We all had lots of fun with Halloween. Abby had funny walking around in her costume. She was less excited about going up to stranger's houses. I couldn't get her to say "trick or treat" or "thank-you" but she would frequently say by-by as we walked away. After we went up and down our street she had a lot of fun handing out candy as long as the trick-or-treat'er was not too scary. Little princess got an extra big handfuls of candy.

So we were at Grandma's and Pa-pap's tonight for dinner. While we were getting ready for dinner Abby got a small pot lid and a triple-spoon-rest from under the range top and as she walked around the end of the kitchen cabinets my first thought when I saw here was she has a buckler and was wielding a small battle axe. Sorry Abby, your dad is a geek!

So we had a lobster/claim bake at the bosses house yesterday afternoon. Abby found the lobsters interesting.

Abby built that entire tower of Duplo Blocks pretty much on her own tonight. I built a short wide base and she very carefully and deliberately stack the very tall thin tower of blocks. The best part was when she had a block in both hands, as she attempted to stack the block in her right hand she realized she had grabbed the block upside-down. Rather than dropping the block in her left hand to help adjust the right hand block she put the miss-grasped block in her mouth adjusted her grasp on it and then placed is successfully on the tower follow shortly by the block in her left hand. Watching the intensity and focus with which she went about her building was very cool.

Yep it's been just about a year. Her 1st birthday is technically this Wednesday but we celebrated it with family and friend today.

-Friday took GFWTR out for a nice dinner while Na'nah watch Abby.

-Saturday me and Abby hung out all day. Went shopping in the morning and that afternoon tried out my big wheeled stroller I got for father's day with a little exploring off road at an old park near our house.

-Sunday was a USPSA match at the local club. Got beat in Limited-10 by 0.38% by a high-school kid. Good match the kid and I were squaded together and egging each other on all match.

-That afternoon did a little more shopping and out for dinner with both GFWTR and Abby.

-That even cleaned guns and watch Aliens, again. I forgot how good that movie was I hadn't watched it in nearly two years.

-Monday night GFWTR and I went on a double date with the new priest and her husband, went out to dinner and saw the new Star Trek movie. Overall it was enjoyable. Felt rushed at the beginning and weak on plot but I thought the new versions of the characters were pretty good. I especially liked the new Bones.

-Abby was up relatively early this morning.

-Off to the the Ohio BMV for a new drivers license. Service was surprisingly fast and friendly.

-No internet access at work and more detrimental to getting work done, no network server so I could not run my CAD software (network license) or access the main color printer.

-In the absents of real work progress:
--I made a stainless steel bushing for the clutch of my poor old lawn tractor
--I also fix a Co-worker's nephew's RC truck that has been sitting in my office for two months

-Left work early (since I was not getting any real work accomplished) and got a new set of Hankook tires put on the Element.

-Got home played with Abby when I could drag her away from the mother-in-law.

-Got Abby ready for bed and then washed bottles.

-Use above mentions stainless steel bushing and a few other parts to rebuild the failing clutch in my poor old lawn tractor.

-Cleaned all three guns from the 3-gun match. (Eugen Stoner is still a filthy engineer)

-Came upstairs to find an email stating that I have receive notice of award of my first Phase II program with the DoD (Army specifically) as PI!!!

-Abby is going to walk any day now. She has taken as many as three step on her own before converting back to linoleum lizard mode.

-The large aperture on a standard rear AR-15 battle sight does not work at 200 yards. This cost me second place at last weekend's three gun when I got a big fat zero on the long range rifle stage.

-My aunt is still using a broadcast TV signal, on a 46 inch 1080p capable TV. I installed the a new antenna to help boost reception of the new digital signal this weekend.

-I finished slogging through Charles Stross' Accelerando. It is a neat interpretation of the technological singularity. That said, my "Leave it to Beaver" childhood clashed severely with the painfully dysfunctional family that was the focus of the story. In addition my desire to shoot cats and drowned kitten was also accentuated, greatly. I can not recommend the book.

-The Ohio BMV does not send a reminder until after your driver's license has expired.

-The Element needs tires badly, almost 70K on the OEM ones. 215/70R16, any recommendations?

Great day today, got some sunburn, sweated a lot, and shot a match. I have shot three other matches this year with some of the stages outside but they were cold and rainy days. Today the weather was beautiful, a first this year. Hot, sunny and almost windy. You could tell my body was not ready for the heat I drank over 60oz of water and three 16oz Gatorades by the time I got home from the match.

It was my club's second outdoor match of the year. The first one was cold and raining so it was a steel match instead of a USPSA match; today was regular USPSA. It was a good solid match nothing to notable but the stages were good solid stages. Perfect for new shooters to get a good flavor of USPSA which was perfect since a co-worker came with me to give USPSA a try for the first time. For having only shot a firearm a handful of time previously and all in informal shooting sessions he did very good with the pressure of people watching and the timer running. Now I just have to get him to get his own gun. Nothing like turning your co-workers into "gun-nuts"

Abby got her first day outside yesterday. Grass sort of freaked her out and concrete almost as much. It was pretty funny though cause you could tell she was interest but sitting her down in the grass was just too much too quick. She would look around for few second and then practically jump back into your arms. Today she started on a blanket and got to explore onto the grass at her own pace and liked it a lot more.

She might have the making of being an engineer. Yesterday dad was working on his gas power leaf blower and I was holding her talking to him while he worked. She seem very interested in all the pieces parts and watching grandpa take it apart trying to figure out why it was not getting gas. She seemed to like the tools especially grandpa's cordless drill.

Well I finish this rambling post with two pictures of Abby.

Here she is helping me with my laundry.



Here she is after Na-na (GFWTR's mom) wore her out playing with her all afternoon without letting her taking a nap.

Yep, she was nine months old yesterday and today she was walking around with the help of a toddler walker. As you can see in the following very short video she still crawls faster than she walks.

Abby Walking with Walker (3MB WMV file)

Pretty amazing.

ETA: A picture for good measure.