Purdue pic

My father-in-law (otherwise known as "Mr. Mac") sent this post-game picture of the three of us from our trip down to the Purdue last weekend, and even with our featured hat hair you can see that we survived the rain in style, me with my stylin' tie-dye t-shirt.  Does anyone else think that the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree?? ;)   Boiler up!

 

 

Falling for fall

We took another quick trip this past weekend, first to Saugatuck in West Michigan for a little shopping (let us know if you need a great restaurant recommendation in the area that we got from friends), then down to Indiana to meet the Barton's parents at Purdue to watch the Boilermakers win against Illinois.  Doesn't that sound like some good Midwestern fun, folks?  Well it certainly was, and as a bonus during our drive time we got to see the leaves change to their vibrant palate of fall colors right before our very eyes.  And then when we arrived home, we saw that the trees on our street (pictured) had themselves turned a wonderful flaming red while we were gone!

It's my favorite Michigan weather time of year, no doubt.  Despite the shorter days and the dread of the coming winter, brisk walks in the crisp air with the crunch of leaves underfoot can give one a renewed sense of purpose, and any excuse to eat apple pie is welcome in my book!  Hanging with friends around a campfire, at football games or a cider mill, or seeing families outside playing in the piles of leaves just warms my little heart :).  Cheers to your fall happiness!

 

The sweetest thing

I always thought that Sweetest Day was a contrived holiday by the card companies, only celebrated in the Midwest.  Turns out that in 1922, Herbert Birch Kingston, an employee of a candy company in Cleveland Ohio, began handing out candy to those that he believed felt "forgotten" - orphans, the elderly, homebound people etc.  Who knew?? (okay, maybe you already did, but I didn't!)

 

So while it's always nice to treat your loved ones to something special, consider what the Sweetest Day holiday was originally meant for, and perhaps instead spend time with them by volunteering at a homeless shelter, or take up a collection at the office or in your study group and go and deliver candy to a local orphanage or flowers to a senior center.  Coincidentally, tomorrow the hubby & I will be attending an auction for the non-profit Judson Center (www.judsoncenter.org) that serves children & families with a variety of social services, but now I will be conscious about what we do in future years to celebrate Sweetest Day.  Leave the red roses for Valentine's Day, and show some love for your less fortunate neighbors!

352 to 287

Please understand that I do realize that I am a competitive person (duh), and have done more than a little trash-talking when playing games or certain sports.  Knowing this should help make better sense of me saying that it drove me a little batty to find out early on that my husband is good, no great, at most board/card games - which means that unless we are on the same team, many times I must lose.  Ugh. 

 

So forgive me while I continue my little victory dance for round 1 (match to be continued!) of Scrabble from the other night.  You can see from the picture that there were not very long or complicated words involved, but we each used all of our tiles to finish the game, and I won fair & square!  This has only happened once before so I felt the need to make a silly historic note of it :).  Take solace, hon, as you'll always be the smarter one!

Birthday Wishes

Today is my great aunt Mary's 91st birthday. She is such an amazing woman, and has lived a life of generosity and humility. She went to Purdue, where she stayed in the dorms with Amelia Earhart and earned a degree in dietetics. She served as a nurse in World War II, spending most of her time at a military hospital in Australia. At the close of the war, she served in Manila, finding food for the survivors of the Bataan death march. She helped care for my father and his brother after the death of my grandmother when my dad was only four. She spent many years working for the residence halls of Indiana University, and now lives in the Dallas area. Up until a few years ago, she delivered meals as a part of Meals on Wheels. She is very adept at modern technology, and is a huge sports fan. This past year, when my parents were visiting, they found that the Purdue NCAA tournament game was not being televised in Dallas. No worries - Aunt Mary fired up her computer so they could watch the game on the internet!

Happy Birthday!

Time in the D

I was interested to read Time magazine this week (October 5, 2009 edition) that featured "The Tragedy of Detroit" on its cover as well as an announcement that they decided to buy a house in the city and have some staffers live there and report from the D in order to provide fairer coverage - good and bad news alike - as stakeholders. I, too, consider myself a stakeholder.  I was born & raised in the suburbs of Detroit, went to school in the city, and the hubby & I decided early on that save for an absolute need for a move due to employment, we would plant our own family roots in this region as well.
 
I admittedly teared up clicking through the link to photos of Detroit's "beautiful, horrible decline".  But Time's cover article also mused that if Detroit is truly open to new industry and reinventing itself, it could make for a great story.  So I'm going to follow along and check out the coverage over the next year, care to join me?  www.time.com/detroit

 

A yurt by any other name, part 2

The hubby wasn't feeling 100% on Friday when we left, so I was driving, with sis Aimee in tow in the Enclave  - which I must mention suffered collateral damage, well really just collected lots of sand in the interior but it was pretty traumatizing to me as one of its new owners!  ("Jave the Clave" is pictured here next to one of the yurts pre-sandbath at the beach).  Soon we are at the ready to provide identification and answer questions at the border.  We are asked the normal questions about citizenship and duration of our stay, then the questioning turns to:
 
Canadian customs agent:  Where are you folks headed?
Me:  To the Pinery in Grand Bend, Ontario.
Canadian customs agent: And what will you be doing there?
Me:  Staying in a yurt, so I'm told.  (at this point he looks up from our passports and peers at me a bit curiously)
 
I really didn't mean that to come off sarcastically as it might have sounded, oops!  Anyway, good times were had by all this past weekend at the Pinery, stories too numerous to detail here so you'll just have to ask us for more details, if you care :).  Yes, I did manage to "survive", thank you for asking, although I think the key to any outdoor travel is to go people who have the right equipment and know how to use it!  But really setting up our "shantytown", starting the fire, cooking meals and cleaning up after Ricky the Racoon (who raided our wheat bread, veggies & dip and Sunchips among other favored items) was definitely a team effort with everyone pitching in. Oh, and the reviews are in for the smooth stylings of Jenny, Sarah & Dave's first guitar recital lead by teacher Tim "The Maestro" - two thumbs up!!  The sunset on the water picture was their unbeatable backdrop, at least until the rain came in and we all scrambled for higher ground. 
 
I think most would agree that traveling with family or friends creates memories (good or bad!) that last for years.  It is the idea of getting away from our everyday lives and sharing experiences that keep us dreaming up different ways to use those coveted vacation days.  Mad love to my fellow yurters, thanks for making my first campground experience a great one!
 

A yurt by any other name

T-minus 24 hours before our departure to The Pinery in Grand Bend, Ontario.  I was emailing with two good friends this week who live out of state, and they were like, "you're doing what this weekend?!?".  Right.  Somehow we got talked into joining a group of 18 friends to head off to some random Canadian campgrounds where we will sleep in "yurts" for the weekend, so I've been telling people that we're going "yurting". 
 
Wikipedia definites a "yurt" as a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.  (Umm, Kim Kim, is that you in this picture??)  Anyway, I'm holding my breath that ours will better resemble, say, an upscale log cabin in rustic Pottery Barn-like furnishing :). 
 
In the meantime, I've been working on my jokes for weekend, and this is what I have so far: "So some teachers, engineers, and a nurse, doctor, lawyer & psychologist walked into a yurt..."