La Jolla @ sunset

Well, I haven't updated my blog in few weeks... I thought it might happen this way since I'm back into my "groove" of work, blah, blah, blah... Nothing much new going on now, which is why I haven't been motivated to post anything.

Last night B and C, Jenica, and I went down to La Jolla to grill and watch sunset. Ben and Toni met us down there so I could shoot his graduation pics... They turned out well! I'm surprised (really) anytime my pics look good to me. I also shot a pic of the sunset which wasn't spectacular in any sense, but I pumped it up a bit (as you can see) and it looks pretty cool...

It's Saturday and I spent most of the morning doing chores around the house. I haven't been there much in the past month or so, so the lawn was visible from space and needed knocking down. I also broke out the weed eater, and even swept the driveway! I was sweating a lot. And now my arms hurt. They'll probably hurt more tomorrow. I'm way too out of shape...

I also had an interesting conversation with two Jehovah's Witnesses ladies that knocked on my door. They were real interested in talking until I started questioning their theology and defending my faith... They said they'd be back, but we'll see... I probably shouldn't have gone to the door with that chicken carcass in my hands... I think I scared them.

Later on I finally took some of my old work pants to the Salvation Army thrift store. I'm slowly getting rid of the junk in my house. At this rate it'll only take me a couple more years to get just my room cleaned. Tenacity is the key. Speaking of my house, my former housekeeper just left town last month or so without saying anything. My old neighbor told me she moved away and now I'm looking for a new person to clean my house. Don't even try to tell me about cleaning it myself. I don't care. I like having someone clean it; and they do a much more thorough job than I ever would. Maybe you should hire someone to clean your house.

Right now I'm hanging out at the B&C's with all the usual suspects. We're eating dinner soon, which is a lovely marinated, grilled chicken dinner with beans, rice, and tortillas. It's a local version of EPL (El Pollo Loco), but better...

Oh, and a customer gave me a camera... Ain't that cool... It's called a HOLGA 120, and it's a cheap, plastic medium format jobby that takes funky pics... I'll post some as soon as I get some film, shoot some pictures, have them developed and printed, scan them, photoshop them and post them. If they're any good. We'll see!

Clarkston, MI

Well, as you can see, I spent the weekend in Clarkston, Michigan with Genevieve's family... It was quite the drive out on Friday after class. By the time I got over to Enterprise, got back over to the room and packed up, and then on the road, it was about 5:15ish. I got stuck in some "rush" hour traffic leaving town, and that coupled with the toll roads, time zone change and travel, I arrived at the Benson home about 11:45 that night. Well, that was the hardest part of the trip, except for leaving...
Genevieve's family is awesome. They were gracious enough to let me stay over for the weekend and just hang out with them. Saturday morning I slept in until 10:30, and then spent some time with Cindy (G's mom), Joslyn and her precious little girl Kalin drinking tea (no coffee drinkers in the house) and chatting... (thanks to G for correcting the misspelled names). Ben, and Gunar showed up later (her dad and bro) and we all ate some delicious BLT's. A lot like the MLT's, where the mutton is just right; mmm I love that... Gunar gave me a tour of the back 40; literally 40 acres of mostly wooded lowland, trails, ponds and creeks... It was cool just touring around on the quad checking things out, hearing about the family history of the land from Gunar. Later that night I went with G and J to a Passion play at a local church. It was professionally done, and interesting. But it was good to just go do something and see the little towns like Holly, and Fenton. Sunday morning I went to church with B and C (not that B and C), Ben and Cindy. It's a nice ind. Baptist in Lake Orion with a school and a really good choir. The best part was meeting Anne, who I talked to for about 5 minutes, and haven't been in touch with since, but hope to at least say "thanks" to soon. She was extremely nice to take me to Sunday school. It's probably the shortest date I've ever been on. She probably doesn't even know it was a date. I prefer to think of it that way since I rarely go on dates, and she's the first girl in a long time I'd even consider going out with anyway. She was lovely. Anyway, after church we all (me and the Benson's) went downtown and ate lunch together. We wanted to go take pictures afterwards, but it'd been cloudy and rainy all day and we weren't sure if the weather would be nice enough... Well, as you can tell by the pictures above, the sun came out for just a couple of hours that day. We headed over to Depot park and let Kalin play and run around while I took pictures. It's a cool little park with a playground on one side and a gazebo on the other with a creek running down the middle. It starts up the road from Mill Pond and runs under the old mill towards the park. Quite the quaint little town. I left later on that afternoon and drove back to Schaumburg, sad to leave, but glad that I got to spend time with Genevieve's family. It was nice seeing where G grew up too, and visit Michigan for the first time...
The other pics are of Trouble, their dog, and an old wagon that's been on their property since before they lived there...