On Monday, Oct. 12, I made a bit of a mad dash to pick up Ryan from Larry and Joyce. Ryan and I were both still sick, but definitely better. I signed Ryan up for a taekwondo program offered through Ryan's school. The 12th was the first day of TKD class, and I didn't want Ryan to miss it.
 I got Ryan to school just in time!
 Unfortunately, parents aren't allowed in to watch for the first couple of weeks, as the kiddos would just be looking at their parents instead of paying attention to their instructors. I was told though that Ryan did really well. Later, Ryan told me he liked taekwondo. I'm excited to finally have him in a TKD program.
 Saturday, Oct. 17, my dad and Ryan and I thought we'd go to the airshow at Edwards Air Force Base (my mom wasn't feeling well enough to go). The base hadn't had an airshow in three years. I'd never been to an airshow with actual live performances. Of course since Ryan loves airplanes, he was excited to go, too.
 Dad told me the south gate of the base was closed, leaving just the west gate and the north gates open. Edwards is HUGE as far as land goes. The west gate is in Rosamond, the north gate is in Boron! I contemplated seeing if the south gate would be open to ID card holders, but if that gate was closed to everyone, it would have been pretty far out of the way to go to another gate.
 We stopped to get gas first, and the gas station attendant told us people had come through there at 4am just to be at the airshow when the gates opened at 7am (the airshow started at 10am). I thought that was ridiculous... until we saw that traffic was backed up on the freeway three miles outside of Rosamond. Luckily, my dad told me to exit the freeway and we took a major surface street to get past the traffic jam.
 We were cruising along pretty well for a little while. Then we hit the standstill. We were still quite a ways outside the base's west gate when traffic came to a stop. We figured once we got onto the base, it would let up. An hour later, we discovered we were wrong. By this time, we'd been in the car about an hour and a half. Ryan was starting to get hungry. I hadn't brought any snacks, because it usually only takes about half an hour to get to Edwards from our house.
 My dad looked at the line of traffic we were in and said it would take about an hour to get to the top of the next hill. I thought, "No way." An hour later, I realized he had been right. I thought if we got to the top of that hill and could look out and see if things let up, then maybe we could still stick it out. A little after 10 am, we could see part of the Tora Tora Tora performance in the far distance. It was a tease of what we were missing.
 It was starting to get to that point where I didn't want to waste the time we'd already spent in the car, but with Ryan not getting any less hungry, and with not knowing how much longer we had to go, it was also starting to get ridiculous to stay. We got to the top of that hill and saw another line of traffic with no end in sight. Even if we got to the bottom of the hill, we still would have had to have parked, then taken a tram to the flight line. Once there, it was obvious it was going to be insanely crowded.
 Finally at about 11:15 am - two hours and fifteen minutes of being in the car - we decided to turn around and make our escape. We were all really disappointed. We wound up getting some lunch at Tom's #28 Diner in Rosamond.
 The next day's adventure went a lot better. My dad and Ryan and I wanted to get out, so we went to the Renaissance Faire at the California City Park. It was a beautiful day out, and the vibe was relaxed and mellow. The faire was just the right size and not all that crowded. The Cal City park is beautiful.
 We watched some people fencing, then walked around looking at the various booths and their wares. There was a booth where kiddos could do crafts and paint ceramics. Ryan picked out a small angel and painted it bright blue, red, and dark blue. They couldn't fire it there, but did spray it with a sealant.
 Ryan was enchanted with a booth where people on opposing sides used sling shots to fling water balloons at each other. Ryan really wanted to do it, but since there wasn't anyone there to fling them to at that time, we passed. (Later on we watched as a large family duked it out. Ryan loved it, though it just made him want to do it that much more.)
 We didn't stay too long, just long enough to walk around and see everything. We've all had whatever bug is going around. Even though we're mostly better, the bug is lingering and we still weren't at 100%. It was great to get out though. I love the big Ren Faire down at the Santa Fe springs recreation area, but it was nice to be at a much smaller, low key event.
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 As many of you might know, we have an overabundance of cats in our back yard - about half of which are feral. Last year we borrowed traps from Forgotten Angels and took nine cats down to FixNation in Burbank. FixNation is an amazing organization that spays and neuters - FOR FREE. They also give vaccines and pain medication to the cats - FOR FREE. This is incredible, considering I spent about $226 a few months ago to spay ONE cat (and get her shots). I don't even want to think about how much it would have cost to get three males and six females spayed, neutered, and vaccinated. At that time, I donated some money to FixNation to help support the wonderful work they do. (Thank you to Aunt Jean, who donated last year as well!)
 We had our cat population under control, until our next door neighbors moved out and abandoned two pregnant cats. One had her litter in our yard. The mom was feral, and the moment we tried to pick up her kittens she moved them and we haven't seen her or any of her kittens since. The other mom was pretty friendly (she's the one I wound up having spayed locally - and paying out the wazoo for), but we didn't know where her kittens were and she didn't bring them to us until it was too late and they were feral. There were four kittens. One disappeared, two are male, and one is female. We definitely did not want any more kittens, so we made another pilgrimage to FixNation. Monday morning I took the female and one male (we just couldn't catch the other male) down to FixNation. By the afternoon, the kitties were done and were in good condition.
 I urge anyone with feral cats living anywhere near Burbank to help the cat overpopulation by taking those cats to FixNation. I also urge anyone who can (I know everyone is hurting money-wise these days) to donate to FixNation. They are a very worthy cause, and they do a great service. Thanks!
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 Just this last Tuesday, Ryan's school had a field trip to the local pumpkin patch. (This is the same one the preschool went to last year.) Parents were invited along. The kiddos rode the bus from school. It was the first time Ryan rode a bus by himself (well, without any parentals or family). Last year it had been really cold. This year it was quite nice.
 The event started with a story, then the kiddos got to hold and touch various gourds and types of pumpkins and squash. From there it was on to the petting zoo. There were rabbits (I can't believe how docile they were), goats, and chickens. Ryan pet the rabbits, fed the goats, and chased the chickens.
 After that is was off to the rides. They had a couple of little carnival type rides that of course Ryan enjoyed. But the best was the bouncy slide. That was definitely Ryan's favorite - and mine! The adults got into the act, and we had a blast climbing up and sliding down! That's quite a workout!
 On the way to lunch on hay bales, each kiddo got to pick out a miniature pumpkin. Ryan managed to find the smallest one there. It's really cute, and fit in the palm of Ryan's hand.
 Goodie bags were passed out, lunch was eaten, then it was time to go. It was a very enjoyable outing.
 This weekend I'd like to take Ryan out to the pumpkin patch at Lombardi Ranch. I've heard it's a good one.
 Below is a slide show of our various recent adventures. Click on it to view online as a web album, and to see bigger versions of the photos. Enjoy!

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