Crosswalks to Nowhere

We went Apple picking at a new place this year, More Than Delicious Orchard in Woodstock.

This is a great little place that is much more manageable and less crowded than many of the other orchards we've tried over the years.

Our trunk was filled with a half-bushel of Cortland, Red and Golden Delicious, and Connell Red.

Good stuff!

This past weekend was the Second Annual Crazy Apple Daze Festival in Lisa's home town.

Okay, it was a family get-together where everyone pitches in we make apple butter.

Apple butter, for those of you who aren't familiar with the concept (I wasn't until a couple years ago) has lots of apples and no butter in it. Basically, it's a whole bunch of apples cooked over an open fire for about 6 hours until it boils down to an essence that an only be described as "supremely apple."

In the photo above, you can see how two bushels of apples look at the onset of the process.

This is what the apples look like after about 2 and a half hours of cooking and stirring...

and here's the product that finally winds up being canned, six hours later.

You can see a video of this entire process by checking out the Cheap Date Show and look for the October 16 episode. (iTunes users: you can subscribe by clicking here, and each new episode will automagically download to your computer when it's ready.)

Next year, we'll do it all over again...

Last weekend Rolling Meadows has its Homecoming festivities.

The Mustangs lost their varsity game on Friday night to Buffalo Grove (10-12) but this was their first loss of the season. Next weekend, they face Hersey.

Rebecca went to the dance with a bunch of friends and had a very nice time. She was a little bleary-eyed when I picked her up Sunday morning after she slept over at a friend's house. :-)

Last night, the Rolling Meadows Mustangs defeated the Niles Notre Dame Dons 37-0. It was quite a game.

Next weekend, the Mustangs move on to play Lake Zurich on their turf. Let's see if RMHS can keep the momentum going!

The photos say it all.

The bottom photo shows just how cool my wife is. :-)