La Familia Brophy

We went to a Halloween party at MIT today. Nathan’s favorite part was meeting the beaver although he is convinced it was a bear. You can get a better look at his costume on the photos page.

Well here is a little glimpse of that beautiful snowfall we had yesterday. We didn’t dare go outside for the photo. It was taken from a bedroom window.

Our friend Michelle mentioned that her kids keep asking her which day of the week it was when they were born, and she wasn’t sure. So I whipped up a little PHP script to answer the question.

Michelle said she wrote down the days and hung them on the wall so now everybody knows. I am one proud nerd. Plus, now I know Lisa was born on Sunday and Nathan & I were born on Tuesday.

What day was it when you were born?

While Nathan and I were stuck at home yesterday due to the Noreaster we carved his small pumpkin. The seeds were pretty tough to get out of this one but Nathan scooped away and got a bunch of them out. I finally bought one of those pumpkin carving kits which I always thought were a bit ridiculous but it really worked well. It was well worth the $2.50. We made the face smiling so it wouldn’t be too spooky.

We went to Allandale Farm for hay rides, goat petting and pumpkin shopping this weekend. Nathan picked this pumpkin to keep in his room. We got a second larger pumpkin to serve as this year’s jack-o-lantern (what Nathan calls a Spooky Pumpkin). Will it be as spooky as last year’s pumpkin?

I finally started painting the stairs tonight after a lot of prep work. I’ve caulk and spackled those stairs like crazy. As I was working on them tonight I thought that we should just tear them out and start fresh.

Well that isn’t going to happen but I think that the removal of the pink paint should do wonders to welcome us home each day. It struck me that the blue here with the remaining pink is quite retro and kind of cool. I’m not sure about this blue but I am hoping with the darker shade that will go on the treads it will be tempered a bit.

I learned about this fromone of my fellow panelists at the conference last week. The New York Public Libraries Digital Gallery has this amazingly rich collection of images to look through. Random example: A 1909 automobile catalog for the 90 H.P. Locomobile

We had a great couple of days in NYC this week. We got to see lots of old friends we hadn’t seen in a long time and Nathan got to meet most of them for the first time ever.

Unfortunately we were chased away early by the rain and came home a half a day earlier than expected.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was visiting my friend Hosanna at her job on the set of Martha Stewart’s new show. I got to be in the audience for a taping. The next day Nathan and I along with Amie and Beto picked Hosanna up at work and got to play a little in the craft room.

Here is Nathan in front of one of the many shelves of craft supplies.

There are more photos from the trip on Flickr.

Nathan and I made applesauce today with our bounty from the orchard. It was hard work but we got 5 pints jarred up and put into the freezer.

Apple Sauce

We did our annual trip to Honeypot Hill, home of cider donuts, caramel apples, tractor rides, pettable animals and… oh yeah, apple picking! We had Apple pie last night, apple pan dowdy tonight. Can apple crisp be far?

Apple Picking