happy new year!

we've been celebrating now for about half-an-hour. (remember, my computer has no idea yet that i'm in michigan and on michigan time. it still thinks it's in indiana.) poor thing. so happy new year! whee!

anyway, today we went to drummond island--take m-134 as far east as it goes and it leads to a car ferry dock. we crossed over to the island on the 11:40am ferry. we then drove around the island, had lunch there, went shopping, and came back. it was cool. the pictures here are mostly of the trip to drummond island. there's a pic of our car waiting to get on the ferry, (the one behind the fedex truck), and a pic of "the northwood," the restaurant we ate at today. oh, and that's a picture of us on the ferry. unfortunately, the deckhands were nowhere to be found when we wanted a group picture. but the captain TRIED to find one. (he even announced it on the loudspeaker!) there were 5 of us that went today: me, marge, farouk, chrysta, and greg.

happy new year...STILL HOPING FOR MORE SNOW! i think valpo is supposed to get 2-4 inches, my friend erica said, and hopefully we'll get even more up here tomorrow. the ski trails could use another dose of white. but i actually heard that it's supposed to be up to 49 degrees here in the U.P. this weekend. YUCK.

yeah, i've been busy outside!

hence the couple of days with no post! two nights ago i was too busy to come into town to blog and last night i had been invited to mike & sue vaal's to hang out (which was hugely awesome) and so now, being that it's sunday morning, i can write while everyone's either at church or sleepin in back at camp.

anyway, yesterday i spent most of my time outside playing and getting video/pics for the dvd at the end of the week. we got about 6 inches of snow two nights ago which was really great. it's actually been snowing CONSTANTLY since we've been here but some flakes are fewer and farther between and others are ginormous and pile up fast. yesterday everyone went skiing (cross country), ice skating on beaver pond, and to the sauna. thankfully there's a huge square hole cut into the ice so that people could actually jump into the water instead of just wading in. it's more fun and dramatic that way. i'll see what i can do to post a video; i don't have any stills of the people at the sauna.

here's what you're seeing: a sign to the skating rink and the path through the woods to beaver pond, which is where we are ice skating this year. lake huron needs more severe weather and frigid cold in order to freeze over solid enuf to skate on. (even the inner bay...) so beaver pond is a great alternative. there's a pic of andy's dog piper and her shadow, me and my fire, (i had just started it so YES, it got bigger!), and a few pics of the skis and skates we have been using. we don't have ski racks outside so we do it old school--pile up a bunch of snow and stick the skis in! seems to work out.

okay, well i have to make sure bob zeeb did ok firing the sauna; it needs to be between 150-180 degrees for this afternoon. i may need to stir the fire a bit and toss in some more logs. see ya later! (just as i wrote "see ya later," a couple of snowmobiles buzzed by me on the main road here in town.) I COULD SO LIVE HERE!!! sigh.

finally up NORTH!

okay. we're here; driving was not too bad. but the entire trip took 9 hours which is kinda disappointing when i've been known to do it in 6.5 hours. oh well. the snow wasn't too bad; i tried to learn how to work my new camera as i drove so here are a few pics of the road conditions. and the EVER-SLOW salt truck that was ahead of me as soon as i got east of spring hill (camp) on route 10. ugh. hopefully HOPEFULLY HOPEFULLY we'll get snow tomorrow. a LOT. that's part of the reason i dragged my cold self out of my warm cabin to check the weather online. i'm hoping for a true blizzard! btw, did i mention that someone else is here mooching off the little log library's wireless? first time i've been here and have had company! some guys in a pickup truck in front of me...

and didja see what shirt ANDY is wearing? i had to get a pic of him in it. i wonder if he did that on purpose. anyway, he's heading to a wedding tomorrow in grand haven. the rest of us are all going to the soo (sault ste. marie) to go ice skating, check out the soo locks, and hang out in the town. it's always a good time.

this is the first time that our winter gathering has been on the "mariner's cove" side of camp. usually it's on the side called "old mill point." anyhoo, i kinda like it better here at cove side. here's a wreath on the taylor lodge sign. well, i'm gonna sign off and check out the weather.

p.s. i HATE that benezir bhutto (sp?) was assassinated. i think we're really screwed now. but it was bound to happen; with all her protests and gatherings and such. ah well, time shall tell exactly how screwed we are!

leaving in an hour or two

i see we had freezing rain last night. poo. oh well. we (dad and i) tried to get a suburban (or other LARGE suv) to rent to go up north but instead got two smaller 4-wheel drive vehicles. we're considering shoving everybody and all their luggage in one, however. we can return one to enterprise this morning @ 7:30 if it ends up we don't need it. but we'll see. i guess it's better to have two and need ONE than to have one and need TWO.

i'll try to post regularly while i'm gone. blogging is no fun unless you have something fun to write about. i'm hoping for a major MAJOR MAJOR snowstorm once we're there. it's about 7.5-9 hours north of here. (about 45 minutes northeast of the mackinac bridge.)

happy trails to me!

heading north soon

well...sorry i took such a hiatus from my blog. i've been insanely busy and with two break-ins at my place of business and a ton of other things going on, (holidays too) i've not had much time to be on the computer at all. anyway, this is just a random update and to alert my avid blog readers that i actually AM still on the planet. (it can also be hard blogging when nothing exciting is going on.)

if i get into town while in the U.P. in the middle of the night, i may blog then--and post some pictures. let me explain that last statement: while in cedarville, michigan, the place we're staying at doesn't have great internet access. in fact, there's none. it's kinda hard in the middle of nowhere to get a signal or even dial-up. so late at night after everyone's gone to bed, i often drive into town and park next to the library and mooch off of the wireless there. usually works great. hopefully they haven't put passwords on it yet or anything. i've been doing this for two years now. usually i like to go during the day and sign in, because that way this new little log library can show that its grant is being used. (they're more likely to be able to keep their wireless internet that way--they got a grant from the state or something.) but since i'm crew this time around (working at cedar campus), i won't have much time during the day to disappear into town for any length of time. oh, and besides that, this little library has rather limited hours anyway.

this little log library is rather new and very cute. i think it was built 2003 or 4ish. after all, it's a small town. yup. a small harbor town. across the street, the marina sells boats & jetskis in summer and snowmobiles all winter. sigh. i could SO LIVE THERE!!!