what i did last summer...

It's still summer and in fact we still have several weeks of this hot, humid weather - but for some reason, it feels like summer is nearly gone.  But then again, if I really think about it, one year ago today we were getting the walls of our garage poured and that was really the beginning of a long summer project that didn't end until mid-October.

We've done a lot of fun stuff so far - and not all just fixing up stuff at the house (which I think will be the death of us). Here's just some of the stuff we've done in the past 6 weeks beyond painting the garage and stripping the windows...

The company I work for has a suite at Comerica Park and every now and then, they put your name in a pool and if you get picked, you get tickets to the Tiger's game for that Friday evening.  You can even specify how many tickets you want...next time I will ask for 4 tickets because it is really cool to watch a game from a suite and we'd like to bring another couple.  The Penske suite is right next to the broadcast booth, so that is kind of cool as well.

There was a huge wind storm on July 11th.  At our other house in Clinton Township, one of the big trees from our neighbors yard came crashing down on to our property.  There's a new neighbor living there now since my old (favorite) neighbor, Dolores passed away.  If she was still living, it would not have been an issue whatsoever - she knew this was her tree and she would have had her sons take care of it right away.  The new neighbor was not sure where our property lines were, so he was thinking (hoping) that the tree belonged to us since it was going to cost hundreds of dollars to get it removed.  I was about to say to him that we'd share the cost, but Jerome stopped me - it's not our tree, it's not our cost, it's not our fault, it has nothing to do with us other than it landed on our yard.  He is right, so I shut up.

We did the Romeo garden tour, which was really nice - always is.  We waited until the afternoon to go - as soon as we got to our first place, the sky opened up and downpoured (the last downpour of the season, so far).  Then it became suffocatingly humid.  But it's still really nice to see how people do up their garden spaces.  It went from one house being so "natural" to another house that was professionally done and everything in between.  There was one that looked like a garden you would pay to see...actually we did pay to see all of them...hummm...well, you know what I mean.

July 18th was the baby shower for my son and his fiance, Sam.  She is due the end of this month.  She is HUGE!!!  I'm not sure how she's going to be able to pass this baby.  Maybe she'll have to have a cesarian.  Anyway, the shower was really nice and she (they) received a lot of great, helpful items.  Justin was not able to make it to the shower because he is still in Afghanistan.  He won't be able to make it for the delivery either.  Very sad really.  He'll come home some time in November and see his baby for the first time.  Voila! Baby! (above are the infant photos of Sam and Justin).
Check out that look she's giving me!

While my big sis was in town (for the shower - which she was unable to make...long story), we took one of my day's off to head to the Ann Arbor Art Fair.  I can't remember the last time I've been there...if ever.  It was a freakishly humid day with strange weather.  We could actually see the rainstorms heading up the street.  By the end we were wet, sweaty, tired and just wanted to be in the A/C...which my car didn't have.  In fact, the MINI kept trying to overheat.  We decided we'd stop and let the car cool down along with the traffic and go watch a movie.  Then afterward we tried to find our way home (without GPS! YIPES!).  Took some extra time, but we finally got home.

The MINI...we have participated in a lot of MINI activities in the past month.  Some MINI related BBQ's at friends houses.
I'm sure you all remember the sky those couple of days.  Strange, almost like there was a forest fire somewhere.  And a huge full moon.  I think everybody and their brother got (and posted on FB) a picture of the sky from that day...

The local MINI dealer has been showing a lot more interest in our club recently and has thrown a couple of really cool parties, where they feed us!  The one in July was called "Dog Days of Summer" where you could bring your doggie with you and they had a fashion show with a winner.  Our MINI club member MaryBeth won - actually her dog Lani won for best costume.

This past weekend was the Woodward Progressive.  We have several club members that live along Woodward and about 3 years ago they decided to get together and do a Progressive to commemorate the Dream Cruise (only a week before the big event so as not to have to drive in all of the cruise traffic).  We visit 4 members houses; appetizers at one, bean dip at another, hot dogs and hamburgers at the third and finally dessert at the last.  It's pretty cool and usually a good turn out.

After the last place, a few of us headed out to Memphis Smoke to watch yet another MINI club member play his harmonica in the band he just joined about a week or so ago; Rev. Robert Sexton and the All Star Blues Review.  They were competing with 3 other bands and won the chance to move on to the next level!

Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention, one of the MINI club members that has his house in the Progressive is the son of one of the guys I used to work with at Chrysler Liberty; Bob Malcolm.  He was at his sons house with his Hot Rod that he has spent years working on.  It's all done now and looks fantastic.  It was nice seeing him again after all these years and we'll make a time to get together with other old Liberty people for lunch sometime very soon.

Oh, and I should not forget that we also had our 7th annual pot luck at our house.  This year we had the most MINI people attend; 28.  But also had a bunch of other friends and colleagues (total of 76 peeps).  It turned out very well - the first year that we had rain - but it was much needed and only lasted an hour at the most.  

We need more rain!  Bring on the rain!!!  We no longer have grass...we have straw.  Watering is one letter away from Wast(e)ing according to Jerome.  He's really not all that bad about the thought of watering, but we just don't do it enough, and we don't have integrated sprinklers, so to drag the hose around is a real drag...literally!

Comments

Tami said…
What a great way to give photo and words to your summer.
baby sister said…
Thanks Tami, it was a little rushed, but you get the point :)
baby sister said…
Thanks Tami, it was a little rushed, but you get the point :)
Jabbles said…
It's been a busy yet fun summer. You are right though, it's nt over yet but it really feels like winter is just around the corner.

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