Well, it’s a few minutes past midnight, and I’ve just finally got all three of my exams posted for my students to take online over the weekend … (I like giving take-home tests so that I don’t have to waste class time giving exams). I spent a long day at Samford working on the exams. I finally had to leave because it was starting to get dark, and I still had to bike home.

Tonight, Samford had a home football game against Southern Missouri. The game was going to be televised on ESPN-U. As I was biking up and over Shades Mountain, I caught a glimpse of the football stadium with all the Samford fans ready to cheer on the Bulldogs! I think I could actually here the band or something from about 1.5 miles away where I took this picture.

I came home to an empty house; no beautiful wife to kiss and no smiling baby to say “Daddy” and run over and expectantly hand me a Baby Einstein DVD. I sure miss my family tonight, but I’ll see them tomorrow up in Minnesota for Robyn’s wedding. I can’t wait!

Last Tuesday was Beverly’s (Brian’s mom) birthday, so Analise and I invited her to join us for a Babes in the Zoo class. There were about 15 kids from 6 months to 2 years old in a little classroom. A zoo person brought out different animals and gave the kids a chance to see them up close and touch them, if they wanted.

Analise wasn’t too keen on touching, but she did try to lean in and kiss several of the animals. (That’s what she likes to do to her stuffed animals, too.) We saw a chicken, a milk snake, a guinea pig, a fancy rat, and a llama.

Analise was most impressed with the tank of turtles, though. She preferred to stand and watch them, pointing and saying “OOOOooo!!! OOooo!” After our short class, we wandered around showing Grandma our favorite exhibits. It was fun!! We’re going to do another class in December, I think.

Today we moved to a new level of dexterity. Analise spent 5 minutes turning the TV on and off, now that she’s learned that the power botton is within her reach. It was quite fun to watch her learn the cause and effect of her pushing the button and the TV going off. This afternoon, she begged and cried to push buttons on the phone, so I let her while holding the phone to make sure she didn’t dial 9-1-1. Though that’ll be sometthing we want to teach her eventually!

My Einstien
My girl is a genius… that or a Baby Einstein addict. The other day we borrowed 2 new Einstien videos from the library. One was still in the VCR, though ejected. Analise had watched it earlier, but had been begging (by bringing me all her DVDs, one at a time) to watch another one. When Brian came home, she was over by the tV, handing him DVDs and videos, one at a time, and reaching up to the lower part of the tV. Then she reached up and pushed the video into the VCR, causing it to turn the TV on and start playing the movie. She was so excited, and we were so surprised, we couldn’t bear to dampen her fun by turning it off. So now, my little girl can turn on her own movies. Hmm. Not sure what I think of that…

Let me tell you about Brian’s unforgettable morning. He bikes 10 miles each way into work, and usually gets to class school by 7:30 in time to clean-up and change for his 8am class. This morning, though, he was running late. We’ve had one experiene, though, where he arrived at school, to find that he didn’t have pants. I got a frantic call to come quick, and I arrived with 5 minutes to spare so he was able to teach fully-clothed and on time. Now, he makes sure he has pants with him or a pair in his office.

This morning, he intentionally remembered that he’d left a pair of dress pants last friday in his office, so he didn’t need to take any. He left home a bit late and arrived at school at 8:00. While in the elevator, he startlingly realized he didn’t have keys to his office and the secretary – with the only other key to his office – doesn’t start her day until 8:30. He got off the elevator in full spandex bike clothes to find his 3 students waiting for him. He apologized for being late, and said, “It gets worse… I don’t have keys to my office, so I’m going to have to teach like this.”

Brian’s learned 2 lessons… leave earlier and double check both pants and keys:) I’m sure it was a memorable day for both Brian and his students. To top it all off, he’s overdue for a haircut, and so he had major bike helmet head with his hair all sticking up from the wind and helmet. What a day… I personally think it probably endeared his students to him even more:)

Well, we made it down here to Orange Beach, Alabama – and it was quite an interesting trip once we made it to the coast. VERY strong winds and blowing sand and heavy, heavy downpours. I’ve uploaded a video here of our drive east from Gulf Shores to Orange Beach on Alabama Hwy 182.

Watch our drive in a hurricane or Watch the heavy wind and rain

The picture below is the latest satellite (11:00PM). We are in the very bottomost part of Alabama on the Gulf Coast on the border with Florida as indicated in the picture. When we arrived a couple hours ago, I believe the last of the strong outer bands were blowing through.

Here is a view of a heavy downpour from our condo window. The wind was blowing the rain sideways at times, and it was coming down quite hard.