Lets see, what has gone on over the past 7 months?  Well this fall I finally got rid of the hideous wallpaper in my living room and gave it a paint job.  Looks great.  Now I just need to do the rest of the house.  I’m thinking actaully of trying to hire someone to do it but alas, I trust nobody around here to actually give a shit and do a good job so it’s likely I’ll just end up doing it myself.  Gavin the Wonder Dog had knee surgery about 3 weeks ago.  I guess that was the big event of the year for me.  Talk about nerve wracking.  Not so much for him I guess as for me.  He is my child after all and having to put him through reconstructive knee surgery was pretty stressful.  You never quite know how a dog (or cat) might respond but he seems to have pulled through with flying colors and he is getting his stitches out this coming Friday.  He should recover about 80% use of his back leg by summer if all goes well.

Speaking of family.  I hosted my first Thanksgiving this past year at my house and it was a blazing success.  Everyone showed up, everyone brought great dishes to pass and nobody complained that I didn’t watch the football game with them on TV. LOL.  Really, it is wonderful to me to have so many family members living in this area.  They are all solid people and they’ve always given me plenty of encouragement in my life, sometimes when I’ve really needed it.

Sister Sarah and Brother-in-Law Brian were here for Christmas with my niece Lucy and nephew Christopher.  They’ve grown accustomed to staying at my house which actually has worked out quite well.  For everyone.  I’m always awestruck by young children.  Their lack of inhibitions and curiosity about everything around them is entertaining at the least and knowing how wonderful  their parents are at least gives me hope that they won’t mind contributing to my retirement fund once they start working.  The wonder years are ahead for them and I can’t wait to be that “cool but somewhat weird” uncle that likes to play Lego and shoot the shit with Ken and Barbie.

So beyond that, there is not a lot of new shit going on right now.  I am looking forward to profit sharing coming up at work and I’m looking forward to paying off my debts and maybe getting a couple toys as well.  Stay tuned for that.

I will promise that this year I will try to keep this blog updated more often.  Seems that whenever I have thought about writing, I’ve always managed to find something better to do with my time.  I guess that comes along as one of the pitfalls of home ownership.  There is always something to work on.  So, until next time.  Cheers!

We are finally starting to approach spring up here in the northwoods.  The pot heads are coming out of the forest and visiting the store once again stinking up the place, and the roads are full of pot holes again too.  Life in Michigan: where tourists can pretty much count on losing an axle on the roads as soon as they cross the state line.  Speaking of traveling, I did finally take a vacation (after 6 months of constant work) and took a trip down to the corn fields of Iowa to meet my new niece Lucy.  It was nice to see that Sarah and Brian run a tight ship, emulating the fine examples of our parents.  Christopher has grown and is finally learning to speak using complete sentences, something that will always make him my favorite nephew (make sure you remind him of that) and Lucy was sporting a fine head of hair, clearly preparing to wear home made barrettes made of bright pink sequins for the annual family pictures.  It was nice to see them all and even help them to acquire new channels on their TV.

On my way home from Iowa I managed to spend $10 on tolls going through Chicagoland only to end up at Ikea to spend a paltry $35.  I had never been to an Ikea store before and I had planned on making some bigger purchases to help furnish my new house.  Once there, I decided that other things really needed to be accomplished prior to setting up a Swedish sweat lodge in my basement.  Really, I simply can’t have a country bumpkin, collection of random things going on.  I need more consistency than that so some planning is going to be in order.

I am enjoying my new 47″ TV that I purchased with my profit sharing bonus at work.  Of course everyone I know is simply amused that I refuse to get cable TV to go along with it, they all think that I’ve wasted my money because I can’t watch 600lb men behave like fools at national sporting events in 3D.  Little do they know that there is more to entertainment than learning how many feet there are in a yard.  Like, perhaps watching the latest episode of Glee.  Gavin the wonder dog has been having a good time exploring his new house and it has not taken him long to get quite comfortable wandering around outside, soon I’ll be able to fence him in and I won’t have to stand out there and watch him every time he needs to go out.

I won’t even go into all the drama lately at work.  Let’s just say I’m glad I’ve got my shit figured out since at least that means I’ll be able to keep my job.

So that’s about all I have to say for tonight.  We’ve sprung the clocks ahead by an hour this weekend and so my body still thinks it’s much earlier than it really is.  I must be off to bed if there is any hope of me waking up in the morning.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted an update on this blog.  Life is crazy for me right now.  Work, Work, Work, sleep, sleep, sleep.  It’s a redundant cycle that won’t end until late August it seems.  All things considered, this is turning out to be a pretty decent summer.  The weather has been SO much better than last year, temperatures have remained fairly consistent in the upper 70′s to 80′s.  Right where it should be.  The boat is in the water at the cottage and the folks are keeping very busy building fences, making cookies, and keeping up with the neighbors (as much as they can stand it anyhow).  Looks like sister Sarah and nephew Christopher are going to be making a trip up to the northwoods as soon as this next week.  Sounds like Sarah might need a break even before their road trip in August.  Looking forward to seeing them, especially Christopher.  I’ve only seen pictures since last Christmas, I’m sure he’s growing fast and will eventually be in shock to discover a new sibling draining some of the attention away from him.  First born’s tend to get the best and the worst of things.  They are of course always FIRST, but the loss of devoted attention when a new family member arrives is a big step for any child to deal with.  Most do just fine and I’m sure Christopher will too.  He’s got great parents.

Things have been fairly busy on the national news front lately.  Of course the BP oil spill is the consuming story.  It has been interesting to follow things as they have developed.  It sickens me that our government as well as BP seem to think that an escrow account with 20 billion dollars in it is going to help solve this massive environmental disaster.  It doesn’t even matter any more when they eventually cap the flow of oil out of the hole in the ocean floor.  The damage has already been done.  Millions of gallons of oil and thousands of tons of methane now displacing what once was crystal clear waters in the Gulf will be killing us slowly for decades.  News came out today that oil and gas is now seeping up through the ocean floor near the well which is presenting another issue.  Could it be creating a sink hole due to pressure?  Nobody knows but if that is occurring, the worst of this disaster is not even close to being over yet.  We’ll see what happens.

In other news, the Prop 8 trial held closing arguments this past Wednesday.  Once again, proponents of the ban on gay marriage in California sputtered and shouted but in the end produced absolutely NO evidence to support their position.  This is a hugely significant case that will eventually make it to the supreme court.  A decision is expected in a few weeks and then it’s off to the appeals process.  I don’t have the energy to recap the whole thing, if you want to know about it more than visit the Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site for a full re-cap of all the arguments.  It really has been a pleasure watching one of the most successful lawyers in this country defend my right to exist and it amazes me that in a courtroom, where politics is NOT the key element, all those who are so intent on upholding discrimination against the GLBT community simply fall flat on their faces.  It’s been amazing to watch.

I have been able to keep up a little bit on my photography.  I’ve uploaded a few new galleries to leelanauphotography.com since my last entry.  Please be sure to check them out.  I’m looking forward to eventually having some time off this summer to really do some exploring with my camera, perhaps in places I’ve not been.  So, until my next entry which might be tomorrow, or several weeks from now, enjoy this picture of early summer in Leelanau.

Going to be a busy weekend at work so I likely won’t write again until the end of the weekend.  Have a good night!

Christopher turned 1 year old this past week and he is sure growing up fast.  He’s an exceptionally happy little boy and it’s clear that he’s got a pretty awesome set of parents.  It’s too bad they live so far away but that makes getting together just that much more important and special.  I don’t have much else to write tonight, the gallery pretty much says it all so enjoy.  Hover over the slide show for a link to the gallery.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday.  I’m glad it’s over.  This has been a challenging year and I’m glad to have made it through this holiday intact.  It was great to see Christopher again, at the rate he is going, the next time he is back up here, he should be walking!  He’s growing so fast.  Gavin had a very good h0liday and was a very good dog around the baby.  Even though he is quite energetic, I know he will learn to take it easy around Christopher until (and I know this time will come) Christopher starts to roughhouse with him when he is older.  Christopher did not seem to be bothered by the big black dog with the wild tail, hopefully that’s a sign that he’ll be comfortable around dogs in the future.

Thanks to everyone for the gifts and the cards.  My refrigerator is now filled with pictures of all the young kids in the family.  There seems though to be a lack of girls…You need a princiss now Sarah and Brian.  Someone to keep all the boys in line.  Soon enough.

It’s back to work tomorrow for another exciting weekend.  This now starts the slow period at work and this year promises to be one of the slowest on record.  Thank God I have a job, even if it is excrutianatily boring this time of year.  The next entry will likely be next week.  Cheers!

I will know today or tomorrow if I got the condo or not.  I’m getting ready to dish out some serious bucks here up front so that I can have some overlap between my current lease and the new one.  More later, have to head off to work.

I was going to rant tonight about my experience almost getting a ticket at the beach the other day but I’ve decided that those people who might have found this story amusing have already been told.  I didn’t get a ticket but suffice to say I won’t be making many trips to the national lake shore this summer.  Way to loose the support of a local dip shits.  Clearly the feds want nothing to do with me or my dog.  They sure want my money though.  I’ve got mixed feelings about what happened but I’m still not really that happy about it.

Awesome weather here lately…all over the country really.  Sarah and Brian go back to Iowa tomorrow, from what we understand most of the state is now under water.  It should make for an interesting trip home for them.  Saw some really great clouds tonight.  Check out leelanauphotography.com for more but here is a sample.

Well the weather is getting pretty violent here so I won’t write more tonight.  Next post will be early next week.