We bought tickets for the Phantom at the Detroit Opera House way back in September so we had pretty good seats for the sold out event. You never want to sit too close as you can miss some things with the Phantom the the candles in the floor and the chandelier, however you do get the orchestra pit which is cool.

The whole family enjoyed the show and I noticed some things had changed since the last time I saw the show – the chandelier was completely different and the rear projections for thunder and lightning. The last time we saw the Phantom was at the Masonic Temple and Dad has seen the Phantom also in Toronto, New York, and Vegas.

After the show we went to Bubbas 33 for a great movie and finally home to watch the superbowl. Despite the superbowl being a lousy game, it was a great day on a cold February day. Continue reading “Detroit Opera House Phantom and Super Bowl 2026” →

I think this was our first visit to the Blue Festival since the pandemic. It was an extremely hot day, mid nineties to nearly one hundred degrees. The first thing we noticed was the attendance was down, probably due to the extreme temperatures.

Mom got to see a few bands while James and Dad explored Marshall. We stopped in to visit the American Museum of Magic and took the tour. They had removed their stage since our last visit and we found a peppers ghost effect that we played with where your face turns into a skull.

After we rejoined Mom we did a little shopping. Mom got her poster and t-shirt and everyone was happy. Too bad it was so hot but hey, thats summer in Michigan. We all had a great time and it was good to get back to normal after a long layoff for us in attending this festival.
Continue reading “Marshall Blues Festival and Museum of Magic 2025” →

One of Mom’s gifts this year is a Video Bird Feeder which is tied into her phone via an app. The bird feeder sends a text message when it takes a motion activated pic, but it has to be close enough to the house for the wifi to work so we hung it on the garage. It has a solar panel so it should keep the camera charged outside assuming we get a little sunshine this winter. The first day we had it up we only picked up our neighbor walking to the garage but then we got this little fellow stopping by for a snack.

VIP Camp put on another great event with a Holiday bowling party with the VIP campers. The event started at 11am and went through till 2pm which included drinks and food for the campers. James had a great time with his friends and stuck around at the end to get some pictures taken with them.

Usually this event included pizza but the bowling alley said that due to inflation it could not afford to provide pizza anymore so the campers got chicken nuggets and french fries which went over good. A great time was had by all and congrats to the VIP Camp.

Continue reading “Holiday Bowling with VIP Camp 2022” →

When the pandemic isolated James from school and other social events, he spent a year working on one of his favorite hobbies, puzzles. James had a 32,000 piece puzzle of New York City and he began putting this together.

He divided the puzzle into 8 sections and then divided each of those sections into 1 square foot sections which he glued together. He then took the entire package to Swapka field and worked under the pavilion for about two hours putting this puzzle together. Since it was too big for our garage, this was the first time James saw his puzzle completely together.
Continue reading “32,000 Piece Puzzle Completed” →

Dad visited some of his friends at a Wounded Warrior fund raiser in Novi. Mike, Tom, and Jim each have special roles in making this charity the success it is. It helps people who have been wounded meet expenses and they do this through fund raisers such as a bean bag tournament. Next month will be a golf tournament fund raiser so these guys are really staying busy working for a great cause.

A beautiful but hot day on this Fourth of July. There is still no baseball so this may be the first time I missed a 4th of July Tiger game in my life. We are listening to satellite radio, the 700 greatest hits are counting down from the 70’s and right now they are at 180. I will try to remember to update this and let you know which song wins. Mom is going with “Love will Keep us together” and Dad is going with “Bridge over Troubled Water”. (I do not know if hard rock is on there or I would go with Stairway to Heaven)

James worked all day on his 5,000 piece puzzle which is the largest he ever tackled. The prior record was a 2,000 piece puzzle. We have three tables in the garage to hold the puzzle, what we are going to do with it once its complete has not been determined because it is huge.

Fireworks galore tonight, since all city and state firework shows have been cancelled due to covid, the people are putting on their own and doing a great job, sounds like a war zone as I type this.

Well I was promised a surprise for Fathers day and I certainly got one, a kitty litter cake. It was actually delicious as it was made from several European style chocolates including German and was delicious despite its look. The nasty turds in the kitty litter cake were made from tootsie rolls and were the only thing I simply could not bring myself to eat, so they were decorative only.

Mom got the recipe on the internet and made a special trip to the store to get the ingredients (going to the store these days is no fun).

All in all it was a great day with Boneyard takeout – about an $80 meal – to enjoy.

Stopping at Past Tense in Lapeer MI is always a pleasure, although it always brings up the debate on which is the real 24, the 24 that we refer to as Telegraph or the 24 that goes from the Palace of Auburn hills through Lapeer? In addition to antiques Past Tense has a Christmas and Halloween section plus a garden shop which has all sorts of unique products for the outside decorator. We got some interesting ideas for the yard but only purchased an “outdoor cemetery” sign on this visit.

After leaving Past Tense we headed North via side streets and stopped for the first time at an antique store called the “weathered windmill”. It was really cool and had many items that we simply could not live without, but did. We managed to buy an old antique crate. Continue reading “Antique Shopping at Past Tense & Weathered Windmill” →

James has been counting the days till summer vacation begins and he has many things planned. He plans to relax when thinking about his plans though, that is his first plan.

For about the last two weeks we have had a heatwave across the midwest and USA, so James had to find a variety of ways to stay cool this summer. The following pictures were taken (in no particular order) at the Colon Park, Colon Moving Dock, Trenton Festival (after a visit to Aunt Peg in wyandotte hospital), and of course James own back yard and basement.

During the heatwave of 2012 we were very fortunate not to lose power or air conditioning capabilities (although I am a bit terrified of the huge electric bill we will get running the AC so hard).

Continue reading “Summer Fun So Far In 2012” →