Up early; short walk around the block before work.
Had lunch at Nicky’s Thai Kitchen in the North Side with Justin and HEAD. Got caught up on the Timesys comings and goings while gushing about having a job that does not require putting on pants in the morning.
After lunch finally shipped my old laptop to an organization that refurbishes them and gives them to school children.
Emily and I went to see our “Financial Dude” (the guy who manages our IRAs and whatnot). It appears our financial house is in order for the time being.
Stopped for dinner at the Bite Bistro in Bellevue. My hanger steak was delicious. I don’t know what’s in their sauce but I want to put it on everything I eat now. Emily had a pork loin over sweet potato that was also quite tasty.
Came home and put a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04 on my replacement hard drive, which arrived today. Started the long process of transferring my stuff over. Also installed Déjà Dup and set up a regular automated backup scheme.
Moved my desktop computer from the basement up to the new office space. I have a sneaking suspicion that the poor climate control in the basement may have contributed to my hard drive starting to fail. The replacement drive should arrive tomorrow. Thinking of putting a small beer fridge where my computer was. Much more effective use of the space.
Up early; took a nice walk before work. Should make it a habit.
After work I made fake-meat burritos for Emily and myself. Very similar to my fake-meat tacos, only we were out of taco shells and had some huge tortillas lying around.
We decided to work off those burritos by taking an epic bike ride around the city. We rode down to the South Side trail then through Downtown and up Liberty Avenue through Lawrenceville and Bloomfield and back to Squirrel Hill. We took our time and had a nice leisurely two-hour ride.
Showered, packed up, and hit the road for home. The ride was pretty uneventful and mercifully we saw almost no traffic. There was one rain shower, which the windshield wipers handled without a hitch. We made it home in seven hours, including a stop for lunch, which was much faster than we expected.
Cooked up a frozen pizza for dinner and relaxed for the evening. Watched some local fireworks from the back deck.
Popped out to do some shopping. Picked up some new windshield wiper blades and had them professionally installed. Time will tell how they hold up.
Spent most of the day relaxing in various places outside while reading and trying to avoid direct sunlight. I had just received my copy of the 10th Anniversary edition of American Gods (one of my favorite books) and I tackled a huge chunk of it this afternoon.
Helped my 2 ½ year old nephew break in his new Cars-themed fishing pole. Caught four or five bluegill (or maybe the same one four or five times) right from the boat without even leaving the dock. Must be the bait — hot dog with mustard, including the bun. Bluegill are apparently suckers for the stuff.
We headed around the lake to a neighbor’s house for another barbecue. Ate a burger and chased aforementioned nephew around the yard before giving him a piggyback tour of the neighborhood.
Back to the cottage. Emily’s father built a nice bonfire and we cooked up some s’mores with huge marshmallows. As the fire was winding down some kids at the house two doors over were setting off some pretty large fireworks. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to have a clue what they were doing and had two misfires, one landing on the roof of the house next to us and the other right in the middle of a cluster of boats. Thankfully it seemed no permanent damage was done, but the revelers won’t be setting any off for a good while.
Drove to downtown Ann Arbor to park and walk around before lunch. Got accosted by a local cop for making a left turn in front of her. In reality, we made the turn well before she got to the intersection but had to stop for a pesky pedestrian (which she probably couldn’t see) which kept us in the intersection long enough for her to catch up and get testy. She may or may not have ticketed the people behind us who made the same left turn.
Walked a few blocks in the oppressive heat and humidity before turning back and checking the car for tickets. Finding none, we went into the Arbor Brewing Company for lunch. I had an “Olde Number 22 German Alt” and the cask ale with my burger. The German Alt was pretty smooth but still a bit heavy for such a hot day. The cask ale really hit the spot though.
On the drive up to Emily’s family’s cottage we hit a few little rain storms. As the first one began, Emily flipped on the windshield wipers and the passenger side blade promptly flew off into the distance. She assured me that she was not the one who installed it. Thankfully I did not need to see the road so we pressed on.
We arrived at Houghton Lake shortly before dinner. We sat on the porch overlooking the lake and got caught up with Emily’s folks and her sister and brother-in-law then some family friends joined us for some delicious pulled pork sandwiches and a belated birthday cake for Amy.
A few of us piled into Emily’s parents’ boat and headed out on the lake for an amateur fireworks show. The fireworks were really impressive, especially since they were going off on all sides of us. These folks really spared no expense and actually seemed to know what they were doing.
Up early; continued my new tradition of walking to Dunkin’ Donuts for a bagel on Friday. I hope the walking offsets the bagel like I think it does.
After work Emily and I hopped in the car and headed off to Michigan. Our destination is Houghton Lake but that’s an eight-hour drive which is not how we roll after work. We stopped in Ann Arbor for the night, to make the last three hours of the journey tomorrow (after visiting Arbor Brewing, of course).
Emily made a really nice dinner of shrimp korma over basmati rice with summer squash. Delicious.
We finally reinstated our Farscape/Buffy the Vampire Slayer exchange, wherein I show her one episode of Farscape (my favorite show) in exchange for one of Buffy (hers). We left off in the middle of the second season of both several months ago but it was pretty easy to pick up again.
Getting some weird I/O errors from my hard drive. Sat at the computer to find everything mounted read-only. Not good. Looks like it’s time to go shopping.
Took an early/long lunch break to bring Hunter to the V-E-T to check on some stomach troubles he’s been having. All appears to be well; the only thing we might need to do is change his food.
Emily brought home some take-out from S&D Polish Deli in the Strip. The kielbasa was tasty and the potato dumplings were delicious. I believe there was a Groupon involved in the transaction somewhere…
Finally got around to washing bottles and putting my beer in them. I don’t have high hopes for this one, but it’s my first so it’s not the end of the world if it sucks. I took a swig of some of the unfinished stuff and it was drinkable, if a bit sweet.
Finished the evening with some Mass Effect (almost done!) and a bottle of Mother Earth Endless River which one of Emily’s coworkers sent over. I have to admit I wasn’t crazy about this one. Maybe it’s the fruit, or perhaps it’s because it was paired with Goldfish crackers.
