• 23Aug 08

  Dog Days are almost Dead

  
  Lake Michigan
  
  Sadly, the end of summer is near. What have you been doing to fill up your time in the sun? I've been doing some golfing (more bad than good), bonfires, lawn maintenance, marathon Pictionary sessions, beer drinking (I guess this applies to any season), tanning, pool lounging, Lake Michigan sunset watching, Tigers baseball watching (thank god it's nearly over), weekending in TC, grilling (though my wife mans the grill), and sleeping without any covers. I had some pictures from Arbutus Lake in TC to post last time, but for some reason couldn't get them to work. Here are a few a month and a half after the fact.
  
  
  No one else seems to care for this one, but I kinda like it
  
  
  Everybody seems to like this one though; its my current desktop image as well
  
  
  Just as a storm is rolling in
  
  
  Stumps
  
  And to show off the contrast of colors, the top one is from the summer and the bottom one is fall:
  
  
  
  
  Things have been going pretty well at work the last few months, now that it is just my business partner and I running things. We haven't hired anyone yet, so the workload can get taxing at times, but our profits are steadily increasing. We've given ourselves a pretty significant raise, and yet are still paying out less than we did when it was three of us. The only problem is there isn't anyone to cover for us, so time off is now comes at a premium. My wife and I booked plane tickets to San Diego for a week vacation months before the business ownership shifted from 3 to 2 partners, and it will be a bit of a stressful week for my partner at the end of September. We've tried to plan ahead, to make things go smoother at work that week, but it really just boils down to how busy we get, and there just isn't really any way to tell how it will be until that week comes.
  
  San Diego you say? Yeah, my wife and I are going out to California for a week to visit my (our) best friend in, who is in the Marine Corps and stationed there. He's got leave for that week and plans to play tour guide for the area for us (he's been out there for about a year now). He's got the local watering hole scene down pat, and plans to get us out surfing. Though after "Shark Week" on Disc. channel my wife plans on staying out of the ocean. I plan and grabbing a ton of photos and it looks like we'll be able to catch a Padres game while we're there.
  
  After this trip I'll have visited 9 states overall. (Technically 12, but Texas, Kentucky and Missouri don't count, they were just layovers from past flights.)
  
  I've been to the red states below and DC (except CA, yet).
  
  
  
  Create your own personalized map of the USA
  
  Have you heard about the Football pick'em tournament here at TV.com? IM, Tommy, and fish are already in on the action, but anybody else who might happen to read this is welcome to join in the fun. Just post in the linked thread to let 123home123 know you want in and he'll send you the info.
  
  That's all for now. I've already done some golfing today, and later I'm headed out for some beer drinking/bonfire fun. Take it easy.
  • Posted Aug 23, 2008 3:29 pm GMT
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• 2Jul 08

  Happy 4th

  I'm headed back up to Traverse City for the 4th of July weekend. So, to anyone looking to submit to The Simpsons guide: I'll be gone from Thursday evening 'til Sunday evening (July 3-6) and I won't be able to moderate my queue.
  
  I was up in TC a few weeks back and took some new photos. I'd show some to you, but I seem to be having trouble getting them to upload onto TV.com. So maybe next time I guess.
  
  I picked up my GH: Aerosmith bundle on Sunday. I've been looking for some new songs to play and I wanted a second guitar so my wife and I, or more than one friend can play at a time. I'll admit I'd never heard a handful of these Aerosmith songs before, I think my favorite new one is "Kings and Queens." I really like the fact that you can play the entire Joe Perry guitar solo after you've beaten Perry in the game. Too bad there's only one solo though. I plowed through the game on Easy just to get a feel for the songs and I'm currently cruising through Medium. I've 5 starred everything so far on the first try, mostly in part because this isn't my first time with Guitar Hero like it was with GH:III and this game doesn't seem to be as difficult as GH:III. Which is fine with me, I might have a chance at beating all the songs on Hard.
  
  Saw a cool little thing at IndianaMom's blog that I decided to borrow. Instructions are as follows: Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done. See if anybody else responds with "I've done that." Ask your friends do this in their journals to see what unique things they've done.
  
  My 3 things share the same theme: Sports. And if you're a regular here you should recognize #1.
  
  1--I've ridden in an elevator with Peyton Manning.
  2--I've witnessed Sammy Sosa hit 3 home runs in the same game at Wrigley Field.
  3--I've actually touched the Stanley Cup.
  
  Hopefully, next time I'll be able to get some pictures up, I'm sure I'll take some more this weekend. Take it easy fellow TV.commers.
  • Posted Jul 2, 2008 3:25 pm GMT
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• 13Jun 08

  Up North

  This weekend I'm finally headed up to Traverse City for the first time this summer, so to anyone looking to submit to The Simpsons guide this weekend: Go ahead, but I won't get a chance to process them until Monday night.
  
  
  Arbutus Lake in the fall.
  
  A few things have changed at work in the last few weeks. The small business, of which I purchased a 10% stake of last summer, has 3 partners: Me, and 2 brothers (not mine). This past Monday one of the brothers started a new job; myself and the other brother are in the process of buying out his 45% of the business. Work has been slower the past few months and the workload will increase for the 2 of us, but so will our wages, so I'm not complaining. And over the course of one short year my initial investment for the 10% has basically tripled.. My business partner and I will equally divide the other brother's 45%, bumping my share of the company to a touch under 33%. I expect things to get a little hectic latter this summer and fall, which is our typical busy time, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Without getting into too much detail, the brother that left and found another job didn't always have the same vision as the 2 of us still running the business, and my current business partner and I are always on the same page, so I'm excited about the possibilities and opportunities this change will bring about.
  
  I, of course, haven't stopped rooting for the Tigers, it's just been hard to be enthusiastic about them thus far this year. The White Sox sweep looked very promising, but the only 2 other times the Tigers swept a team this year (Yankees & Twins), they promptly went into a slide. So who knows, I'll feel a little better if they can take 2 at home against the Dodgers this weekend. Hopefully, they can rattle off a 8-2, 10-3 type run and get into striking distance of .500 by the All-Star break. We'll see.
  
  I've put away Mario Kart Wii, for now. Up next will be Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and right now I've gone back to playing GH: III here and there. I was stuck on the 7th tier on Hard, particularly "Knights of Cydonia" (sp?). But after about a month layoff I dusted off my guitar and eeked past it after a couple tries. Now I'm stuck on the 8th tier. I'm pretty sure I can get "Cliffs of Dover" with some practice, but Metallica's "One" (which is cake until the last 15% or so) is impossible. I haven't even bothered with "Raining Blood" or "Number of the Beast". I did jump up to Expert and am halfway through the 3rd tier. I've hit a couple songs I need practice on, "Lay Down" and "The Seeker", but I mostly have been perfecting a few of my favorite songs on Hard, "Talk Dirty to Me", "Even Flow", "Cult of Personality", and a few others.
  
  I've been out golfing quite a bit lately. The first couple of times I shot a forgettable 56 and 58, but the last 6 times out I've shot right between the 48-53 range. I'm a bit of an unorthodox golfer and I do not use my driver or any of my woods. This year I've been teeing off with my 7 iron, only because it's the club I'm most confident with. I've sacrificed distance for pretty decent accuracy; most (certainly not all) of my tee shots are 170 to190 somewhere in the fairway. I usually golf every Wednesday and once every other weekend with a foursome consisting of me, my brother and 2 friends. One of whom could easily hit 280-300 yards on a consistent basis if he could eliminate his slice and control his swing. He shot a +4 39 last Wednesday, with 6 pars, 2 bogeys and 1 double. For the most part we are all pretty competitive and scores are usually within 3-5 strokes of each other. Last Wednesday we shot 48-50-50-51, mine being one of the 50's. I'll be taking my wife to a nice little par 3 course west of TC this weekend, I'll let you know how we did.
  
  Take it easy fellow TV.commers.
  
  Go Tigers.
  • Posted Jun 13, 2008 1:15 pm GMT
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