Thanksgiving 2005

Thanksgiving 2005 was spent in a variety of locations. We headed North to South Bend on Wednesday night, had Barnaby's with my parents, then went out with some friends in Mishawaka. On Thanksgiving morning we started our drive from Elkhart to Lansing, Michigan. The picture above was the view for most of the drive down US-131 in Michigan, just South of Kalamazoo. We heard later that the road was closed due to the inclement weather - so we're glad we didn't get there just in time to turn back - that would've been frustrating :( As it turned out we were only a little late to Thanksgiving dinner, and nobody minded waiting for us (we hope).
Thanksgiving was made more special this year because not only did we go up to Jill's Dad's neck of the woods - Grand Rapids - but Jill's sister Randi, her husband Joe, and daughter Rachel were in town as well. This picture is Aunt Jill and Rachel at Mike's Jimmy John's in Grand Rapids.
On Saturday we headed back South to Elkhart - to celebrate Zack and Kayla Carnes' birthdays. Kayla turned 6 on the 26th, Zack turned 11 on the 28th. The picture above is my Dad out on the pier that he built behind their new house on the St. Joseph River. We got to see some nature while we were there, because from the end of the pier you could just make out a leatherback and a snapping turtle sleeping on the bottom.
Saturday marked the first time that both of my brothers, and their families, and Jill and I were all at Mom and Dad's new house. The little cutie above is Randy's daughter Brenna (1.5 years old). She had a lot of fun playing with Chase and Kayla at my parents house.
This is Zack and Kayla - and their shared birthday cake. Chris and Brandi are lucky they like eachother enough to share a cake. Actually they get along pretty well, and we all had fun on their big day.

Christmas Decorating - Before Thanksgiving

It's November 21st, but kind of warm outside (~40 degrees) - so that means it's time to decorate! We decided that since we're going to be gone from this Wednesday (up to Lansing, Grand Rapids, and South Bend) to Sunday, that we should go ahead and get the house all snazzed up for Christmas.
I had to climb onto the roof to hang the lights from the gutters. Actually that's my stunt double. When it comes to selecting the lights for the house, it's really a simple decision - C9 all the way - the biggest ones they've got. I get the feeling that the neighbors look at me and think stuff like, "that guy is a jackass", and "if he's an engineer then I seriously doubt our higher education system". To which I would say, "Yes, I probably am, and me too."
Jill re-arranged the living room and put up the tree and ornaments. I'm pretty much useless when it comes to this part, so it was a good thing that she had the time to herself to take care of it. Plus when she did it yesterday the Colts were busy shredding the Bengals, so I was double-super-useless.
Luckily Menards had these things on sale, that and we bought stock in a small Chinese company that makes them - so it's a win-win really. Or is it a win-win-win?

I gave a call to Air Traffic Control at Indy International, to make sure that none of the jets would mistake our house for runway 3 (it's the one shaped like a house :). They assured me that it doesn't really happen that often. The bad part about the C9 lights might be the power bill. Each one is about 1/2 the size of a regular light bulb - so basically overnight we went from 10 light bulbs on to about 110. Oh well, at least we'll be festive poor people.

Purdue 37, Illinois 3

Talk about your perfect football weather. Saturday in West Lafayette - 65 degrees and sunny - and on November 12th, you really can't beat it. Jill and I went to West Lafayette with Christa (Jill's Purdue roommate) and her boyfriend Keith. We also met up with Randy, who came down from South Bend, and Cara (another of Jill's roommates) and her sister. We had a the entire set up for tailgating for the second week in a row - complete with all the goodies and the grill.
Here's Randy and I manning the grill in the intramural fields at Purdue. It's funny that only 3 years ago we were in school here, playing soccer on the same field, and now we are old fart alumni coming back to watch some football.
Just the five of us. This is the view from our seats at the end of the final home game of the year. Purdue played well Saturday, only allowing a field goal and scoring a lot of points. It was sad to say goodbye to our season ticket seat neighbors, but there's always next year. Hopefully it will go better than this one did. Even though they did lose a bunch of games, we still had a lot of fun here, and at only a 1 hour drive, it's not too big of a commitment to come out to all the games.
Randy's brother-in-law (long hair, center) starts at Left Tackle for the Illini. Unfortunately he sustained what will hopefully be a minor injury in the second play of the game. After the game we waited for Randy to say hi to him and his family before the team loaded onto the bus back to Champaign. In the picture he's signing autographs for some of the local kids. I never realized it before, but this probably happens at every game for the away team, since the walk from the locker room to the bus is not enclosed. You learn something new every day.
Purdue Police's "ASAP" unit. I bet no one runs from this thing. You have to feel for the guy who gets arrested and put in the back of it though - maybe the sentence is "time served" for having to ride in the back of a Firebird.

Just for Uncle Brian

I know this post isn't very exciting, but if you are looking to build a gate and need an idea, this one's for you! U.B. Sorry it took so long for us to post these! Let us know if you have any questions!

Purdue 28, Michigan State 21

It was a rainy November day, but thankfully not a cold one. Last Saturday Jill and I went to West Lafayette to watch our Boilers take on the Michigan State Spartans. Unfortunately Mike couldn't join us for the game, as was the Shinevar tradition during Jill's college years. We did, however, meet up with my former McCutcheon Hall neighbor, and fan favorite, Jay Banning. He graduated in December of '01, and is a designer at Bunnomatic at their headquarters in Springfield, Illinois. He and his friend, Ben, made the trek from S-Town to West Lafayette - and actually left at 5:00 a.m. in order to meet up with us for tailgating at 9:00 (3 hour drive + time change). Talk about a long day - but it was well worth it. Jill, Jay, and Ben under the tailgate tent. We had Mad Mushroom deliver us a large cheesesticks, because this was one of the many highlights of attending Purdue. Unfortunately they forgot to bring us some of their awesome Ranch dressing, but I guess you can't be too picky when having a pizza delivered to a field on a rainy Saturday night.
Mustard? Check. By the windshield wipers. Table-cloth? Check. Free Lafayette newspaper. Real Men of Genius - we salute You - Mr. "Use the Hood of my Toyota as a Table Guy". Nothing keeps the weenies warm like a 4-liter V6 idling only inches away. Here we can see Jerod Void running the toss sweep to the right. He ran this in for his 3rd touchdown of the day. Our seats are great for the scoring plays at the South end of the stadium, as we are about mid-end zone. Void had a big game - ran for over 120 yards, and also improved to 36 touchdowns in his career. He's a senior, but a virtual unknown nationally. Even so - he only needs 4 touchdowns in his final two games to break the Purdue career record of Mike Alstott, who had 39.
This is us shortly after arriving to tailgate - it was early, but we were ready with our tailgating grill and other supplies.
Purdue finally remembered how to win a football game. Mike - sorry it had to be against your Fightin' Sparties. It was fun to see the 6-game losing streak come to an end, even if it is too late for a bowl game.

Colborn Visit and The Great North Country

A couple weekends ago we had a visit from Alanna and Maya Colborn. Unfortunately we didn't think of snapping a couple pictures until it was about time for them to leave, and you can see above that Maya was not ready to go. I think she was just upset because she was in the middle of watching some college football (we hear Nate has been training her as a little Domer). Jill and Alanna had a nice chance to catch up on eachother's goings-on.
A nice picture of the three ladies. Notice Jill is wearing "Purdue", Alanna is wearing "Notre Dame", and poor Maya is caught in the middle. Maya - stick with the Irish this season.
Ah, fall is in the air, and the leaves are changing. The trees behind/next to our house are adding some nice color, but it won't be long and the leaves will be all gone.
Jill and I got lost on our trip up to Grand Rapids, this past weekend. We were trying to get off on 32nd St. in Grand Rapids, but unfortunately got off the highway onto 32nd St. in Hudsonville, Michigan. Talk about your wrong turns. We really need to buy a compass, because we drove about 10 miles due South (away from Grand Rapids) before starting to wonder if we messed up. Oh well, now we know.

Once we got there, all was well, and eventually on Saturday Mike came home from the store with some gourmet subs. The picture above is a thing of beauty - a #8 and Jimmy Chips. That's good eatin'.
One of the reasons for our visit to Grand Rapids was to help out Jill's Dad. You see, he had these extra two seats (his season tickets) for the Lions vs. Bears NFL game in Detroit - so we were glad to help out and use the tickets to report back our professional opinion of the Lions team without Joey Harrington - compared to last year with him. Well, the quarterback is better now, but they won last year, so maybe that means he's the way to go. We'll tell you next year. This is the somber moment when Mike is handing the tickets over (re-enacted, of course) to Jill, and explaining the intricacies of not getting lost in the D-Town 'hood (which we somehow manage to do every time).
Inside view of Ford Field. Looks like it was just a few dollars away from Pepsi Field. It's a great new stadium, and a great thing for downtown Detroit, as it and Comerica Park's location downtown is helping to revitalize the immediate surrounding area in downtown Motown. Also of interest - the Super Bowl 40 will be played in Ford Field, which of course will bring many people to town and really put the spotlight on the city. We had a good time at the game, and were proud to see Bears QB Kyle Orton (ahem, Purdue alum) throw a beauty of a touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammed right in front of us. The Bears also took the game in overtime, on an errant Jeff Garcia pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown the a Bear cornerback.