Today is Super Bowl Sunday and while most don’t care who wins, it should be mentioned that it was a really great year for football in Detroit and the state of Michigan, maybe the best ever. While the playoffs were going on you could see the pride in signs on the roads, in the work places, and on billboards. They were all celebrating the playoffs – both pro and college.

The Michigan Wolverines, after losing in the playoffs the last two years (last years lost really hurt as most felt they took TCU lightly), the Wolverines won it all. After a relatively easy schedule (and a sign stealing controversy to boot), The Wolverines beat ranked teams to win it all. First the Penn State win at Penn State, then Ohio State, then iowa to win the Big Ten Championship, then Alabama in the playoffs, and finally Washington in the championship game.

And while the Lions did not make it to the superbowl, they did win two playoff games and had a 17 point halftime lead in the NFC championship game.

All in all it was a great football season!

Continue reading “2024 Congrats to our Football Teams” →

James had his first VIP camp activity today at the bowling alley. This puts the final stamp on his Christmas/Winter vacation as he will be starting school Monday. James was losing by 22 but came back with a spare and a strike to make it close (he lost only by two), however the fun was not in winning the bowling game but in seeing all his friends from summer camp.

Around a dozen campers showed up for the bowling and some of the talk was how Michigan would do in the National Championship game on Monday, should be alot of fun.

One of the staff was a volunteer from France during their exchange period and James had a chance to practice his French.

Continue reading “Bowling With VIP Camp 2024” →

Happy New Year! This was a strange one as prior to New Years Eve we had the Monday night football (between the Lions and Cowboys), was held on Saturday, Dec 30 (New Years Eve – Eve). This game will live in infamy as the Lions had the game stolen from them due to the refs – again. In this case they called out the wrong eligible receiver and then flagged Detroit for illegal touching and took the points away on what might have been a game winning two point conversion.

During the day on New Years Eve we spent our time watching some of the bowl games as we tried to get the bad feelings of the Lions game out of our system and prepare for Michigan’s third straight appearance in College Football playoffs. We also enjoyed Prime Rib for the second straight year, although last year we had it at Christmas.

James did his annual countdown for us in the living room. Once again, after the big moment, we went outside to see the impromptu fire works show that the neighbors put on each New Years.

Later New Years Day we saw Michigan defeat Alabama in overtime and will participate in the National Championship game next week against Washington.

Have a Happy New Year!

Continue reading “2024 New Years” →

James got all A’s this semester (one was an A minus and the others all straight A’s). Because of this great first semester at Wayne State Mom and Dad treated James to a visit to his favorite restaurant, Bubba’s on Eureka road. Despite being a rainy day, it was raining A’s for James!

Great Job James

Thanks to my family for all the wonderful gifts, I really did not expect it since I received several gifts early so that they could be used for our Halloween display (the spooky bird bath and the creepy fountain). This year was great with plenty of Halloween gifts including a fantastic Halloween cake.

As usual with any birthday in our family we ordered out. We found a new favorite near our home, Captain Jays, which has seafood and gives us an alternative to Long John Silvers when we order take out for fish.

Of note was the Christmas hoodie I got which I will wear at Christmas. I have plenty of Halloween hoodies but not a single Christmas hoodie.

Continue reading “Dads Birthday 2023” →

Unfortunately James had a class at nearly the same time as the VIP camp Christmas Fantasyland. Rather than miss it, James and Dad left early and were able to attend for about ten minutes before heading on to his class at the Mike Illitch School of Business in Detroit (Fantasyland was in Lincoln Park near an exit so James made it to school on time, although it was close).

James got to say hi to several counselors and a few friends from VIP camp and also got his picture taken with Santa, which has been a tradition since he was little.

Thanks to VIP camp for putting on a great event for the campers!

Continue reading “Christmas Fantasyland 2023” →

Trick or Treat was on a beautiful autumn day in Michigan. We had a great turnout of children and James handed out a ton of candy and chips. This year we used the flexible trashcans that say toxic waste for the chips and that made the look of the house that much more spooky.

We had a car in the drive and noticed that the skeleton’s shadow were being cast on the car from the display and that really created a cool effect. I think we took a pic of it.

Lots of compliments from the Trick or Treaters and we really did not miss the giant spider and skeleton horse which were sold at a garage sale earlier in the year. We did add a fountain and creepy bird bath to the display but we liked the display so much better without the spider and horse as it was too cramped in the past.

Continue reading “Halloween 2023 Trick or Treat” →

James friend Nick held another birthday party at Comerica Park and once again the Tigers won. This means it was a clean sweep since his birthday last year with the Tigers winning all the games Nick and James attended in the past year (4 or 5 games). For a team well under 500 this is an achievement. The evening was beautiful despite 94 being shut down for construction which caused us a little delay. After the game we did a little tour of the area since James school is in this location. James took a couple pics in front of his school – the Mike Illitch School of Business. Also this evening Dave Chappelle was doing a live concert so the town was really buzzing this evening. A great evening and a great finale to our summer activities.

Continue reading “2023 Nicks Birthday Party at Comerica Park” →

Happy Birthday Mom!