Recent Posts
Las Vegas Hoover Dam Tour 1999
I remember watching this dam crack and flood on Superman 1, but I guess Superman saved the day because the dam looks just fine. During the tour I asked how long they expect this dam to last, given that the Mackinaw bridge was designed to last 1000 years. The response was 2000 years which surprised me. I guess two thousand years from now people will wonder if aliens built the dam. They also mentioned that there were a few missing people who were working on the dam and most likely fell in the cement. Probably not the best way to go.
In all seriousness the dam is a fascinating tour, a little warning to the ladies that you have to wear a hard hat on the tour inside so don’t do too much with your hair that day, you might end up with “helmet head”.
Las Vegas Vacation 1999
Nothing like a trip to Vegas, we found that the best time to do this is right after New Years, the crowds are much smaller then. Went on a helicopter ride that took us around the city then finished off by going down the strip of Vegas. Under construction was a new hotel which will feature the Eiffel Tower from Paris, that should be very impressive when completed.
The highlight for me was a visit to the Star Trek theme at the Hilton hotel and having a beer at Quarks bar on the pavilion. Other highlights were seeing Mystere and a magic show a Caesars Palace, the Pendragons I believe were performing there.
Christmas 1998
There was a little more motivation for the Christmas display and Christmas party this year as we received recognition from the City for our window decorations, just think what we would have gotten if they came into the basement.
More structures built with Styrofoam this year, we buy the Styrofoam where they sell insulation, certainly not at a craft store as it would be too expensive there. Once we cut it to shape, we use toothpicks to hold it together, placing a toothpick into one side about a quarter of the way, then moving the part we want to attach on top of this which usually pushed the toothpick halfway on each side. It also conceals the toothpick. Next we take lights and garland and place these around the areas and borders which makes for a light up house which looks pretty good and is very easy to store. The windows are added to the front by using a knife and garland is added to where the Styrofoam was cut. The windows need to be big enough so that you can decorate the inside from the outside.
From the Styrofoam we are able to build some cool structures.
Christmas Eve 1998
This year was the biggest display of all as we actually decorated under the steps. We added Styrofoam insulation to the wall where the doorway is to under the steps and painted them to look like bricks by using masking tape and spray painting very lightly so as not to completely dissolve the Styrfoam.
Once underneath the steps we had more Christmas displays, but you could not walk all the way through, you had to turn around at the end because you would come out at the washing machines which really do not invoke the Christmas spirit.
Many more Styrofoam items this year including a ferris wheel.
City Beautification Award for Christmas Display
For Christmas we setup a display in our front window with an animated life size Santa. This is something we do every year to one extent or another. But this year was special as we added for the first time some icicle lights to the display. We did not really think much more of it, except trying to remember to turn it on at dusk during the holiday season. Someone must have driven by from the city and seen it and they gave us the “City Beautiful Commission Award”.
We were all surprised and enjoyed our little token of fame, even though they spelt the name wrong, it was still a very nice sentiment from city hall.
The letter said they were going to have a run off of all the houses and a winner would be announced in the paper, but since we were never contacted we assumed it wasn’t us that won the overall prize.
Remembering Brian Landis 1975 – 1998
When Leslie Brian Landis was born on December 1, 1975, in Nashville, Tennessee, his father, William, was 47 and his mother, Frances, was 27. He had two brothers and two sisters. He died on July 23, 1998, at the age of 22.
Brian is the son of Howard and half brother to Bill and Mary. Brian passed away before James was born. We do not have many pictures of Brian so if anyone can help us out that would be much appreciated.
Mary remembers that Brian loved to play with transformers as a child and he was the ring bearer at Bills wedding. They say the hardest thing in life is when a parent outlives their child, Brian will be missed by his family.
Time Square New York 1998
Because my work is in New York I get to travel there alot. A truly beautiful city like no other in the world. While in Mt Vernon (where our plant is located) I would take the train to Grand Central and spend a few hours walking around the streets of New York. I especially enjoyed Times Square and I decided that one day I would spend a weekend at Times Square and finally did over a gorgeous weekend in late August.
The highlight of this trip was seeing “The Phantom of the Opera” which I had seen in Toronto twice. The weather was perfect and it was simply a great weekend visit to probably the best city on earth.
Christmas 1997
The Christmas display is now encompassing the entire basement. The blue tarp goes completely from one side to another and their are about 70 of the small animated figures. The first animated figure (and most of the others) were bought at Forest City in Taylor. Since then we have gotten them from all over including Ray Hunters and Bronners but by far most came from Forest City each year. Buying them over the years creates a true variety of characters in the display, yet they are all pretty much in scale with each other.
Forest City was Home Depot and Lowes before their was a Home Depot and Lowes and has now vanished from the retail landscape, however its Christmas sales of animatronics is well represented here.
One year as a surprise for Kenny we flew his son in for the Christmas holidays. You can see him here with Criss and Kenny in the picture to the left.
Liberty Bell and Football Game In Philadelphia 1997
Friends who I went to grade school with are affectionately known as “the little friends”. Here are some of the little friends on a trip to Philadelphia to do a little bit of sight seeing, eat some cheese steak sandwiches, drink some beer, and watch a Lions game (or I should say a Lions loss, never saw a team like this that loses so much but has such great talent like Barry Sanders). The tailgate party by far was the highlight of the day, did not really want it to end but eventually we had to go into the stadium and watch the Lions.
Turns out the game of kick the can in the parking lot was better than the actual game in the stadium.
Continue reading “Liberty Bell and Football Game In Philadelphia 1997”
Fishing on Houghton Lake 1997
Our friend Ernie and his family have a cottage up North and we decided to spend a day fishing at Houghton Lake. The first stop was to get fishing licenses and such, then we went to the pontoon rental place and rented a boat which we proceeded to stock with the finer accessories of fishing (ie brew).
We ended the day pulling into a bar that was on the dock and had dinner, then returned the boat safe and sound back to its owner. Jim was the only to catch anything other than sun that day, but he let the fish go once he got a picture of it.
