Augie Bytes

Great Googly Mooglies! It’s been quite a while since I posted and so much has happened. Here’s a brief recap:

I got a new job!  Yes, that’s right, I’m employed once again. I have to admit that despite having a bit of a severance package, it was very unnerving for me during those many weeks. I mean, I’m sure it is for anyone that gets laid off, but this was a first for me. A wife and four kids to support, and this was my first time to be out of work since before I graduated High-School. But hey, that messy part of my summer is over and now I’m gainfully employed and ready to move ahead. I’m doing very similar work, but as the Director of Ecommerce for Epopus, a consulting firm within the furniture industry, an industry in which I’ve worked for almost 11 years via FurnitureFind.com.

The kids are back in school!  All four of them are in school for the full day now and Sheila’s just now getting the hang of no one else being home all day. That’s not to say she’s alone. We have two super-cute little nephews (both living right here in town) that she loves being around and Sheila’s mother is also visiting for the summer/fall time period.

Married for 14 years!  As hard as it is to believe that much time has gone by, we’ve been married now for 14 years. We love to include the kids in on our day, so we celebrated by giving the kids presents. (we exchanged ours the night before) Sheila and I followed it up this past weekend by spending a night in Chicago as we’ve made a habit of doing for our anniversaries. We had a blast, but I think we’re going to have to come up with something a bit more “unique” for the next one coming up. The big 15 is looming!

The new bedrooms are (almost) done!  One nice side-effect from being off work for a bit there, was that I had some time to work on the girl’s bedrooms upstairs. I finished up the walls, we got most of the painting done, we got the carpet laid, and the girls have officially moved in their rooms. I now need to finish by staining and hanging the doors and doing the same with all the trim. I think that’s going to have to take a slight back-seat for now though. I really need to get the gutter re-hung on the back of the house and get the roof ready for winter. I don’t want any major messes like we had last winter!

Well, those are the big points. I’ll try to get back to a more regular posting schedule now that things have settled a bit. Come back soon!

OK, this has just gotten ridiculous. We’ve been back for two weeks and I’ve done a really poor job of getting the rest of the pictures up. I was trying to look through the pictures and my notes to write a little about each day, but I’m too far behind and have other topics to move on to!

So here are the rest of the pictures for those of you who are interested…

Tuesday 8-14 - (91 Pictures) - We went on a guided hike to an abandoned bear den, which we had gone on last year as well. It was a great hike, and the sun was in just the right spot in the sky for us to get some great pictures on the trip back to the van.

Wednesday 8-15 - (48 Pictures) - Shalen put together his 3D shark puzzle in the morning. We spent a good chunk of the day at the beach at White Fish Point. It was a very nice sunny day, but it was a bit cool and breezy as well. The rain came in just as we were packing it up and chased us to the van.

Thursday 8-16 - (204 Pictures) - This was the biggest day at the falls. We spent the morning at the upper falls (the big one) and then ate lunch there at the brewery. We then spent the afternoon hiking up and down the lower falls (the smaller series).

Friday 8-17 - (86 Pictures) - Today was the big day at the Blueberry Festival. The kids all entered the coloring contest and Moranda and Shalen won in each of their age groups. We then followed it up with a nice evening hike near the campground.

Saturday 8-18 - (119 Pictures) - This was our last full day in the UP. We took a drive and took the kids to a black bear rescue/sanctuary. We then took one last long hike along the river in the evening.

Sunday 8-19 - (2 Pictures) - Time to go home…

Pictures Shalen Took - (89 Pictures) - Shalen took these pictures on the bear den hike on Tuesday.

Pictures Hailee Took - (132 Pictures) - Hailee’s turn with the camera was at the falls on Thursday.

Pictures Moranda Took - (132 Pictures) - Moranda took these on Friday at the Blueberry Festival.

Pictures Corbin Took - (274 Pictures) - WARNING! These could make you dizzy.

Tired of pictures yet?!?!?!?   

Monday – Aug 13^th

This morning I finally got up before Sheila, did the bathroom runs with the boys, and got breakfast for the kids, which was PopTarts and milk. Go Papa! We spent the morning relaxing and enjoying the fact that the kids were all at the playground and/or walking around with their new found friends.

After lunch, we went to a beach just down the road which is part of the state park. It was a pretty cool beach because of how shallow it was. There were sand bars that kept the water below waist-level for over a quarter mile out! Because of that, the water was also much warmer than it typically would be for Lake Superior. We stayed there for quite a while and finally headed back to camp.

Click here for the images for today…

Sunday – Aug 12^th

This morning was a relaxing one.  The kids played around the site and at the playground and I got to read for a while.  We fed some of the chipmunks and they even ate right out of Hailee’s hands.  Shalen made friends with a boy in the lot next to us and they hung out together.

We took a trip to the lower falls after lunch and took a bunch of pictures.  After seeing the falls, we hiked around for a bit.  We then took a guided nature hike called “what good is wood?”  We learned a lot about the local trees and the history of the logging that took place in the UP.  The kids had a lot of fun and Corbin was very upset when the hike was over.

Making pizza pies over the fire was the highlight of the evening.  I’ve kind of become the default “guy” who makes them, and Sheila dealt with all the “other” stuff including getting the S’more stuff ready.

We had a young couple pull in at dusk across the road from us.  They had their cute little daughter with them.  I could tell they were having issues getting set up and it was getting dark, so I offered to help.  They were borrowing the tent and had never set it up before.  It wasn’t a nice easy “pop-up” tent either.  After reading and re-reading the instructions and locating some missing pieces that were hidden under the tent, we got it assembled and they were able to finish the details like staking it down the next morning. 

We had heard from some others in the park that there was going to be a meteor shower tonight, so we sat and watched for it.  Between 11:30 and midnight, they started shooting across the sky.  It was a beautifully clear night and we got to see quite a few.  Sheila and the girls laid on a blanket and continued watching after the boys conked out.

It was another fun day and of course, you can click here for the pictures.

Wow… We took so many pictures that my poor computer is having fits trying to process them all for the web. I’ll try to talk a little about each day and show the pictures we took that day. For now, let’s get things started…

Friday – August 10^th

Leaving town to start on a trip never seems to be easy for our family. We set a time to leave and there always reasons why we can’t make it happen. This time around it was mostly because of the fact that we bought a few more things to help make camping life a little nicer and the kids all got bigger (as well as their clothes) and for some odd reason the van didn’t grow with us. So between the minivan and the car top carrier, we struggled to get it all in there for the trip. In the end we had to leave two cases of bottled water that we had hoped to take with, but overall I think we did pretty well.

A nine hour road trip to go camping in the same state you live in is a bit much for small kids to comprehend, so even when we told Corbin that it would take 9 hours, I don’t think it really sunk in that he was going to have to sit for that long. “How many more hours?” is a tough question to have to answer every 15 minutes or so.

We made it. We set up camp. We started a fire. We made S’mores. We slept very well that first night.

Saturday – Aug 11^th

This morning started the daily routine of watching who was leaving and determining which lots to scavenge firewood from once they left. We did pretty well today. It probably gave us a day and half worth of wood. We then spent some time walking around as a family scouting out the rest of the lots here at Tahquamenon. We’ve kind of come to an unofficial conclusion that we’re going to be coming back here annually for the foreseeable future. We know which lot we want for next year!

After lunch, we decided that we had forgotten enough supplies that a trip to bigger store than the local town could supply was wise. We also had talked about taking the kids to the Soo Locks this year, so we jumped in the van and headed for Sault Ste Marie. Though at first we weren’t sure if we’d get to see a boat go through the locks, the boats finally started flowing. The kids really liked watching a huge (Edmund Fitzgerald-like) boat named “Algoisle” go through. It’s really amazing looking at the two great lakes so close to each other, yet having such a difference in water-level. One of the employees said that it’s roughly six and a half meters difference.

After hitting some local shops, we were all hungry and decided to have supper there in Sault Ste Marie at a place called Frank’s. It was good over-all. The kids and I liked it, but Sheila didn’t enjoy it much so I doubt it’ll become a regular stop on our annual trip.

Wal-Mart was our last stop before heading back to camp, where we picked up some needed supplies and the kids managed to spend some of their vacation money on things they could have bought at home. It rained during our trip back to Tahquamanon and the site was pretty drenched once we arrived. Thankfully the tents stayed dry and the wood was dry enough to get a camp fire going. Sheila and I tried to play some scrabble after the kids fell asleep, but we were too tired.

We had some drunk idiots near us tonight. They were loud and foul-mouthed, but thankfully the kids had all fallen asleep long before they got lit. I would have complained and tried to get them kicked out, but they left the following morning.

Click here for all the images from the first full day camping… 

More soon!

Well, we’re back!  We really enjoyed our 9 day camping trip to the UP and I have a TON of pictures to share.  I’ll get to it soon.  Yesterday was just a recoup day and today is “put everything away” day.  Thanks for all the comments that were left while I was away, I’ll try to reply to some of those soon as well…

Being forced to switch computers is always a pain, but there’s one thing that always seems to happen (at least for me). I tend to stumble over files that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Today as I’m trying to reorganize my life after losing access to a company laptop, I found some little musical gems.

Through my teens and 20’s I was in various “garage bands” that never went beyond playing in a small room together and taping what we did with a small tape deck. So of course, everything we have is of horrible quality.

I should note that the one exception was one “gig” we had at our drummer’s graduation party. That was my first (and only) live performance in front of a large group. I was doing vocals and I learned right then and there in front of a whole bunch of people that you are supposed to loosen your vocal cords up BEFORE you start performing. It was horrible! I mean yeah, once we got through the torture of the first song I loosened up and it got better, but the memories of all that off-tune screeching that came out of my mouth at first will haunt me forever.

So the following are a few examples of our songs. The majority of these are from a period in the early 2000’s when I was in my last band called “Good”. We named ourselves that solely so we could go out on a stage and say, “Hi, we’re good”. Some day I’ll have to map it all out. What the bands names were, who was in them, what songs we did…

Here’s a few examples for now. REMEMBER: These are files of sub-standard quality!

“Blue Eyed Girl” is a song who’s music was written by Cory. It was really the start of the band “Good”. He had written it and wanted a vocalist who could write lyrics to his music. It was a bit odd for me because he already had a song title and I needed to write it overnight and record my vocals to it. He liked it I guess… First is a full-band jam of the song followed by the version we did live. This was never a favorite of mine lyrically, but the song was fun anyway.

Blue Eyed Girl - Jam

Blue Eyed Girl - Live

“Snowflakes” was one I had written years back and it ended up fitting great with some music that Cory had written.

Snowflakes - Jam

Rodan is a song that started back in 1991 when I was in a band called “Millhouse” with Shane and Clancy. It’s a goofy song about a Godzilla beast called Rodan destroying Tokyo. Shane wrote the first verse, we put the music to it as a band, and then I expanded on the lyrics. First is the original as it was played back then, followed by “Good” playing it, and then with “Good” playing it live.

Rodan - Old Jam

Rodan - Jam

Rodan - Live

Sheila was a “love song” I had written for Sheila shortly after we got married. It was never meant to be sung as a rock song like this. It just sort of happened as we were jamming.

Sheila - Jam

The last two are covers we use to like doing. “Where is My Mind” from the Pixies and “Rythm of the Falling Rain” by the Cascades.

Where is My Mind? - Live

Rythm of the Falling Rain - Jam

That’s all for now. Hope your ears don’t hurt too much after listening…

We went to the annual family picnic on Sheila’s side of the family over the weekend, but due to bad weather, it was moved inside. Sheila told me that it had been moved to Maple City Bowl, one of the local bowling allies. It sounded fun and we had been telling the kids we’d take them bowling soon, but what really surprised me was when she mentioned that her cousin “OWNED” the alley! I grew up loving to play and here we have relatives that own an alley? Booyah baby!

But seriously, we had a good time and I got to meet some of her family that I hadn’t met before. We’re going to try to make it down there (about 45 minutes away) a bit more often and we can take the kids bowling too! Here are some pictures of the day’s events…

[Show as slideshow]

As the day wound down, we were also treated to a tour behind the bowling lanes. I had always wondered how those things worked and the kids got a big kick out of it…

[Show as slideshow]