Even Zoe has some “extra” lips sometimes.

They were all smashed out while she was sleeping in my lap…

It’s fun to have friends at the range.

One of the nicest people I know go this as a gift for Julie from Amish country.  He also loves to make custom cards and gift boxes… Love it!

Julie’s gourmet fried bologna!

She makes EVERYTHING wonderfully!  I mean it, she tops the charts with each entree she makes!

When you come home and wonder what your dogs have been up to…!?

Cool drone display!

World record drone choreography attempt. 7600 drones all at once. They were successful in setting the record. All controlled from one laptop.

Heading out for a test run after fixing a fuse problem

I like my rock lights, but you probably already knew that…!  The rain makes the colors pop.

A crazy rescue from above. Winch becomes a sky crane…

The funny thing is, this isn't that far from the same rigging I had to use the weekend before last to get a Bronco back on its wheels, the angles just weren't as extreme.  Crazy how the physics work here to let you apply force straight up.  Note where/how both winch lines are going.  The second one is anchored to two more Jeeps on the hill opposite the wrecker.  

Watch it here if you'd like: https://youtu.be/ZnL-gr4j3jE

The ride home from Basset Fest

Mom found us the perfect cartoon

This is a great cartoon for our rescue basset Chloe, hahaha.  It fits well with her talking to a beagle like Zoe pup.

16 Basset hounds, and one non… haha!

 We enjoyed Basset Fest last weekend.  We managed to get in a nice visit in between the rain.  It was fun to see all the variety of even just one breed.  All dogs were welcome so Zoe and some other imposters enjoyed themselves too!

On the way to Basset fest!

I thought this pic captured Chloe's color well.  Also all her cute wrinkles.  They call her color red.  I guess she's a ginger?! 

Fun with macro mode

This little jumping spider guy was too cute.  I had to try and capture it with my phone.  Pretty happy with the results!

Chloe deciding it’s worth it…

…to get near enough for me to pet her.  Zoe's not sure she likes her guy splitting his attention hahaha.

Chloe trying to decide if she wants to hang in my office…

She still thinks I'm a little scary. ;)

Kind of cool button and Siri animation.

Just some of the aftermath

The remnants of hurricane Helene left a lot of limbs down in our yard.  Lucky we didn't have any other damage.  Our power didn't even go out.  Several friends and relatives were without power for a few days.

A new record for sustained winds since we lived here

Gusts up to 60 this past weekend.  Glad that's only as bad as it got compared to what some of the folks down south had!  At least we got the rain we needed…

Part of Chloe’s daily stretch regimin

John’s costume of Johnny

John's costume of his video game character turned out great.  You can see Savannah and him showing it off at Ren Fest last weekend.  I had to adjust the skin tones so I could even look at it, he's so "bright" hahahaha! 

Play time for the pups…

 They’re getting pretty comfortable with each other. Check out those ears flopping around! They could be an offensive weapon!

Big Red Machine!

The news of Pete Rose passing brings back all kinds of good memories of baseball!  I remember it being such a big deal as he was approaching 4192.  When was he going to get that hit?! I remember watching the Big Red Machine play.  I can't believe they left Johnny Bench off the list in the article!  I remember Dave and Tony well too!

Julie managed to time it just right while attending a Red's game and was ACTUALLY THERE when he got hit 4,192 and cemented his spot in history and the record books.  I was content with seeing it on TV.  Even more interesting, that was exactly the time (likely within a day or two) that Julie and I first met!  It's interesting to think back to what was happening around us when Ronda first introduced us a week or two into our sophomore year in high school❣️

I got this challenge coin somewhere along the way growing up and kept track of it into adult hood.  I figured it was about time to get it into my photo archives. 

Johnny as a video game…?

This is the character John plays in one of the video games he likes.  This shows the evolution over a couple decades.  Why do you care?  He's putting together a costume this year for the Renaissance Festival and Halloween.  Stay tuned…

Android and iOS 18

Apple now supports RCS.  What does that mean?  If you're an Android user you might get a little better interoperability with text messages.  It's a more modern standard that allows better exchange of images, videos, emoji, reactions, and emoji.  If you're an iPhone user on iOS 18 and you see "Text Message RCS" it means you and the Android person on the other end can support these extra features.  It seemed to work well while Susan and I were testing it.

Chloe is EXTRA!

Extra ears, extra feet, extra short, extra skin!  She's cute and cool though.  She's settling in nicely and getting to like us too.  She's part of our pack in her mind already.  Here she's just sitting, waiting, to see what I'm going to do next.  She's still a little nervous that I might jump up and be loud and scary at any moment… She's right to be! Hahahaha.

Proof there were Jeeps at Jeep Night

AND I had some really yummy ribs too! :)