Gosh, I guess it really must be Halloween!

So we go out trick or treating, and it's great. Just like in the movies. Perfect temperature, cloudy full(ish) moon, tons of people of all ages, blocks of decorated and jack-o-lanterned houses giving out great candy. Neither penny nor Molasses based candy in sight! Then when we get back to the house and just to put the icing on the pumpkin we spied these two creepy spiders! Check 'em out!

Actual, honest to goodness black brown widows!

What a night!

18 Weeks Pregnant

My actual belly!

Big Spider

She lives between the glass and the screen. She has been around for months now, growing bigger and getting stronger.

We are pretty sure that she's a Hunstman spider. They don't usually build webs, they just run em down! Legspan is about the size of my palm, which is quite large if you ask me.

Machines at Work

Yes, you can tell from that awesome box of gears, I share my work space with some serious machines. Big ones. Some of them can chop off your arm if you are not careful, others might confuse you if you are not careful. All of them are totally awesome. Here are pictures of the ones I see every day.

Machines need maintenance. Some of them need to be opened up and fiddled with on a regular basis, like this one. Want to know what this one does? Let me zoom out so it will be more clear.

That should clear up the mystery. This machine's main purpose is to train repairmen! Or stuff envelopes.

Then there's this beast, the folder.

This one's a driller.

Here we have the cutter. (The one that can chop off arms.)

And what could this be? (The one that might confuse.)

Don't feel bad, it's a purposefully misleading close up.

Hint: it's in the men's bathroom.

Here it is again, all zoomed out.

I know, it's a urinal!

Oh, it's a sink? I found that one out the hard way :(

Ah yes, the jewel of our pointy, greasy machine crown.

Our latest, quite fancy, printer.

The printed pages end up here and when it's done the blast shield lowers and you can take however many cubic feet of printed paper you ordered out and start printing some more.

And as a bonus, check out our oldest printer:

Yeah it's a linotype machine. Probably the coolest analog device in the whole building. It molds lead alloys to form lines of text that are imprinted onto page then recycled after the printing is done or the line gets beat up too much. It is really cool and not used anymore at least not while I have been here, but we used to use one and if we had to we have the knowhow to use it again, at least someone here does. I heard the inventor went crazy from all the lead! Pretty cool! By the way, I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing because it is in a storage area.

The Cole Brothers' Circus is in town!

Ta daaaaaaa!

Please allow me to be your virtual RINGMASTER for this amazing display of skill (and to a lesser extent, price gouging)!

First up?

The worlds smallest MotoCross!

Yes, those blurs inside the steel cage sphere are the two or three dudes racing as fast as possible around a tiny, albeit three dimensional track!

Next up?

A cute wild west show with dogs and eventually a pony. A real life dog and pony show!

Then?

A very daring man who walks in a human hamster wheel attached to a bunch of metal that spins around like a human powered fair ride! It was cooler than it looks in this pic and the dude either almost fell or hammed it up really well so KUDOS to you brave sir!

Then there was some of this stuff.

And then a feature element of the show!

The seven man balacing pyramid... (dramatic pause) ...OF DOOM!

Some dude in that pyramid actually did fall but caught himself on the wire with his leg, but got back up and tried again. What a trooper! Good show!

Of course, juggling was next.

----Intermission----

Balancing. Nice.

What circus would be complete without the demonstration of superior hair power? Shock and Awe!

And makeup!

Then a little belly dancing number, complete with camels.

She's not really on fire, it just looks awesome for some reason. Oh yeah, becasue it was awesome!

This girl though, was totally on fire(figuratively).

Boom! Of course there are Elephants at a circus!

Elephants really give a circus authenticity, IMHO.

Then the special, signature event!

Laser guided human munitions! Seriously, that cannon had a laser sight which was probably also a rangefinder too. That vehicle had more technology that the rest of the show combined. Every other thing in the show had probably been unchanged for like 100 years or so but that cannon truck had a green laser sight/rangefinder and very precise hydraulic roll control and an in-barrel cctv monitor. It was my favorite part. All of a sudden the future rolled up and took my breath away. I am not sure if you can tell from the picture but I think it was hovering a few inches off the ground and on the other side I am pretty sure I saw a Mr. Fusion.

17 Weeks

Can you believe how big my belly is already? I feel the baby kicking every day now. Today, Baby gave me quite a thump and I think that if a hand had been there someone could have felt the kick from the outside.

Butterfly Garden in July

Elliot, William, my mother, and I went to the butterfly garden in Gainesville, Florida this past July. I just found the pictures that we took while we were there and I realized that we'd never posted any of them. Here are a few of the best ones:

16 Weeks Pregnant

I'm so glad that maternity-style clothing is popular this season. It saves me money. This shirt/dress thing only cost $6. Woohoo!

14.5 Weeks Pregnant

Let the belly pics begin! I'm starting to get "poochie," as one of my coworkers pointed out. The baby is still down low in my belly, but it's pushed everything up and out, so I'm beginning to look pregnant. And FEEL pregnant. None of my pants fit me anymore, despite the fact that I weigh the same amount that I did before I got pregnant.