James began his second year of college today, or as he likes to say, 14th Grade. James is enrolled at Wayne County Community College and is really doing great. We hope he makes it to the Deans list as well. Most of Dads family made it to the Principles list but somehow I don’t think its quite the same thing.

James plans on graduating with a two year degree in Spring of 2023, and then heading off to Wayne State Community College to complete his four year degree.

Continue reading “14th Grade (2022)” →

Our second trip to Mackinaw was a quick one, but we still had a blast. It was a one day visit and the weather was perfect. James got to spend a little time at the beach and Mary got to see a sunset. Our main purpose in this trip was to see the Northern Lights which were supposed to be very visible, but unfortunately we did not notice anything special in the night sky except the lights from the bridge.

The next day we visited the Deer ranch in St. Ignace (which was our reason to cross the bridge. James fed them carrots but kept his mask on as he wanted to make sure the upper peninsula was safe from any lower peninsula germs. Continue reading “Mackinaw Second Visit (August 2022)” →

Hard to believe it has been a year since we got Hoot from the pet store. We never really had a kitty quite like Hoot, who seems to be in trouble all the time. When we picked her up from the store they had already named her hoot, because she was a Hoot. Once we got her home we agreed with the name.

We actually adopted her a couple days after the Halloween party because we did not want to traumatize a new kitten so her 1 year anniversary with us is actually mid October, but her actual birth date is Aug 17th, so we thought we would give her a little celebration. Continue reading “Hoot’s First Birthday 2022” →

Our friends at Screamers had a huge event today, a sort of dream cruise event. The creepy cars were parked in their parking lot (which was nearly full) and all their items were 10 percent off in the store. The line for the store was huge so we spent most of our time enjoying the outside events.

Lets recap this weekend. Seeing a spook show on Friday and then going to a Spirit Halloween opening on Saturday, followed by a Screamers event on Sunday – all in early August – we had to say that it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Or as Jim Harbaugh says, “who has it better than us? Nobody!! Continue reading “Screamers Dream Cruise 2022” →

After spending the night in Coldwater after watching the Spook Show at the Abbott Get Together we stopped off in Jackson on the way home and were shocked to see that the Spirit Halloween store in the indoor mall (just of 94 and 127) was opened. We went inside and bought a few items for our upcoming party in October. We are hoping to have 3 skeletons jumping out of bags and were happy to find 2 of those in stock at this store. Only 1 more to find and our Halloween needs will be complete, at least for now.

We had tickets to the Friday show at the Abbott Magic Get Together and while the event has some of the best magicians in the world during their convention (IE Lance Burton, Mac King), we wanted to see the Friday show because it was an old fashion magic spook show. Starting way back during the Great Depression, magicians would do a magic show before the midnight showing of a B rated horror flick. The magic show always concluded with a black out, where all the lights in the theatre go out and spooks of all manner begin running about the theatre.

The magicians doing the show were world famous magicians John Bundy and Morgan, and it was the first time there was a spook show at Abbotts since World War 2 when Bill Neff did a show in a huge tent.

A great time was had by all. Continue reading “Abbott’s Magic Get Together 2022” →

While at the Abbott Magic Get Together we visited the Colon Historical Museum which has many exhibits that are not magical related. One of our favorites is the printing press exhibit which shows all the work that had to be done to create even a single page of newspaper. Once the page was created, the letters were melted down and reused later.

The museum is run by Joe Ganger who we have known for many years and during the Get Together he dresses up as Harry Blackstone Sr and is available at the museum to help anyone who might have questions about the exhibits. Most of the interest during magic week is for magic of course, but we thought we would document some of the other exhibits that you will find here.

Continue reading “Colon Historical Museum 2022” →

Hard to believe another season of VIP Camp is over as it seems like it just started. James had a wonderful time as usual and this year the camp celebrated its final day at the bowling alley.

Once again the day was filled with games and events and while James did not do as well at bowling this year as he did last year, it was still fun and that is what VIP camp is all about. One of James friends Mom (Nicks Mom) invited us to his birthday party which will be celebrated at a Tiger game at Comerica park so we have that to look forward to in the near future.

Dad was able to make this one because he had to take his car in for tires. He dropped the car off before the party and picked it up after so it was a great day all around. Continue reading “VIP Camp Party 2022” →

Fourth of July is always a great time in our family, we used to go to various firework shows around town but since they legalized fireworks in Michigan, there is no need, you simply sit on your porch and watch the show being put on by your neighbors.

This year was a gorgeous summer day in Michigan and James Mom went out and bought some fresh 4th of July decorations to help us celebrate. Usually we set off a few fireworks of our own but this was the first time in decades we didn’t do any. Thats because there are so many others doing the fireworks. Continue reading “4th of July 2022” →

This was our first trip to the Marshall Blues Festival since the pandemic. We started the visit by watching a magic show in the American Museum of Magic. Mom visited the many gift and antique shops on main street (which was blocked off for the festival). We did notice the crowd was not a large as the pre-pandemic crowds, but there was a chance of rain in the forecast and that might have turned some people off.

James and Dad made a quick visit to Colon while Mom was shopping and picked up a book on spook shows from the magic shop. It was actually a proof that was going to the museum.

We returned and met up with Mom at a small restaurant on main street where we enjoyed beverages, then we continued back to Jackson and ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant there. A very nice day for all. Continue reading “Marshall Blues Festival 2022” →