Balluminaria. A crazy deal where the city gets a bunch of hot air balloon owners to show up to Eden Park all at once and light ‘em up. It’s free. it’s annual. It was so awesome. I have a lot more shots but I found that the ones with people in them were the most interesting.

I haven’t been to Chicago in a long while and this was a great trip. Not too much tourist junk. Good times with friends, A little Caravaggio at the  Art Institute. Some good coffee & bad atmosphere and a little bit of the reverse. Fantastic Chicago style pizza. Enjoyed public transportation since we can’t do that here. Wandered through an outdoor sculpure by Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor called Cloud Gate, or The Bean as seems to be the popular name. All thanks to a $4.5o ride on Megabus.

Enjoy.

Just a few shots from Becky’s birthday bash.

My amazing wife cutting her own cookie cake made by her aunt.
Randy Bicknaver right after his birthday song to Becky.
Artists & Authors.

Such a good night. Hope you can make it out to the next show at Corner Bloc Coffee

We took a little road trip down to Rabbit Hash Kentucky. It is a very small town that holds a general store, two junk antique stores, an outhouse and a barn for dancin’. That’s about it. It was very popular with bikers for some reason. If you need something to fill a few hours it’s worth the trip. But it’s small. You’ve been warned.

Just a few snaps from the concert we held at the Corner Bloc Coffee Shop on Halloween. We had an awesome time with The Happy Maladies, Lindley Wolfgram & The Bell & The Hammer. All of them have beautiful but very different music.

Our next concert is on Nov. 13th. Come hear Artists & Authors, Randy Bicknaver, & CB Smyth and Marissa Rinehart.

Enjoy.

My brother has been growing his hair for quite some time now. The beard is about a year in the making and the hair had about 2 years + a little extra. And we cut it off. He no longer looks frightening enough to scare small children or your grandmother.

Ed & Robyn got engaged. We took some photos. A man on a golf cart followed us because Ed was carrying a large sword. What more could you want?

They get hitched next September. There will be two sword fights around their wedding. That is by far the coolest way to decide the best man and who gets the garter belt. Hope no one loses a hand…

I love food quite simply. Now food photography isn’t necessarily the most exciting thing in the world, but making the food is. And that is why I like it so much.

From the top down we have
-Cranberry Apple Crisp made by my beautiful wife.
-2 Different loaves of homemade all natural whole wheat & flax seed bread covered in organic oats. (Bec described this one as weighty) And it is. Dense. Hearty. Fibrous. Delicious.
-Canned applesauce and apple pie filling from our trip to Iron’s Fruit Farms as mentioned a few days ago. Our wonderful friend Anna led the canning process.
- A batch of my homemade “Autumn Squash laced with Cranberries” granola that is being sold at the Corner Bloc Coffee Shop. We’re changing up the flavors every batch so go get some while this one is there.

That’s it for now. Hope it’s making you hungry.

will cost you 7 lbs a peck.

We went apple picking on Saturday. It was quite the entertaining experience. It seems so simple to go out and pick you own apples but normally we’re very removed what this part of the eating experience it was a bit weird. Seeing apples that aren’t shined up, coated in wax was a bit odd. Instead you get apples covered in dust and dirt that take a bit of cleaning before you can chomp down into one. It’s nice to stay connected to where these things come from. Even if it is like a tourist trap nowadays.

My dad has been slowly cleaning out my grandparents house which is an interesting adventure without the wonderful and strange finds. He found this box of coffee. He wondered if it was still good because he couldn’t find a date on it. For these reasons alone I would say it’s not good:
It’s prepackaged & vacuum sealed
It’s been in my grandparents house for who knows how long
The box looks like it might disintegrate

We did not brew this. We are however storing it on display at the Corner Bloc Coffee Shop if you would like to marvel at it’s age.

Oh, yes, we did discover how old it was. Oct, 1988. There is no typo. This coffee is almost as old as I am.