Old Photos

A Couple old photos to warm you up on a cold late fall (yes, not winter quite yet) day.

Smokey (Mookie) : This guy loved Long Lake.

Me contemplating my future.

Christmas Cookies

We (Emily mostly) spent some time this afternoon baking and decorating sugar cookies. There were a few casualties (headless snowmen, one armed Santas, etc.) that ended up in my stomach...mmmm, delicious casualties...

Blinds Installed

If it weren't for blinds, it would be curtains for us all.
- Larry Duane Moran

It's Yellow

It's been almost a month from the last post to this one and I have been working on this room almost every day.
I made a huge dusty mess that blanketed most of the house in a fine white powder, vacuum, repeat, primer.
Next, I spent about 12 hours trimming by hand along the ceiling and doors and windows. It is excruciatingly tedious but the results are worth it. I'm really only trying to impress my mom and sister, who inspire me to such masochistic endeavors. I hope you guys like it.
3 coats of paint, new out lets, new light, new outlet covers, new blinds, new (and repainted trim), filling in nail holes, blah, blah, blah. Still not completely done...but almost.

This is me trying to figure out what to do with the blinds. One of three is too long so I have to take it back to get 1/8" trimmed off.

Mostly done. The yellow looks good, no??

Square light and improved view. It looks better in person so you'll all have to come and check it out sometime.

Turkey Time

We traveled to Marysville last weekend for good ol' Thanksgiving. A few days eating a lot with the family and remembering how lucky we all are. I ate a ton, played with my nephew, dominated on rock band and laughed incredibly hard at my uncles tales of Bub's Daddy gum and fumbled chicken wings.

The spread...maybe 25% of it...there isn't a lens wide enough to capture the entire tempting schmere. Classic American cooking. I made the mashed potatoes and Emily made the mac & chee. Mom made most of everything else...and a lot more...well played!!

My plate. I try to eat a bit of everything. It takes me about and hour and I am in pain afterwards. As I lay on my left side and digest I think about how lucky I am to be able to be so full.

Walking Stick

Northern Walking Stick to be more precise. Diapheromera fermorata. Found on my back deck last weekend sitting perfectly still...which is pretty much this guy's MO. If attacked they can emit a foul smelling odor, if they lose a leg they can grow it back, and they are the only species of stick insect that are legal to sell, buy, and keep in the United States. Pretty sweet.

Dining Room Work in Progress

I've started work on the second to last room remodel. This is the first of two major projects for this winter. The process generally goes like this : I make a really big mess and put more holes in the wall, clean up the mess and fill in the holes, make a bigger dusty mess, clean up that mess, and then paint. This is definitely the worst part of owning a house.

This is in between the first mess and the dusty mess...the white spots will become the dusty mess.

The shop vac cleans up the mess, the radio keeps me sane, the ladder beguiles me to unsafe heights, the light lets me work late, and the view reminds me why I bought this money pit.

The view out our bedroom window this morning.

Spooky

On Halloween we had the whole fam damily over for dinner and trick or treating. We carved pumpkins, emily made a lasagna...terrific.
Below are our spooky jack-o-lanterns. See if you can guess which is mine and which is Emily's.

Fall Is Here

And I've been busy. Fall for me means boats to put away for the winter, docks and lifts to take out of frigid waters, leaves to rake, and doughnuts to eat. The last boat was tucked in next to my house tonight so I finally have time to post a few photos.

Blazing maple. This tree had been red for a long time. I would pass it every day and contemplate stopping to take a photo. I finally did on my way to the launch to pick up the boat. It's a fine specimen exhibiting near perfect symmetry and the brilliant red hue of it's foliage as the chlorophyll fades away. It's bare now...and rather sad looking.

Ford Lake in the fall looks like this. No algae, no other boats, no one else dumb enough to wakeboard on 50 degree days.

Bye bye. Emily making the final trip of the year across the lake. I love the way this boat looks in the water...especially with a fine, sophisticated lady behind the wheel... she's a lady, woh woh woh, she's a lady...

It's all over. T-minus 5 months till April...

Jetta Gone

Sad day for Emily. Happy day for me (yes, that is my happy face).

Wedding In Chicago

This past weekend we traveled to Chicago to be part of the wedding of my very good friend Albert Bot and his lovely wife Cathy.
Everything about the weekend and the wedding from the food to the people to the overall environment was just wonderful. Cathy is one hell of a wedding planner and no detail was left to chance...she even made snack bags for the out of towners...she's a keeper for sure.

Emily posing outside the bat cave. Entrance to Al & Cathy's condo's parking garage. Where is your motorcycle??
Pass the cream. This is Al's good friend Chuck who broke his arm as a kid and now has an amazing talent.

Seneca Hotel. This was our home for the weekend. Typical high rise Chicago hotel (so I'm told). It is a renovated apartment building so our room was huge complete with living room and kitchen with 50's cupboards. I dig it.

Museum of Contemporary Art. Location of the reception and home to large masses of painted aluminum and colored Plexiglas. I very much enjoy large industrial sculptures that really have no point but are very interesting nonetheless. I also like how well it hides my big, dumb head.

Dinner. Sea bass with mashed potatoes and all the other good stuff you see. The food all weekend was absolutely fantastic and I ate more than I probably should have. This plate was the finale to 3 days of gastronomic delight. Thanks again Al & Cathy, the next Thad burgers are on me.

Al and Cathy. Taken during their traditional Korean tea ceremony. The goal is to get your in laws drunk on rice wine until they hurl chestnuts and dates at you. If you catch them in your mouth it means they forgive you for stealing their beautiful daughter. After all this, the groom gives the bride a piggy back ride around the tea table...no one knows how this got started.

The last Manhattan. I woke up on Sunday to see this sitting on the bedside table. I took it with me after the reception because I was in the mood to party and wanted to be extra hungover on Sunday. That speech really did tie the whole thing together...

Dock Out 2009

October is here and soon snow may start falling in northern Michigan. That means it's time again to head up to Hillman to take the dock and boat lift out and put the boats to bed for the winter. My dad and I had a very enjoyable long weekend doing just that.

Fuel for the weekend. Courtesy of my mom who is the best cook I know and always makes sure we're well fed (It's amazing that I'm not 300 pounds). Her chili is one of my favorites and when you combine that with ritz and franks and cold beer, it's enough to make me eat myself sick...which I did.

Rice crispy treats for desert. Made by you know who. So simple, yet so perfect and delicious. I averaged about 10 a day over the weekend.

Bloody Mary's. It takes a lot of shit to make a bad ass cocktail (expletives added for effect).

Slug on fish head. The fish head was found on my boat cover. Most likely the fish was eaten and the head either dropped or excreted by a seagull. I thought it was kind of cool and set it on this old railroad tie to photograph the next day. The next day it was on the ground with this big slug suckin' on it...circle of life...

Deer Scull. This deer died by the lake last winter. Over the summer the birds and bugs and what not cleaned the bones completely. One thing I really noticed was how tiny the cranium was in comparison to the eye sockets and olfactory cavity. It's probably all that pea brain can do to process the input from it's nose and eyes.

Mystery scull. Maybe a fox, maybe a dog, maybe a chupacabra. Whatever it is seemed to have been shot in the head execution style as evidenced by the round hole in the scull. Found by my dad near the tile field.

Cloudy. This was about the best the sky looked all weekend. We were dodging rain drops trying to get the boats put away and sneaking in wakeboard sets...pretty much the story of the summer. For the last set of the summer we went out 50 yards from the lift, got rained on hard, back in to cover up and hide under the cedars, back out 15 minutes later for a few laps. Sure, we could have packed it in but, we had to wait out the rain just to stick it to crummy weather we had this summer.

Dock Stack. It should be noted that this stack is perfectly level in all 3 axes. Trademark of my dad, "the pile master", and enemy of holes everywhere. No, we're not trying to land the space shuttle on this thing. But, it's nice to know that you could.
Well done.

Shiny Nautique. All waxed up and ready for a long winters nap.

Patent

On 9/29/2009 I was awarded a US patent for an umbrella holder in a door trim panel of a vehicle. That's right US 7,594,686 B2 Belongs to me. Don't try to copy it or you'll have a lawsuit on your hands. I applied for this more than 2 years ago...it takes a really long time for the government to process. Anyway, I don't usually like to toot my own horn...but, beep beep!!!

Last Weekend of Summer 2009

Last weekend of the summer 2009 up at Long Lake...of course.**Don't forget to click on the photos if you want to see them full size**

Foggy morning. On account of the clear skies and (relatively) warm water, the mornings looked like this as the sun rose above the tree line.

The fog burned off about an hour later yielding the conditions that wakeboarders dream about.

Glassy lake, clear skies...I love this time of year.

Pine trees and blue sky. This looks much better through polarized sunglasses. Actually, this looks pretty good as is.

Beer on head. Truly the wave of the future.

My favorite subject.

Long lake legend, Wild Bill Taylor in his classic '80 American Skier. I remember seeing this boat on the lift when I was a little kid thinking it was the keenest boat on the lake. Wait, did I just type "keenest"?? Is that even a word??

Stuff Near my House

I've been noticing these things near my house lately and decided to take some pictures.

- Laetiporus sulphureus : Sulfur Shelf Fungi or Chicken Fungus. I've been passing this on my runs for the past week. Tastes like chicken...
-Symphyotrichum patens : Late Purple Aster. Blooming all over the place now. This one was down by the lake.
-Channeloccus Pliarti Crustiform : Crusty old channel lock pliars that I found in the lake. Ford Lake has a way of crustifying things rather quickly.
- B A Boatus : Beautiful scene for wakeboarding. I love this time of year.

Exterior Trim Project Completed

Well, my 6 week vacation is winding down and last week I finished painting/replacing all the rotten exterior wood trim around my house. It only took about a year of pulling nails, cutting, scraping, cleaning, painting, fighting with bees, cursing, and beard growing to get it done. It looks much better now.

- The last trim replaced was the second story fascia on the west side. It was the most difficult to access as evidenced by my dual ladder set up.

- Because of the slope of the roof I had to make these ladder holders so I could do my job. I was pretty proud of my Yankee ingenuity (or Polish engineering, if you will).

- View of the neighboring rooftops. I had the urge to go running across them like they did in Mary Poppins...but, I would definitely fall and get hurt bad...not a good idea.

- View across the street from my house. This is not too exciting but I already uploaded the photo...sorry for wasting your time.
- Our house is crawling with spiders on the outside. This is the biggest one I've seen (abdomen was ~ 1/2" in diameter). From what I can tell it's an Araneus Marmoreus or Marbled Orb Weaver.
-Hair Clog. This has nothing to do with my exterior trim project, it's disgusting, and Emily asked me not to post it. But, part of being a married man means you have to deal with these from time to time. So, suck it up and be a man!!