Memorial day weekend update

I'm feeling very much under the weather today, but since I have a doctor's appointment at 11 I can't get too much sleep. That makes it a good time to try to catch up with the blogging.

Friday was a great start to the weekend. Erin and I got renter's insurance added on to our auto insurance, and with the multiple policy discount we actually ended up paying less per month. We also went to Fruit Basket Flower Land for some plants that Erin can practice her gardening on. Test Subjects, so to speak.



Greenhouses are great for photography: they let in the sunlight but diffuse it, giving things soft brightness. I of course whipped out the trusty G9 for the occasion.



I think this is dill. Dill weed.



This is my favorite of the ones I took.



I don't know why Erin looks skeptical in this photo. Maybe she just doesn't like me taking pictures of her, or maybe she smells tarragon from 50 feet away.



One more flower photo, and then I'm done, I promise.



After that we drove home through the city.



It was such a nice day for a drive through Monroe Center!



Here's a nice shot at the intersection of Fulton and Division.



Friday night Aaron and I ate at Cantina, and then drove his mustang convertible over to Hopcat to meet Erin and the girls (Liz and Colleen). For some crazy reason he let me drive, so I had to put the top down. After Hopcat got noisy and the band started playing jazz in front of a projection of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, we decided to have desert at San Chez.

Saturday we both rolled out of bed late, as one might expect. We had dinner at my parents' house (barbecue boca brats?), and got to show them Wii Fit and Mario Kart. We took Clapton and tied him to a tree outside, and indeed, he doth protest too much at this neglect. Since both Erin and I are trying to eat healthy and limit our calories, I decided to take as few leftovers home as possible, which I think upset my mom a bit. I hope she understands, it's because we would consume all of it!

Sunday we went for a work out and then headed straight up to Aunt Mame and Uncle Terry's house in Big Rapids for supper.



With these elements, you too can cook delicious fish on a slab! We had tuna and Lake Michigan caught salmon, crusty awesome garlic bread, and lots of veggies. For desert Erin made strawberry short cake, which was light enough to follow so much food.

Here's Erin checking out a magazine. Hey gorgeous! How you doin'?



While Erin caught up with her aunt and uncle I played with their happy-go-lucky giant lab, King.



Marianne and Terry have another dog, Jake. Jake is less enthusiastic about the camera, so this is the best shot I could get of him.



King is not the least bit camera shy. I love the tongue!



After desert we played a few hands of Euchre. Guys lost the first game, but we battled back to take the second and skunk the ladies in the third. Pure talent, that's what I credit our victory to.

Monday was mostly spent doing chores. I think I started coming down with whatever I have now, because when I tried to run in the morning I only made it a little past half way, and had to walk back the rest of the way in shame. However I was feeling good in the afternoon after 46 minutes/credits on Wii Fit, and I decided to try again (I'm stubborn like that). The second try was a success, and I ended up running more total that day than I usually do.

Barack Obama!

I took quite a few photos at the rally, and they're all up on a public album. I picked a few good ones to put up here.



Turnout was very high. Liz and her new boyfriend Onur arrived at around 6:15 and were turned away because Van Andel was packed full.



The event was loud, energetic, and a bit like a rock concert. When Obama arrived, the whole arena went manic.



Obama came on stage and quickly introduced Edwards, who was there to announce his endorsement. We didn't realize Edwards would be there until we were already seated and Erin's dad Lou called.



There was a lot of cheering for John Edwards, especially from the cute girl in the seat next to me.



Barack really stole the show though. He is probably the greatest public speaker I've ever had the pleasure to watch. He was electrifying, humorous, and if not detailed and specific at least substantive. The speech focussed on the economy, jobs, and poverty, three things that are very important to the people of Michigan and meshed well with Edwards' ongoing message.

All in all it was a good time, very inspirational and filled with plenty of Bush bashing (which always makes me smile). Let's hope he can win in November. I'll be volunteering if any out there would care to join me!

Obamania

Erin and I attended the electrifying Obama rally at the Van Andel Arena earlier this evening! We were lucky we got there early- by the time Liz arrived the arena was already full to capacity. I will post pictures soon. I "live-blogged" via Twitter the whole time, and you can read the posts here (in reverse order, naturally).

Attic Ghosts

We helped Liz move to her new place on Knapp last Saturday. Her old place was in Heritage Hill, surrounded by architectural gems like this.



The house has an interesting, creepy attic.



Liz found some evidence of a small hydroponics setup when she moved in.



There's not much need for this old water heater up there: even at low 70's temperatures I felt myself in the dark, sweating.



These stairs in the garage might look sturdier if I hadn't become such a fat-ass.

Michigan in The Spring, Pt. 4

I'm stretching myself to enjoy it at this point: there are just certain weeks of the year that I am made to suffer due to my severe allergies. I was prescribed two inhalers last week because of my damned immune system.

I took this shot yesterday at Liz' old apartment. I didn't even really look at it; I just put the camera close to the ground at full zoom and max aperture and took a single photograph.



I'm not sure how many more of these I'll do; I guess I haven't looked at the changes that take place this time of year in such close detail before, so I don't know what is left that might be different from what I've already documented.



Today was sunny and in the 70s. Quite awesome weather, although you can tell the sun is not quite overhead yet. The light is just different, a little more diffused, than it is in the middle of the summer.



After Qdoba on Friday, Brian, Shane and I went for a walk in the marsh area behind the Alticor complex. I took some photos there before, and I wanted to go back to see how things had changed (since I had an inkling I might do another spring post). Much more colorful, indeed, and I didn't even have to crank up the saturation (like I did last time, unfortunately).



We saw some turtles on a log! I'm not sure what kind they are. The spreading ripples in the water are from the skittish one of the bunch, who didn't quite like the look of me.



This I took in the parking lot at Bagel Beanery. I mean, I strode through the deep, old woods, and happened upon Aphrodite's nymphs as they caressed the cold sapling branches. Embarrassed, the young shoots began to blush.

Birthday Weekend

Saturday I rested in bed until later in the day due to some vodka/brain complications, but by Saturday night I was ready to at least hang out a little bit. Liz and Jason came over and we played Scene It in which I totally kicked ass. However since Jason had Corona, by law he is allowed to take a triumphant pose.



From there we then went to Yesterdog.



Yesterdog is a hot dog joint where the local emo and goth kids hang out, the drunk kids show up with greater frequency as the night proceeds, and where you don't worry so much about food cleanliness because the place has character.



The traditional Yesterdog comes sloppy.



They also have a veggie dog with kraut for those of us who abstain from the meat.



From there Erin and I headed up north so we could spend Feaster morning with her family at the cozy Hesperia villa.



The drum set is assembled in the corner of the guest bedroom now.



I don't have a caption for this photo but I thought it was nice.



The drive home was a nightmare: I had what had all the trappings of a migraine, and after suffering in the bright sunshine and bumpy ride, slept quite a while that evening and almost into Monday afternoon. I even missed my birthday dinner with my parents and sister, which we rescheduled for this weekend.

Michigan on a Saturday Night

After a quick nap we picked up Guillermo, Liliana, and Aaron and headed down to Holland to meet Liz and Jason. We drove through downtown and then down to South Shore. The goal was to get to Lake Michigan, but the road was closed and we would have had to find another way. So we just took a quick stop at Lake Macatawa.



Erin was worried that someone would fall in, since the docks weren't that wide and they were covered with snow and ice. Also, there were some shenanigans involving snow balls.



After everyone was sufficiently cold we hopped back into the automobiles and returned to Holland. New Holland Brewery is one of my absolute favorite local microbreweries, but we had never made the trip down to the facility until now. They have a nice restaurant and bar where you can pick up a wide variety of brews. When I have a house and thus a basement to sequester rotting grains, I would like to perhaps do some home-brewing. I wonder how much one of these costs.



Aaron is a contractor that I'm working closely with on the MAGIC project. He's a really nice guy, and as it turns out has very good taste in music (read: similar to my own).



Everyone had really good beer and surprisingly good pizza for dinner (except Liliana, who ordered a salad).



Erin and Aaron (not to be confused with Uron, the Spanish word for "ferret") both got the beer flight (sampler, it's a sampler). Photo credit: Jason, creative director.



I had to crop this photo because Jason was doing something inappropriate.



Yes, perhaps living in Michigan in the winter does mean that your social life revolves around beer and the beer making process. I'm OK with that.

Photo Update

I don't really have a central theme to post on, so I'll just update with what I've been doing the last couple of days.

I took this at work, on the way to the car.  I like the way the snow and ice and mud and salt get on everything that stays outside all winter.  It's the weathering of the elements on all things industrial.

Jason came over for some more recording and song-writing on friday. We had rearranged the second bedroom in our apartment so that it is more useable. This is a picture of an old music stand that someone stole from NHS and brought to my dad's coffee shop, then I borrowed and never returned.

We did a good bit of recording, got some new ideas flushed out; all-in-all, a productive day off.

Later we had chili and beer (Corona again, but also a Breckenridge Double-IPA), while we played Gladius. Liz came over too on her way back from Lansing, where she was doing orientation for MSU grad school!

This morning we took Clapton to the dog park, which turned out to be a great idea. The weather was perfect and so everyone and their mutts were there. It was also Dane Day, so among the myriad of other dogs were at least eight great danes. Clapton loves to wrestle them because they're big, but they usually get the drop on him.

There were also three other newfoundlands there as well, which always makes us happy. Guess which one of these is Clapton? (hint: neither)

Being outside also gave me an opportunity to check out the wide angle adapter for the G9. It works swimmingly.

Tonight we're going out to the Cottage Bar and then Mojo's with Guillermo and Liliana. Guillermo is from Mexico and is working on a big project for Amway, so he's staying up here in Paradise, MI for three months. Liliana is from Columbia, and also working on the project. Anyone know where the most authentic Mexican restaurant is in Grand Rapids?

Pictionary, Dog Park, Etc.

Apologies for not updating sooner. I took photos in anticipation of blog posts over the weekend, but didn't get around to actually writing anything up. Friday night Liz and Jason came over and we played Pictionary with a white board and this random word generator. 

At one point Erin tried to get me to guess "obstetrics". Why? Because it would undoubtedly lead me to the real word, "obstruction". With only 60 seconds on the timer, this was clearly the only strategy worth pursuing.

It was all good fun until we got in an argument about whether the artist needed to convey the actual conjugation or plurality of the word. For instance, to everyone else, "choosing", "chooses", and "chose" do not count as a correct guess for each other. I thought it was nitpicking and useless, because the only way to effectively distinguish is to come up with cheap "codes" for past tense, gerund, etc. that don't add any fun to the game. But apparently that was just me. At least we could all agree on Corona with lime.

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early due to the fact that my sleep schedule is now completely aligned with Erin's. We took Clapton to the dog park to get some of that giant puppy energy out of him before he destroys us.

Only a dog as big and doofus-y as Clapton would walk around with a stick this big in his mouth.

He had a great goofy time with a bunch of dogs sort of close to his size. Watching him play with such raucous energy is highly entertaining. Freezing your ass off has never been so rewarding a feeling. 

Wow, I sound like a parent.

The rest of saturday we spent in the apartment just enjoying some time off. This was the first real time I'd had to myself where I wasn't curiously exhausted since I'd been back. Erin took a nap on the couch while surfing the net. I found this debate between celebrity athiest Christopher Hutchins and some young rabbi (whose name I would bother to remember if he had half a compelling argument at all during the debate) over the existence of God. You all know whose side I'm on (and if you don't, guess), so it was an enjoyable one-sided battle with the intellectual heavyweight triumphing in the way that the Patriots should have last weekend.

Sunday morning we took Clapton to Petsmart for a long-overdue bath and trim. After he was done, I braved the great Michigan outdoors to get to Jason's apartment, where we worked on our February Album Writing Month submission. 

Jason did sound engineering as we recorded guitars for one of my new songs, and re-recorded the vocals for a song I'd already had almost finished. We should have some tangible (relative to your ability to touch electrons) MP3s up within a week. Aah, he's such a badass on the guitar!

Today was back to work. You know the drill. Luckily my office is spattered with bric-a-brac to elevate my mood.