As a button

Sometimes, I just have to take a picture because she's so adorable.

This was probably a day where she spent most of her time at preschool hitting and kicking the other kids.

Weird gravity

Get a bunch of little kids together and they form a herd. Here, at a mom's meetup, a bunch of kids who have never met each other sit obediently together and eat their lunch without fussing. Miraculous.

Catucopia

They just stick together like Lego pieces.

It's a Chicago thing

Sometimes, a man just needs to recharge himself at the wellspring of his soul. I found a Chicago dog place.

Strange fruit

Yet another mystery fruit is growing in our yard. Not avocado (an exciting first guess). Not papaya. Not guava. No idea.

Not in Kansas (or Minnesota) any more

They don't sell oysters at the farmer's markets in Minnesota.

News you can use

This poster outside the local grocery store gave me pause. That big fire is still roaring away in the mountains. This is today's map. The red line marks the "uncontrolled" border, which happens to be just a mile north of where I'm shopping.

Four (West Coast edition)

Celebrating Ellen's real birthday at preschool. No sweets are allowed, so the parents sponsor pizza parties. The kids now associate birthdays with pizza. I can't decide if this is a bad thing or not.

Safety first

It made me laugh. On every flight on this trip, whenever the safety spiel would start, Ellen would pull out the instruction card and "follow along."

Whiteout

This was Ellen's nursery, before and after. It's something I made for her myself. Should I feel bad that it's now a bland white cube?

Fixer-upper

I spent a few days back in Minnesota working on the house. It still sits unsold, after five months on the market. Besides doing some work to eliminate pet odors in the basement and some minor repairs, I had most of the interior repainted. The bedroom and living areas looked better with fresher coats of paint. We restored Ellen's room to white. That was a bit sad -- I had painted that room myself to turn it into a nursery. Now, that's all erased.

Four

Ellen celebrated her fourth birthday a few weeks early, with her family at the Wisconsin lake house. We don't really know anyone in California to invite to a birthday party.

After midnight

We're taking the red-eye to Milwaukee to visit the family lake house. Ellen is a seasoned flyer by now.

Blowing smoke

More smoke! This giant plume is actually from a backfire set to stop the progress of the wildfire. It still looks like someone is nuking the mountains.

Birthday pie

Rachel made me a Meyer lemon meringue pie. This is a great way to celebrate a birthday.

Smoke gets on my car

Ashfall from the Station Fire speckled my Prius. Every morning, there was fresh ash on my car.