Scallop skewers

Scallop skewers
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

For some reason I felt like cooking when I was back home so one night I made these Curried Scallop Kebabs. They turned out quite well for a first try.

River Walk

Mom and Bleys
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Back in Big Rapids mom and I took a walk on the now completed River Walk. I think its been done for a while, but I haven't seen it so it was new to me. It was a very nice walk and here near the end we saw some brave tubers (it was a little on the chilly side that day) getting into the water. You may not be aware, but Big Rapids is the tubing capital of Michigan. Impressed, aren't you?

Partay

Friends
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

There was, of course, the obligatory shin-dig at Jason's house. In this case it was a hoppin' fifth of July party. There was good food, melted chocolate, Henry's homebrew, and some guitar hero. Who could ask for more?

Foot prints

After North Muskegon we ventured over to Big Rapids to visit my family. It was nice to bed home and to see their freshly redone bathroom. They installed this cool faux skylight thing called a Sun Tunnel, that lets in a ton of natural light. One of the days we were in Big Rapids we turned right around and went back to the North Muskegon beach with my mom. We had a nice lunch and then walked along the beach for a while. The temperature was on the chilly side so all we really did was get our feet wet. Shortly after we got there the weather turned threatening so we only stayed for a while. Good thing, as just as soon as we got back to the car there was an absolute downpour.

Adventure

We also spent quite a bit of time over at the Wiles' house, hanging out, chatting, and playing some Guitar Hero. Once we took Bleys over...Adventure wasn't sure about that. Although very bold, walking right over and sniffing Bleys nose to nose. There was only one hissing incident, which was warranted because Bleys has a tendency to forget that Adventure is a cat and hence doesn't want to play in a dog type fashion. You may notice in the picture that Adventure has just been shaved. Being a long haired cat, it seems to make a big difference in the summer.

Pool Party

Another evening in North Muskegon we invited people over for a nice afternoon at Roland's parents' house. They have a pool and a grill, so it makes for a fun time, especially now that many of our friends have kids. One of the highlights was when Mila, our niece, discovered Bleys' crate. She decided that it was just about her size. There are some more pictures of her adventures with the crate including one where she tries to get in the crate with Bleys already in it. It was awesome.

Norman Rockwell at Jimmies

Our next stop was North Muskegon to visit Roland's family and many of our friends. It turns out that Erin, Laura's sister just opened an ice cream shop near by. Of course we had to stop by and see what it was all about. I managed to snap this picture, which I think looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. Behind the counter is Laura, who was working in order to give Erin the day off since it was her birthday. Jimmies has all sorts of ice cream options (both hard and soft serve) burgers that are cooked to order, and a cool potato spiral thingy which was good. So if you find yourself in Whitehall stop by for a sweet treat!

Readyyyyyyy

Our next trek took us to Hastings, Michigan for our first U-Fli event. We mostly just wanted to check it out and have a little fun. We ran singles on Friday night and with a pick up team on Saturday. The other team members were mostly from Overdogs, but we did race once with a Rude Dog named Melee. Everyone there was very nice, totally welcoming, and it was a great time. Bleys was the height dog and measured at 6" (which is the lowest height available and quite a bit lower than he runs in NAFA). Bleys earned his Top Flight title and got a sweet squeaky toy out of the deal. The racing situation was a little different than Florida with the crating outside. But it did make the racing arena a little quieter...not a lot, mind you, but a little. Most teams camped out in RVs right at the site and used those as their crating area. We set up in an open pole barn across from the racing building. It was just fine, but I would imagine it might get a little hot sometimes. My Mom even stopped by for a while to check it out. It was really nice to have her see it!

Baroo

While in Kalamazoo we stayed with Jason who allowed us to crash his place whenever we needed to. He has a nice big back yard which Bleys really appreciated. He got to run around a lot more than he does down here. There is a fun picture over at Flickr of him running. He's a little blurry, but I just feel like he was having a really good time after two days in the car. Here he discovers that Roland is up on the deck.

For Dr. J

Our first stop in Michigan was Kalamazoo. We took this picture to put Dr. J's mind at rest...there really is a Kalamazoo. :) We got a chance to visit with Jason, take a trip to campus and see all the changes, some good, some sad. They've shut down the awesome old school bowling alley in the Bernhard Center where I took bowling as one of my gym credits (hey, you've got have something fun when your other classes involve biology, chemistry, and physics). It is now "Textbook Alley" where they store all of the textbooks for sale.

Puppy Flies with Friends

Yesterday went really well. Our team didn't do very well in the tournament, but because it was a pick-up team anyhow it didn't really matter. I think given a little practice we could have done much better. As it was Bleys ended up running anchor because he was a little spooked by the other dog running at him. We ran with an Irish Setter named Story, a small Border Collie name Whispie, and a Australian Cattle Dog named Nora.

Bleys did earn enough points to get his Top Flight title, but he was more interested in the squeeky toy he got for running on a team. The people were very nice again and very laid back about things. This was good because there wasn't much stress about things, but since everyone (including the judges) were pretty laid back it meant that racing went at least an hour longer than it would have if it had been more controlled. The judges we have in Florida keep things rolling right along and even shorten the warmups to 1 minutes after everyone has had a chance to get at least one 2 minutes warmup. I think people in Florida tend to complain a bit about the strict judging, but I really appreciate it! The lights we had even had a timer in them. The judge could just push a button twice and there were two minutes counting down for everyone to clearly see. I liked that, but I would miss being able to see how fast the dog doing the warm up was. A trade off I suppose. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad that I got a chance to do it.

Puppy Flies

We're all in Hastings this evening. We drove up today and participated in our first U-Fli singles event. It was interesting. There weren't very many entrys, I think between the singles and the pairs there were only 10 or so. Everyone there was extremely nice and helpful. A fellow just came up and ball shagged for me without any prompting. The event is being held at the Barry Expo Center which turns out to be a fair ground type place. There are 6 buildings that aren't really enclosed fully - sort of barn-ish and a lot of RV parking/camping. There is also a race track for those horse cart thingys. It looks like most all of the teams camp out right there, which makes sense because there aren't many motels nearby.

I still haven't met any of the people from the pick-up team since none of them signed up for singles or pairs. I hope that things go well and Bleys catches some balls tomorrow!

Update

Greetings from Michigan! Roland and I arrived yesterday at Jason's place in Kalamazoo. We started out on Friday taking a couple days in Orlando for a flyball tournament. Then we continued our trek on Sunday evening, finally arriving yesterday afternoon. It was a nice drive and we had a good time (although I think the puppy could do without two days of enforced confinement).

Bleys did very well at the tournament getting a shiney new title to add to his collection. He now has his FDCh (Flyball Dog Champion), which is awesome. Again it was thanks to everyone on the team who makes allowances for his speed that he gets any points at all. He did end up catching a couple balls outright which was great, and a little surprising. His time when he doesn't catch the ball is around 9 seconds, but when he caught it, he ran the course in 7.6 seconds! Go speed puppy, go! I think most everyone had a good time and we certainly did a lot of laughing.

We are staying here in K-Zoo until Friday when we will be driving up to Hastings. Why Hastings? We are going to try out a U-Fli flyball tournament. We are going to run singles (Bleys just running by himself - no team) on Friday night and I found a pick-up team for Saturday. There is also a qualifying event going on on Saturday which means we'll get to seem to smokin' fast teams. Hopefully it will be fun!

Stay

While I was in Big Rapids I also got a chance to visit with the Grants. Susan and my Mom are good friends, she is a local judge and Don is retired. In college I used to house sit for them while they went on vacation in the summer, tending to their dogs (at the time two corgis) and keeping an eye on the joint. A number of years later, while I was working for the Humane Society of Kent County, they were looking for a dog to add to their family (they also have a retired greyhound named Maggie) and I found Bailey for them. Now they have a third rescue named Guinney (which she pronounces like Gwinny). Here is a picture of the two little ones, with Bailey on the left and Guinney on the right. It isn't the best picture ever, but as Don said, taking a picture of the two of them is like herding cats. Guinney has some issues to overcome, I think she was an entirely outdoor dog and consequently has very little idea about what humans are about. But she sure is cute!

Home

Speaking of my parents house, here is a picture I took of it...this was one of the reasons I had so much snow on my shoes in the previous post. They recently had new windows installed and the whole exterior of the house repainted. The color is very similar to what they had before, but there is a little less yellow in it. I was ready to be skeptical, but I like it better than what was there before. They also had their deck redone in that not-wood-but-looks-like-wood stuff. It looks a little different now, as they did away with the built in bench, but other than that it is very similar to the old one. It looks very nice, but visiting in the winter meant that I didn't spend a lot of time enjoying it.

I pretty much just walked across it to get to the wood shed for fuel for the fire.

Now that I think about it my parents are redoing a lot of stuff about the house. But I suppose they didn't really do much to the house for so long that many things needed attending to. I think this was the first time they had repainted since the house was built 30+ years ago. The deck was only slight younger (and was getting a little unsafe, with rotting boards), and some of the interior did scream 70's decor. Before they redid the kitchen awhile ago, we did, in fact, have Brady Bunch orange counters.

Where's that propane torch?

After visiting for while in North Muskegon, my Mom came over and drove me back to Big Rapids. It was really nice to go home. Although I don't have my room anymore (my Mom made it into a really neat library/den) my sister and I are rarely at home at the same time so we sort of time share what was her room. My parents are in the process of making choices about how to remodel their bathroom, flooring, vanity, fixtures. And I got to add in my opinion. I think what they have chosen will look really nice and be very different from what they have now (which is a good thing - this bathroom hasn't been touched in over 30 years). As a bit of a bonus not long after I arrived it snowed! Not a lot, but more came later. Although what came later was more of a sleet so that wasn't nearly as fun.

There were a couple of days where I was home alone for the day while my parents were working and I wasn't driving to visit anyone. Since it was conveniently snowy and cold outside and there was this fireplace all handy, I took the opportunity to have a couple of all day fires. My Dad has a nice wood shed out behind the garage and apparently they haven't been having very many fires because it's on the full side. I used up a bit of it, but I didn't really make a dent in the total. There is just something about a fire...and maybe a cup of cocoa along with it. It was so nice to light it and sit in front of it all day doing a puzzle. Very comforting.

Velveeeeta

Another evening I was in North Muskegon Ryan and Laura drafted Ryan's mother to babysit Jackson, and Jason was totally awesome and drove up from Kalamazoo. We went out for dinner to at the BLT (where they have the largest crab legs I've ever laid eyes on), and then went back to the Wiles' house. We enjoyed some margaritas and played a couple rounds of Spite and Malice. Ryan was super fantastic and kept a fire going for a long time, which Laura and I really liked.

Here you can see Ryan, Jason, and Laura (after some beverages) while we partake in some Euchre playing fun. And get this, Jason and I actually won one game (perhaps Ryan and Laura were just taking it easy on us?). It was so nice to hang out with my friends, but it makes me appreciate how much I miss them now that I am back in Florida.

Cookie!

Another good thing about staying in North Muskegon is that Ryan and Laura live there now. They have a very nice house not too far from the Clevelands...although, if two people both live in North Muskegon, then no matter what they aren't too far from each other. Anyway, one evening while I was in there Mrs. Cleveland let me borrow her car and Ryan, Laura, Jackson and I all went out to dinner. It was quite an adventure and afterwards, we went over to a place called the Grand Traverse Pie Company. This place wasn't there when I lived there, and what a shame. All those desserts! Laura went for some pie, while Jackson picked a sugar cookie, and Ryan and I opted for chocolate chip cookies. I don't know about the pie or the sugar cookie, but the chocolate chip cookie was delicious. It was a lovely evening and Jackson was very patient when dinner took much longer than expected and he was still adjusting to the time change. He is also in a stage where he talks pretty much non-stop. You don't really even have to be listening, he will just keep on going. And some of the stuff he says is pretty hilarious. All in all an adorable 3 year old. There is another picture of Jackson and one of the Wiles' cat, Adventure in my Flickr account.

A little later Jackson was getting ready for bed and I caught Laura unaware with the monochrome filter. I'm not sure what she's thinking about, and the picture quality isn't the best, but I like this shot. Probably because Laura is always such a bubbly and fun person it is interesting to see her both in a quiet moment and without color.

There is one big down side to visiting with Laura, I remember just how much I miss her.

Snuggler

Here is a picture of my niece Mila. I took this while I was up in Michigan and staying at the Cleveland abode. Here she is snuggling with Mrs. Cleveland, isn't she adorable? Marcie is just waiting for her hair to grow in a bit so that she looks more clearly female, but I think she's super cute. She is only 9 months and already cruising around the house. But her legs aren't quite ready to hold her up yet so she takes a lot of spills. She seems to take them in stride though, maybe it's all the padding from the diaper.

Just stay between the green lines

We have returned. We spent a lovely week at Disney World soaking up the Food and Wine Festival. Jason came down to join us (woot!) and this year we actually participated in some of the events rather than just eating ourselves around the world. Although, we did eat ourselves around the world a good three time...just to make sure we got everything. As an added bonus Dave's parents flew down on Thursday for a vacation of their own so we got to see them as well. They are actually flying back on Wednesday, when I fly up to Michigan and they are going to meet me at the airport and drive me back to Muskegon with them. Then I'm going to spend some time with Dave's fam and my Mom is going to come pick me up there on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing how much Mila has grown and hopefully I'll be able to spend a little time with Ryan and Laura while I'm in North Muskegon. Then I will be in Big Rapids and with a little luck will be able to borrow a car to be able to drive to see Henry and Katie in Grand Rapids, and down to Kalamazoo to see Jason and get back Roland's coat that he left there over a year ago (not much need for a winter jacket here in Florida). Who know's maybe I'll even get to see Shannon and Ronda!

Anyhow, there will be more posts about the Food and Wine Festival soon, along with some pictures!

It's snowing

Welp, here I am back in Michigan. I got into Detroit yesterday afternoon and drove over here to Muskegon and am currently staying at Roland's parents house. I only rented a car for the drive over so now I'm vehicle-free. It's pretty weird. Although Marcie's car is here and I'm pretty sure I could borrow it an any time. I think adding to the weirdness is my lack of anything I need to do. I don't need to clean up the apartment, do laundry, or anything. And most especially I don't need to take care of the dog. Being back in Florida with Roland, I can't take him for a walk, or brush out the mats behind his ears, or brush his teeth, or Dremel his nails, or any of the other stuff that goes into taking care of him. Today he is due for another Advantage (flea drop) treatment, but I can't do that either. Weird.

Also in this morning's weird files is being here. It's a little weird to be hanging out at Roland's parents house indefinitely. I get along with and love Roland's parents, but it's still...odd. I'm also struggling with baby-daddy. Apparently he is currently out of commission with a miserable cold, so I have a little time to get my self together, but man does my temper want to vent on him some. It's getting harder and harder to separate the boy from the behavior. Anywho, I'm about to go see what I can do about emptying the dishwasher because hey, that something I can do around here to feel useful.

and 1

Ahhhhh...I'm sitting at Jason's house relaxing. We arrived yesterday afternoon so Roland could have some quiet time for grading. He is now finished...he stayed up until 4 in the morning to do it, but he's finished. So he is sleeping in a bit this morning/afternoon to make up for his late night. So I'm sitting in Jason's basement watching Galaxy Quest on his sweet new TV.

Tuesday was Roland's birthday and we went to Grand Rapids in the late afternoon to meet people at Buffalo Wild Wings. We weren't sure who would be showing up but it turned out to be quite a few. Jason came, although Jocelin was still in New York so we missed her. Katie and Henry came with Charlotte (who totally loved the wings and beer ;), along with Jennifer and Brian. But the people that absolutely made my year were Kate and Joe Leggett and Veronica and Joe.

I went to high school with Kate and Joe. Kate was in my year while Joe is a little younger. Kate and I played soccer together and both went to Western, then ended up as roommates for a while. Then in 2003 we took a wee vacation to Disney World together (where I learned that Kate talks and sometimes yells at her books, when they suck). I'm sure we used to tease Joe a bunch but now he's tall, dark, and handsome so he got the last laugh there. Although apparently he has a little trouble with sunglasses.

Veronica and Joe I used to work with and the Humane Society. Now she is working at K-College and he is an Animal Control Officer with Kent County Animal Control. They also bought our house when we left for Florida. They are a coupla crazy kids and I miss them a great deal.

We stayed at B-Dubs for three hours or so and then meandered off to Henry and Katie's house for afters. Although we may have lost our way a bit and ended up at Cold Stone Creamery first (oops). Then we stayed there for a few more hours chatting and generally catching up. As a total bonus Ryan and Laura showed up at the house. They were busy all day moving a bunch of stuff to their new house in North Muskegon. It was just awesome that after a day of moving heavy stuff they drove to GR (hardcore).

Hopefully as many of those people as possible will be able to come to New Years. I'm not sure how many will be able to though. I guess Charlotte is not so keen on taking a bottle, which means that Katie can't drink which is a mega bummer. Especially since she hasn't had any of that kind of fun for like 11 months now. I wouldn't be nearly as accommodating about it as she has been with Henry. If I was having a kid I would probably cut Roland off from pretty much all alcohol until I could join him again. I think it would be totally infuriating to watch him along with everyone else have a rollicking good time while I had to feed the baby and probably drive home because I was the only sober one. I think not. Logical? No, as a matter of fact it isn't. Why do you ask?

It's his party!

As I mentioned in an earlier post we got to attend Jackson's 2nd birthday party. He was adorable and I got a few good pictures of the festivities.

Jackson couldn't quite figure out how to get the sit and spin to actually sping so Laura ended up doing all the work.


Jackson trying to get into one of his gifts, he's still working on that whole fine motor coordination thing so he got a little help on most of the gifts.


Next was a sequence of three pictures showing the triumph of opening a card, and discovering money!




I also got a nice video of Jackson and his cake. Jackson is a very neat little boy who doesn't really like to be dirty at all (including getting cake on his hands). So, if you listen to the sound you can hear Nathan (Ryan's brother) egging Jackson on to dive into his cake headfirst and making fun of him when he won't do it.

Jig

Back in Big Rapids again, I've been pretty busy. Yesterday morning Mom and I made Pfeffernüsse which was awesome. I really missed making them with her last year, and since a whole recipe takes two and a half hours to make it's nice to have someone to make them with. Then yesterday evening we went over to church so Dad could show me all the cool stuff that has been added to the organ. It sounds really nice and has a lot of cool new stops (both actual pipe and electronic). I was especially excited to go over there when the church was empty so I could hear the organ without any people messing with the acoustics. Very nice. It still amazes me when my Dad (or anyone for that matter) plays a pipe organ full out. Seriously, four keyboards and your feet too?

Thanksmas 2006

Thanksmas - A party in Pictures

There were good times:

Henry wins!


Erin gladly offers...something...to someone.


There were bad times:

Bad beer?


Erin and I agree, something's not right.


There were even some very serious moments:

Carlson and Henry listening.


Did someone drug me or what?


But mostly there were a lot of good friends:

Look at all the babies!


Henry and Laura pose.


Oh, and of course taking pictures of Roland while he is eating. Some traditions never die.

Mug lately?

Swoop

Since my last post we've had two family Christmases (both on Roland's side of the family), spent a week in Muskegon, been to Jackson's (Ryan and Laura's son) second birthday party, did some shopping with my mom and Roland's mom, had dinner with Jason and Jocelin, had dinner with Chad and Christina, and met their beautiful daughter Kaylee. It's been pretty busy and I ended up going to sleep around 10:00 last night because I was so tired. I have a bunch of pictures to post, so hopefully I can get those ready soon. I don't usually use Roland's laptop for that stuff so I think I'm going to have to download some software so my camera dock will work with it.

Yesterday was the Cleveland Grandparents Christmas and it was a full house. With all the adults plus six little ones now the house ended up at around a million degrees inside. It was fun and a bit hectic. Afterwards we got to see Chad, Christina, and Kaylee. Kaylee is a very happy little girl and it was awesome to see the Martin's for a while. I really miss everyone here.

Skeletons

I have officially been rocked. The Sk88 show on Friday was awesome and I had a really good time. I really dig some of their tunes (usually the ones Anne sings are my favorites) and their cover of Don't Take Your Guns to Town is awesome. I just wish I could be one tenth as cool as Anne. It was kind of a bummer that we couldn't stay for the Burning Bushes (who I've never actually gotten to see), but by the time Sk88 finished it was already 1 and we still had to drive back to Big Rapids so we could leave from there the next morning to get to Muskegon for Marcie's baby shower.

The shower went very well and I had a good time. We had all the awesome shower/open house type food; little potato roll sandwiches, pasta salad, chips/vegetables and Mom's-super-awesome-dill-dip, and whatnot. The cake was delicious and the people seemed to be having a good time. Then today we had the Bollenbach (Dave's Mom's side) Christmas get together. It was orginally planned for next Saturday, but it turns out Dave's cousin April is gratuating from Western that day (go April!). It was a pretty full house at somewhere around 20 people with a scruptious meal involving Grandma Bettie's dumplings. We have the next week to hang out here in Muskegon and then we have the Cleveland (Dave's Dad's side) Christmas next Sunday. I'm hoping that we will be able to get ahold of Chad this week so we can see him and his family. Ooh and maybe we can sneak in another time to see Laura and Ryan.

McAvery and Eli-Eli-O

Yesterday I way lucky enough to visit with Shannon. It was really really really nice. We pretty much just sat around, played around with the twins, and talked. I don't think I can express how much I've missed having friends to just sit around and talk with. Ooh and Shannon made this awesome tea. It was gingerbread tea and then she added some French vanilla creamer and some sugar and it tasted like a liquid cookie. I'm gonna have to get me some of that! Then maybe I'll leave whatever is left over with my parents or something since I don't have much use for hot beverages in Florida.

Merpy Thanksmas!

Since most who read this blog read the rest of the blog-tet you probably already know that Thanksmas was a huge success. We had a large turnout and it was fantastic to see everyone. The turkey was delectable since Roland made it and Jocelin's casserole's were awesome. I especially liked the pineapple/cinnamon one. I tried to make some rolls, but they turned out all wierd so we didn't use them.

I've got a gal

The craziness continues, we have moved on to Kalamazoo. In the ongoing seeing people mission we also got to visit with the Bakers and their new daughter Charlotte. It was really neat to see them and meet their little girl. She mostly just slept, ate, and then slept some more, but really what do you expect from a 3 week old? She was super cute doing it though! Katie brought up going to get some food, but unfortunately due to a bit of bad planning on our part we needed to get back to Muskegon to let the dog out. It sounds like they are going to come to at least part of Thankmas so that will be awesome.

We are now camped out at Jason's house. We got here mid-afternoon and I took a much needed nap. Then when Jason got home from work we went out to dinner at Bilbo's. It was good as usual. Now we are hanging out in his super awesome bachelor pad basement playing pool and Foosball. We are looking forward to Thanksmas and hoping that the weather doesn't wreak havoc with people's plans.

ShooShoo and Aaave

We've been doing well at seeing people. Monday Roland's brother had a rockin' good poker tourney which Roland won (I made the rule that he had to spend the winnings on more Christmas presents for me). Tuesday we had lunch with Roland's grandparents and then I went over to the humane society to pick up the tooth scaler and Oravet for Bleys. While I was there I got to see a buncha people who I used to work with. It was especially nice to see Doc, and I'm hoping there is a way I can get back to see her again. Then for dinner we went over to Ryan and Laura's house. That was really really really nice. The dinner was delicious and super impressive since we only put this shindig together on Monday (way to go Laura). We got to see Jackson who is just about 2 years old and really starting to have a personality. After he went to bed we played cards and just sat around and talked. It was a very good time, but made me miss what we've left behind.

Royale

We have moved on again. We are now in Muskegon for a few days. There is poker with Roland's brother and his holligan friends tonight and I'm hoping to possibly meet up with some peeps in Grand Rapids in a few days. Mid-week we are going to Kalamazoo for Thanksmas this coming weekend. I just hope that people will be available to visit. So if you see a Black Focus with Florida plates make sure to wave!

Oh and everyone be sure to be in Mount Pleasant on December 8th. Rubbles will be featuring the long awaited reunion of Sk88! Then stay on for the not to be missed Burning Bushes.

Left

We're back in West Michigan. We left Canton yesterday and drove up to Big Rapids so we could spend Thanksgiving with my parents. Roland's parents left today for Disney World with some of their friends so we won't be able to see them until they come back next Sunday or so. Right now I'm listening to my dad practice on the piano. I think he is accompaning one of the local school choir Chirstmas concerts or something. He is also going to take me sometime this week to show me all the cool stuff they have installed on the organ at church. Should be sweet.

Roland is helping with the turkey this year so we could brine it (soooo good). My mom made rolls, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. This morning we prepped the stuffing (evil or not) and all that. All in all it's shaping up to be a super meal.

Great Lakes, Great Times

Hello from Michigan! Roland and I arrived in Michigan yesterday after two long days of driving. We covered the 1300 or so miles on Saturday and Sunday arriving at my sister's house in Canton around 8:00 or so. The weather stayed clear until the middle of Ohio and then we got an eensy bit of snow, but nothing much. Today we visited Anne's library and she gave us a little tour. I had a nice nap in the afternoon and Roland made dinner. As a bonus Sk88 held a practice in preparation for their show at Rubbles on December 8th. It was awesome because I got to see Mike and Dan and listen to them practice. Now Roland is watching some football and I'm getting ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow I think we are going to visit the Ikea store that is very near Anne's place, then Wednesday it is on to Big Rapids and Beyond...

Go north

We're leaving tomorrow. I think I'm packed...I hope I'm packed...maybe I'm packed...I hate packing. Part of me is going to be very glad when we get out the door, so I can stop worrying about forgetting something and move to the stage where if I did forget something I will just have to buy a new one or live without. It's really wierd to be packing for winter weather when I haven't experienced temperatures below 60 or so in over a year.

Roland was awesome today and took the dog to the dog park while I finished cleaning the apartment. Then he gave him a bath and scrubbed until he glowed. Now we have one sweepy puppy with pearly white fur. Okay, I guess my brain is fried, so I'm going to go worry about forgetting things again.