Sunday Quote Blogging

"Hey, how come he gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy."
~The Breakfast Club

Pics from Northern Michigan

This is a great old church that we got to stop & see. It was built in the 1840s as a mission church to the local indians in the area. It has a pretty big indian burial ground right next to it. Pretty darn cool.
A view of the church from the burial grounds. Most of the graves were unmarked. Many of those that were marked, simply a name & maybe the year the person died.

Another view of the graves.
A cool shot of the church & some graves.


For a girl who isn't into religion, I sure do like taking pictures of cool churches.

This is me & a cool fish outside of a local library. T-town has frogs, Charlevoix has fish! Fitting for being right on Lake Michigan I guess.
This is me my other Dad. Shannon's parents did a fare share of work raising me when we were little, so they've been Mom & Dad since Jr. High.

This is my new house. It's for sale. & it's all cute & fairy tale like. But it's also right on Lake Michigan, so the price tag is more money than I'll earn in a lifetime.

Off to the Great North

I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to head up to Northern Michigan to visit my 2nd set of parents (Shannon's rents). I'll be out of town for 5 days or so. But I'll have plenty of computer & internet access there, so I may be on blogging. But I may be spending too much time having fun & getting all caught up. So have a great weekend everyone!!! I'll be enjoying some much needed time off - but more importantly - time away! (Can you say burn out). Later!

Another Year Older

Yep - today I turn 27 years old. Officially in my late 20s. Still a good age though. I can't argue with any age in the 20s. Hopefully age issues won't plague me for at least another 10 years. At work I'm still getting asked if I'm still in High School (granted the period clothing helps with the young look), but it's all good. Thanks to everyone whose sent me birthday wishes!

In other news, I treated myself to a movie yesterday. (A late afternoon matinee at the cheap theater, but a treat none the less). I saw An inconvenient Truth. So yes, I'm going to get on my environmental soap box here - but you can't say anything about it 'cause it's my birthday damn it - go see this movie. It's different than I thought it would be, better than I thought. It doesn't try to persuade you with "that side of the issue is bad, & we're right." It doesn't need the propaganda, it has the facts - and the facts have been ignored for far too long. Go see this movie.

That's all I'll say about that. Tonight I'm headed out for some good Italian food with my family & Randy. Should be a good time. With any luck there will be cake & ice cream involved.

Ummm, what else. I'm keeping a close watch on the fires in California. It seems as though the worst has past, but if weather & wind conditions change there could still be issues. If your interested in the latest, KBHR updates fire issues every few hours.

Work is busy. I'm training some newbies. & being frustrated with an Excel spreadsheet that is baffling me with mysterious formulas...the one I'm using should be working, but it's telling me that 25 + 5 is 52. Must be some kind of new age math or something. I'll figure it out this week. Dude...it's my birthday - I'm not thinking about work.

The other night I caught an interview on C-Span with Steve James (a documentary director...I've seen 1 of his movies) & a soldier from his new movie. The War Tapes. Looks like a must see. It's a war movie filmed by soldiers. There's no agenda to convince us one way or the other...just a view of the war by the people who are there fighting it.

Alright, that's it for this installment. Catch ya on the flip side.

More Pictures of Last Months Travels

Okay, here are some pictures of yet more of my visit to Louisiana. Yes, I know - it's sort of pathetic that I'm still posting pics from a trip I took over a month ago. But I took close to 200 pictures, & I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but so many of them are absolutely awesome pictures! I guess living with a photography major in college helped give me a better eye...(although there's still lots of room for improvements).

Anyways, these first pictures are from my tour of Oak Alley Plantation. It's one of the many plantation homes along River Road. The pictures I posted earlier from Evergreen Plantation (the one with the slave cabins & awesome double staircase on the front of the house), that one was on River Road too.

The second set of pictures is from my half a day trip to New Orleans. No, I didn't get to see too much of the hurricane damage. The French Quarter didn't get hit that hard & that's all we had to see. We did see some damage, but it seemed like small potatoes compared to the harder hit places. We did pass some FEMA trailers on the highway heading to New Orleans.

Enjoy!

Oak Alley Plantation. If you ever get the chance to go visit, it's well worth the trip! 

Black & White of the walkway to the Plantation House at Oak Alley. Black & White is awesome, but you just have to see it color to really understand just how beautiful this place really was. 

Hello heaven! 

I love these huge porches! I used to think that they built them this huge to show off how rich they were. Turns out it was a lot more practicle than that. The wide porch keeps the sun off the walls of the house, thus keeping the house cool during those hot & humid Louisiana days. 

I know, my face is dark b/c of baseball hat, but I love the my backdrop. Hmm...if only I had enough money to buy this place. Then I could drink my morning coffee from the portch & look out over this view every day. Anyone want to pool our resources & give it a go? *wink* 

Oak Alley in color. 

I really like this pic (& I love black & white pics in general), but I must admit, this is one instance where black & white just doesn't do this scene justice.  

Oak Alley - views well worth the visit - & some history mixed in too didn't hurt either. 

Here's a dark picture of 1 or the 2 best meals I had on my trip. This was our New Orleans food experience - The Gumbo Shop. It was awesome!!! 

Ah, yes - the French Quarter. Although I never thought I'd actually be there (or even in Louisiana anywhere), I am very glad I had the opportunity to check it out - even if it was only for half a day.  

We spend a pretty big chunck of the day here at the National World War 2 Museum (formerly known as the D-Day Museum). I'm definetly not a military history or war history guru, but it was great! So many awesome things to see & learn. Check it out if you ever get the chance...it's in the French Quarter...out on the edge of it. 

Congrats!!!!

Just wanted to take a minute to send my thoughts & big congrats to April & Keith on the birth of their son! Glad to hear that April & baby are both healthy & doing well! Welcome to parenthood!

Sunday Quote Blogging

Let me sing you a waltz
Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts
Let me sing you a waltz
About this one night stand
You were, for me, that night
Everything I always dreamt of in life
But now you're gone
You are far gone
All the way to your island of rain
It was for you just a one night thing
But you were much more to me, just so you know
I don't care what they say
I know what you meant for me that day
I just want another try, I just want another night
Even if it doesn't seem quite right
You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before
One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody
I have no bitterness, my sweet
I'll never forget this one night thing
Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die
Let me sing you a waltz
Out of nowhere, out of my blues
Let me sing you a waltz
About this lovely one night stand


Bonus points for anyone who has any clue what movie this is from...& super bonus points if you know not only the movie it came from, but know the movie it's describing.