Mom's Obituary

My dear mother passed away apparently peacefully in her sleep on Sunday, November 19. I had the privilege of writing the bulk of her obituary, along with input from all of my siblings. You can read it here:

https://www.russonmortuary.com/obituaries/kathleen-plowman

Our Day Out with Ike 2023

On Saturday, we ventured to Nickelmania with our six-year-old nephew Ike for his annual birthday outing with Fun Aunt and Uncle. We had a great time!

Ike played car- and motorcycle-racing games, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jurassic Park, and several of the ticket games.

Altogether, we pooled over 2,000 tickets, so Ike walked away a very happy kid with this Minecraft sword (plus a few other goodies):

I got bonked on the head with it only once, which I would call a great success for this type of event.

Our Dinner with Kira 2023

Over the weekend, we took our 15-year-old niece Kira out to dinner for her birthday. A girl after our own hearts, she chose sushi. JB is a big fan and I am still learning, so off we ventured to our local Sushi Monster.

We enjoyed a delicious meal together. Even more, we enjoyed the adorable company. Kira is (and has been for many years) a great conversationalist. She's doing a lot of cool things in school and in her acting group at CenterPoint, and she's already got a driver's permit. So, look out folks.

Halloween 2023

Halloween! What a wonderful holiday, and one of my three favorite holidays of the year. (The other two are just around the corner now.)

JB and I ended up being a bit on the "Halloween Scrooge" side on the actual day of October 31 this year. We were out of toilet paper and eggs, so we couldn't vandalize our neighbors. We did, however, leave a bowl full of candy on the porch for trick-or-treaters—we're not maniacs, after all.

In the meantime, we stayed downstairs to watch a Halloween favorite, the 1985 cult comedy Clue (in case you were wondering). We ended up having a whopping total of four groups of trick-or-treaters come by. We were able to keep track of that number thanks to our new doorbell camera. Presumably, most of our neighbor kids got their trick-or-treating done at the Trunk-or-Treat the previous Friday.

We did dress up the kids, however, and chose a Star Wars theme. Because nerds. Leia became, well ... Princess Leia, while Wynnie (Eowyn) became Chewbacca:

It took a number of puppy treats to get even these few pics.

Our Day Out with Danny & Tanner

On Saturday, October 28, we took our eight- and six-year-old nephews, Danny and Tanner, on their birthday outing with Fun Aunt and Uncle. They chose Nickelmania, and we were more than happy to spend some time with them there.

JB and I split up, so that way we could do more damage. JB went off to play games with Tanner, while I accompanied Danny. Danny especially loved the motorcycle racing game (but then again, all the boys do), four-player Pac-Man, and the new-ish Space Invaders game (the one with which you shoot cannons at the screen).

Our combined ticket totals turned into these prizes:

Being the Fun Aunt and Uncle is a blast, and this outing was no exception. Who's up next? My loyal three readers will just have to wait and see.

Improvables: Fifteenth Annual Halloween Show

On the heels of the Trunk-or-Treat (later that same night) was my troupe's annual Halloween show at Bountiful Davis Art Center. This always brings out the dedicated fans as well as all of the weirdos, but I can't tell those two groups apart. And that's exactly how we love it to be.

I remained dressed up as Thor and MC'd the show. I was joined on stage by Brady (Waldo), Erica (Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare before Christmas), JoJo (wolfman), Keenan (one of the Peter Parkers from the Spider-verse), Matt (the Bride from Kill Bill), Parker (some Nordic warrior video game character whose name I kept forgetting), Tanner (peanut butter sandwich), and Tyler (Moon Knight), with Willis (some kind of demon) on the piano.

We had a ball, but that's how improv always is. The night's game list included "Advice Panel," "Dueling Plays," "Film Noir," "Mumbling Movie Murder Mystery," "Predictive Text Song," "Replay at Bernie's," "Tombstone," and other favorites.

I think the headline "Improv Show Enjoyed by All" speaks for itself. Come and check out a show for yourself if you haven't done so before now!

Trunk-or-Treat 2023

We had a heckuva great Halloween this year. It began for us last week on Friday, October 27, with our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat activity. I dressed up as Fat Thor, aka Thor as he appears in the fourth Avengers movie, Endgame. JB chipped in by decorating our car's trunk for the occasion.

First, dinner was served in the cultural hall. There were a number of delicious soups and chilis to choose from, as well as homemade root beer and water to drink. The Primary kids also put on a costume parade on the stage.

The actual trunk-or-treating part was a blast, with a number of neighborhood kids (members of our church along with non-members) stopping by to pick up candy.

Among the other costumes worn was our Bishop's "Fishers of Men" ensemble:

I love it when a ward goes all out for things like this, and ours is no exception.