with one or both of the girls.

I got the fog machine and music running, but didn’t get my ghosts out this year. I was sick for most of the week and still tired and recovering going into the weekend. I burned what little energy I had pulling off Heather’s birthday adventure.

Games October 2026

October 30, 2026 8:09 pm

Played through days 2 and 3 of Earthborne Rangers with my game group. It’s a slow-paced game. On day 2 we delivered biscuits to the people of White Sky and took a boat to Golden Shore. On day 3 we hitched a ride on a glider out to the Fractured Wall which turned out to be an ancient, failed, mega dam. There we were harassed by birds and a giant, automated, demolition machine. We managed to store up some prey for our quest to lure out a dangerous predator harassing the Valley. Then we climbed over the dam and headed for the Philosopher’s Garden on our way to the Spire.

Books October 2026

7:57 pm

It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway by David Satter

Satter takes a hard look at modern Russia to try and make sense of its trajectory back into authoritarianism under Putin. He argues, in my interpretation, that the people of Russia have failed to come to terms with the horrific actions of the Communist-era government and this failure, in part, drove them into the waiting arms of Putin and renewed repression.

Nature Wars by Jim Sterba

To me, the most interesting aspect of this work isn’t about backyard battlegrounds with nature, but the astounding effectiveness of the conservation movement at saving ecosystems and inhabitants, particularly in the Eastern part of the country which had been devastated by unrestrained, colonial exploitation.

Heather’s Birthday 2026

October 28, 2026 7:42 pm

Heather’s birthday adventure this year was Valheim themed. Valheim being a video game she, Corinne, and I have been playing together lately since the 1.0 release.

She was welcomed by Hugin the raven and instructed to earn the affection of one of the wild creatures of this realm. This Hugin was a 3D-printed model which I tweaked to give the feathers a feathery texture. Other than being far too small for a raven, it came out well.

She had to gather wood to create a hammer, then (with the aid of a glue gun) a workbench, and then fencing. With the fencing she could make a pen and lure a wild boar into the pen to tame it. The wild boar was a boar shell I made for my old remote-control car which Jess painted. I’m pretty pleased without how it turned out and the delight of the unexpected it produced. I can say quite confidently that when I bought that car in middle school I never anticipated using it as a wild boar for my daughter’s birthday.

She needed carrots as a lure which she harvested from the planter box (we did not grow the carrots, I “planted” store-bought carrots for this purpose). In the game, once a boar is tamed you can pet it and the game will display, “Boar Loves You!” on the screen. So that was the message she got upon completing her quest. And we gave her a shirt with that message on it too. She seemed rather pleased with the whole thing.

After her adventure she opened gifts; which included alcohol markers and drawing pads which she requested. The paper is thick enough that the marker doesn’t bleed through! (She’s very excited about that.)

After gifts, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Home for cake, which was a coconut cheesecake that I made with a blondie crust and chocolate ganache topping. The coconut flavor wasn’t very strong, but the consistency was spot on for all the components.

Thankfully, her birthday was on a Wednesday–which is a short day at school at which she doesn’t have English (which has been a source of massive quantities of homework all year, so none to worry about on her birthday was nice).

The wild boar in action:

Cider Day 2026

October 25, 2026 7:04 pm

I watch the grocery store flyers in the Fall for apple prices so I can make cider. This year, Safeway had Envy and Gala apples for $1.50 a pound in mid September. So I asked Jess to buy 5 pounds of each and stuck them in the freezer. Finally, at the end of the October, Nob Hill had Granny Smith apples for $1.50 a pound and I bought 10 pounds. I rotated the earlier apples to the fridge to begin thawing and froze the Granny Smith for a couple of days before moving them to the fridge to thaw as well. Then Sunday was Cider Day!

Sadly, I woke up sick on Saturday and had to power through Cider Day because the apples needed to be turned into cider before they deteriorated too far after having been frozen. So I didn’t get to enjoy it so much as I had to just get it done so as to not waste all the apples. The weather was good though. Crisp, sunny Autumn day.

I got the cider bench set up and Corinne helped me grind the apples. Didn’t take much for the Envy and Gala–they were barely being held together by their skins.

Approximately 20 pounds of apples turned into about 23 cups of cider at a cost of about ~$1.30 per cup. The flavor is pretty good with a nice rich cider color.