Missives of a Misfit

Despite the fact that Andy had to work/go to school almost all of the holiday week, and thus we were unable to hook up with the rest of the fam down in Paw Paw this year (we really missed everyone), we did have a wonderful time with our immediate family.  Having all six of my kids together always makes me literally deliriously happy. 

The weather was not the best, so our plans for hangin' by the pool didn't happen so much, but we filled our days with games and laughter!
Here we have Jen's first ever game of Poker!  We will teach her whether she wants to learn or not!  :P



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Em and I found little Chippy, drowned in the pool.  *cries uncontrollably*
Came to love that little chipmunk.
"Why do these things never happen when we are there to help them out?", said Emily.

I have uploaded the pics from 4th of July week to my computer and we have some winners.  Em thinks these are some of the best family pictures ever.  But she does like some crazy pics.  As to putting them on LJ or elsewhere, this will have to wait a bit.

For some reason after all the activity, my hip/lower back went  bananas on me.  I've been in severe pain for two days now,  barely walking, pulling myself up the steps.  It really sucks, because you know I love to be active.  Walking hurts real bad.  Advil I thought would help, but I woke up today still in severe pain after faithfully taking it every 4 hours, even set to a night alarm.  So Andy went to the pharmacist at Meijer, asking about Doan's.  I started alternating my doses between Advil and Doan's today, but sort of feel like my Doan's doses are doing better.  $6.50 a pkg - cripes.  So I think I'm going to go on straight Doan's for tonight.  All this crap scares me because I'm used to feeling good, doing lots of exercise.  Pain sucks.

Sitting in one place too long hurts, which is why I haven't uploaded pics yet.  Haven't worked yet either.  Andy had a couple days off from work and helped me with dinner, etc.  Tomorrow he has full day with work and school, and my friend Linda is coming over to cook for us.

Sigh. 
Hurts.

So, after chatting with curlique for a bit on Facebook about her recent Bonnaroo Festival, I really got to thinking about the time viciousladybug and I went to the 2nd annual Lollapalooza concert.  1992.  I kid you not.
This is what Wiki says about it:

 

Dates: July 18, 1992 – September 13, 1992

Main Stage: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush

Side Stage: Jim Rose Circus, Sharkbait, Archie Bell, Porno for Pyros, Basehead, Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Sweaty Nipples, Arson Garden, Seaweed, Seam, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., The Look People, Stone Temple Pilots, The Vulgar Boatmen, Truly, Skrew, Tribe, The Authority, Samba Hell, Café Tacuba, Rage Against the Machine

Holy crap, so Rage Against the Machine, the Stone Temple Pilots and Porno for Pyros were on the "side stages".  Wow.   We were in something like the first, IDK, 20 rows, and stayed put for the concert.  I totally forgot that Ice Cube was even there.  This was Pine Knob, the year of the sod throwing.  I do remember we were really, really looking forward to Ministry and they left the stage early because the sod throwing got out of hand.  Sigh. 

Fox television series GLEE will have its series premiere Wednesday, September 16 at 9 p.m. EST. GLEE will premiere in the fall in a regular time slot as of yet unannounced.

Following its sneak preview, GLEE has broken into the Billboard Hot 100 chart with its recording of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". The track is the chart's Hot Shot Debut at No. 4. The feat is even more impressive as nine tracks charted from American Idol winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert, but those were all outsold by the GLEE recording.

++Source++


So finally a premiere date!! I know they are going to re-air the pilot, so that may be what is shown on 9/16. But we have a date to look forward to now!

We couldn't resist taking advantage of the three day weekend that Andy had.  Friday morning we left for Round Lake NFC, a little northeast of Tawas.   We thought that if we didn't like it there, we would just move on to DeVoe Lake at Rifle River.  We were amazed at how beautiful the campground was.  We chose the second loop, Indian Loop and our site #26 overlooked both Indian and Round Lakes.  This particular site also had some wooden steps which directly led down to Indian Lake, perfect for dragging down our kayaks, which we pretty much immediately did.


 

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Jen's birthday party was a good time last weekend.  Pool finally was in order, but way too cool to partake.   It was nice to merge Jen's people with our own friends.  A great time was had by all.  Thanks to Tim for the firewood, and everyone for the food they brought.  And, of course, Jen's mom!  We need to have another party when the weather turns summer, and all can bring their bathing suits!

And first, the food.  Hot dogs, brats, potato salad, spaghetti salad, cake, cookies, baked beans, and all the yummy trimmings.



 

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I posted some pics on Facebook, but things tend to get lost on there, so here are some pics from Monday night, Em's graduation from Swan Valley High School.  Six down, zero to go....


 

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We planned our Saturday around the Bay City area, because we had a picnic at 2 p.m. with a group of Covenant people from apilko6 's department, hosted by his department head at a Bay City State Park's pavilion. 

Dropped off our dead pool motor at a place in BC that used to fix Eaton motors.  Hopefully, they will call Monday with a low quote to fix the motor.  I really want my pool this summer.

Then we passed the park and headed north to Nayanquing to watch some birds.  Unfortunately, it got extremely windy, which drove most of the birds into hiding.  We had some fun, though.  Here, first, is our friend, the yellow-headed blackbird.



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Well, it looks like it's going to be rainy soon, which is kind of depressing.  Means I probably won't get an after-work walk in today.  We did see a deer on the rail trail at lunch today, and Gypsy went a little nuts over that.

We wanted to go to up Negwegon State Park for an overnighter with our backpacks on Saturday, but we figured out the mileage, and it would cost about $50 for the trip and $14 for the camp fee.  So that's not going to happen either.  We have enough gas in the van to get up there, but not to return.  :(  All of Marvin and the paycheck had to go to a house payment, leaving us with $30 for the next two weeks.  Don't know how that's going to work. 

I register for my class on June 4th, but I don't have to pay until July.  I'm $207 short for that. 

Since Andy has the weekend off, we are trying to figure out what to do that doesn't cost anything.  I'm getting so sick of the rail trail, but there is a mosquito infestation going on in the flats right now.  

Hrmpf.

The weather was surely less than perfect.  Birders everywhere were complaining about the high winds which kept the birds hidden, but even so I managed to log 63 species for the weekend, including a whopping 8 new for me, bringing my life list to 140.  And I surely do have some photos to share.

Here is my teaser, the gorgeous chestnut-sided warbler.


 

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Hooray for the month of May.  There has been a lot of birding going on in my life, and it's just the beginning.  The Bird Festival in Tawas starts this weekend, and I'm ready for that! 

This year, I saw the coolest bird ever.  My first time to see the famed yellow-headed blackbird that rarely visits Michigan, but does like to show up at Nayanquing Point each spring.  I saw him again on Mother's Day and he can onto the trail, and posed just for me.



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Not done yet, but I'm reading SUCH an excellent book, written by Tatiana de Rosnay, "Sarah's Key".  This is a story of Paris, 1942.  Sarah and her family, a part of the Jewish *round-up* by Parisian police, people to be sent to Auschwitz.  The historic story is mingled with another story of a current Paris family and its secrets from the past.  This is an international best-seller, and is a not to be missed in my opinion.  Easy to read, enthralling and heart-wrenching.  DO IT.  Additionally, if you have visited Paris or have a love for that city, this book is important to you.

http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/local/article/lost_hikers_smart_thinking_gets_him_home/34402/

Yesterday we went birding at Nayanquing.  Because it was super windy, the birds were pretty much staying hidden from us, but we did get a few nice sightings.   Both a sandhill crane and little green heron flew right over our heads, we saw great white egrets, many kinds of ducks, a pine warbler, yellow warbler, but the best find of all was the bird we've been trying to see for years, and this was our very first ever siting:  the yellow-headed blackbird, which is quite rare for this area (better seen in the *true* midwest).  Maybe not the greatest pic, but definitely proof of the siting! 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-va-missingappalachia,0,6599856.story
Sometimes there is a happy ending, and in this particular case, I'm very thrilled.  Ken is a very nice person, and an experienced hiker, who knew what he would have to do to be found.

Our friend, Ken Knight, whom we have hiked with several times, and had fun with at three weekend gatherings of Great Lakes Hikers, is missing on the Appalachian Trail.  :(

 

He calls himself the Wandering Knight; here is his website.

 

http://awanderingknight.blogspot.com/

If you go there and scroll down, you’ll see some pictures I’ve taken at the Gathering in November.

 

He lives in Ann Arbor and is an editor at Backpacking Light magazine.  He also does some work at the Ark in Ann Arbor.   Ken has a vision problem, due to premature birth, but he is an extremely experienced hiker, and has hiked across Scotland just last year.

 

Here is an article on M-Live.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/04/ann_arbor_hiker_missing_on_app.html

 

 

Backpacking Light is asking us to please post the following information on any forums, message boards, etc. that we are involved with, in case anyone has seen Ken since Sunday morning.  He was to have been on a flight back to Michigan on Wednesday night, which he missed. 

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=20748

 

A group of 7 friends have retrieved personal items from his home and are leaving Michigan today to assist with the SAR team.

 

Please pray for Ken.

Right now I am supposed to be at Comerica Park watching the Tigers lose to the Yankees (well, it's 8 to 1 right now).  Dave was treating Andy and I to some $10 tickets with a gift card he had, but we had so much trouble using the gift card online to buy the tickets, somehow it got locked up and is now showing a zero balance with no tickets to show.  I spent three days calling the Phillipines and China (because apparently that's where all the customer service numbers go these days), trying to get the money back on the card.  Talk about stress.  After going around in circles, calling numerous numbers, talking to people who cannot speak English, we are left with "Someone will call you in five business days.  This happens a lot."  Well, for freaks sake, if this "happens alot" something is very wrong with your on-line system.

Anyway, we woke up today with a flooded basement (a.k.a., Dave's room).  Mostly he's not a messy dude, so did not have a bunch of stuff laying all over the floors.  Most of my crap was on "higher ground", as the room tends to slope to the center, for some reason.  Being the excellent machine repairman that apilko6 is, he pulled the sump pump out, figured out the problem, bought a small part, fixed it and put it back in.  Yay. 

In the meantime, the garage door destroyed itself for good.  It needed to come up because I have someone coming over to buy the TR8 on Saturday (YAY, HUC certificate tuition money!).  We tried to force it up, but the frame bent to hell and it's now hanging to its death.  We can't even get it down now.  It's so heavy.   $711 for a new garage door, installed price.  Need to have it.  Freaking out.

Okay, time for Idol.  Matt better not get voted off tonight.  Life has been tough today.

Last weekend, we camped at Brighton State Rec Area, which is actually in Howell, and hiked there and at  Island Lake State Park, which is actually in Brighton.  If you think THAT is crazy, take a look at the Brighton Roundabout in the middle of Brighton that a motorist is expected to navigate.  We were lost in here not quite as long as I was lost in Egypt at the Louvre one time.  Whoever thought this one up deserves to drive in circles for the rest of his life with no way out.

Our campsite:



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