Ye Old Renaissance Fair

This Sunday past we wentest to the Renaissance Fair of Michigan. 'Twas a grand time with much merriment and games.

Tornado Watch

Yesterday we experienced our first tornado watch.

Yeah, we didn't know what it was either and started to panic because we don't have a basement. Turns out the "watch" is not the part you have to worry about. It's when the watch turns into a tornado warning that you want to run for the tiny closet at the bottom of your stairs because it's the lowest-level coverage you have. Currently, that tiny closet reeks of disgusting cat litter and poop because the previous tenants kept an uncovered, unscooped cat box in there for who knows how long. Yes, we tried Febreze. Yes, we tried bleach. And yes, we even got special cat-odor-remover. It still stinks.

Anyway. The news was having "Severe Weather Report" interruptions for a good chunk of the day because the conditions were right for a tornado. In case you were wondering, our weather has been cooling off (you can definitely tell that summer is coming to an end), but yesterday was like the beginning of July: hot, very humid, sticky, heat index of 95°F for most of the day. But a cold front was moving in from the north with winds of up to 25mph. Apparently this all equaled "Tornado Watch!"

Dream Crusin'

On Saturday we attended the largest car cruise in North America, held in Pontiac, MI. As you probably know, Michigan is the car capitol of the USA, so there was a pretty huge turn out with a lot of cool cars. People came from all over, even Canada. Big speakers were blasting 60's music and there were butch men with Hulk Hogan mustaches and bandanas around their heads, and their ladies, of course.

Lillie Park and the Humongous Fungus

This past weekend we returned to Lillie Park to explore the south and east ends.

Last time we visited Haven Lake.

This part of the park turned out to be even more lovely than the north side with two big ponds and lots of paths.

 

Our Second Anniversary (in pictures!)

Yesterday was a perfect day!

Since Jake is done with class until September, and Tuesday is one of the days I don't work, we were able to spend the whole day together.

We started with a homemade breakfast of mushroom-zucchini omelet and skillet potatoes.

We are two.

Two years ago we were two birds.

More about storms.

Yesterday we had another thunderstorm. I know I've written about them a couple times already, but the novelty hasn't worn off. They are just so exciting!

We were didn't have much of a thunder-lightening show, but we did get to see the storm roll in and even witnessed some spinners (the very beginnings of a tornado that never touches down or gathers much momentum). The sky wasn't green so we weren't too worried, and it was obvious the clouds were just forming a bit of a peak.

Incoming!

Brooding

Farm Fresh!

Last night I volunteered at Tilian Farm (the same place where we had the dinner) to help them make and can fresh salsa. The whole experience was farm fresh, from the ingredients, to working outside, to the mosquitoes.

We started by cutting everything up and mixing it together.

Good bread, bad bread.

We've been fighting a bit of a stomach bug, so we decided to take it easy this weekend. We watched a lot of movies and hung out on the couches. When we couldn't stand it anymore, we put on our shoes and went to check out a new park. We've driven past it a few times and it always looked nice.

Welcome to Lillie Park!

Turns out Lillie Park is composed of three parks, the north, south, and east parks. We spent some time in the north park, but when we tried to explore the trails we were attacked by mosquitoes. Rumor has it they've been particularly bad this year. We'll be better prepared next time. What we did see, though, was really nice!

In other news, Jake is in his last week of summer school! Class finishes this week and he has a few more Summer Institute events at the beginning of next week. Then, a break until real school starts in September.

As for me, I've been experimenting with baking gluten free bread. I've finally nailed growing the yeast and get a nice foamy mix every time.

It's alive!

My first trial, a recipe for gluten free challah (which you can find here), was spectacular! I'll use less sugar next time, but it actually came out like bread and tastes like challah. It even toasts perfectly!

I made a pattern on the top so it came out looking a little braided.

Look at that! Perfectly risen.

My second attempt, gluten free pita, was a pretty big flop. The recipe I followed said to allow the dough to rise for 2-3 hours, and I think that might have been the problem. The dough dried out and the pockets didn't expand in the oven. I ended up with hard, flat bread and had to dump most of it.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Next I'll try a recipe using my new garfava flour. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Road Trip! An arrival story.

Two months ago today we arrived in Ann Arbor, MI to begin our new lives in the Midwest. In honor of the anniversary of our arrival, I thought I'd share some photos from our road trip. (A lot of these have already been posted to Facebook, so sorry for the repeat. I'll try to keep it interesting.)


On Sunday, June 5th at 7am, we loaded up our final belongings, harnessed the cat, and left our empty apartment in Oakland, CA.

The rest of our belongings were traveling via shipping container and we had packed them all a few days before. Thanks again to Abba and Leor for all their help with the packing!

So, it was just the two of us with some necessities and our very precious cargo:

The cat was an angel for the entire trip and did not try to escape even once. He loved staying in the hotels too. Strange animal!

Since we left so early, we missed the traffic and made good time getting to the California/Nevada boarder and the Tahoe/Truckee area. It was very beautiful and there was still a lot of snow on the mountains and alongside the road.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to California

and hello to Nevada.

The first day we drove for 16 hours and traveled through California, Nevada, Utah, and half of Wyoming.

It says "Welcome to Utah." Hard to take a picture at 70 mph.

Welcome to Wyoming, in the dark.

The second day was a little longer, 17 hours, and we passed through the rest of Wyoming, Nebraska, and 2/3 of Iowa. We never did find a "Welcome to Iowa" sign...

Pretty sure this was Iowa.

The third and final day was a quickie! Just 8 hours of driving. That day we finish Iowa and drove through Illinois, a bit of Indiana, and most of Michigan.

Of course, the "Welcome to Michigan" picture didn't turn out.

First photo of Michigan country!

At this point we celebrated 2300 miles on the odometer:

Then it was just a few more hours until we saw our first Ann Arbor sign and we knew we were almost home.

Around 3pm on Tuesday, June 7, we pulled into the driveway of our new home in Ann Arbor. We were greeted by the hot, sticky air of a heat wave and so many bird songs.

At this point, our model passenger decided he did not want to get out of the car. Though, he was later tempted by some kitten treats.

And now here we are, two months later, settled in, still fighting sticky, hot heatwaves, surrounded by bird song, and loving it!

Kayaking is harder than canoeing.

Last Thursday Jake's division of the Business School (OMS) had an evening get-together during which they rented kayaks or canoes for all of us. We were supposed to do the same river trip that Jake and I did in the canoe and we were really looking forward to trying it in the kayak. Unfortunately, after 2 days of downpour (we had TWO nights of the crazy lightening), the river was too swollen for us to enter at the launch point. Instead, we took the kayaks out to the pond area at Gallup Park and the OMS group decided to paddle upstream.

Swollen River

Having never been in a kayak, the experience was somewhat terrifying and very difficult.

We were paddling against the current, and though it was slow, our kayak kept turning to the side (so that it was floating perpendicular to the river). It was pretty ridiculous. Even when we later went downstream, the kayak wanted to turn to the side. Needless to say, we were really glad we tried out the kayak on the shorter trip instead of taking it out for the 4-hour river tour.

Because of the uncooperative kayak, and my subsequent fear of falling into the river, it was difficult to take a picture of the two of us in action. Here are our best attempts.

The river in the park by our house also swelled from the crazy rain (I think they said we had a total of 13 inches fall over 24 hours). We went expecting it to be full, but were shocked at what we found. There is usually an island in the middle of the river and the water snakes around it in a U-shape.

What we found was a lake.

The water rose so high that it flooded it's lower banks and the trees went for a swim.

The poor ducks had to swim among them and were probably pretty confused about the disappearance of their sunning island.

In other news, I successfully baked a round of fluffy-er Gluten Free bread. I was pleased to see it actually rose since I've had trouble with that in the past. It turned out pretty tasty and crusty, which was good too. And, yes, it does look like a giant hamburger bun, but I assure you, it is not.

Finally, everyone needs a dose of "cute" to finish off a Wednesday. I got up to get some water and when I returned someone had stolen my chair.

There was too much cute to make him get off, so I ended up sitting on the floor.

Hope everyone is having a good week. A big hug to fellow Keysters as we make this unpleasant transition. Don't be a stranger.