Michigan +7

As planned, our trip to Michigan keeps on chugging along.

Shortly after my last post we made our way to the west side of the state. One of our first goals was to meet Neil at the Grand Rapids airport. Though we were about 20 minutes late, we eventually managed to pick him up without too many problems.

With Neil in tow we made our way to my Aunt's house. Soon after arriving we learned about a concert for which she had purchased tickets. Apparently the Grand Rapids Symphony Picnic Pops (Beatles version) was taking place that evening. The plan was that we would meet some of my aunt's friends and eat a packed picnic dinner. While we were a little to tired to do much socializing, we all enjoyed the show. The one thing that I will say about the show is that the arrangements that were used didn't really seem to allow the symphony to shine. In many instances it was almost hard to tell that the cover band was even playing with a symphony.



One of things that was most amazing about the concert, which took place at a ski hill, was that it was attended by between 10 000 and 15 000 people. This was all the more amazing when you realize that they were going to play the same show again the next night for a similar crowd. The other neat thing about the concert was that they allowed patrons to bring food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages, without a bag search or hassle. If all outdoors concerts were this relaxed I might actually like outdoors concerts.

In the subsequent days we managed to visit one of the local beaches and visit quite a number of relatives.



As usual, I really enjoyed my time at the beach (and with my relatives).

Yesterday we made our way from the west side of the state to the Thumb Region, which is where my father grew up. On our way to this part of the state we stopped to visit a few of my parents' friends. The first visit was to the house of one of my father's grad school lab mates. One particularly enjoyable aspect of this visit was hearing about the husband's surgical implant and implement business and the types of things that surgeons use in surgeries.

A few minutes after this visit my parents took us to another friend's house. This friend is an artist who makes his living painting portraits of professional basketball players. At this stop is was also great to hear about some of the dynamics of an industry with which I am otherwise unfamiliar.

Our final stop was in East Lansing proper, or at least the part of East Lansing that houses Michigan State University, my parents' alma mater. We stopped for lunch at one of their old haunts and then took a very quick tour of the campus and surrounding areas. Not surprisingly, even though I have been there before, I really don't recognize much of the place. One thing that always amazes me about the campus is its size. It is hard to believe that a university could possibly require so much space. Just the space and buildings used for athletic programs are larger than many whole universities in Halifax.

By evening we had safely arrived in beautiful Vassar. As we head to head out for dinner I didn't really get to see much of the place before the sun set.

This morning my mother, Neil, Kirsten, and I made our way to Birch Run to do some outlet mall shopping. As expected, we were quite successful and managed to buy a number of items.



I was particularly pleased with a few of my deals. Almost immediately I found a great light jacket for $40, which turned out to be my most expensive purchase of the day. As time passed I managed to pick up a few more items, including another jacket and a rectangular baking stone. Somehow, though it is likely not a bad thing, I managed to buy five shirts (including two nice Oxfords) for no more than $13 apiece.

Almost as soon as we returned home we threw a few steaks on the grill. Steaks were chosen so that we could test out my Uncle's cattle brand (which is registered in a county in Texas).



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As you can see, the whole process worked quite nicely. The steaks were quite tasty.

Shortly after dinner Neil, Kirsten, and I made our way to a local discount store. Our goal, which was accomplished, was to find a few types of candy that aren't readily available in Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. I presume that this means that we will have a substantial tasting session once we return to Halifax.

Though I have asked a few times, I really don't have much of a sense of what we will be doing tomorrow. Apparently there has some talk of a return trip to Birch Run, though I don't know what else we will be doing.

A Few Quick Notes 298

-According to Environment Canada it was 9 degrees above zero at times today, though it certainly didn't feel that warm in downtown Halifax. If my sense of the temperature was correct this may be one of the few times I have experienced lower temperatures in town than at the airport.

-I am now 2/18 in this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win contest. Almost after snagging a free coffee on Tuesday I re-invested my winnings in a losing cup, and have subsequently entered a three cup losing streak.

-As you can see, the corn has now been chopped down and not yet replaced. At the moment I don't know what I should plant to replace the corn. I kind of think that something rather vertical, like more corn, would be good, though I would rather have a larger pot for corn. Anyway, surely within the next few days I will have come up with something to plant in the pot recently vacated by the corn.



-As I have previously mentioned, I am finding it very difficult to take pictures of the scarlet runner beans in my bedroom. While this shot shows some of the growth, I don't think it does the plants justice. Hopefully I will be able to figure something out in the coming days, though I am not particularly hopeful given the space I have to work with and the unfortunate location of a few walls.

I should also note that it seems that the plants aren't growing as quickly as those in the living room did. I find this a little strange as the pot is larger than any of those that I used in the living room. Maybe scarlet runner beans actually like to be pot bound much more than I originally imagined. If this is the case I might expect growth to speed up as the root structure develops, so I guess I should start seeing changes any day now.



-None of us made it to the Ice Castles filming session at St. Mary's University today. Last night Neil and I both realized that we both had MSU hats that we could have worn to add a touch of realism to the session. Hopefully a few dedicated Spartan fans were present in dressed in green and white.

-Normally we don't get all that many phone calls, so that I had to field five calls was rather anomalous. I feel that I sometimes can go at least a week without having a real phone conversation, so I really wasn't mentally prepared for such phone activity.

SMU for MSU?

Apparently at least a few people think that St. Mary's University, a small university in Halifax, is an appropriate stand-in for Michigan State University (MSU) in the context of the filming of a motion picture, a re-make of the 1978 film Ice Castles. I find this a little funny given the disparity in sizes of the two universities. SMU reports having over 8500 full and part-time students while MSU indicates that they have over 46 000 students, more than 10 000 of their students are graduate or professional students. Also, the campuses are quite different. The MSU campus is huge, as is appropriate for an agriculture school, while the SMU campus is rather small, comprising just a few buildings.

Anyway, it seems that if you are on SMU campus tomorrow you might be included in some of the background shots, so if that is your thing you might want to head to SMU tomorrow.

Also, it seems that some of the filming took place in Windsor, which was being used as a stand-in for Iowa.

I wonder if this explains why I saw someone walking around in MSU Spartan sweatpants yesterday?

Rebecca deserves the credit for giving me the heads up on this.