Halloween was tonight, but trick or treating was yesterday. I seem to remember back when I was a kid, trick or treating was on whatever day Halloween was, and it didn't even start until it started to get dark. Here and now, it's on the nearest Saturday, and it's over at 7:30. And the cutoff time is enforced. But it is convenient for me being the parent. Anyway, we took the kids to church for truth 'n' treat in the early evening, then when that was over we took them into town again. Fort Wayne Street is the best place in town for trick or treating, I think. There's always the few houses in a row where they really go all out with the decor, and one house (Carrie's mom) where they do the entire house up as a haunted house and have people walk through. Yesterday was also the YMCA Spooktacular 5k...which would be better if it wasn't so early...we came close to blowing it off because it started at 9:00 and it was cold, but we did it anyway. The kids were both in the youth center the whole time, which was also handy. My time was a bit slower than the 5k a couple months ago...28:38...and Beth was a bit slower than last year...52:53...because she was walking with a friend who got a cramp and she stayed back with her. I also found my phone yesterday, which I've been tearing the house apart looking for for the past several days. It was under the back seat of the truck, where it probably fell after the Iron Horse hike a couple weeks ago. Today, yard work. Leaf raking, mostly, plus a bit of digging and moving some landscaping stones away from the corner of the house.

The weather has been weird in the past few days. Last Sunday night, just around the kids' bedtime, we started getting thunderstorms in the area and the tornado warning siren went off, which freaked them out big time. The tornadoes were all north and east of here, but we kept the kids up for a while until the storms had passed and the warnings expired. Alex was terrified the tornado was going to come back. Then, now just a couple days later, we have another huge storm front blow through and another tornado warning, this time with the kids all at school. Beth was at the school helping out, and got to read to all the kids on the floor of the school library and bathrooms while waiting for that storm to pass.

After a business trip, Saturday was not restful. But it was fun. Saturday early we went to help the Myers' pack up all their home stuff into a U-Haul van, and got more in than most expected, including the washer, dryer, fridge, freezer, and flat screen, which I hope did not break. The Krugers had a Halloween party afterwards. Beth is Dorothy, I'm the scarecrow, Missy is Mulan, and Alex is Luigi from Mario Brothers. Sunday was relaxing, at least, once we finished 4s & 5s in church this morning.

I have returned from Vancouver, once again. This time, there were no medical emergencies while I was gone, thank goodness. I was there all week with 2 other coworkers, one of whom is still there. But, they both agreed that this was the best business trip they have ever had. It was a qualification on 2 ovens for a new process, so there were long stretches of time in which we had little to do but wait for the cycle to finish. So during those times we did some sightseeing. Most of the time we only had a few hours so we couldn't go far, but we did do a lot of hiking and walking through the woods here and there. One geocache, and 2 no-finds (one because we couldn't cross a river, and we were on the wrong side). We also got to see two complete Canucks games, both losses. We also did Lynn Valley Park, walking all over. Thursday we all did the Grouse Grind. Matt thought he was going to run the whole thing and started off strong, then faded. Jim (a bit older) fell behind early. I just kept on grinding and finished in 1:04, 7 minutes better than July. Matt made it in 1:15, Jim in 1:40. Jim and I left Friday morning and went as far as Chicago, then drove home. Overall, a pretty good trip, and we did get a lot done.

The Cub Scouts hiked the Iron Horse yesterday. Bright and early, we met up at the school at 8:00 and headed up to Potato Creek. The kids all did great, considering that we all walked a lot A LOT further than we'd planned and there was a long line for lunch. They also didn't have as much stuff there as Brad and I thought there would be. We thought there was going to be a lot more activities there besides just hiking, especially for the tiger cubs, but what they did have was pretty insignificant. I guess the hike is the thing. Don't get me wrong...it is a nice hike. Anyway, we took a wrong turn somewhere out there, and there was some incorrect information on the flyers. There was supposed to be a 1 mile, 2.5 mile, and 10 mile hike (we wanted the 2.5 mile), but I believe there was only a 2 mile and 5 mile. At least that's all I saw. And the wrong turn we took sent us on a long stretch of the hike in the backwards direction. We must have covered the entire 5 miles of the hike and then some. Then of course was the long line for lunch, which was very reasonable priced, which was good. There was also a field maze but it wasn't much. So, of all the activities we thought there was going to be, it was pretty much just a hike. We need to look into the Camporee in FW for next year, I hear it's nice. Anyway, while we were gone (until about 4) Beth and Kathy went to McD's for lunch, where Kathy tripped and fell and broke two bones in her hand. As we got back to town she was seeing an orthopedic surgeon. Turns out she didn't need surgery, but she is in a lot of pain. She had some shock to go with it. We kept the kids at our house for a while until she was all taken care of. Today we were planning on going to Splash Park (Zimmer club had discount tickets for today) for some indoor water fun, but decided to take it easy and skip the park since Missy is just getting over being sick. We did get together with a bunch of friends from church to have dinner out with the Myers, since they are leaving town soon since he got a new job. Tomorrow, bright and early, I go to Vancouver for work again.

Kids Klub tonight decorated pumpkins for Halloween upcoming. I was rounded up to judge and help with the crafty stuff. To keep the mess down and make them last longer, it was a stick-on kind of decorating instead of carving.

The Suzuki has new tires, which it has needed...BADLY...for a long long time. See ya $400...

The big thing today was getting the camper empty, cleaned, cleaned, drained, cleaned, folded up, and put away for winter. It was just the kind of beautiful weekend that makes you want to go camping, but no. I finished a few improvements to the camper just in time to get it put up (made some dividers for the clothes cabinet, added a big wooded drawer on gliders to under the sink) and we scrubbed that thing clean. It's now pushed into a corner of the garage, probably until Memorial Day. We were going to get this all done yesterday, but because it was a perfect fall day, we couldn't in good conscience let it go to waste with work. We wound up going geocaching in town instead of working. There are a few we could get just walking down the greenway and into the big cemetery. We also ran into a friend of Missy's from school while out and sold her grandpa some popcorn for Alex's cub scout fundraiser. Also yesterday was a date night for Beth and me, but no movies were playing that we wanted to see so we went bowling and out to dinner instead. I came close to breaking 200 in our first game (185) but got tired quickly after.

Beth went to a "Celebrating Home" party yesterday, whatever that is, some womenfolk thing where they spend their husbands' money on homey stuff because they feel they have to, because their friend who is hosting bought something at the other party that they hosted a couple months ago. We also took the kids bowling yesterday, since they have been asking to go and it's been a while.