Flight of Fancy

I met Jesse's kids yesterday. Talk about wild imaginations, those two are awesome.
I introduced Elle to grapefruit, she calls it "sour" and asked if she could have more sour a lot, carrying around the last grapefruit.
Leah enlisted my help making a batman costume out of paper and proceeded to flap around the house in it the rest of the day. She also lost a tooth yesterday. She's in the process of checking now to see if the tooth fairy brought her anything.
They're really adorable. They also make me miss my sisters a lot.
I'm playing with them again today.

Sorry for the lack of updates, all. I'll try to be better about it, even through the frustration with my camera.
I'll be trying to find my way south now. Hopefully I'll be able to visit my wonderful cousins in Colorado, but so far I've gotten no luck in the ride department from here. I might end up needing to visit them after I return to SF for my birthday.
I actually have plans to spend Thanksgiving with them, so hopefully that'll be a longer sort of visit...

By the way, I'd like to acknowledge three birthdays right now. My mom's, which was yesterday, my wonderful friend Bea, who's birthday's today, and my honorary brother Jacob, who's birthday is tomorrow. I love you guys. Happy Birthday. Make a wish.

A Trip up a Mountain

Ok, so maybe not a mountain. It was awesome though. This beautiful hike up a road that had been closed off and was covered in leaves that fell like whispers from the canopy of trees that hung over the road filtering the light like cathedral glass. When we got to the top of Granddad Bluff you could see the whole valley stretched out below, through the slight haze that spread to, or perhaps from the Mississippi. The wind blew up the sheer side of the cliff, keeping us from the edge.
The vampiric state bird not withstanding, the trip here has been beautiful.
Today's the first day the sun is hiding. We're going to go up to a lake that has roads on the bottom.

Vampire Birds and the Relapsing of Time

Plans change. This trip is proof. Last night Mani got a flat tire and I ended up catching a ride at the nearest truck stop all the way to Wisconsin. It wasn't my original ride, and I didn't have the number on me to let Dean know I couldn't get to that meeting spot. I feel a bit bad about flaking on him. I hope he has a safe trip up the west coast of Canada. And I hope Mani made it home alright.
So since I last posted I've crossed a time zone back toward my normal time. I'm slowly moving back into the past where I will eventually return to my life in SF for a while. Slowly. I still have more than a week before I get there.
So anyways. I'm now in Tomah, Wisconsin. I got here sooner than expected so I stopped at a park a few blocks from Jesse's house to swing on the swings, but was eventually chased from the park by mosquitoes. Whether they can smell fresh blood or they like me because of the amount of grapefruit I've had on this trip, I can only speculate. But I retreated, walking up to Jesse's house, trying to leave the vampires behind.
For anyone not familiar with Jesse or his beautiful artwork, where have you been while I've been ranting? And why haven't you looked at the links on the side of my page? I'm just kidding, kind of. But he's awesome, so check him out.
And now I will proceed to go back to all my picture-less entries in the last two days and fill them in.

Pictures from the ride through Chicago: