November already? Ack! So long Daylight Savings time.

I'm still in denial that it's November already. That means Christmas is bearing down upon us. Where did this year go?

As I write this, Ron is up front watching more programs. He came home from Costco last night with the first season of the original Get Smart TV show. The pilot was shot in black and white and the regular programs in color. We watched quite a few during dinner hour last evening and he thought he'd finish off the first DVD tonight... but last time I walked up front he was snoozing while a commentary of Buck Henry's was playing in the background. :-) A personal aspect to watching last night was during the credits on the first show of the regular season. They had a character (villain) in the show called "The Claw." ("Not "the Craw!" ... the Craw!" Not very politcally correct by today's standards, but funny just the same!) He was supposed to be Asian. As the credits rolled by at the end I saw the name "Leonard Strong" and knew who that was. Had to run it back and take a closer look at his face. One of his children is in our stake... Mickey Strong. He used to sing in the Bremerton Symphony Chorale and it was during that time period I found out during a chat with him that his father was a working Hollywood actor.

Leonard Strong did all kinds of supporting roles in movies and television, but because of his almond shaped eyes, he was most often cast as Asian characters. This was particularly true during WWII times when bonafide Asian actors in Hollywood were in short supply. A point of pride for Mickey was that his father had been in both movie versions of The King and I. He was the interpreter in the first version with Rex Harrison (Anna and the King of Siam... guess they have an even newer version of that one now) and he played the same role in The King and I with Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. He was the only cast member from the first film to be brought in to play the same role in the second. I just looked up his info at IMDB last night and it appears the several shows he did for Get Smart over a two year period were the last in his career. He died in 1980.

Today has been kind of nice. Got an email from Laura Long, who I've not heard from in awhile and also chatted with Nancy Skinner on the cell phone for a bit. I had to tell her what a fine job her son did in getting Karen all decked out for her office dress-up yesterday (pictures to follow... from her blog). While we chatted about this, that and the other... Nancy was sharing some of her shuttle riding experiences. For the most part, we've both enjoyed meeting people on shuttles or in airports. That reminded me of our ride home on the Kitsap Airporter. We didn't think we'd be able to catch the one that was to depart 10 minutes after our arrival at Sea-Tac late Saturday night, but the plane came in a bit earlier than scheduled. At that time of the evening there is no one at the desk so you have to go outside, find the driver and get your ticket right at the shuttle. We had this fantasy that we might actually catch the 9:20 one so we really hot footed it down to the baggage level. I ran outside to make an appearance to the shuttle driver while Ron headed toward the baggage carousel. To our amazement, we made it and got home an hour earlier than expected (not expecially early even at that). :-)

The thing I remembered was this guy who got on after us and how I probably dodged a bullet in that deal. Ron was delayed outside while trying to get our tickets over the cell phone so I got on first and saved him a seat. The only place available with two seats together by that time was the full bench seat in the very back. I was the first to sit there and put my carry-on next to the window since there was a wheel-well in that spot. If a person were to sit in the very corner, it appeared they'd have to fold themselves in a knee-chest position and that gets old fast! =:o

Before Ron got on, a nice woman came back and sat on the other end of the long seat and said her husband was coming along shortly. I figured the four of us could fit. Well... she sat over the wheel-well on the other end when she heard I also had a husband coming and she assured me it would be fine (they moved at the first opportunity when the bus started to empty). She needed a place to stash a suitcase that had glassware inside and I told her I could put it on my end on the floor. So... her suitcase was wedged between seat and wheel-well and my carryon was on top of the seat behind it. There were four people sitting back there and what appeared to be a blank spot in the very back corner next to me... and this portly, fortyish fellow in a baseball cap gets on, walks toward the back of the bus and announces to me that he needs to sit there. When I told him there was a wheel well at that spot, he didn't care... he was still determined that I should move my carry-on so he could climb over us and shoehorn himself into the back corner next to me. I was never so grateful to announce there was a suitcase sitting on the floor in that spot... and about the same time, some other passengers informed him that he was standing right next to an empty seat while we were having this exchange. He was so fixated on that back corner, he didn't see the empty spot/s right under his nose, I guess.

There was a gray haired woman in the window seat near him and almost as soon as he sat down she was regaled with stories of his Navy career, etc. etc. He might be the nicest guy in the world that would give you the shirt off his back... I have no clue. But... you sometimes encounter folks who have a way of coming in and filling up not only their personal space but yours and never noticing any boundaries in between. His approach to personal hygiene appeared to be somewhat casual also. I'm a friendly person by nature, but was grateful. I got to sit during that ride and be one of the "eavesdropping observers" instead of engaging in conversation (Ron snoozed part of the time). You notice a lot of things when you're not talking... I should do it more often. ;-)

Here are the photos of Karen's costume. Niklas visited the local D.I. and found the raw materials to create this and had to do any sewing by hand... true to Skinner tradition. :-) The top green portion was the bodice of a dress and it appears he cut off the skirt portion to make the leggings.
The next two were taken at Karen's office. Some random guy apparently drifts through each year in that scary get-up. Not sure who he is. I wondered if he was actually that tall or on stilts? If he's that tall... he'd be about the same height as Lynda's boyfriend, Tom. Tom bending over is nearly the same height as Lynda standing up... no kidding.

Another fellow from the office had people pose in their costumes for these nice black and white shots. This all started for Karen when she wanted to dress up in something to go with Niklas' Medieval sword. He loves Lord of the Rings, so this was his solution. :-)

Thanks to Facebook and one of Lynda's Digipen friends, I saw these of her Halloween preparations. I don't know if her carving is a specific character... but it looks pretty neat.

Here are a couple of local Zombies. Amber emailed a few photos over last night. She usually brings the girls by the house but it didn't happen this year. We did actually have three cute little trick-or-treaters, however. They were the three daughters of Michele Kolbas, used to be Wiler. She lives in the neighborhood again. The camera was all poised and waiting on the dining table after Kristine tipped me off that Michele was coming ... then I forgot because I had Michael on the cell phone at the time. Drat! Anyway... they each got FOUR fun sized candy bars apiece, since I knew they would be it for us. Kind of a full circle moment to see those little girls and remember the day when their mother and her siblings might come to the door.

Here are the two little Miller Zombies... Colette looks very non-threatening. ;-)

I received an email this evening from a nice gal from Green Bay, Wisconsin who had corresponded in the past about soapmaking. One of the great parts of having the website is "meeting" people from all over and every once in awhile having them drop you a line to ask how the family's doing and/or bring you up to speed on theirs. She's a very crafty person. Their family loves to do outdoorsy things and now she's retired. I had my best laugh today when I was reading her email and got to this part...

... My husband and I have a small lot in our village, however my brother-in-law lives in a community in the southern part of the state and has been working on establishing a prairie garden. I will definitely be giving his garden a boost. He is 81 and just is a delight. He and my husband were elk hunting in Colorado, then my brother-in-law went peasant hunting in South Dakota....

When I wrote back to her I asked, "Is that LEGAL?" :-D I didn't even know they had peasants in South Dakota. I'll have to ask my cousin, who is in the process of moving there. ;-)

I wanted to show the hats she makes. Such a nice thing she is doing...

I have been very busy knitting when at all of these appointments. I have been making infant hats. I have some in the local knit shop, and with what I sell, I buy enough yarn to sell one and save 1 for a hospital destination. Our little Matthew (now 5) was at Children's Hospital in Milwaukee after he was born for 10 weeks. We know first hand how little hats, blankets etc. made by caring people and sent home from the hospital with the baby are appreciated.

Rachel mailed a CD this past week, filled with really nice photos she took at Colette's birthday party last month. Here are a few of those. I hate looking at my tired, fat and puffy face... but that's how it was/is. I think that day was not one of the better ones with burning the late night oil the previous week trying to get a scanning project done and mailed out before our trip. Little did I know we'd not be leaving after the party after all... but had to wait another 5 days for Ron's orders to come through. :-/

The kids look cute always... even little Edward who was sick that day.

This is a really nice picture of Amber... presenting Colette with her birthday cake.

Edward is such a sweet natured little guy... when we walked in I could tell he was not feeling well and seemed kind of clingy, so I scooped him up and managed to get him to sleep for a bit. I love it when you hold a little one and they just snuggle in. Some of my kids were like that. Edward's father was the least cuddly of the bunch. ;-) He didn't like you restricting his mobility for very long. I love the mood of this picture... just wish I could put a bag over my jowly head. It could be captioned, "Sick and Tired." (Edward being the sick one.) But really... I feel "comfort" when I look at it and get over myself. I'm glad she took it. :-)


Here's little Calvin and those big eyes (and a not quite as big early walking wound). He was intrigued with what his mother was doing. Following that are a few more from the party showing Robert and Calvin and the girls doing some bead necklaces.




This is cute. Should have put it at the end of the blog instead of here!

The rest are the last of the leaves... just about. Within the last few days they all took a cue to come down with a vengeance... with some gusts of wind helping along. I love how the ground is covered with various circles of the different colors. Oh... and on Friday when I left the house with a big box to take to the UPS Store, the sidewalk was totally covered with those beautiful dogwood leaves. I wish I could have taken the time right then to take a picture, but there was none to spare without missing that day's pickup. By the time I got home, the light was fading and the flash kept going off. (If Robert reads this he'll want me to know I can disarm that and I know I should have... it's just hard to tell sometimes in daylight that the flash indeed went off... but the pictures make it clear later.)

You should have seen the car when I first walked out with the package. The front windshield, roof and hood were festooned with a ridiculous quantity of these leaves... like a confetti snowfall. I had to run the wipers and watched them flying off all the way from our driveway to Silverdale (4 miles).


The blueberries have almost completely turned now and look nearly as pretty as the Euonymus one sees everywhere ("Burning Bush").

This is a recap of the photo at the beginning.. only this has had the drybrush effect applied in Photoshop. I wish the flash hadn't gone off, because it really cancelled out the beauty of backlighting through the leaves. By the time the rain stops, I doubt this photo-op will still be there. If I've linked this correctly, the image when clicked will come up in desktop image size.

Guess I'd better call it quits and start turning back a few clocks. :-) Ron has come back to officially get ready for bed. A few of you have asked how he's doing and he seems to be doing very well. His PSA tests have come back in good shape and I think with a couple more months under his belt (no pun intended)... he may be free of the "protection" he's had to wear since the surgery. There is less and less need for that... but it takes time (possibly up to a year). Brother Chong said, "The larger the prostate, the longer the recovery." He was gone most of his day off yesterday helping one of his assistants in the H.P. group install a dishwasher and today he babysat for Amber while she did the paper route (that starts in the wee hours). So... he's not convalescing at this point. I just hope pretty soon he'll put us on the list. ;-)