Week 4 ... a funeral, a wedding, and family

 Well, so far this has gone about quite nicely. (Can you tell I am reading "The Hobbit"? It is required reading for Madeline, and I am re-reading to help her through it).

 Last week started with a funeral. My former boss' father passed away and I wanted to pay my respects. It was a long drive (Mt. Orab), and a long wait (an hour standing in a slow moving line), but it was the right thing to do. No regrets.

Bari's brother and sister-in-law were visiting the past couple of weeks. There were several family dinners. Kyo-sun is from Korea, and always makes a traditional meal for us while she is here. Kevin, Bari and Bari Ray walked around campus one morning. Kevin is in the Air Force, and almost ready to retire. He started his career in the ROTC program at UC, just like Bari Ray.

Work is fine, I did finish the Ochocinco project, and they loved it. Now the Reds have a new project for us to work on. (No, this isn't the 500 or 1000 pieces for the Hall of Fame, we haven't heard if we are doing that or not). This is a new project. It includes a team picture, brass plate, baseball league emblem, and an empty champagne bottle. Not 1, not 10 of these- probably around 25 shadowboxes for all the owners. I get the best stuff! They haven't committed to this either, but I am working with my boss to find the right molding/mat choices so he can present the design to them.  I'm pretty excited to get the chance to do this one. It should be really fun. (Even if there are 25).

And just so you don't think I never get the chance to do some kind of 'normal' family stuff, we carved pumpkins Sunday afternoon. It has been a tradition since moving here with Bari, that we carve our pumpkins while sitting on the front steps of the house. Some years it is a little cold. This year it was beautiful. I always do a traditional face, Madeline did a scary face, Sam has an Avitar-Air Bender face (with the arrow down the top) and Bari Ray had Brittany carve his. It is a scary tree. Amazing how relieved I felt after getting the old flower pots off of the porch steps and the pumpkins carved.

We had a wonderful wedding this past weekend. I think we have 4 or 5 weddings in a row now. Anyway, last week the couple was really cute, and they just seemed perfect for each other. Even the brides dad cried.

I have heard (through Katy) that Joey is going to a Half-Way house for 3 months. The program helps with his schooling, job hunt, and (when he gets out) housing. I am really happy that he found some help. We will see how it goes.