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Coppe

Dog Pack is at Full Power

Made my way back to Michigan to get the dogs. My pack is back to full power. Also, on the spur of the moment, my parents decided to jump into the car for a Chicago road trip. It's been good times already and I'm looking forward to the usual cornucopia of eatables at the inlaws' for Thanksgiving. I plan to eat and drink too much and then pass out watching a horrible movie.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And now for dog photos:


Quentin is an old man. He's about four shades lighter than he was a couple years ago, can barely run down the street without getting winded, and damn, he takes naps like nobody's business now. He's still a complete doofus though: I took this photo after giving him a shower because he decided to seek out a random pile of mephitic compost and roll around in it.


Kya. She's just as old as Q and white hairs are appearing all over her coat at an accelerated pace. Still, I swear she acts younger than she did years ago. Although she did not find and roll around in a pile of shit last weekend, which was good news for me.

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Massi

MI and FL

Ah finally, the scurrying around is done (for now). The past two weeks involved a family get-together in Michigan, a stimulating work conference downstate, a wedding in Florida, and another wedding in Chicago. I'm ready to do nothing for a couple days.


Eric and Seigo, walking back from Pine Lake on a nice Autumn day. My immediate family resides in three different states, so it's rare that we can all see each other at once. Eric/Rie/Seigo were in Michigan for various reasons, en route to Japan, so Cathy and I hustled on over for a quick reunion. It was a good time, as usual.


Shortly after MI, Cathy and I flew down to Florida for Rachel's wedding. Specifically, we went to Amelia Island, part of the chain of the Sea Islands. View from our hotel balcony. We only had a couple days there since we had another wedding back in Chicago, but it was still great fun. It was a bit hectic at first since Cathy was finishing the wedding cake. Yes, she made Rachel's wedding cake, components of which we carefully transported all the way from Chicago. The cake? It was a fondant covered vanilla bean cake with Nutella buttercream frosting (I failed to get a good photo of it, sorry).


They had a cigar roller at the reception. I've never seen this at a wedding, and although I'm not much of a cigar guy, I thought it was a nice touch. I didn't have my camera with me so I took this with my phone. First phone photo I've posted.


Also taken with my phone, the immediate view from the reception area. It's of the salt marsh on the west side of the island as the sun set. Really nice. With this kind of natural beauty, it's hard to take a bad photo even with a crappy phone camera.

Alright, that does it. I now look forward to a week or two of my normal routine. Sweet, sweet, normal routine.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

We got back from Amsterdam a while ago, but Cathy and I have been pretty busy. We're still busy, but I've finally gotten around to looking at my photos from Amsterdam. Now I'm not as...enthusiastic, or passionate maybe, about traveling to Europe as some other people, but I admit I had a great time.


Flag of Amsterdam. We arrived at 9 a.m. Central European Time, and had been basically up for 30 odd hours already. I wasn't sure if I was delirious, excited, or both, but it didn't really matter. We just checked in and started wandering.


There was a lot of walking. Good thing I like walking and the city is pretty much made for walking too. And, as you know, the place is made for bicycles, although we never did get around to renting any...oh well.


Typical canal view, building towards the left is the Bijbels Museum. As for the weather, the forecast the week prior predicted clouds, rain, and more clouds. Needless to say, I was happily surprised when the clouds gave way to blue skies and sun. It stayed that way for most of the trip. Foolish forecasts.


We visited a lot of museums, including the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh (awesome), and a couple photography museums/galleries I was interested in. This one is at Huis Marseille. We also hung out at some parks (mainly Vondel Park), gardens, other random spots.


There was a lot of this. Beers and maps. Between sights, the general rule was to wander into a random cafe or bar, get a beer, and look at the map. Maybe a sandwich. Beers, maps, and a sandwich.


Zuiderkerk, a church. There was a lot to look at just by walking down any random street. I found it all too easy to just wander around and see interesting stuff everywhere I went, especially the architecture.


Ok, that's enough for now. Obviously, there was much more to the visit, but I think you get the idea. Vacation successful.

Going out of town again. We'll be back shortly.