Christmas, 2008

After looking at some old photo albums earlier this week I decided we didn't need any more photos of us opening presents, tossing paper around, and eating. But we absolutely needed photos of the boys' new forts. Click here to see the new tents and tunnels, plus a few older ones added on. They took over both of the front rooms.

Thanksgiving, 2008

Another Thanksgiving at Dad's with a fresh turkey, Lydia's birthday celebration, and a bonfire and fireworks. The fireworks were especially good but no cops showed up this year. And Miss Lydia, 17, drove her own car to Dad's for the first time.

Everyone is healthy and happy. What more could we ask for?

(Click the text that is in light gray to see my photos. You can download them there, too.)

More Trips, More Photos

I was hardly home from Bali when Dad and I left to spend a weekend in New York City. We stayed in a Marriott overlooking the Statue of Liberty and one building away from Ground Zero. Had huge steaks for dinner Friday night at Delmonico's. Walked around Greenwich Village and Soho, popped in to see the skaters at Rockefeller Center, saw the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, and closed out the day at Saardi's for dinner. Didn't see any famous people but lots of drawings of them. On Sunday we had breakfast at Katz's Deli (from the movie When Harry Met Sally) and check out other sites on the Lower East Side.

Dad and I got home Sunday evening and I left for a business trip the following day. Mom was able to join me for that trip; we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Brentwood, not far from London. While I worked she poked around the neighborhood, did some shopping, made friends on the street, and ate lots of donuts. Each evening we had dinner out together. We stayed over the weekend so spent one day in London walking around the west end, Chinatown, and a great street antiques market. The next day we went to Colchester, north east of where we were staying. It was the local capital of the Roman empire during its reign so was chock full of Roman relics. Even some prehistoric relics!
Click here for photos from that trip.

Why is there a pink pig in several of the photos from both of these trips? He is Dad's trip buddy. He ventured off to the UK without Dad but sent these photos home. Note the unknown man and woman holding him in two shots. These were non-English speaking people that Mom found in a grocery store parking lot in Brentwood. She said they didn't really understand why they were holding a pig to have their photo taken but they were friendly about it.

Bali Trip

Back from 9 days in Bali with Saeedeh. Where is Bali? I'm glad you asked. Click here for info.
We started off at the Tepi Sawah hotel in Ubud. It was really fantastic. A collection of pretty villas in a beautifully landscaped setting alongside rice fields. We ate breakfast each morning in an open gazebo near the pool. We stayed in two rooms so you'll see photos of two patios.
Click here for hotel photos.

Rabbits in my yard

Did I show you the bunnies that were living in the yard this summer?




Yes, in that last shot a bunny is posing like a lawn ornament. Cute, huh?

Tree Removal (again)

Apparently trees have shorter lives than I realized. We had to have trees cut down again this summer. Same crew as in 2002 (when we had 20 or so cut down) with the same massive chipper and stump grinder. But since they were pine trees and a little smaller this time they didn't have the chain saws with the gargantuan chains this time.

Here's one of three pine trees coming down by the front corner of the house:And once they are all down:Here's an action shot:





Cool, huh? Did you catch the massive chipper action at the end? Can you imagine the fun you'd have with one of those? Beyond the bodies of your enemies that you could quickly eliminate, think of all the things you could test in it: cans of shaving cream, books, nylons, watermelon, bikes, snakes, hornet nests, water balloons. The list is endless.

The boys are famous

The Trader Joe's in Ann Arbor has a bulletin board by the checkout counters where people post cute photos of their pets with Trader Joe's pet products. I always look at the photos while Clay checks out and have been meaning to get a photo of the boys on there for years now.

Well, I finally got it together and took a cute photo of them on a Trader Joe's cat scratcher:When we took it in we got a free cat scratcher since that is what was in the photo! I was really surprised by that. Anyway, here are our boys on the bulletin board for the world to admire:
You should be able to click the image above to see it larger and see how much cuter our cats are than all the others!

Yoga Story

Last night was the last session of my beginner yoga class at Schoolcraft College. We were doing a pose against the wall, actually leaning against the wall for balance, standing on one foot with the other leg straight behind us and just the fingers of one hand to lean on. Since we were against the wall lengthwise we were close to each other. There was a man next to me and his mat was right up against mine such that he was kind of leaning over my mat.

The instructor gathered us around this man and used him as a demo for the rest of us. By the end he was really sweating. And I mean literally. When he was done he stood up, wiped his brow, looked down, and said, "Oops, hope you don't mind I dripped sweat on your mat." I said, "No problem." The instructor said, "We're all friends here." And everyone walked back to their own spots.

Then I looked down at my mat. There were many big huge drops of sweat on my mat! Not a little drop or even a smattering. And the guy didn't even try or offer to wipe them up!!!!!!!

I tried to very be subtle and rub my gym bag across to get the sweat off but wasn't able to do it. So I had to scrinch up around the sweat and do my absolute best to avoid it for the rest of class! It was disgusting.

Needless to say, I just wiped my mat down with a very strong Pine Sol solution. And I'm still thinking about burning it.

Our Weekend

Both our new cars have Sync and our phones weren't very compatible with it. So Clay got us new phones last Friday and we've spent a good part of this weekend playing with them. (BTW, buying a new phone because you got Sync is a common phenomenon with my co-workers these days) The phones have keyboards so we can text message each other and so we've been doing lots of texting.

Clay's next thing is for us to use Twitter so that we can tell everyone who cares enough to join Twitter with us what we are doing all the time. Via text messages. On our cell phones. Trust me, we are not that interesting. You don't want a text message that says "I'm doing laundry", do you?

Have you seen my Hawaii trip photos yet? Follow my photos link on the right side of this page if you're interested.

Funny Cat

You're supposed to visit this site every day so you don't miss one funny cat. But in case you missed this one I'm posting it directly for your enjoyment:

For more hysterical cats (and an occasional squirrel and walrus) add this to your favorites list and be sure to check it daily!!!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/