end of july - beginning of august ~ anything new and exciting?...

We've spent the last couple of weeks doing small things in the kitchen, like pulling off the paper and plastic; revealing somewhat how it will look.

We spent a whole weekend spraying the island and the backs of the cream cabinet doors.  They have spent the past week or so curing.

I had made a nice painting station in the garage using plastic sheeting, our canvas tarp, left-over paper roll that we saved when we were taking it off of the kitchen ceiling.  It turned out pretty nicely.  I think we could make a living spraying furniture now.  While I was putting up the plastic sheeting, and it was taking me quite a while, I pondered on how Dexter does this all in an evening AND captures, kills and disposes of all evidence.  He's just so much better at it than any of the rest of us.

Other notable things that happened would be winning tickets to see a tribute band for Van Halen at the local pub.  I don't even care for that kind of music, but when the trivia question was asked on Facebook - I was quick to google the answer and even quicker posting it.  So, I won 4 tickets and posted the same trivia question to my FB friends so that we could share the evening with the lucky winners.  My old friend Tami came up with the right answer...and she could have come up with a million wrong answers and I still would have handed over the other 2 tickets to her as she was the only one of my FB friends that even seemed remotely interested.  So, it turned out to be a nice evening.  Hadn't done anything with her for many years and had never met her husband, so it all worked out really great.

The band was LOUD!  We needed to put pieces of napkin into our ears to save our hearing.  The lead singer was wearing skin tight leotards that showed off his package to the point where you could.not.look.away.  My friend thought he had stuffed something in his pants to give you the impression of a larger package, but all I can say is "male camel toe" to the max. 

Just before leaving for our small vacation, we needed to attend to the red currants that I had harvested from our two bushes.  So, we made jelly!

Yep! That's all we got!

Our long weekend get-away encompassed attempting to break a Guinness Book of World Records, record.  The event was called MINIs on the Mac(k) (I put the "k" in parenthesis because if you are a real Michigander, you would not use the "k" when referring to the Mackinac Bridge) and we were hoping to gain enough interest from those that own MINIs to break the current World Record that was set in London.  They had 1450 MINIs on parade.  Well, we didn't come close; only 848, but it was a cool event to be a part of AND we did end up breaking a World Record...Largest ensemble of car horns beeping Smoke on the Water...

We also did our yearly stay on Mackinac Island, which is always relaxing.  I would say though that we won't stay in that bedroom again (at "our" B&B) because the bed is just way too uncomfortable.  I could barely sleep and woke up in achy pain.

While preparing for this trip, our MINI friend, John asked us if we wouldn't mind taking his (Matchbox car) MINI along with us and take some pictures of his MINI enjoying the event...and also include another MINI friend's (someone we've never met) mini MINI.  This was because neither of them could attend the event themselves.  SURE!  We've done this before, once while on our honeymoon with our brother-in-law's shoe (he left in our honeymoon suite, by mistake - drunk bastard ;) ) and once with our friends on a trip to Europe.  A blow up palm tree that their son sent them as a gift.

It was fun and gave us a bunch of things to take pictures of while on our trip.  And the owner's loved all the creative shots!

While on the island, I was pleasantly surprised with an email from the Pennsylvania Great Outdoors Visitors Bureau stating that they picked my story that I had submitted to them about our trip to Punxsutawney to be featured in their Fall/Winter GO Magazine.  This magazine will be distributed at high traffic areas such as rest stops, restaurants and hotels.  You can read the whole story here on my blog - I sent them an edited down version - which I'm sure they will edit down even more.

After our 4-5 hour drive home from the Upper Peninsula, I think we were home for an hour before we were "BACK TO WORK!"  Needed to get ready because the next day our counter tops would arrive and be installed.  We are so happy that we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel for this project.  This coming weekend marks 4 months that we've been at it.  It's a long time to not have a working kitchen - or, the most missed is not having a sink.  Whenever we need water, we have to trudge down to the basement and fill up a pot.  I call it "going to the well".  

But for a short time, I believe I've felt what our forefather's (or mother's) had to live with.