Welcome to Pittsburgh

What we are all greatful for.

Roy and his volunteers

First time ever. NY 23 is blue. Hell yeah.

As of know, Random Thoughts is on hiatus till November 4, 2009.

Landed at Midway. On time some how despite 10 minutes lost on the runway and another 10 at thegate in Philadelphia.

5C. Very nice.

At the airport to go home. Thought I might miss my flight. Flew through security. Finished checking my fantasy teams. Plane 10 minutes late.

SlipnSlide

Rain may come, but that makes more fun.

Drinks

Keeping cool in the inflatable palm tree.

Pumpkin Fudge

Best idea ever.

Arden art fair

There's my girl

Welcome to Philadelphia

Boarded. C10.

Gate B20

Arrived at the gate. Despite security's desire to search my carry on's
anal cavity.

Fantastic 2

Having a little fun while babysitting my cousins.

A litlle music....

Some easy listening at our local park.

Maddie's Birthday

It looks like she is enjoying her cake.

Dinner

Grilled up some nice steaks. Marinated in soy sauce with basil and fresh garlic for 24 hours. Then tossed on the Webber.

Perfect.

Saying bye to an old friend

This is likely the last picture of Papa with the apple tree in front
of his house. It will be cut down later this week.

This is what it came to

Brett Favre has signed with the vikings, in case you have not heard. I am pissed. I am a Packers fan. I was a Favre apologizer last year. Not now. This is betrayal.

The Up North Lodge

Knowing that there would be a wait to have dinner, my dad and I decided to go early.



A delicious 22 oz. red amber. Before the girls could show up, our table was ready. We passed off to the next group, who happened to be sitting next to us at the bar. They bought us a pair of free drink tokens for the Up North Lodge. Excellent. Unfortunately, the girls arrived and we didn't have the chance to use them. Next trip--the bar will still be there.

Dinner arrived....... RIBS




1/2 slab. Preceded by salad and clam chowder. Served with noodles and pineapple. YES!

My dad and I had the slab for two.



Always a good decision...

And the aftermath



No ribs left alive.

A big difference from earlier

Almost 8 and still 80? Earlier in the trip we struggled to get out of
the low 60s.

The master at work

Cooking fish the right way. No bones. Delicious.

Pastie restock

We will have see if it is real #1.

Smoked fish sausage

Delicious! Got in Munising at the Fish House.

Ship wreck tours

Glass bottom boat tour of some of the wrecks found in Lake Superior.
Very cool.

UPDATE

Some photos taken during the tour on the real camera



What is left of the anchor




What remains of the captains bathroom (tub on the left, commode on the right)

Bluegrass

Enjoyed some nice tunes at a bluegrass festival in grand marais.


UPDATE......
Another video from our trip to see some bluegrass.

Fire

Lit and burning. Video will be cut and posted before I go to bed. Maybe.


video update.... as promised....from 1 AM on Saturday the 8th

Fire

Made a little lean-to fire. Going to light it around dark. Not as big
and flashy as my uncles or cousins would like, but that is just not
my style. This fire uses would efficiently and works well for cooking.
It is a good fire for a vigil.

Dinner

Had it at Jack's Hideaway. First time here. Fridays they have a fish
fry special. Recommending the perch.

Car Trouble Update

I want to send out a giant thanks to Joe and his kids over at Joe & Sons Auto Repair in Gwinn. Good, hard work at a very reasonable price. The Nissan, which can be seen in an earlier post, had some serious muffler issues. It had been at our home dealership in the past month where a significant amount of money had been spent on a variety of repairs, some having to do with the muffler.

Mind you, I am no car expert, but here is how I understand it.

For 1/3 the price charged by the dealer (only the muffler work) Joe & Sons replaced the hanger at the end of the exhaust pipes (new work completely), replaced a hose with new parts that the dealer said would be exorbitantly expensive and not practical (the dealer basically put a piece of tape over the hole on the old hose, which was about to fall apart), and replaced some sort of special spring loaded bolts (I have no idea their function, but they seem important) that the dealer PUT ON! (the tech told us that the bolts we had were crappy and put on poorly to begin with) In summation, Joe & Sons fixed a new problem, and repaired the crappy job done by the dealer on two other problems for 1/3 of the price. Bravo.

A little free advertisement.

Lunch

Using bread and produce from the Gwinn Farmers Market.

Car issue

Last night on our way back from the concert in Marquette, we noticed a
scraping noise. We stopped, and our muffler had sort of fallen off.

Our solution--a bungee cord and an irate call to our dealer back home in the morning. (On a sidenote, this car had been into the dealer for muffler work less than a month ago) Will update.

An evening of music

Dinner

Katie strikes

Katie lands two notable catches--the first a 25" northern that will serve as the main course for tonights dinner. You might notice her weapon of choice, the bamboo pole. How unlikely.



While a 25" northern is impressive, especially on a bamboo pole, her other catch is remarkable.

So the question has to be asked---where have the perch been hiding?

Lunch

Dinner

Chopped salad and bratwurst

Fishing

Front yard

Water level

Ducks

After a long awaited release......

ShagCam

Michigan

Sweet smells at sunset

Milwaukee

In milwauke. No sign ofthe silver surfer. Change of plans- I amdriving
big red. Thanks to rac for ghost blogging. Will checkback in at title
town.

Road

Finally on it. Big red packed. Silver surfer on road already. Your
blogger is starting off as navigator for big red. See you in Milwaukee.

Happy birthday Katie

No more Palin

For those of you who missed it, Conan O'Brien had a special guest on to interpret Sarah Palin's speech, explaining why she resigned (quit) as governor of Alaska.


Due to the copyright nazis over at NBC, I had to pull the video. I am sure you could find it on your own on youtube or NBC.com. William Shatner was hilarious both nights---you should see it.

Papas got a brand new shed

Breakfast

Wii

I know it isn't the newest thing on the market, but I got a Wii. I
figured you would care.

Winner.

Tiger should make the cut at the next major. I won again. Considering
the way I dropped the hammer, the PGA is probably in the bag.

Major Sports News

I lost in a best of three cut throat cricket match to my dad. Tiger
fails to make the cut at The Open. It had only been 38 times since
Tiger last missed the cut. At least twice as long for me.

RwC

Concert aftermath in millenium park

Happy 30th to r & j. Without you, this blog would not be possible.