Belated B-day present

Two weekends ago Niesha and I took a trip an hour west and a bit north of Kalamazoo to Saugatuck Michigan which is a small town on the coast of Lake Michigan and at the mouth of the Kalamazoo river. Niesha had booked some spots on a sailboat for Sunday afternoon and we made a day of it.
The area was quite nice with lots of lush trees around the town and a real "summer fun" atmosphere in a town that had lots of shops and stores lining the streets. There was even a large wooded hill close to the river that had some stairs leading up it. The stairs looked like they went up a long way so I naturally wanted to climb it and see: 1)where it went, and 2)what the view was like at the top.

284 steps later, we reached the top of Mount Baldy as it was called (but it wasn't really a Mount by any means) and had a wonderful view of Saugatuck.



The sailing trip itself lasted a good two hours. First we had to meander down the Kalamazoo river for about 20 minutes until we reached Lake Michigan which upon entering the large body of water the captain put up the sails and off we went at about 7 knots (8.4 miles/hr) out to sea.......er lake.


We were allowed to go up onto any part of the bow but the captain said he had one rule, "Just don't fall in the water". It was a beautiful sunny day and the wind was blowing pretty strong, so even though it was warm on shore it was cool enough to need a light jacket on the water.
The day was awesome. It felt fantastic to be back on a body of water. I've been so used to being on the water in the summer I really miss it when I go long periods of time without bouncing on some waves.Niesha and I even managed to get sprayed a little while sitting on the bow of the boat when some large waves sloshed into the side of the boat and soared into the air to greet our bodies with a fine mist.


It was a wonderful birthday present and I'm thinking, now all I need is a sailboat of my own and the rest of the summer will have all kinds of adventures to write about!

Some of the scariest images you may ever see!

It's amazing how much laughter a simple computer program can produce. These images are from a program called photobooth which came with my friend Jun's new Macbook laptop. The computer has a built in webcam so it can take pictures of you or, as with this program, distort pictures of you. We nearly pee-ed (spelling?) our pants!

Chicago trip

This past weekend Niesha and I took a trip with our friends Shawn and Camille to Chicago. Shawn preached at the Lakeview SDA Church (although there's no lake to view, it's in a very urban environment actually) and we stayed for a potluch lunch after and enjoyed meeting some new people.


After the lunch we made our way to Lincoln Park Zoo which is free on Saturday's and Shawn and Camille are a poor young couple as well so we took full advantage. Somehow in my excitement I forgot one simple thing, free stuff = crowds. As we circled the park and surrounding area over and over and over.........and over, we could not find a single free parking space. Cars were jammed into parallel parking spaces like, well not like sardines because sardines are really not jammed in that close together, but the cars were jammed in like pickles, which are absolutely packed into that jar. To our dismay it also started pouring rain while we were looking for a parking spot to go along with the 92 F or 33 C heat outside. So hot and muggy is understatement of what it felt like.


Eventually we succumbed to paid parking and once we got out of the air conditioned car we realized how fast one can sweat in 100% humidity. After a little while the on and off showers cooled things down and it wasn't that bad.
For a free zoo the animals that were exhibited were quite impressive. I was able to see a Tiger for the first time in real life, up close, and he even smiled for me so I could get a picture.
I had seen Lions in the wild in Africa so that was a little less exciting. One of the female Lions did however have something against the lady who was standing behind me and to my right. The female Lion at one point looked directly at the woman and growled the deepest meanest growl I've ever heard. I turned around, looked at the woman, and although I saw no reason why the Lion growled, I promptly moved to the other side of the crowd. Maybe the Lion knew something I didn't.


It was fun throughout the afternoon to try and make noises to try and get the attention of the animals so I could take their picture. I assumed that the mating call of each species would garner the most attention so that was road I took. Of course I don't know the mating call of a single species, not even humans, so the noises that came out of my mouth were quite interesting. Not surprisingly, I wasn't the only person trying to get the animals attention. Grown men and women, along with kids were making a variety of calls. There was the universal "pucker your mouth and suck in" making a squeaking noise. There was the "growl loudly" especially used around the large cats. There was the good old whistle, but there weren't any dogs at the zoo so that one had limited success. And then there were even people who tried to just call out in english to get the animals attention. One question though, what if the animal doesn't speak english?
I do have to say that I was able to entice a black bear. The noise I made can only be explained as a cross between a mule, a goose, a walrus in heat and an angry armadillo.....ya it was quite the spectacle. Right after I made the call the bear stood up on it's hind legs and proceeded to eat some leaves. Whether it had planned to stand up before I made the call we'll never know. But it looked kind of impressive so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.



Although it was neat to see some of the animals I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. Many of them were very confined quarters and some of them looked very unhealthy. There was one penguin in particular that looked so sad. The fur or hair on it's back was falling out to the point that you could see it's skin quite easily in
places. It didn't do much but stand in a small room that housed about 40 other penguins. I guess I'll have to wait until heaven to be able to play with and see the many beautiful creatures of God's creation.

Two minutes for elbowing

I have never considered myself a "dirty" hockey player but it seems the same cannot be said of the way to sleep. Last week I apparently rediscovered how to smack, rake over, elbow and bump Niesha in the night without even realizing I had done anything. Such events had occurred afew times not long after we were married but after a while I had seemed to learn how to be nice......little did Niesha know.
The main problem seems to be that I sleep with my arms above my head often throughout the night. When it's time to change positions my sleepy brain somehow doesn't like to lift my arm closest to my beautiful bride up off the bed but simply drag it in a snow angel kind of motion down to my side. And herein lies the problem. My arms are long, my elbows are bony and Niesha has been rudely awakened numerous times lately. About a week ago I even connected with her face a record three times in one night. One of those was apparently a hefty elbow to the noggin.
Of course I feel terrible, but even after encouragement Niesha
refuses to hit me back while I'm sleeping. They have devices to help
spouses who snore. How about a restrictive arm sling to prevent
nocturnal spousal abuse?

My first Youtube post

A couple days ago I successfully posted my first video on youtube.
And now, barring any major glitches I will have successfully posted my first video on my blog. I guess this video really encapsulates the level of frivolous and ridiculous matter that is crammed between my ears.
This video was shot by a very underrated cameraman.......me, while I drove from Kelowna to Southern California back in September of 2005. Let me just say that Central California is almost as boring as driving through the Canadian Prairies or South Dakota or Southern Minnesota. To compound the boredom this area seemed to be the Spanish radio headquarters of the universe! Unable to find an English station that was worth listening to I just decided to sing along with whatever I could find. And then, this gem was produced.
If you'd like to check out other videos I've posted on youtube, simply go to youtube and find this video by typing "Spanish singing superstar" into the search box. Then click on my username which is loonybrain. That will take you to my youtube account page.

David Crowder Concert

Crowder is definitely a different looking kind of fellow, but his music is awesome!

Two weekends ago my beautiful bride and I were privileged to go to a David Crowder concert. For those of you who are out of the contemporary Christian music scene Mr. Crowder is one of the most popular artists in this category at the moment. The concert was awesome, opening for Crowder was another band called The Longing and a drama team also performed a few humorous yet spiritual skits that had some real depth to them.
The Crowder Band put forth an awesome worship concert. I just love worshiping with a few thousand people, singing and praising God. I've been lucky enough to see David Crowder on two other occasions and I realized that I've now seen him in three states, Georgia, Tennessee, and most recently Michigan. When I put it that way it sounds like I really get around.

Celebrating mother's day........without any mothers

The look on my face shows how comfortable the harness was.



This wall had a gradual overhang, so the higher you climbed the harder it got.

Same wall as above. Notice, no socks.

On Sunday (Mother's Day) me and some friends went to an indoor rock climbing establishment here in K-zoo. This was pretty much my first time rock climbing except for some brief fooling around sessions at summer camp a few years ago.
A few things struck me throughout the day. First, I'm convinced that a woman designed the rock climbing harness. Let's just say there's virtually no room for the male "equipment" once the device is cinched tightly around both legs and your waist. Second, rental equipment at rock climbing places is so beat up it looks as if it passed through some large mammals digestive system recently. Third, it's depressing to think that enough people enjoy rock climbing in Kalamazoo that an indoor facility can stay in business but the closest real rock climbing is hundreds of miles away. Shouldn't these people realize, "Hey, Kalamazoo sucks, there's nothing really here. Maybe I should move."
Once I was suited up in my raggedy equipment we went through a beginner training course and learned how to not drop your climbing partner, or basically how to not kill your friends. After the lesson we were ready to attack the walls, but first I had to put on the shoes.
As I was putting on the climbing shoes they advised me to go barefoot as it gives a "truer feel". I asked if they cleaned the shoes. They said yes. I still hesitated. These shoes looked like soft dog food that had hardened and was then molded into the shape of a foot and finally colored green. I took off my socks and decided to go for it. As I tied the mismatched, and different length laces, I wondered what kinds of foot fungus I was exposing my toes to.
On my first climb my right big toe was starting to hurt once I reached the top of a relatively simple wall. Once descended I realized my right climbing shoe had a quarter sized hole in the bottom of it. These things really did look like they had been attacked by the flesh-eating disease. I got them taped up however and kept at it.
The afternoon was quite enjoyable. My forearms a day later are quite sore but the fun memories easily take away the pain. I'm afraid I may have enjoyed the experience too much though. I definitely want to go again. It even crossed my mind to get my own equipment. Or at least my own climbing shoes that haven't been mauled by some kind of jungle cat but are being held together by chewing gum and eletrical....er....climbing tape.