Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

It has certainly been a strange winter in southeast Michigan so far. Officially, we have received only 12 or 13 inches of snow, and whenever we do get some it doesn't stick around for a very long time. Which is too bad, because I really do love snow. In addition, we have had more wind and rain than usual this winter. Icky, cold, driving rain. I just hope that we at least reach our normal snowfall total by the time spring arrives. We have a lot of catching up to do.

Below is a picture of Irma at her birthday party last week. Following that are a few pix taken at our New Year's Eve bash at Wayne & Carol's house. I really need to stay a bit more up-to-date with downloading my photos. There's nothing like looking at New Year's Eve pictures when Groundhog Day is right around the corner.

Irma's 88th birthday.

Jacob got sweaty during the New Year's Eve air hockey tournament.

Muffin was decked out in a party hat and his snazzy, new glasses.

After beating numerous opponents, Steve came out as the annual air hockey victor and took home the "Millennium Cup."

Showers of Fun

We have been plenty busy around our house lately, and, luckily, it has not been all work and no play. Last weekend, we were invited to several parties and had an awesome time at each of them. On Saturday afternoon, I attended a baby shower for Cobra's daughter, Marilyn. Marilyn was just as cute as a button waddling around with her own little girl ready to pop out any day now. She received so many adorable baby clothes that if her soon-to-be-born child isn't named to the baby best-dressed list something is seriously amiss. Following the shower, we went over to Cobra's house to party with the guys who had been hanging out there with Cobra's hubby. We continued to consume the leftover shower grub until we could eat no more. Everyone had a great time chatting, drinking, and watching football. On Sunday, the family met up at Nancy's house to celebrate Irma's 88th birthday. I actually have photos from all of these shindigs and will add some to the blog as soon as I get a chance!

Jim was in Michigan for the long weekend and flew back to Texas this morning. While he was at the condo, we managed to finally put away our Christmas tree and holiday decorations. We are hoping to clean out our "basement" room next week when Jim is in town so we can think about moving our very old furniture down there from the living room. While our couches are still quite comfy, if we did not have rugs and blankets underneath the cushions they would probably sag right through to the floor. I think it is about time to replace what Adam mockingly refers to as the "garish blue" furniture.

Next week, Jacob has his mid-term exams at school. He has so much studying to do for those, yet his teachers insist on giving him tons of additional homework. What are they thinking? Besides his regular school work, he has a formal essay for world lit and a history project (10 pages - ugh!) due on Friday. And, he was just given those two assignments last Friday. Could they not have squeezed them in earlier in the semester instead of right before mid-terms? Oh well! It will be work, work, work for a few more weeks, then Jacob gets a week off for his mid-winter break in late February. Nobody is looking forward to that more than him!

This and That

When Jacob, Adam, and I arrived in Houston last Tuesday, I was delighted that the temperatures were above normal and the sun was shining. I spent a lot of time outdoors, wore t-shirts & flip-flops, and marveled at the fact that none of our neighbors opened up their windows to let the lovely 77-degree air into their homes. I threw open our windows, went for some walks, worked a bit in the yard, and played 18 holes of disc golf with Jacob and Adam. On a negative note, we were annoyed that the internet at our Texas house was once again not working - that happens far too often - and we had to have a repair person over both Wednesday and Thursday before it was finally fixed. On Friday night, Jim, Jacob, Adam, and I went out to dinner, then to a Houston Aeros hockey game. The Aeros are the minor league team for the Minnesota Wild, and one of Jim's co-workers was able to score us some awesome seats. It was a fun evening despite the fact that the team lost pitifully to the last place Rockford IceHogs.

On Saturday morning, Jacob, Adam, and I hopped back into Adam's Jeep to begin our drive to Colorado. After 10 hours or so on the road, we were finally out of Texas and crossing the border into New Mexico. We got a room for the night in Raton, NM and hoped that the weather forecasters were wrong about a winter storm headed for that area. Luckily, we woke up on Sunday to find everything clear and dry, although Adam assured us that even if there had been snow he had the utmost confidence that the Colorado road crews would have no problem keeping the freeways open. We drove from Raton to Denver in three-and-a-half hours, enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery enroute. Adam dropped Jacob & me off at the airport for our flights back to Michigan, then he continued on to his apartment. Jake and I had a 40 minute layover in Minneapolis on our way from Denver to Detroit, and, even though we landed in MSP on time, after taxiing and deplaning, we ended up with only about 10 minutes to bolt from gate C9 to gate F10 to catch our connecting flight. Who is the genius in Delta's scheduling department, anyway, who makes flights with short connection times and puts them three concourses apart? Thankfully, Nancy and Steve offered to venture out at midnight to pick us up from DTW, and Jacob managed to squeeze in about 5 hours of sleep before waking up for school today. Now it is back to the old grind!

At the Disc Golf Course, Jacob's first throw landed his Frisbee about 12 feet above our heads in a tree. Adam was able to eventually knock it down with a really long stick.

Unlucky in Kentucky

I brought Jim to the airport on Monday morning for his flight from Michigan to Texas . Shortly after that, Adam, Jacob, and I hopped into Adam's Jeep to begin our 20-hour drive to join Jim in Houston for the week. Despite a few snow showers and an unexplained traffic jam that slowed us down a bit, our cruise through Ohio was not too bad. We crossed the border into Kentucky just before 3:00 p.m. and everything went quickly downhill.

We had endured snow squalls while tooling through Michigan and Ohio, but other drivers were competent and the roads were treated with salt where necessary. A few miles into Kentucky we came to a complete stop and did not really move again for over an hour. We later found out that the jam we were in was caused by at least one - and possibly several - multi-car pile-ups that had closed the freeway. As we sat waiting for the traffic to clear, it started snowing. When at long last we were able to creep forward a bit, the roads had become very slick. Jacob was our driver at the time, and even though he has had limited experience operating a vehicle in winter weather, he did a wonderful job maneuvering on the slippery freeway. At 5:30, we stopped for gas and dinner, and I took over the task of driving. Sporadic snow squalls continued and the roads alternated between safe & dry and treacherous & icy. Whenever we came across a stretch of ice-covered roadway, all the cars slowed to about 20 m.p.h., which was actually a good thing because even at that speed the Kentuckians managed to skid, slip, and slide into the ditches on both sides of the expressway. Right before our very eyes. Over and over again. In all honesty, the freeway was very perilous at times, but with more experienced drivers and a little bit of salt, everything would have been fine. Throughout it all, however, Kentucky road crews were nowhere to be found. At least not on I-71 or I-65. What should have been a 3-and-a-half-hour drive through the state took us over 7 frustrating hours. We didn't get to our Monday night Arkansas destination until 2:45 a.m.CST instead of our planned 11:30 p.m. arrival. Ugh.

Our ride on Tuesday was much smoother and we reached our Texas house in time for dinner. The Houston weather today was warm and lovely, and it is very odd to hear lawn mowers buzzing and air conditioners running in January. It also seems strange to see our neighbors' houses decorated & aglow with Christmas lights right next to blooming petunias and impatiens. Just typical life in the south, I suppose.

Bowling

Twelve bowlers and five spectators showed up at a local bowling alley on Tuesday to help Jacob observe his 15th birthday. Despite a few, um, fairly low scores, everyone had a fab time. (And some people actually did quite well.) I just love the automatic scorekeepers that are now standard at all bowling establishments. I only wish they would have had those back when I was on a league!

Steve, Jacob, and Muffin prepared to roll a frame.

There was a lot of smart-alecky hugging going on - especially between Jacob and Adam.

Soon others joined in on the hugging thing and numerous group hugs ensued.

On the Go

We have been as busy as bees this past week preparing for, and then celebrating, Christmas. All of our hard work paid off handsomely, as our holiday ended up being tons of fun. Jim has been in Michigan for ten days now, and Adam showed up at our doorstep on Friday morning just as we were all waking up to get Jacob off to his last day of school in 2011. Adam's solo drive from Colorado was filled with one obstacle after another, including some inevitable snow squalls and a stop by an over-ambitious Iowa state trooper, who asked him to unzip his snowboard bag to prove that it did not contain a gun. Adam was let go by the officer with a "warning" for going 3 miles per hour over the speed limit. Whoa - slow down, Speed Racer!

Tomorrow is Jacob's 15th birthday and the plan is to meet up with a group of family & friends at a local bowling alley for some fun on the lanes. The rest of the week will be filled with more parties, get-togethers, and general end-of-the-year hoopla. Then it will be on to Texas for some southern-style delight before returning to the old grind in January. Giddyup!

More Birthdays and Such

This afternoon we gathered at Richie's house to celebrate the birthdays of Richie and Jacob. Jake does not officially turn 15 until the 27th, but seeing as the next few weekends are both kind of busy, we had his party today. Everyone ate KFC, cake, & ice cream, and had a grand time. Jake received a few of his presents, but Jim & I saved most of them to give him on his actual birthday. It is certainly a gift-filled time of year for him. He opened a few packages at the bash, will get more loot on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then will get the rest of his birthday presents next week. For Jacob, it really is the most wonderful time of the year!

The almost-birthday boy.

Richie holding a gift card and some empty candy wrappers.

Last, but not least, a shot of Adam at his party two weeks ago.

Chicago

For the past couple of weeks, Nancy's son, Steve, has been working in Texas and Arkansas. He is employed by a land surveying company that is based in Michigan, but has contracts all over the U.S. When he flew off to Dallas, he brought clothes with him appropriate for working outdoors in southern weather. To his surprise, Steve was informed last Thursday that he was needed at a job site in Wisconsin on Sunday. Yes, Wisconsin. Land of cheese and cold.

Since Steve would be driving a company vehicle from Texas to Wisconsin, he would be passing through Illinois. Nancy and I came up with the idea to rendezvous with Steve west of Chicago to pass on his much-needed winter surveying clothing to him. How nice of us, right? Our ulterior motive, however, was to spend the weekend shopping and playing tourist in the Windy City. We did just that.

When we arrived in town, Jacob, Nancy, and I stopped at the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and spent an hour or so at the Skydeck on the 103rd floor. The weather could not have been more cooperative and we could see for what seemed like forever. We ate lunch there, then headed to the "Magnificent Mile" to shop. I cannot remember ever seeing so many pedestrians out and about in freezing cold temperatures happily walking around their city. The downtown Christmas decorations were beautiful and the atmosphere was indeed festive. By the time we were done shopping, it was evening so Jacob, Nancy, and I jumped back into the car to drive to our suburban hotel. Apparently, many of those other holiday shoppers decided to depart the city at the same time because the freeways were at a total standstill. Armed with a map of Chicagoland (that is what the locals call the area, I did not just make that up), the three of us successfully maneuvered our way 30 miles from Lake Michigan to the western suburb of Shaumburg via city streets. After checking into our hotel, we ventured out to purchase a carry-out pizza from the world-famous Uno. We completely stuffed ourselves, watched some TV, and fell asleep.

On Sunday morning, we were all up bright and early, and grabbed a quick breakfast from the hotel lobby. We had arranged to meet Steve in Rockford at 9:00 a.m. for the clothing hand-off and everything went well with that. Later, Jacob, Nancy, and I swung by the largest mall in Illinois - Woodfield Mall - and did a little more shopping. We were on the road again by 2:00 p.m. and back at the condo Sunday evening. What a great, impromptu weekend trip!

Birthdays and Such

Adam showed up in Michigan on his birthday after spending most of the day in the air, plus a few unexpected hours on the ground in Tokyo when the baggage-compartment-loading-contraption on his 747 malfunctioned. He was supposed to arrive from Singapore last Wednesday in time to go to dinner with a group of us, including the other birthday person, Nancy, but his flight was delayed too long. He finally winged into town around 9:00 p.m. - sans one of his suitcases, which was later found in Chicago - and I whipped him up some birthday macaroni and cheese. We did enjoy dinner out on Friday, and Nancy was able to join us for her second restaurant celebration of the week. On Sunday, we had the family birthday party at the condo and everyone had a merry, ol' time.

Adam is now back in Colorado, where it dipped to a bone chilling -4 degrees the other night, and Jim is back in Texas, where the low temperature is predicted to drop into the upper 20s. Adam says while he was on Diego Garcia and in Singapore that he never felt a temperature lower than 74. In fact, the temps usually hovered in the 80s and 90s. I suppose it was a good thing that he spent a few days in Michigan's 30 & 40 degree weather, as that served as a nice buffer between hot Asia and cold Colorado. A 90+ degree temperature change? Nice if you are heading to the warmer climate, but icky to be going from tropical-hot to below-zero conditions. Brrrr!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had an absolutely lovely Thanksgiving this year. I spent the morning peeling, cooking, and mashing potatoes while Nancy toiled over the turkey and stuffing and lots of side dishes. We had a plethora of pies, with cousin Chris actually making some with his own hands! (Definitely not the norm for us!) Yum! The food ended up being delicious and all 25 of us had a wonderful time. We later played one of our most nail-biting games of Taboo ever, with the girls pulling out a last-minute victory and winning by one point!

Adam was still on Diego Garcia on Thanksgiving Day and, apparently, the U.S. military folks put out quite a spread for everyone. Then, as if one huge meal wasn't enough, the British police hosted a shindig on Thursday as well. I believe that they called it a Thanksgiving dinner, even though those silly Brits don't even celebrate the holiday. Adam said that they use any excuse to party out there at their Indian Ocean outpost.

I completely forgot to take any pictures at our bash, but one of Adam's fellow grad students snapped a picture of him. Adam is currently winging his way home from southeast Asia and, after traveling for some 24 hours, he will arrive in Detroit tomorrow evening - his birthday. With all of the time zones he is passing through, and by crossing the international dateline, his birthday this year will last for around 37 hours.

Adam enjoying his second Thanksgiving meal of the day with a British (I think) police officer.

The Accent Wall

Jim, Jacob, and I painted the living/dining room of the condo this week. We have been discussing this for over a year now and were finally - for some unknown reason - motivated enough to tackle the job. The three of us pored over scores of paint swatches and samples until we found the perfect colors. We agreed on a medium brown shade for most of the room, applied a thick coat yesterday, and were very pleased with the result. We then chose a darker brown hue for the wall with our fireplace on it to serve as an "accent wall." Yes, we do occasionally watch HGTV, and, yes, that is where we learned the term "accent wall." (Jim and Jacob have also spent the last few days speaking with cheesy French accents each time I utter the words "accent wall" - as in, "Oui, oui, vee vill paint zee wall madam." So goes my life with wannabe stand-up comics.) We rolled the darker paint onto the fireplace wall this afternoon and waited patiently for it to dry. Nothing quite like watching paint dry. The supposedly darker shade appeared almost identical to the one on the rest of the walls. The paint swatches promised contrast, but there was little to be found. The "accent wall" looks lovely, as do the other walls. I just feel that people will think we ran out of paint or something, hurried back to the store to try to pick a shade similar to the other walls, then mistakenly came home with a color close, but not quite right. It doesn't really look like an "accent wall." It looks more like an "accident wall."