Summer catch up

Is this what happens when you get old?  Because I swear my birthday was just last week but the calendar tells me that August 29 was a while ago!  Where has this year gone??????

So.... Cliffnotes!

Sometime in the end part of August was the Cheeseburger Fesitval and Sis1 happens to have a friend who has a camper permanently parked at the campground on the beach.  So we went to visit her & her family for a while, rode some jet skis, did some shopping and then went to eat some cheeseburgers!  And my poor pasty white body got fried in the sun.  

Like I said, August 29 was a special milestone birthday for me!

This is what was greeting me when I got to work that day...

Yes, another skeleton!  This one is names Walter and he's still at work, sitting on the plant stand in the corner. 

The Spouse sent me 29 carnations (because I'll always be 29) and one red rose.

He's such a sweetheart!

The Spawn was so excited to get this banner to hang outside the house. 

She gave me these awesome earrings the day before, too. 

The pic doesn't do them justice - they really sparkle!

So I guess I should ease back off my Halloween skeleton shopping a bit (HA!!!)

My quest for the cows from Tractor Supply was successful.  I also got their mini horse. 

I got  pair of geese from Michael's, a pair of little goats from JoAnn's and finally a tiny puppy and a random armadillo from At Home. 

Oh, and a 74" skeleton (named Marvin) from HalloweenCostumes.com

The week after Labor Day, the Spouse & I went up north on vacation. 

Like WAY up north.

Here we're crossing the Mackinac Bridge. 

And on the other side of the UP, we crossed the International Bridge into Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.

He has the talent to be able to get to destinations with perfect timing - we got to the shoreline just in time to watch the sun set over Lake Superior. 

We went to the Canadian BushCraft Heritage Center and got to explore a bunch of cool planes.

The main thing we went to go do was take the Agawa Canyon Train Tour.  

a 4 hour train ride out into the literal boonies, then we had a couple hours to explore the area & have a picnic before heading back into civilization. 

LOL!!!

The Search & Rescue Volunteer in me cringed at the thought of searching for someone in that terrain!

We went a bit early in the year, so there was only a wee bit of color in the forests, but it was still so pretty!

We HAD to stop at a food truck to get some real poutine.  

~drool~

We also had breakfast at this place called the Breakfast Pig.  OMG.  I had something called the MBC FT, which is French Toast with maple syrup, bacon & cheddar cheese, with a side of cheesy eggs.  And if we went back, I was going to get the PB & DAAAMN which is french toast with strawberry rhubarb jam, topped with fried chicken thighs and drizzled with more jam and warm peanut butter.   

On the way home, we stopped in St. Ignace and climbed Castle Rock.  I don't remember ever being up there before, so if I had been, I was really young.  It was one hell of a climb!

It was especially cool that they were having a mass evacuation drill on Mackinac Island and we could watch the big ol' Chinook helicopters airlifting stuff back & forth between the mainland & the island. 

The Spawn's birthday is September 28 and of course that means...

We had stuff going on the weekend after her birthday, so that's when I moved Marvin out next to one of the big maple trees, along with the cemetery sign and gave him a shovel like he was getting to work. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of the "Catching Up" series!

Happy Halloween!

I'm pretty proud of how my yard looks for Halloween!

This guy was originally standing with his hands outstretched - then he fell over and was hanging by a ziptie.  We thought it was funny, so he stayed. 

We call this the Mosh Pit.

The blowmolds get separated from the cemetery so their light doesn't drown out the cemetery lights. 

Marvin was looking pretty awesome up there, front & center!

This the car section of the cemetery. 

ForTiac is in memory of the first 2 cards the Spawn wrecked, a Ford and a Pontiac. Reginald was her elderly Cadillac that gracefully passed away in our driveway and was towed off to the nearest junkyard.  Ruby (the Saturn) was my Vue that I was rear-ended in just before Halloween 2022.  

We only got about 25 kids for trick or treating, which is pretty normal.

We don't have streetlights or sidewalks in our part of the neighborhood. 

2 streets over and there are tons of kids!

*******

November 1

The snow started during Trick or Treating. 

Normally by early afternoon, the yard is 100% bare.  

But the Spouse was sick and I was starting to be, so we folded up the shack and left it out there (on the left) for a couple days until we felt better.  That thing is heavy!

I did get the coffin rolled back in the next day. 

This is the second time I've won an ebay auction and my items arrived the day after Halloween! 

 

 

It's August!?!?!?

Where did July go??  I swear I just posted a week ago, but nope - it was 6/28!

Anyhoo... it's officially my birthday month so I'll accept cash and gifts all month! 

I'm going to be 50 on the 29th.  How insane is that?

*

*

*

I have lots of feelings about that fact, but I don't feel 50.

 *

*

*

So this did indeed happen!

I got a good 6 or so inches cut off my hair.  

And it's still not terribly short!  

The Spouse isn't a fan.  I had it done while he was out of town and 3 days after he got home, I brought it up because he'd never mentioned it.  I commented that I know he noticed, so he must hate it.  He just doesn't like short hair.  But ya know what - it doesn't matter how long or short my hair is - when it's hot, it's all twisted up in a clippy so you can't see it anyway!  It looks tons healthier. And I like it - so NEENER!

Grandkids at the 4th of July parade.  

Got to love all the fire trucks with lights & sirens going!

BabyGirl isn't a fan of loud noises, so we did our own fireworks.  

She had a good time with the cheap Kroger fireworks and sparklers.

I ordered a 74" skeleton online.  

I'm pretty excited to get Marvin out with the rest of the army at Halloween!

We signed up LittleMan for tball.  I give kudos to the coaches for putting up with his shenanigans since he doesn't listen when he's interested in something else (like dirt or rocks in the infield!)

We'll have to get him a new glove already for next year since he favors his left hand.  He loves being around the other kids, tho. 

We went with the search & rescue team to a museum in Flint, MI to see an exhibit called "Real Bodies".  It was super cool.  My only issue is that I would have liked to know the age and ethnicity of these subjects.  Because we got the impression that these were all of Asian descent - besides some of them still had eyelids that gave it away - the bodies all had very short, slender builds like the sterotype.  I was looking at a display of healthy vs smokers lungs and I have a hard time believing the MY lungs are as small as these supposedly from an adult.  I'm no athlete but just the volume of my ribcage could hold a lot bigger organs than what we looked at. 

I was however fascinated by what the male's "twigs & berries" looked like without skin! 

Damn groundhogs.  We had to "exhume" the lawn mower! 

Seen at a local elementary school.

We took the grandkids to see "Tons of Trucks" this past weekend.  Basically the city of Rochester Hills emptied their DPW into a nearby parking lot - there was a bucket truck to install street signs, various excavators and front end loaders, snow plows, street sweepers, a steam roller probably minus the steam, one fire truck and 2 county SWAT trucks.  Kids could get into each of the vehicles and touch everything.  And there were a LOT of kids!  

I was sitting on the ground pulling weeds in my flowers and heard a bunch of giggles - Spawn was holding BabyGirl on LittleMan's shoulders.  They were both cracking up! 

We had a surprise party for my Mom's 89th birthday!  This was the one picture I was really wanting to get for her - it's the first time all of her great-grandkids were together.  The 2 on the right live near Chicago and the 3 big ones in the back live in Ohio so they're never here at the same time.  We rented my VFW hall and moved some of the tables to the kids had a place to play out of the way.   We all had a great time and Mom was so surprised! 

Before I sign off, last Tuesday was this blog's 14th birthday!

Woot!