Indian Summer

(The following is my TWIRP for the weeks of October 15-November 4, 2006. Enjoy...)

It's cold in central Ohio today. Not as cold as it was yesterday, but..it's still cold. Every time we take Eldan out we bundle him up in his little "Eskimo"
outfit to keep him warm.

It hasn't been cold all week, however. Actually, we experienced a bit of "Indian Summer" earlier this week. It was significantly warmer than it is now. I guess when you get right down to it, it has been rather toasty for us all week. Let me explain...

It was about 11:30 on Thursday morning when I heard my name being called over the school public address system. I was wanted in the office. Okay, no big deal. I had no reason to think that there was any urgency about the matter, so...I took my time getting there. When I didn't come to the office right away, the secretary came into the gym to find me. She had a worried look on her face as she said, "You need to go home right away. Your wife called and she said that she just lit your kitchen stove on fire." I'm a pretty laid back kind of person most of the time so I said, "All right. I'll go get my jacket." The secretary looked at me and said bluntly, "The fire squad is already at your house." So, I decided to forego the jacket and just go straight home. Besides, the fire would probably keep me warm anyway.

I'll have to admit. As I drove the mile to my house, I did get a little worried. I wasn't sure what to expect when I got there. Visions of my wife and son crying hysterically as smoke billowed out of my house filled my mind as I rounded the curves at 50 miles per hour. When I arrived at the scene, there were two EMT Units and one large fire truck in front of my drive way. My wife wasn't crying, my son was nowhere to be seen (he was out of the cold wind with a neighbor), and there wasn't even a single billow of smoke. Apparently my wife had been baking a large pizza-sized cookie that morning when some of the dough oozed off of the cooking stone and onto the heating element below. This started a small blaze in our kitchen. My wife did the right thing and called 911. The fire department came as a precaution and both my family and my little home are okay (Although the oven needed a good cleaning when all was said and done.)

Once I knew that no real harm had been done I found the whole situation rather humorous. I even decided to snap some pictures in order to memorialize Eldan's first encounter with firemen. As you can see in the picture, he is quite fascinated with the men and my wife is just thrilled to be photographed in her pajamas with emergency workers! I have included a picture of the ill-fated cookie at the end of this post. By the way, it is still caked onto the cooking stone. If any of my readers have any suggestions about how to get the stone clean, please don't hesitate to offer them.

Other than that, our lives have been rather typical for the last two weeks. My mom was finally able to get back to Colorado with my dad after nearly 6 weeks of helping her kids with new and not so new babies. We really enjoyed her visit. These are some of the pictures we took with her camera several days before she left. School is busy, but not overly so. I started my inaugural year as the Junior High Basketball coach this past Monday. I have a team of 14 sixth through eighth graders. I am really excited about the season although coaching this group will definitely have its challenges. I am still on the lookout for a play to produce for our school next spring. I'm open to suggestions.

Eldan is on the verge of crawling. He has become quite mobile and it is amazing how quickly he can roll himself across the room. It seems as though we are having more fun with him with every passing week. He has a stubborn, sinful streak to be sure, but he seems to be a fairly easy going little kid.

We are just now coming into my favorite time of the year. The holidays are coming...including one of the year's most important--Danielle's birthday on November 11th. I love being married. I love being a father. And I love eating dinner--which is what I plan to go and do right now. That's all to report for now. The air is cold, our house is warm, and the weekend awaits...