Getting That Arduous Task Out Of The Way

So there’s actually a reason that I’ve been avoiding making a post about my time spent in Michigan.
I know what you’re thinking: that reason is laziness.
And you’re right. However, it’s a specific laziness.
Basically, while I didn’t take a lot of pictures, I did take enough that using Blogger’s picture-posting feature – which is, at best, hit or miss when it comes to actually posting pictures – looms over me threatening to be a huge pain in the ass.
I don’t feel like doing one of those photo slideshows either, so as a result I’ve just been avoiding the whole thing.
However, I suppose the best thing to do is to just get the pictures part out of the way.



First up is my “Family Tree,” a display of pictures of me and my siblings when we were kids that my mom has, arranged by age.
At the top is Kristy, the oldest. To her lower right (your left) is Brad. To his left is Stuart. Below him is Kim, and to her right is a wee little cross-eyed baby Jon. (I know, I know: I was so cute…what happened? Screw you. That’s what happened.)


Here we see the car Brad rented, a Nissan Altima. It was kind of cool, as it had one of those “smart keys” that you just have to have on your person in order to start the car with the push of a button.


The view of Houghton across the Portage Canal that can be seen from behind my mom’s apartment building.


My nephew Jeremy standing next to his graduation cake. He had been giving a “thumb’s up” and a goofy smile right before I took the picture, until I called him a jackass.

Jeremy opening his gift from my mom. Due to the payout ratio, whenever you hit a blackjack at the casino, you get a 50 cent piece. My mom saved up a bunch of them in an old cigar box (totaling $128.50) and gave them to Jeremy, along with a pocket knife that belonged to my dad (which my dad got from my brother Brad’s former boss, who was, at that time Vice Chief of Naval Operations). Also seen in the picture are my niece Jenni at front left, my niece Jourdan behind Jenni, and my mom standing at the end of the table. The other girls are Jeremy’s cousins on his dad’s side. As they aren’t my kin, I can’t really be expected to remember their names or who they belong to.


In the background, from left to right, we see my brother Brad, Jourdan, my sister Kristy’s husband Ken in the red shirt, Kim, and her husband Dean.


In the background of this picture you can see my brother Brad on the left, our sister Kim talking to him, our brother-in-law Dean behind her in the white shirt, and our sister Kristy to Dean’s left in the red shirt.


From left to right, Jourdan, Jeremy, and Kim.


My brother Brad.


Jenni, giving me a dirty look from behind her mother.


Jenni, hopped up on sugar, provided some of the afternoon's entertainment by dancing on a table. The mop-topped boy in the red shirt is my nephew Todd, my brother Stuart’s son.


Here we see Todd with my sister Kim. Kim’s youngest, Jacob, can be seen climbing up onto the table with his sister.


Several hours – and beers – later, the party moved into the kitchen. At the back you can see my sister Kristy, and to her right is her husband Ken. My brother Brad is quite possibly the funniest person I know, and, as is usually the case, had most of us in stitches. After all, he was in the Navy for 24 years, and has been all over the world, so he has some great stories. For those of you wondering, yes, Kristy, Ken, and Todd are all wearing matching shirts. Before coming up for the party they were at a race in which Ken’s brother was competing, and were wearing shirts in support of his number. Stuart couldn’t make it to the party, so Kristy and Ken brought Todd up.

As I’ve said many times, I’m a lousy tourist, in that I don’t end up taking a lot of pictures. I took a few more than this, but these are the most noteworthy. In any case, with that out of the way, I’ll move on to actually writing about my trip in a future entry (I promise).