October 1 - john has gone to several plein air (outdoor) art classes recently. He is currently working on the first painting he has done in oils: a landscape at the Shawnee Mission park entrance. He is doing it in "Impasto" (very thick with a palette knife). Two days ago, he did a pen and ink drawing while attending the plein air art class deeper in the park, overlooking the lake.

October 11 - Here is the first oil painting john has done. For some reason the web version looks very light. It isn't much like the final painting.

October 25 - Last Monday, john took the Robotics team from Barstow school to Topeka to receive a "Tribute" from the state of Kansas. Senator Tim Owens presented the team with the Tribute on the floor of the Senate Chambers. He then spent the next hour and a half showing the team the Kansas State Capitol. The team was able to climb the dome of the Capitol, which is very high and very scary.

On Friday, john continued to paint his second oil painting. He has been working on "Santa" for about a week, and there is much to be done. For one, Santa's left eye will be larger, and he will end up wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He will have additional wrinkles around his eyes, etc. The finished version will end up being a greeting card for the holiday season.

Yesterday, john and joyce helped joyce's sister Carol put her dog Maggie to sleep. It was a very stressful day. john and joyce went to bed at 8 p.m. only to wake up at 10 p.m. thinking it was time to get up.

joyce's elbow is healing nicely after she fell and broke her arm a couple of weeks ago. On Monday, she fell again over a neighbor's trash while walking in the early morning hours. She skinned up a knee and gave herself a black eye and a skinned up nose. The ER keeps asking joyce is she is being beaten up by anyone (read that: john). She says that she isn't having a balance problem; just one of inattention. She fell about a month ago while on a trip to Lake Tahoe, Zion National Park and Las Vegas. Fortunately, then she did not break anything or it would have slowed the trip down considerably! john has told joyce that her limit is three falls. NO MORE FALLS ARE ALLOWED! She agrees!

Tomorrow, Tempu-pedic is delivering a new Queen size bed to john and joyce. The word of mouth about Tempu-pedic is fantastic. john and joyce are looking forward to sleeping on such a nice bed. john has acid reflux on occasion. He put a level on their existing bed, and discovered that he has been sleeping on a negative slope. No wonder he has experienced acid reflux!