This was a pretty darn good weekend. I left early Wednesday morning on a train to Washington, DC. I was there for a workshop and to present at the workshop, which I did on Friday morning. I'm told that the presentation went well, so yay for that.

The past two weeks have seen several new chapters starting here, and probably the closing of at least one.

Well, we've been back from vacation for a week now, but I haven't had time to write about it yet!  We got home and fell into a bunch of stuff that was waiting for us to return.

First up this week, of course, was our return to work.  We arrived home late Saturday night, spent Sunday getting the house in order again, then we were back to work Monday morning.  Ugh.  Getting back to work was good, though.  Though I think I could have done well with a few more weeks off, it felt good to get back to work.  Jenny and I discovered that we were really missing the cats Sunday night, so I went to get them Monday after work.  I had originally thought that we might leave them at the kennel for one additional night while we worked on getting laundry re-organized and getting the house cleaned-up before re-introducing cat fur to everything.  However, we were done on Sunday, and we missed the cats a lot, so they came home Monday afternoon.  They were initially a little confused and a lot upset when I brought them home.  By the time that Jenny got home, though, they were pretty much back to their former comfort level. 

Tuesday evening was National Night Out Against Crime.  The Parnassus Civic League sponsored a block party on another block here.  This was an important event to attend for me--not only because of my role as an officer in the organization, but also because I think that our efforts to get crime out of our neighborhood are highly valuable.  A block party at night on a weekday is a great way to show the nefarious types that we don't really appreciate them, and will not tolerate their element in our neighborhood.  It's also a good way to get people who rarely get a chance to come out to meet one another to do just that. 

The rest of the week pretty much progressed apace.  Jenny and I ment my friends Nick and Phil for dinner on Thursday evening, and that pretty much covers it.  Overall, though, it was pretty busy as we both worked to catch-up on stuff. 

Now on to vacation!  We had a great time!  We drove up on Saturday the 26th of July.  We had good weather for the whole ride up.  We woke up with a plan to leave at around 5AM.  My parents' car, which is usually notoriously late as we leave for vacation together, ended up leaving at just about exactly the same time.  Jenny and I thought that we were going to beat them out of the gate by hours, but it didn't happen.  We ended up heading north pretty much together the whole way, which worked-out pretty well.  We had our little sailboat strapped to the top of the car.  Except for some major strap noise in the beginning, it worked pretty well.  There was some high-frequency noise if we went faster than about 65MPH without a large vehicle in front of us to draft, so we tried to follow tractor trailers once we got into Michigan and onto 70MPH roads.

Everything was going swimmingly...

... until I ran out of gas!!!!  Ugh.  I'm such an idiot sometimes.  We were about 35 miles outside of Mackinaw City when I saw that we were running really low.  The "hey dork, stop for gas" light wasn't on yet, so I figured I'd take the next close gas station, with the thought that we should easily make Mackinaw City if the light wasn't on yet.  Next thing I know, the light is on.  Umm, OK.  We're too far from Macinaw City yet to make it there with the light on, but I should be able to make the next exit, which is only a few miles away. 

About 2000 feet before the exit, the engine starts to heave, so we pulled-off.  How embarrassing.  I've never actually run out of gas before--ever!  My parents were right behind us.  They pulled-off, too.  We weren't sure exactly how far the exit was in front of us at that time.  I placed a call to put our AAA membership into action, and finally convinced my parents to go on ahead over the bridge and to get into the house that they had rented for all of us.  About fifteen minutes later, AAA showed up and gave us some gas, which got us safely to the next exit to fill-up.  Ugh.  I can't believe I did that. 

Drama aside, the trip to the house on St. Martin's Point on the shores of Lake Huron was great.  We (and the boat) arrived unscathed, only about ten or fifteen minutes after my parents got there. 

That night we spent getting settled-in and making some preliminary plans for Sunday.  My sister Marissa her her boyfriend Joe went off to pick up dinner for us at a take-out place we often use when we arrive in this area.  I settled-in to do some reading and watch all of the stars.  I always forget how many stars we can see from that area.  With so little light pollution, the entire sky is dotted with stars big, small, bright, dim, and everywhere in between.  With the start of the active meteor showers, too, this is a great time to be up there--I can usually spot at least one every night. 

Sunday we went to Mass in the nearby town of Hessel.  We then returned to the house, and Jenny and I went off to do the shopping duties to buy us most of what we'd need for the meals we were planning.  As we've done this more and more, my Mom has become pretty good at making sure that we don't over-plan meals.  I remember the first time we joined them in Michigan at a rented house (actually, this same house) a few years ago.  My Mom had planned a strict three meals per day, and brought many of the necessary ingredients with her from home.  That meant an over-stuffed car, for starters.  Also, we found that we usually only ate twice per day, and didn't take into account days where we ate one meal at a restaurant due to our location (or due to the fact that Clydes, a drive-in hamburger stand, is a huge family favorite, and is usually the source of two meals while we're there).  All of that added up to a huge amount of food that had to be brought home at the end of the week, which was just insane.  This trip was much better--we ended up with generally little to bring home, which was good. 

I also got my Dad to help me to get the sailboat rigged on Sunday.  This was my first time doing it on my own, so I took my time.  It all went together quickly with my Dad helping, though, so it was ready in no time. 

At this point, memory of the actual daily events gets a little foggy.  I had meant to keep a good record of what we did up there specifically for updating the blog, but I just don't remember.  So, in lieu of that, here's a shortened version in the sequence that I remember it all happening.  :) 

The first time I took the boat out, the wind was good and steady, and there were some light waves coming into the bay.  It was an on-shore wind, which makes things sometimes a little harder for setting-off, but would make things easier for coming back, even if I had major issues.  Well, I had major issues, but they weren't involved with leaving, or coming back, for that matter.  I couldn't get the darn thing started!  The beach area near the house is rocks and lots of soft mud and sand, which makes walking in it and standing in any one place pretty difficult.  I would get the boat out to about the depth where I could still get into it and it wouldn't touch bottom.  I would get in, try to set the sails, and blow back onto some rocks and come to a stop.  Argh.  I tried this a few times.  While I was doing this, I didn't notice that the wind was getting stronger, and the waves were starting to get some whitecaps.  At one point, after I had decided to start by setting-out further from the shallow area, I was climbing aboard the little boat when a wave came over the starboard side and completely swamped the boat.  I dragged the boat as far as it would go full of water, pulled-out my manual bilge pump, and started to pump it out.  Joe had cut a water jug into a scoop and brought that down to help.  We'd empty a bunch of water until it floated free again, then drag it further on shore, then bail some more.  We finally got it just about empty, and I pulled it up into the reeds for the evening.  The wind now was getting pretty strong, and looking out on the bay, the waves were getting pretty strong for such a little boat.  It was probably a good thing that this happened, and I wasn't stuck further out trying to right a boat that may have capsized due to the waves and my inexperience. 

The next day, I took the boat out again.  This time, I decided to try just the jib instead of just the mainsail.  I was having better luck with not swamping or capsizing, but I kept blowing back on shore.  A friendly gentleman who was renting the house next door came over to offer some assistance.  As it turns out, I think that the two most beneficial things he said were that I was right the first time, and should start with the mainsail hoisted; and that I need to have at least a little bit of the daggerboard in the water.  The daggerboard is a board that fits into a pocket in the centerline of the boat.  It sits down in the water to resist the force of the wind blowing the boat sideways, helping to translate that force into forward motion.  Well, I didn't realize that even a few short inches would be enough to get me out of the rocky area to where I could drop it the rest of the way.  Those were the magic words.  That short little bit of daggerboard got me forward motion instead of sideways motion back onto the rocks, and I was sailing! 

Let me just tell you all that I've been wanting to learn how to sail ever since I was a little kid.  It wasn't something I talked about a lot because it seemed impractical at the time, and yet another draw on everyone as another activity, so I never really mentioned it.  This was a fabulous feeling.  I was out there, in control of my own little tiny boat, and I was having a great time with it.  I was finally able to put all of the things that I've been reading into practice, and to actually see what was meant by some of the things I had read.  I dealt with tacking only--I wasn't ready to play with jibing yet.  I also sailed mainsail only an no jib--it was one more thing that I was going to have to learn how to control, so it would wait.  It was completely awesome, though.  It was also tiring, as I found that my little boat wasn't all that comfortable to kneel in for long periods of time, and I was doing a lot of work to keep things balanced in the wind.  I came back in after probably an hour or so out there, and was completely and totally exhilarated and exhausted.  I rested for a little while, then went back out again.  I had to prove to myself that I could get it started and underway on my own, without the help of the kind gentleman next door.  It was just something I had to do, and I did it!  Wow.  Awesome.  Cool.  My Dad, meanwhile, was filming everything.  During this second session, I did some stuff for him specifically for the camera shots.  I was in radio contact with him (yay for ham radio operator goodness, and waterproof radios!), so I also did a quick "how is everything going" report.  When I came out again for the day, I did a short interview with him about how everything went.  Unfortunately, when he went to review the tape later, he found that there was an error with the tape, and none of the second session was recorded.  Argh!  Oh well,  I planned to get out again while we were up here, and I had a great time! 

We all went into St. Ignace one afternoon for a walk around to look at things and do a little bit of shopping, followed by dinner at the aforementioned hamburger drive-in.  While the girls shopped, Dad and I went down to the marina to look at boats.  I'm seriously considering a bigger sailboat now, especially since I had so much fun on the little one.  I'm completely hooked!  After the women rejoined us, we all went to get dinner, then took it down to one of the Mackinac Bridge overlooks to eat and watch night fall over the bridge.  They light it up at night, so it is really cool to watch the lights come on as the sun sets. 

Jenny and I went into Hessel one morning to walk around the marina there a bit and look at boats there, then we headed to Sault Sainte Marie and the Soo Locks to watch BIG boats for a while.  When I say big, I mean these are 1000-foot freighters moving through locks that are just barely big enough to hold them.  It's really something to see.  We've gone there over the past few years with the whole family, but different people end up getting bored or wanting to do other things.  We were specifically coming just to watch boats, so we dedicated the entire day to that.  We had a late lunch in town across from the locks, then headed back to have the dinner that Joe and Marissa were making that night.  Mmm..  Good. 

I woke up one morning feeling really sick, which was no fun at all.  I had felt a sinus problem during the week, and this was its culmination.   Fortunately, it only was really bad in the morning, and I was up and fine by late morning.  Mom and Dad were going on a drive that day to visit some of the beaches and things along the Lake Michigan side of the Upper Peninsula.  Jenny, Marissa, Joe and I all decided to stay back and enjoy some sailing and kayaking time.  There were kayaks at the house, which Joe and Marissa had out earlier in the week.  Today, I took the sailboat out again, and Jenny and Marissa came out in kayaks.  This was another great day, and I had an even better time.  I got the jib up this time, and got some practice getting that set and making it work.  That little boat packs some good speed, too--I turned on the little old Garmin handheld GPS that I had my dad mount to the boat with some velcro, and once it picked up a good signal, it indicated that I was traveling at just about four knots.  That's a good speed for a small boat like that.  It had a little bit of heel to it, so I could hike out a bit on the windward side and really get a good feel for how the boat was performing and working.  It was great fun.  I also got a chance to practice some jibing, which was a good thing to do and to learn.  Jenny had a great time out in the kayak, and was out there a good long while before she went into Jenny Daydream Mode for a second and turned-over.  Her life vest kept her floating while she righted the boat, though, and she was able to swim it up to shore easily.  I had the chance to practice a sort-of Man Overboard drill when I saw that, though, which was also a good thing to do.  I headed back in shortly after she did.  It was another great day of learning a lot and putting a lot of things that I had read into practice.  Later in the day, we were getting a beautiful sunset.  Mom and Dad had returned, and all of us "kids" went out to do a little sunset sail/kayak.  I got Jenny into the little boat with me (and it is truly little with two people in it!), and we sailed-off pretty well, then the wind just about completely died.  We had almost nothing.  Instead of venturing out too far under these conditions, we turned around and headed for shore, using the tiny bit of existing wind to get us back there.  We didn't have to break-out the paddle, but it was pretty close. 

Our final day we spent doing some additional shopping and sight-seeing in St. Ignace and Hessel.  Friday night we started to pack up, and had a nice big fire outside to watch the last of the starry skies in that part of the country. 

We set off early Saturday morning, aiming for Frankenmuth, Michigan.  My parents and sister and her boyfriend were all staying there for two nights.  Jenny and I had stayed for one night last year, but decided that we were going to drive all the way home this year on Saturday.  We really wanted the day on Sunday to unwind a bit before going headlong into a full week of work.  This turned out to be a good strategy for us.  We actually beat my parents to Frankenmuth, so we stopped at the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus to get some chocolate cheese for Jenny and some cheese spreads for both of us (good stuff).  We then went over to Bronner's, one of (if not the) largest Christmas store in the world.  They are open just about every day except for Christmas day itself.  They carry ornaments and decorations from all over the world, and we like to shop there for unique and interesting things for our tree and our families' trees.  This year, since Mom and Dad were going to have more time, they met us just so that Mom could get a look around, and so that she could buy us our traditional ornaments (thanks Mom!).  After we were done there, we headed over to get a famous Frankenmuth chicken dinner, which is served all-you-can-eat family-style.  Jenny had the sausage sampler dinner, and the rest of us had the chicken.  It was great. 

We said our goodbyes after dinner (or more like late lunch, in our case), and we headed for home.  We stopped a few times to stretch and once to get gas.  We arrived home at around 11:30PM on Saturday night, and were exhausted.  We unloaded the necessary things from the car, and left the boat and its stuff for Sunday. 

Sunday we went to Mass in the morning (with the boat still on the car :) ) then came back to get ourselves relaxed and ready for the week to come. 

Wow.  There's a lot of stuff to read.  I'll have pictures up soon--I simply haven't had time to handle them all yet! 

jonathan

Jenny and I are finally starting to get over the flu.  Jenny has it worse than I did--I'm finally feeling mostly better now, but she's still working on it.  Tonight makes 13 days for me.  Ugh.  I still haven't recovered all of my stamina yet, but I'm getting there. 

This weekend we hosted my sister-in-law Annie's bridal shower.  It was fun.  I smoked chicken in the new smoker, and Mom and Babcia helped with making the salads and baking cookies.  Dad helped me with grilling and general logistics.  It was a good time.  I think Annie had fun, too.  :) 

I built a clock as one of Annie's wedding presents.  Some readers here have known about this for a while, as I was keeping a build diary on here in a separate area.  I'll soon move those or link those here.  I need to complete the last entry, though, before I do that. 

I ordered bunting and a 45-star flag (historically accurate for the building of our house) last week, and it was supposed to arrive on Friday.  Then maybe it was supposed to arrive on Saturday.  Now it is Tuesday and it still isn't here.  I'm a little bummed.  Oh well.  I should have it in time for the Fourth of July, though. 

My June is shaping up to be pretty busy.  The first weekend in June is my birthday.  Yay!  Hopefully Jenny and I will get out to do something fun.  The following week, I am gone for three days to DC for work.  I'll be back for the weekend, then I'm off on Friday to help Jenny prepare for Annie's wedding on the 21st.  The morning after the wedding, I have a 6AM flight to Vancouver, BC, where I'll be for a week.  I'm taking the train home from there as a bit of a mini-vacation, which should get me home early in the morning on the 3rd of July.  Yikes.  Busy busy June. 

July and August should be a bit more calm, fortunately.  Jenny and I are taking our vacation in early August, so that should be fun.  In the meantime, I have a bunch of house projects that need my attention, including the front porch, getting the plumbing work coordinated, etc. 

The current project in the woodshop (after I spent most of this evening cleaning-up from the clock project) is a custom door threshold for my aunt and uncle's new house.  They have an odd doorway with a 1/2" height difference between two rooms, and it needs a threshold.  I have the initial piece cut for it and the router table set up to make the rabbet, but I was getting a little tired and didn't want to do anything stupid, so I shut down the shop and came upstairs again. 

I've been having some trouble making timely updates here for the past week or so partially due to the fact that my main laptop battery is hosed.  It will no longer take a charge and the laptop acts as if there is no battery there.  I had work order me two batteries today, so hopefully I'll have them soon.  Not having the batteries means that I'm not having the laptop on as much, since it can't survive power outages and I can't keep it on while I move among different rooms. 

We still have some clean-up to do around the house after the party.  We've been back-burnering that, though, while we rest and recover a bit. 

There's someone around here who has decided to use one of those stupid motorized mini-bikes as transportation from their house to someone else's house.  This isn't a scooter or any real form of DOT-approved transportation.  This is one of those little two-cycle "mini sportbike" things.  They usually are riding it past our house and towards the lower end of Parnassus every weekday at around this time.  Someday I'll stand outside with the hose and accidentally spray them down when they go past.  Argh.  Come on, folks.  They are illegal to have on the streets, so don't buy them and then wonder why the entire neighborhood wants to see it accidentally crushed into a tiny ball of recyclable metal.

That's all for me.  :) 

jonathan

Wow.  It's been a busy week!  Last weekend, we moved our blog to a new hosting company from my old servers.  Self-management has a lot of advantages, but some pretty significant ones for a site that is starting to get some more traffic (lack of backups, restrictions on bandwidth, etc.). 

This week I've been working sound for a local high school production of Beauty and the Beast.  They're doing a great job with the show, but it has been a lot of work stuffed into a pretty short amount of time.  The show opens tonight.  I expect that it will be pretty good.  I hope that they draw some good crowds. 

I'm working at home today, which is a great thing when one has an old house like we do.  I removed the pin that I had keeping the front window from riding up in its track and opened it, brought my stuff out onto the porch, turned on a little bit of music inside, and now I'm working from the comfort of our porch.  This is another reason why I like our neighborhood--I am sitting here working, watching the world go by, saying hello to neighbors, and just getting a chance to enjoy the sun and the fresh air while doing actual work.  This makes me wish that we had a rooftop deck on our building.  I'd work outside as much as I possibly could if we did. 

Spring is a great time for having an old house.  There are old plantings that are coming back to life again, old trees that are putting out leaves, new flowers that are coming up for the first time after being planted over six months ago, and so much more.  I took Jenny to work today, and I got home just in time to see the street sweeper heading up our side of the street.  I parked my car on the opposite side so that the driver could get all the way up our side of the street without obstructions.  Our neighbor Rob heard him coming, too, so he moved his cars out of the way.  Now we have a nice, clean curb.  Yay!  It took a while to get the city to start doing this again at all--now we just need to convince them to come up with some sort of schedule.  Though it might be informal, many of us would be hapy to park on the other side of the street one day every month so that we can have the street sweeper come through and get as much of the curb as possible.  And speaking of interesting sights, my Babcia and our family friend Mrs. Krol just drove past the house here.  I waved, but I don't think that they saw me.  Then I saw our friend Nancy walking home after dropping off their car at the local garage.  Now I see some other neighbors coming home from Shop'n'Save with their little folding grocery cart thing.  I like living here. 

Well, I need to get some lunch.  I'm going to try a little hot dog shop run by some other family acquaintances out on 366 in Kinloch, then I need to pick up some more Rymer's Lemon Blennd (yes, there are two n's in there).  I had a real craving for some after an event last weekend, and now I've been enjoying it during the rehearsals for this show.  We just ran out, so I want to grab some more.  If I have enough time, I'm also going to do a quick run around the yard with the mower--it is supposed to rain this Saturday, which would be the only day I'd have available to do it this weekend. 

Off to lunch. 

jonathan

Merry Christmas to all of our happy fun readers.  Today, Jenny and I wrapped and organized the last of the Christmas gifts, hung the cards that we've received around our pocket doors, did the last bit of clean-up in the house, and put our luminarias outside.  We went to Mass with my parents tonight, as my sister was singing.  Then we went up to their house for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Jenny and I helped to cook some of the foodstuffs, and Jenny helped to organize the cookies and chocolates.  We actually ate almost on time this year, which I think might be a first.  :)  We exchanged gifts with my family tonight, since we'll be going to Jenny's parents' for Christmas Day. 

It was a good day, spent with neighbors, friends, and family.  Most especially for me, I think, is another wonderful Christmas with the most beautiful girl in the world.  She puts up with so much from me--like having the house under construction for a year.  I have the best wife ever. 

jonathan

Tonight was the night that the fire department pulls Santa's sleigh around the neighborhood and distributes treats to kids.  I'm not completely sure what the whole story is, but a couple of years ago, Jenny and I heard sirens and saw lights, and we went out to see what was happening.  We followed the sound of the sirens around the corner, and saw a set of emergency vehicles, one of which was pulling Santa in a sleigh on a trailer.  Every year since, we've gone out to see this little mini-parade.  I'm sure that there is a story behind all of this, but I just don't know what it is. 

In other news, Monday night is the next meeting for our Civic League, and we're having a bit of a holiday party along with our meeting.  It should be fun.  We've been getting some encouraging words from lots of people lately, which I'll take as a good sign.  Yay us! 

jonathan

Jenny and I went on the Allegheny West Victorian Christmas House Tour last year, and we enjoyed it.  We decided that we should do it again this year, and maybe try to find some other people who wanted to come with us.  Two friends of ours came, and we had a great time.  I think Jenny and I would both recommend this tour to anyone who wants to see some great historic houses, and see an example of what can happen when a neighborhood--that was otherwise falling apart--pulls together and gets organized.  We're trying to do that in our little neighborhood of Parnassus.  If we have even a tiny bit of the success that they've had in Allegheny West, I think we'll be doing just fine.  Actually, in a year or two, I could see us having a house tour around here, too.  There are some great houses, great people, and great history.  That sounds like the makings of an interesting tour! 

jonathan 

This entry is a bit late in coming, but here it is anyway.  :) 

Our neighborhood still has one parade that goes through it, and that's the Veteran's Day Parade.  The parade here was last Saturday.  It was cold outside, and the parade was a little short, but it is still fun to watch.  I hear them coming from all the way up in the downtown area.  It was cool.  Pictures here: