Leaves and Pumpkins!

With my allergies running rampant, I'm sitting here watching Wyatt Earp, chatting with my friend Tara online, and hanging out with my main man of my life, Wilson.

Yes, Wilson is my family's Scotty dog. But he's as good as it gets right now. ;)  Yeah, I just took him for the evening to give him a little vacation, and give me a little canine companionship so maybe I won't go out and get Munchkin (aka Darby) tomorrow. Having a puppy when leaf and snow seasons come up, with all that overtime and not being home a lot, would be very hard to do.

So now, instead of a puppy, I might buy a truck. Focus is getting to that point where I either need to fix some things, or get a new car. Toyota Tacoma or Chevy Silverado, 4x4 and extended cab, for those rugged Montana and Colorado roads when I go back out there!

Some guy's dad just bought Key Largo, a bar on Walled Lake, so they are having a big party tomorrow. My Novi boys and I are going to be there tomorrow to tear it up! Should be fun. Besides that, I plan on taking a scenic tour of the fall colors - hopefully on my motorcycle if the weather is kind. Michigan's travel website has a few good routes: Mackinaw City - Charlevoix - Petosky, or Jackson - Ann Arbor - Monroe, or Detroit - Algonac - Lake Orion - Port Huron.

My sister Linda and I have decided (more accurately: I ORDERED her, and she agreed) to go on a vacation some time after April next year. It's either going to be Alaska, Utah, or, if we both save our money diligently (not gonna happen), New Zealand. I told her she must go mountain biking in Moab and explore the slot canyons in Zion if she goes with me to Utah, hiking and camping in New Zealand, or watching grizzlies and getting lost in Denali if we go to Alaska - and she will love it. No ifs, ands, or buts.

For once, I don't think she minded me telling her what to do. ;)

Well, back to my movie and my man Wilson!

amazing discovery!

I discovered something fantastic today:

I can hook up my little-but-powerful speakers and subwoofer to my little dinky TV to get surround sound! So much sound out of a little TV!

This would have been nice to have when Matt, my friend from Virginia, visited me - we sat around drinking PBR and MGD while watching a bad French film, Le Femme Nikita, and we couldn't hear what they were saying and kept turning it up... but we realized how silly it was to turn it up, because we couldn't understand it anyway.  ;)

It was great to see him though, and after I went to Kevin's for his and Jeff's birthday celebration, I went with him and his friend to a party at some Fisheries grad students' condo... And they probably had at least 10 aquariums, ranging from full salt-water reefs, to lungfish from around to world, to an assortment of gars. We played flip cup with Labatt Blue Light, and I figured out that for the life of me, I just can't get even a mere BUZZ off of Light, just simply felt very FULL. At least there were fewer empty calories than I would have had otherwise! hee hee.

I ended up sleeping on Matt's friend's couch, in the company of two cats... which I am allergic to. Needless to say, it took a strong cup of coffee and some strong allergy pills to get me going the next morning.

Last night, I watched a show on the Discovery Channel called "Heart of a Lioness". It was about this lone lioness, whos entire pride had probably been killed by the locals when she was young. A lion's social structure is so important, that it traumatized her and caused her to act in a very strang way. She found a baby oryx - like an antelope - and the baby was so scared, it didn't run away. This can throw off a predator sometimes, when it doesn't run, it doesn't always trigger the predator's kill instinct... in this lioness' case, she started licking the baby... following the baby... She adopted the baby oryx! Which was all cute and all, but the baby couldn't feed from the lioness, and was too young to eat solid foods by itself. The lioness adopted the baby and cuddled it and followed it for over 2 weeks, and neither one of them ate. The locals tried to feed the lioness, but she wouldn't even eat the meat thrown to her. So this naturalist chic is driving along following lioness and oryx when suddenly, out of nowhere - GROWL! - A male lion comes out of the bushes and has the baby's throat in his mouth! The baby was still alive, but lioness was too starved and weak to do anything about it! She had to simply watch as "her" oryx was eaten. She even behaved as if a lion had just killed a real cub. It ends up she adopted 5 more oryxs before she disappeared - probably because she had the instinct to raise babies, but no means to do it. The look on the naturalist's face when the lion snatched up the baby was horrific! It was so sad, I could have cried if I was more girlie. :P

And one last thing before I hop in the shower and then watch Lost... MSN has an article on some good places to live to be out-of-doors. I'd live in any of these cities... except I have no idea how Grand Rapids, MI got on the same list as Missoula, MT and Laramie, WY!! Anybody wanna move with me?

Ok I lied, THIS is the last thing before I watch Lost... Looks like Montana and Wyoming got dumped on by a snowstorm! I remember when I was out there last year, Matt was visiting and we got our first accumulation on Sept. 18th, if I remember correctly... driving that 1 1/2 hrs between Yellowstone and Red Rocks was definitely a trip, with my Focus sliding all over the dirt road. Ahh, I miss it out there. There I go again... reminicing on the past. ;)

I was looking through some photos on my computer and found something funny that I didn't even know I had.

I'm going to be a bridesmaid in Donna's wedding... but at least I won't have to swat deer flies off of her like I did for Tara! ;)

Happy Birthday Kevin and Jeff!

Spending the weekend hanging with my random-adventure friend Matt and drinking enough Labatt Lite to last a life time. Oh, and the Lions just lost, of course.

What's wrong with this picture?

We're training a guy at work on how to limb out a tree from the bucket. What's wrong with this picture?

If you can't tell, that's a CHAINSAW stuck in the tree, probably 30 feet in the air. He was trying to cut this one limb so that it would go in a certain direction... and as he was finishing the cut, a gust of wind blew the limb back, causing it to pinch down on the saw - and he couldn't get it out! They ended up attaching a lanyard from the saw to the tree, and were about to push the limb in the other direction when the wind changed... and the branch nearly fell on Tim's head. Never a dull moment.

I just got news that a friend from Virginia might be coming up this weekend - haven't seen him since I invited myself over when I escaped from South Carolina in the middle of the night! Plus, the Michigan-Michigan State game is this weekend, Sponge is playing at 5th Avenue in Novi, and I wanna go mountain biking!

Autumn fun

I forgot to mention another reason why my weekend was so great:

It's cider mill season! I went to Parmenter's in Northville and picked up their awesome spiced donuts, apple cider, and cherry jalapeno salsa! That's one of the things that I missed most every time I moved out of state - the few weeks of apples apples apples!

I didn't do anything that was on my weekend wish-list, because I drove out to Cabelas on Saturday and Sunday for the Hunter Safety Class. I was the only older female, and the only adult without 12 year kids hanging off me! I did get to shoot a bow, but they only had a simulated rifle that you shot at a movie of deer on a big screen... which I did pretty well at! ;) I don't think I'll actually make it hunting this season, BUT...

There is a women's only firearms clinic at Multi-Lakes Conservation Association on October 15th for any of you ladies that want to try shooting a rifle or pistol! Here's the link for the "Women on Target" clinic. I'm excited!

So my wish list from last weekend... I'd do it this weekend, but I'm BUSY BUSY BUSY again! Kevin's birthday is the 1st, Jeff's is the 2nd... and they always have one hell of a party! Plus, I'm supposed to go to Cedar Point on Saturday...

I love fall! I am always so busy but it's so beautiful!