Last night was incredibly exciting!
Around 10pm a thunderstorm descended and stayed with us until after 1am (I don't know how long because I fell asleep). But I woke up around 5am and it was still going on, though not as intensely.
This was the loudest, flashiest, most impressive storm I have ever seen with boom after boom of house-shaking thunder. Thrilling! The rain was coming down so hard that the driveway turned into a lake with water bubbling out of the central drain because it couldn't go in fast enough. Just when you thought the rain couldn't come down harder - it did!
It was really incredible. So, of course, I took some video! The lightening was extra cool because it was at night, check it out:
The most impressive part is from 1:35 to 1:50, but the rest is also awesome.
We're in for some more storms today, but I don't think they'll be quite that intense.
Hope you all have a great Thursday.
Tamar
A blog chronicling our adventures in Ann Arbor, MI.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
In which we eat, farm, bike, and puruse...
Hello Blog-Readers!
If you are new, please scroll down to the bottom to read the welcome post.
We have been having so much fun!
On July 15 we attended Mind, Body, and Soil - an event at a local farm hosted by the farm and my yoga studio. The evening began with a free yoga session or massage (we opted for massage this time), followed by a tour of the farm and a dinner cooked by local chefs made from the farm's produce. Ann Arbor has a large farming community and there is a lot of emphasis on buying locally. We meet many nice and interesting people and plan to come back and volunteer on the farm. We were also invited to a barn dance at another farm held this Friday. We'll be sure to take some pictures!
It was nice not to have to cook that night because we've been experiencing a ridiculous heat wave. Since moving to Michigan, we were introduced to something called the "heat index" which is how hot it feels outside (accounting for humidity, etc.). During the heatwave our heat index was in the 100's every day, and we saw it go as high as 115°F. It was not pleasant. However, since we still wanted to eat cooked food, we decided to invest in a small BBQ and have enjoyed grilling all kinds of things!
Now that the weather is a little cooler, we've brought the cooking back inside and I got to experiment with a recipe for fresh gluten-free noodles. They turned out very well and were surprisingly easy to make.
This past Saturday we attended the annual Ann Arbor Art Fair, a HUUUUUGE event with booths spread out all through the streets of downtown. There was live music, strange food (shrimp on a stick, or "shrimp on a steeek" for those of you familiar with Jeff Dunham), and tons and tons of art. I took so many pictures that I decided to make you a slideshow. At the end you will see a short video of Bob Culbertson playing and instrument called "The Stick." He was awesome.
Yesterday was finally cool enough to take a bike ride and we were able to explore some of the neat trails through the park behind our house. We'll get some pictures of that next time, but for now, check out Jake's awesome new bike! He collected the parts for it a few years ago and just had it built last week. He said it was a great ride!
And, I got a haircut!
The Bear (aka Boo) seems to like Ann Arbor, though at times the heat gets to be a bit much for him. I think he's handling it ok...
He also likes to keep me company while I work and can frequently be found under my desk, like he is right now:
We have a lot of fun things planned for this week, so I'll make sure to take some more pictures!
Thanks for checking in with us! Now that we're in blog-land hopefully our updates can be more consistent and picture-filled.
Hope you have a great week,
Tamar and Jake
If you are new, please scroll down to the bottom to read the welcome post.
We have been having so much fun!
On July 15 we attended Mind, Body, and Soil - an event at a local farm hosted by the farm and my yoga studio. The evening began with a free yoga session or massage (we opted for massage this time), followed by a tour of the farm and a dinner cooked by local chefs made from the farm's produce. Ann Arbor has a large farming community and there is a lot of emphasis on buying locally. We meet many nice and interesting people and plan to come back and volunteer on the farm. We were also invited to a barn dance at another farm held this Friday. We'll be sure to take some pictures!
The Barn
Dinner Set Up
Pigs! Yes, they eat them, but we chose not to think about that.
Ducks and Chickens
Dinner! (There was also amazing bread, Jake said it was delicious.)
Parking. (It was too funny not to photograph.)
Baby Goats
Live music and dancing after dinner.
It was nice not to have to cook that night because we've been experiencing a ridiculous heat wave. Since moving to Michigan, we were introduced to something called the "heat index" which is how hot it feels outside (accounting for humidity, etc.). During the heatwave our heat index was in the 100's every day, and we saw it go as high as 115°F. It was not pleasant. However, since we still wanted to eat cooked food, we decided to invest in a small BBQ and have enjoyed grilling all kinds of things!
Now that the weather is a little cooler, we've brought the cooking back inside and I got to experiment with a recipe for fresh gluten-free noodles. They turned out very well and were surprisingly easy to make.
This past Saturday we attended the annual Ann Arbor Art Fair, a HUUUUUGE event with booths spread out all through the streets of downtown. There was live music, strange food (shrimp on a stick, or "shrimp on a steeek" for those of you familiar with Jeff Dunham), and tons and tons of art. I took so many pictures that I decided to make you a slideshow. At the end you will see a short video of Bob Culbertson playing and instrument called "The Stick." He was awesome.
Yesterday was finally cool enough to take a bike ride and we were able to explore some of the neat trails through the park behind our house. We'll get some pictures of that next time, but for now, check out Jake's awesome new bike! He collected the parts for it a few years ago and just had it built last week. He said it was a great ride!
And, I got a haircut!
The Bear (aka Boo) seems to like Ann Arbor, though at times the heat gets to be a bit much for him. I think he's handling it ok...
He also likes to keep me company while I work and can frequently be found under my desk, like he is right now:
We have a lot of fun things planned for this week, so I'll make sure to take some more pictures!
Thanks for checking in with us! Now that we're in blog-land hopefully our updates can be more consistent and picture-filled.
Hope you have a great week,
Tamar and Jake
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Email update from 7/8/11
Hi Everyone!
I hope you had a fabulous 4th of July!
We have both been well and have just had our one month anniversary in Ann Arbor. It really is a beautiful little town and we've enjoyed exploring it.
As I mentioned in my last email, we attended a number of events held at the Ann Arbor summer festival called "Top of the Park." I've created a video montage of some of the highlights, you can see it here. (The description on youtube will tell you what you're seeing.)
We've also been having some crazy weather! It's generally pretty warm (high 80s), but we've mostly acclimated. Luckily it isn't humid every day because that is a little more unpleasant. However, on the days of the highest humidity we've had some exciting storms. Last Saturday was by far the biggest and most impressive with a full thunder and lightening show. I videoed some of it and you can watch it here. (There is no sound in the beginning, until around 1:00 because I was inside, but after that you can hear the rain and thunder.)
We had so much fun on July 4th when we rented a canoe and took a 1.5 hours trip down the Huron River. I've posted a bunch of photos from our trip to Facebook, but also included some in this email.
We love you and miss you all! Hope you have a great weekend.
Tamar and Jake
I hope you had a fabulous 4th of July!
We have both been well and have just had our one month anniversary in Ann Arbor. It really is a beautiful little town and we've enjoyed exploring it.
As I mentioned in my last email, we attended a number of events held at the Ann Arbor summer festival called "Top of the Park." I've created a video montage of some of the highlights, you can see it here. (The description on youtube will tell you what you're seeing.)
We've also been having some crazy weather! It's generally pretty warm (high 80s), but we've mostly acclimated. Luckily it isn't humid every day because that is a little more unpleasant. However, on the days of the highest humidity we've had some exciting storms. Last Saturday was by far the biggest and most impressive with a full thunder and lightening show. I videoed some of it and you can watch it here. (There is no sound in the beginning, until around 1:00 because I was inside, but after that you can hear the rain and thunder.)
We had so much fun on July 4th when we rented a canoe and took a 1.5 hours trip down the Huron River. I've posted a bunch of photos from our trip to Facebook, but also included some in this email.
We love you and miss you all! Hope you have a great weekend.
Tamar and Jake
Email update from 6/22/11
Hi Everyone,
I had a chance to take some video of the park and lake behind our house, and thought you might like to see it.
Sorry the video is shaky, I was walking. Also, sorry it cuts off. The skies opened and the rain started pouring down. I've never been in such a heavy rain - I was soaked to the skin in two minutes and I could hardly see.
We are doing well. Jake started school yesterday and everything is going smoothly. I had my second day of work today and that went well too.
We've been getting out a lot, seeing the downtown and walking around the lake. The Ann Arbor summer festival just started. It is a 3-week long, free event held on campus which hosts a big variety of bands and other events. They also show movies on a big screen. We're planning to go see this one: http://www.annarborsummerfestival.org/index.php/events/top_of_the_park/the_phantom_of_the_opera/ And we'll also go see some of the bands. We were there for the Friday opening and it was a lot of fun.
We are continually surprised by the wildlife. This morning there were chipmunks running around in the driveway and there are many squirrels and tons of birds. We've seen some bright red cardinals - they're beautiful! Even their beaks are red. There are also plenty of red-winged black birds and robin red-breasts. When we walked around the lake the other day we saw a great blue heron, he was so impressive and huge! Also by the lake were so many little frogs just hoping everywhere. The sign said they are called Spring Peepers. On the drive home the other day we spotted some activity by the side of the road. Jake thought it was a garbage bag caught in the sewers and I thought it was a huge, wriggling black snake going down into the drain. Turned out it was about half a dozen baby skunks! I have no idea what they were doing, they were trying to get into the sewer.
But the best have been the fireflies! We've seen them almost every night for the last week. Maybe we will try to catch one for an up-close look!
Hope you all are well! We miss you!
Love,
Tamar and Jake
I had a chance to take some video of the park and lake behind our house, and thought you might like to see it.
Sorry the video is shaky, I was walking. Also, sorry it cuts off. The skies opened and the rain started pouring down. I've never been in such a heavy rain - I was soaked to the skin in two minutes and I could hardly see.
We are doing well. Jake started school yesterday and everything is going smoothly. I had my second day of work today and that went well too.
We've been getting out a lot, seeing the downtown and walking around the lake. The Ann Arbor summer festival just started. It is a 3-week long, free event held on campus which hosts a big variety of bands and other events. They also show movies on a big screen. We're planning to go see this one: http://www.annarborsummerfestival.org/index.php/events/top_of_the_park/the_phantom_of_the_opera/ And we'll also go see some of the bands. We were there for the Friday opening and it was a lot of fun.
We are continually surprised by the wildlife. This morning there were chipmunks running around in the driveway and there are many squirrels and tons of birds. We've seen some bright red cardinals - they're beautiful! Even their beaks are red. There are also plenty of red-winged black birds and robin red-breasts. When we walked around the lake the other day we saw a great blue heron, he was so impressive and huge! Also by the lake were so many little frogs just hoping everywhere. The sign said they are called Spring Peepers. On the drive home the other day we spotted some activity by the side of the road. Jake thought it was a garbage bag caught in the sewers and I thought it was a huge, wriggling black snake going down into the drain. Turned out it was about half a dozen baby skunks! I have no idea what they were doing, they were trying to get into the sewer.
But the best have been the fireflies! We've seen them almost every night for the last week. Maybe we will try to catch one for an up-close look!
Hope you all are well! We miss you!
Love,
Tamar and Jake
Email update from 6/16/11
Hi Everyone!
We are all settled into our new house, with decorations on the wall too! I've made another video, you can watch it here.
I've also taken some pictures (of the same things in the video) which I will be posting to Facebook.
Jake started school today, first day of orientation. I have Israeli dance tonight and then work begins on Monday. We are all doing well and are very happy to be here!
We miss you!
Love,
Tamar and Jake
We are all settled into our new house, with decorations on the wall too! I've made another video, you can watch it here.
I've also taken some pictures (of the same things in the video) which I will be posting to Facebook.
Jake started school today, first day of orientation. I have Israeli dance tonight and then work begins on Monday. We are all doing well and are very happy to be here!
We miss you!
Love,
Tamar and Jake
Email update from 6/9/11
Hi All,
I've uploaded a video tour of our new apartment to youtube. You can see it here.
Sorry it's a bit shakey, but hopefully you'll get an idea of what it looks like - until you come to visit!
We are all doing well. Our things should arrive today and we hope to begin unloading. Ann Arbor is beautiful and we've discovered 3 parks within walking distance. We explored one of them today and had a nice walk around a wooded area with plenty of birds, ducks, ducklings, geese, and goslings.
We apparently arrived in the middle of a heat wave, but it seems to have broken today and the cooler weather is much more pleasant. We're even forecast to have some thunderstorms!
I hope to post some pictures of our journey to Facebook, so maybe those of you that don't have an account could sign up? You can just be friends with me. Otherwise, I'll try to send some via email.
Hope you are all well! We love and miss you!
Tamar and Jake
I've uploaded a video tour of our new apartment to youtube. You can see it here.
Sorry it's a bit shakey, but hopefully you'll get an idea of what it looks like - until you come to visit!
We are all doing well. Our things should arrive today and we hope to begin unloading. Ann Arbor is beautiful and we've discovered 3 parks within walking distance. We explored one of them today and had a nice walk around a wooded area with plenty of birds, ducks, ducklings, geese, and goslings.
We apparently arrived in the middle of a heat wave, but it seems to have broken today and the cooler weather is much more pleasant. We're even forecast to have some thunderstorms!
I hope to post some pictures of our journey to Facebook, so maybe those of you that don't have an account could sign up? You can just be friends with me. Otherwise, I'll try to send some via email.
Hope you are all well! We love and miss you!
Tamar and Jake
Welcome to our blog!
Hi!
We've decided to start a blog to document all the fun we're having in Ann Arbor. We thought it would be an easier way to share photos and video with you all, and it will give you a place to comment if you like.
I'll begin by posting the email updates that I've already sent to some of you so that this blog can be a record from the beginning of our stay.
We love and miss you!
Tamar and Jake
We've decided to start a blog to document all the fun we're having in Ann Arbor. We thought it would be an easier way to share photos and video with you all, and it will give you a place to comment if you like.
I'll begin by posting the email updates that I've already sent to some of you so that this blog can be a record from the beginning of our stay.
We love and miss you!
Tamar and Jake
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