Cyrus and Emily Rackliff

I’ve added a few photos to my Flickr set (watch a slideshow here). My cousin Audrey scanned ‘em in and my cousin Tina posted them. I love looking at these photos of relatives I’ve always heard stories about but never before seen. Plus, seeing grandpa again is very moving for me. I sure do miss him. Smartest man I ever knew.

My friend Patty Talahongva originally posted this on Facebook and it made me smile. Laurel and Hardy vs. The Gap Band

Here’s a Homecoming Dance photo you don’t see every day. This is a shot of Katie and her friends at laser tag — still in their gowns — after Eastview High School’s Homecoming Dance Saturday night. I’m pretty sure Jesse Ventura just let out a high-pitched squeal and piddled a little in his Navy Seal boots looking at this picture. Nice job, ladies. By the way, the president is on the line. He has a mission for you. This blog post will self-destruct in 10 seconds…

Fire in the hole!

The god of fire has been generous this season. Picked all of these habs from one plant this afternoon (and there are still about this many chilies left unpicked). Guess I’d better start chopping them up in everything. Pass the ice cream.

Ahhhhhhhh. The wings. They are so hottttttt.

A little over a week to the Ghost Wing Challenge Tournament of Champions. That’s right, Oct. 5 at Girvan Grille will be an all-you-can-eat wing contest for the hardy souls who have conquered the ghosts and proudly wear the T-shirt (and scars) to prove it. Ready, @garciasn? Josh? @dbayn? My mouth is already watering.

I am having some issues with the WordPress-to-Twitter app I’m using so I’m trying a different URL-shortener in the settings. Ignore this post. Come on, I dare you.

UPDATE: Success. It was an issue with bit.ly, apparently. All better

Here is a slide show of Katie and her friends (and family) before the big dance tonight.

OK, I’ve made you wait long enough. Here is Laurie’s basket. I really like the shape of this one: wide at the top and tapered to the bottom. The picture makes it look shorter than it actually is, but you get the idea.

Ain't it pretty?

Here is a Cherokee double-wall basket I made this evening for our American Indian Education program at school. My friend, Clarine Packineau, one of the women who runs the program, bought the reeds a while back and asked me to make a basket from them so we could sell it the next time we do a fund-raiser. I really like the colors Clarine picked out and think they work well together in this basket.  They’re also thinner than the reeds I usually use (I’d guess they’re a #1 or #2 reed). I had just enough reed to make this basket (a stray weaver or two of each color left), so I guess it’s true what they say: every basket finds its shape and size as you make it.

Laurie is also making a basket using the bigger #4 reed. It’ll be white, since we didn’t have any in the black walnut dye when we decided to make baskets today.

Remember, you can find directions for making these baskets on our web site. Part of the deal when my cousin, Eric, taught us to make these was that we would pass the knowledge along.

Sisters forever

As promised, here is a picture of Katie and Jesse before Katie’s Homecoming dance. Jesse wanted me to point out that she is all made-up because she and Allie were in the middle of a “weird makeover” downstairs when I called her up for pictures. Right.