Tunes, Grizzlies, Loons, and Pools

Welcome back, readers.

This weekend was nuts, from start to finish: we were shot out of a cannon Thursday and didn't stop until Sunday evening. Thursday's highlights included Tunes by the Tridge with Slick Jimmy, one of the better cover bands we've seen so far this summer, followed by an evening out at Brinstar, the downtown bar with all the retro video arcade and pinball machines. 

Friday, we drove down to Auburn Hills for Alayna's first college tour at Oakland University (but not before spending a couple hours at the posh Somerset Mall), before turning around and driving back up to Midland for Yacht Rock Night (yes, you heard that correctly) at Dow Diamond. Saturday, we ran all of our errands, did all of our yard work, and then stayed in to rest up a bit, playing games and watching movies on the projector in the basement. Finally, on Sunday, the Boses had folks over to hang out in their pool and find relief from the brutal 95-degree weather we've been having up here this weekend.

All in all, a very fun weekend, and there's a crap-load of pics and video to walk you through, so I'll get into the specifics of this weekend in the following captions.

Enjoy. . .

Slick Jimmy is a solid cover band - not the best we've heard this summer (Viva Rex, a few weeks ago, would probably claim that title), but I'd go out to a local bar if I knew they were playing there.

We met up with the Johnsons, Colliers and Mitch (sans family, as usual) down there by 6:45pm and claimed our usual spot, towards the back but with a decent view of the stage.

Rare shot of the man behind the camera.

They broke into an old '80s rap song at one point ("It's Tricky"), which wasn't their best song. The bassist and drummer did all the rapping, and you could definitely tell they were white.

Mitch, scrutinizing the band.

I fed Winnie like every, last ice cube in my cooler throughout the evening. I gave her one because she got interested when I took a drink out of my cooler, then she kept coming up and begging for more over the course of the next two hours.

One of Mees' friends was in town for a wedding later in the weekend, so she (and her baby) hung out with us for a bit down there.

Crowd was decent-sized this evening. Whenever there's a somewhat bigger band playing more people tend to show up.

Winnie, begging for more ice.

Kris enjoys singing along to bands on nights like these. Can she 'sing?' Wellll. . . 

Courtney, dancing with a random baby.

After the Colliers took off, us and the Johnsons walked up to Brinstar for a late-night snack and a couple more beers.

Mitch said he'd meet us up there, but he hadn't shown up for like ten or fifteen minutes. We texted him and asked him where he was, and he said he was here waiting for us. We got up and, sure enough, he was sitting a table by himself on the opposite side of a row of arcade games, unable to see us. What a dork.

Ordered up some egg rolls and beers while the wives entertained themselves with some Pac-Man.

Kris and Courtney are big fans of this table, they play it almost every time we come here.

I could be talked into buying one of these for our basement.

Once the rest of our food came we were able to pry the womenfolk away from the old school video games.

I know I've shared this before, but the bathrooms at this place are located at the end of this long, skinny corridor that could maybe accommodate two people walking side-by-side.

All the walls are filled with customer graffiti. You could spend an hour walking around checking it all out.

I don't know what this is but I'm terrified of it.

I used to love this one as a kid. Kris wasn't so great at it.

Courtney, once again playing on this classic.

The next morning, we got around and hit the road, driving down I-75 for a couple hours before getting off one of the exits for Auburn Hills. Kris and promised the girls that we'd hit up one of the fancier malls for an hour or two before continuing on to Oakland University for Alayna's first college tour.

The Somerset Mall is slightly nicer than the mall we have back in Midland. Slightly.

The girls separated from us almost immediately, wanting to go around shopping on their own. We told them they could Back to School shop a bit, but both were so indecisive they didn't end up getting anything.

This mall layout was actually pretty cool: it wasn't too long in any direction, it was condensed vertically with three different floors spanning out in a giant cross shape.

The girls snuck a pic of me while I was waiting for Kris to get out of some fancy purse store. They didn't have any stores there that I was really interested in, so I spent a lot of my time at the mall just waiting for Kris to finish poking around in various stores. 

We grabbed some lunch and waited for the girls to meet us down by the entrance to the mall (through a Nordstrom.) 

After a short, ten-minute drive, we arrived at Oakland University and checked into the registration building to await the start of her tour. 

While we waited, the girls ducked into a nearby restroom to switch out Alayna's retainer. Abby deemed it was picture-worthy.

The tour eventually kicked off, and lasted about two hours. We checked out a couple dorm buildings first, one for normal freshmen and one for Honors freshmen.

We toured a few different academic buildings, a sports/rec center, and a student center. Kind of a rush through so many buildings, but she was able to get a solid vibe from the brief tour.

This tower is the center of the campus, and our guide said that if you're ever lost on campus, it's a quick and easy way to re-orient yourself.

So Alayna ended up really liking this campus and was impressed with their course offerings and programs, so we'll be keeping this one in the 'maybe' pile for the time being.

While we were gone, our neighbor, Sherri, stopped by to pay Abby for dog-sitting earlier in the month. And she brought her dog.

An hour or so after we got home, Kris and I got around and left for downtown once again. This weekend the local, minor league baseball team, The Great Lakes Loons, would be assuming one of their alter-egos, The Pontooners, for their Pontooner Weekend. Tonight's theme was Yacht Rock Night, so I told Kris we had to go and check it out.

The Johnsons and the Boses, along with Collier and his kids (Mees was at the aforementioned wedding), came out with us for the evening game. This group never needs a lot of convincing to check out the home team.

Didn't watch much of the game tonight, but that isn't much of a shocker, since we usually don't. We all bought cheap, $7 'lawn seats; (where you just spread a blanket out on the grass), but we never sat down. I think Mitch is the only real baseball fan among us anyway.

Collier makes an attempt to watch a few seconds, just for good measure.

These are those lawn seats I was just talking about. We had no desire to set up shop among these peasants.

As you all know, I'm a huge fan of a Sandbar. . .

Kris spotted Alayna and her boyfriend from across the field (they actually made a point of sitting down to watch the game a bit - I think he might actually enjoy baseball.)

Sebastian and the Cannonball

Erik, Mitch and Collier, as we started on another loop around the Diamond.

Good ol' Rape Alley.

Erik made sure to stop the raffle ticket salesman at one point so that he could buy a few tickets. He never misses an opportunity to do so.

Nice night for baseball though, I'll say that - no wind, warm enough to be outside in a short-sleeve shirt and shorts well into the evening.

I forget the brewery that was hosting a tap-takeover this evening. One of the mid-tier ones that's only so-so with their beers.

Erik and Collier

Alayna took this pic of this weird-ass cloud formation at one point. Not sure what that is - maybe steam from one of Dow's exhaust towers. That would make more sense than, say, a funnel cloud or something. Not really tornado weather this evening.

Game winding down as evening wore on.

Because it was Pontooner Weekend (I assume), they had a bunch of fancy pontoons sitting out for folks to check out. Like big dogs, with 350 hp motors and LED lights and crap. A little frivelous for simple booze cruisin' if you ask me.

Collier sat and watched a little of the game with his son, Myles, at one point, since the kid was starting to get bored (he wasn't having fun rolling around with his older sister and her friend.)

Alayna and Sebastian, checking out one of the pontoons.

Kris attempts to get everyone into a group selfie.

Alayna saw us struggling so she came over and offered to take a few of the group (Kelli, by this point, was on her way out towards the car - she was funned out.)

Gathering up children before we left the game. 'Never leave a man behind,' and all that.

Leaving Dow Diamond, Collier was going to quickly run his kids home real quick before meeting back up with us and the Johnsons (and his wife, Mees, who was downtown at Three Bridges with some of the folks from the aforementioned wedding.)

A short walk later, entering The Commons in Midland's Downtown area.

At the end of the night, we sat around at two different tables - the wives and some other ladies I didn't know at one, and us guys plus a few others at another. At one point one of these other ladies, who apparently knew the guy responsible for the themes of the different nights at Dow Diamond, offered to email the Powers That Be for me 'cause I was pissed that they played absolutely ZERO yacht rock throughout the evening. All the players had their usual walk-on songs, there was NO yacht rock at all. I was pissed.

The next morning, over our typical Saturday coffees, Samson was holding his usual post overlooking the backyard. . . but was sitting all weird. Dude looked like a toad.

We ordered a paw print stamp kit thing off Amazon because Alayna eventually wants to get a tattoo of Watson's paw at some point (in the distant future, mind you.) Watson's health has been declining rapidly in the last few months - he's coughing a lot, he can't run much anymore or keep up with Samson, he doesn't eat as much, etc. He's not on death's door yet, but the writing's definitely on the wall.

Saturday was a pretty chill day. I did some computer crap for work (coming soon), we ran some errands, but otherwise didn't do much at all - everyone was exhausted from the previous 48 hours of nights out, working at jobs, and going non-stop from morning until evening. So on this evening we decided to tell everyone we were staying in, and hung out in the basement for the night, playing games like Clue (one of our family favorites.)

Consulting the rule book, because my family is notorious for stretching the rules when they feel they can. I win about 3/4 of the time at this game, but one of my roommates screwed up one of the clue acquisition rounds and so my ultimate hypothesis was wrong (obviously bullshit), and I was forced out of the game. Kris ended up winning, and she never wins - I was not happy.

I recently found the charger to the girls' old hoverboards, which have been on stored in the basement unused for years. After spending the day on a charger, Abby took hers for a spin and it still worked flawlessly. We'll see how much use they get now that the girls are teenagers.

The next day, Alayna took the dogs for a drive while she hit up the bank. They love riding in the car, and never really get the opportunity to do so unless they're headed to the vet (or we're taking them up to Eight Point or something.)

Around lunchtime, we went over to the Bos' place to take advantage of their pool (since it was like 95 degrees out and absolutely miserable out.) Ended up hanging out over there for a few hours, along with the Colliers.

Alayna and her friend Sara, driving around still with the dogs.

We got home in the evening and, for whatever reason, Kris took a pic of this random bush in our garden. I think some of her long-thought-dead plants are starting to bloom (or something.)

Winding down at the end of a very eventful weekend. Fun? You bet your ass. But man, I'm glad we don't do this every weekend. I'm too old to be this busy.

- Brian