Visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes

On the way home from our camping trip, which you can read about here, we stopped off at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, which is located in northwest Lower Michigan along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The sign at the entrance to the park read "Dune Climb". Now we had no idea what we were in store for. After paying the $10 park entrance fee, this gets you into any of the Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore Parks by the way. We pulled into our parking space facing what looked like a big wall of sand. This was definitely the biggest sand hill we had ever seen. We grabbed a bottle of water for each us, which I highly recommend you don't forget!! We were on our way up the hill with all the other adventurous people that were there that day. After about 20 feet up the hill we realized that this was going to be a bit more than a relaxing little hike. We had to stop and rest every so often. After about 25 minutes or so we made it to the top, well at least we thought it was the top, it was actually far from the top. There was yet another large dune we had to climb. Kara wasn't the least bit happy about it either. I persuaded her to go for it because if you came this far you may as well go all the way. That worked this time, but not the next time. About half way up the second dune, I decided to go up to the top myself to see if it was worth her coming up. Once I got up there I was disappointed to see that we still had yet another dune to climb over. Now this all may not sound too difficult, but it's not all that easy to walk up a steep hill of sand while the hot sun is blazing down on you. It drains you very quickly, especially if you're not used to that kind of strain. I then told Kara to go back down halfway and wait for me. I didn't want to go all this way without seeing the other side. So after about another 15 mins of running up and down a few more hills I finally made it to a point where I could see Lake Michigan on the other side. After snapping a few pictures I was on my way back down the dunes to Kara. Although it was very strenuous exercise, it was well worth it. I mean how often to do we get to do something like this. If you get the chance, I recommend you try it. Even it you don't make it to the other side, it's well worth the experience.

We passed this sign just south of Sutton's Bay, Michigan on our way to Leelanu State Park.

Had to try our luck on the way home from camping. This is just east of Traverse City, Michigan

Computer Cleanup Day

Since it rained all morning and most of the afternoon, it seemed like a good day to cleanup some of the clutter on my computer. Doing this once a month or so helps keep your system running smooth. Here are some simple things you can do to stay on top of problems.

1) Make some room on your hard drive by cleaning up files that can either be deleted or backed up to a CD or DVD. When backing up files, I like to use Nero. If you don't want to buy it, they have a demo you can try.

2) Uninstall any unused programs with Your Uninstaller! They also have a free trial download. Note that you can only uninstall (2) programs at a time in demo mode. Just quit and restart the program for additional uninstalls.

3) Check for spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy and adware using Ad-Aware. Be sure to download all updates. Use Firefox web browser in place of IE to keep your computer safer.

4) Clean out all the useless files that Windows hides and programs leave behind. Window Washer is the perfect program for this.

5) Disk error checking would be my next to last step. Be sure to do this on all your hard drives.

6) The final step you may have guessed... defragmenting.

Remember that these are all preventitive maintenance tips to keep your computer running smooth. If your computer is pretty well messed up already, well the only thing I can suggest is formatting and starting fresh. Good luck!

New Version Of Windows Named

Microsoft has announced the name of it's next version of Windows, formerly code name "Longhorn". The official name will be "Vista". The past few years there has been alot of talk and speculation of some of the features and release date of Longhorn. There have also been a few beta versions leaked across the net along with tons of screenshots. The official release date is only noted as 2006, not sure what month. It's been 5 years since the release of Windows XP, formerly code name "Whistler".

Check out the Funny Cats video

For all those people out there that like cats... even if you don't, you should still find this somewhat funny.


Funny cats video: Click HERE

It Was A Good Day

We got up early today, around 6:15 am. Kara went with me to the golf course so she could rollerblade around the course path while we played. She walked around the first nine holes to make sure she would be able to rollerblade. She said she could do it. I had my doubts, but to my surprise she made it all the way around. Despite all the cracks in the path and the few pretty steep hills, she did quite well and not once did she fall. I was very proud of her.

Now my golfing today was a different story. I wasn't in the least bit proud of myself. I did have a few nice holes thanks to some good putts to make par. Overall it was not a really good day. Bob and John weren't doing so hot either, so that made me feel a little better. We still had a good time. The weather was pretty nice, except it was smokin' hot with 100% humidity. Golf Stats has been updated.

After golf Kara and I went to her mother's house so she could take us out to lunch. We really appreciated that. We went to a small little place called Three Brother's, a polish restaurant. We all had the polish combo, with stuffed cabbage, pierogies, smoked kielbasa and sauerkraut. It was some really good food. We then went back to her Mom's house to get the treadmill her aunt gave her. So now Kara has something to do during the day. She says she'll do it everyday...we'll see. I'll update on that often. :)

So all in all...it was a good day.

Rainy Saturday

Well it's the weekend... and unfortunately it's been raining pretty much all day. We had some pretty strong thunderstorms overnight. Bad enough to wake me up and I usually sleep like the dead. We were going to go to Elaine's house again to swim one last time, but the weather kinda put a damper on that. I told Kara to go down there so she could spend time with her Mom and aunt, but her Mom didn't want her driving that far in the rain. The day wasn't a total loss however, we did end up going to the movies and seen War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. It was a very good movie, better than the original movie of course. I highly recommend going to see this movie.

"Real Men of Genius"

Are you familiar with the Budlight radio commercials that salute "Real Men of Genius" for the subtle things they've done to make our lives a little better?? Well for those of you who are, I've found a web site that let's you listen to all your favorites, plus alot more. There are about a total of 85 of these funny 1 minute commercials. Hope you enjoy... I did.


Real Men of Genius commercial site: budlight.whipnet.com

Buddy - The Psycho Kitty

This is our cat buddy when he was a baby....he was so cute....see his little tounge he was posing for the camera. Ha Ha Ha



This is him playing with his string as a baby kitten he was so cute and loveable I dont know what happened as he got older.



This is Buddy a bit older though...He had to get his nails trimmed...He was so bad at the vets office they actually had to knock him out to clip his nails...So this is him after we brought him home from the vets. Doped up.



This is him playing in the sink.....he says finally mommy did the dishes!!!

Baby Thomas Swimming

This is baby Thomas swimming... Look at
him kicking his little legs!!










Don't I look cute in my little hat??












Jeff and baby Thomas... doesn't Jeff look
good holding a baby?!?! :)

Kara's Love Story

Well here I am again I decided to write a little today about love and what I think it means to me. I have finally met someone that I am so happy to be with it is the most extraordinary feeling that I never thought I would experience. We meant online and talked for I think almost two weeks before meeting...then it happened I meant him at a pub in grand blanc mich. Now here is one funny story I pulled up to the pub and was sitting in my car waiting for him to get out of his car and greet me but for some reason he did not get out so i finally did and then he got out and let me tell you I was in love from that moment and still till this day....but I was still woundering why he would not get out of his car so I asked him what he was doing and he said " I had to see what you looked like first". So basically he liked what he saw thank god!!! Anyhow I thought that was funny in a weird sorta way.
I knew from that moment on that I would be with him for the rest of my life...it is weird when you meet someone for the first time and you just know instantly that they are the one.
I have dated a lot of guys maybe about ten or more and after the date or even if it was just hanging out i would always tell my mom I love him and she would always say yeah ok and still till this day my mom and other people in my family still say you have loved everyone you dated so how do you know that you love jeff....and you know what people love in different ways and yes i did love everyone but eachone gave me something diffrent or each one made me stronger or even to be a better person in life...and yes some I thought I loved but I didnt it was just something that I had to experience on my own. Now as I am older and on my own (living with jeff) I see things in a whole new light. It is so diffrent to be in love and to have someone actually be in love with you then just saying I love them. I think of this one quote I heard before...Immature love says "I love you because i need you" Mature love says..."I need you because I love you".

Sunday = Golf Day

Today is Sunday, so that means I went golfing with my brother Bob and our buddy John. We try to go every Sunday if possible. Good exercise and good to be outdoors chasing a little white ball around for 4 hours. None of us are great golfers, but we're not terrible either. It would be nice if I could get Kara into golf, but she has a little trouble hitting the ball. I did get her to go out with me once, but she just walked with us and did some putting on the practice green... she did really good at that. Well anyways, Kara just got back from the store so I'm outta here.

Almost forgot... I added a Golf Stat link on the side. It takes you to a page showing the scores, handicaps and other things for myself, Bob and John. Check it out!

Had A Blast!!!!

Today we went to my aunt Elaine's and went swimming. I had so much fun and the love of my life(Jeff) did to. I got so tan and I love it...we went down the slide, it was so thrilling and boy I was scared to go down backwards but I overcame the fear and went for it and guess what... I loved it. Jeff went down to and inhaled alot of water, it was funny to see his face. Anyhow we had a blast!!! It was a great day with lots more of them to follow.

Back to Work

Well it's the middle of the work week, well a short work week that is. Back to the daily grime of my wonderful job that I love so much. Can you detect the sarcasm in my voice, I hope so. Kara and I rented a few movies the other day. Final Cut with Robin Williams, which wasn't all that great of a movie and Hide and Seek with Robert De Niro which I do recommend.

Holiday Weekend

Here we are chillin' in the jacuzzi at Kara's aunt's house... don't it look like fun?!?! :) Hard to believe it's already the weekend of the 4th of July. Seems like only yesterday there was snow on the ground. Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday!!

New Blog

Welcome to our new blog. This is a first for both of us, so it should be quite interesting. We just wanted a way to share our lives with our family and friends. You are encouraged to post your comments or any news.