Fishing Trip - Hillman, MI

What??????? Keith's gone fishing! What's next....hunting, bear wrestling, or car repair? No folks, I am afraid to say this was a one time event. I'll call it a male bonding experience for me, my soon to be brother-in-law Greg, my dad, Grandpa, Uncle Randy, and cousins Austin and Nick.

We spent a beautiful Memorial Day weekend fishing, eating a crap ton of bar food (10 bar meals to be exact), and playing cards. While these are not normally events I would participate in and are definitely way outside of my zone of comfort, I think I did pretty damn good job of hangin' in there!! I always find that I have a great time and am glad to have the time to spend with the people I don't get to see very often.

Our cabin! It was a duplex cabin and had two separate living/eating/cooking quarters attached by a door.

I called this the "Body Shed." Still not sure what was in there, but it was in our backyard.

One of the views from our cabin.

NATURE AT ITS BEST!!!

THE RAMP-UP TO THE FISHING EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!

The very first day. I had to take a "before" shot just in case I didn't survive.

This was the "nice" boat. Let's just say that the motors were SO sucky on these boats that my dad had a few choice words with them. I think I saw him get in a fist fight with another one.

HOW MY DAD AND I SPENT OUR FIRST 3 HOURS FISHING...BROKEN POLES AND TANGLED FISHING LINE!

This is the pile of fishing line I had to cut off of one of my poles!

FINALLY, SOME REAL FISHING...

Captain Dad

Oh, he got one.....

My Uncle Randy's fish.... My Grandpa's fish....

My cousin Austin's fish....

A self portrait

My first fish....a Northern Pike. Poor guy got a hook through the eye, but when we released him back in the water, he didn't swim in a circle so I assumed his sight was just fine!

Not a big fan of touching the fish...so my dad got a picture of me with apparently the fish's tail.

I think my dad thought I was acting so ridiculous that he just held it up MY fish and I half held on to it. Haha....my plan worked EXACTLY!

Chalk up another one for Grandpa! Alright Grandpa, now your just gloating!

Another one for dad!

Dad and Greg fishing

Yawn....another one for Grandpa. This guy should have his own fishing show. But I don't think the guy who bleeps out bad words would be able to keep up with him, so maybe not.

My attempt at an "artistic" shot failed miserably.

Nick's fish

Captain Greg

Uncle Randy, Austin, and Nick fishing

Greg and Dad coming in for a landing

Okay, laugh ALL you want. See the follow-up blog and you will see that I am believed to have second degree burns on my hands. I had to wear gloves on the second to last day to avoid further damage.

Austin and Nick playing cards.

The last day....we are all glad to be going home.

The End!!!!

Misc. Pictures

Do you ever have those miscellaneous pictures that you find months later on your camera? Well here are a couple of those such pictures that don't really have a home, so they are being put under the "miscellaneous" label.

This is me and one of my cat's Garbo Kitty (a.k.a Stewart). He was a bit of a garbage diver when I got him as a kitten so I called him Garbo Kitty and it just kind of stuck.

Jon and my other cat Sophie! Sophie and Jon have forged a very special relationship.

It is kind of hard to tell in this picture, but Garbo Kitty put his entire body inside a pair of my warm-up pants and only his head was sticking out. He looks like a creepy robot with his eyes, but I promise he is the sweetest little cat in the world.

He looks a little more normal here...

I don't know if he is singing, posing for America's Next Top Model, or just being Jon, but I snapped this little gem.

Twins Game

Okay, I'll admit these aren't the best pictures we have ever taken. Jon and I went to the Twins game with Matt and Heather and sat in the really good seats, well atleast for us ($30). We were in the prime homerun territory, yet none of us were prepared with a baseball glove because we weren't used to having such good seats. Well, in the 2nd inning, a Red Sox homerun landed in the row in front of me, six seats to my left. I could have reached out and touched the guy almost. It was pretty amazing!!

Sadly, the Twins lost, but we still had fun.

Don't know what this is a picture of, except to show how close we were to the field and how close we were to homerum/foul territory.

Someone inflated a condom and started hitting it around. It hit Jon in the face....hysterical!

A candid shot of Jon!

Gross, I hate pictures of myself this close to my face. In other news, I think my acne medication is finally starting to work cause my face looks clear.

Tiling Jon's Kitchen

How many gay guys does it take to level, tile, and grout a kitchen? The answer is apparently two. Jon & I spent this entire weekend re-doing the floor of Jon's kitchen. As a bit of back story, Jon's kitchen was at best "Grandma -Chic." This included a floral wall paper border, a very LARGE floral valance, and of course, floral tile (see pictures below). It wasn't his fault though...he just needed the right fashion eye and motivation to get the project off the ground....and of course that was me nagging him. Jon did his homework on the process and we picked out the tiles together. We spent Friday leveling his floor which consists of spreading cement like goop across the existing floral tile. We then spent all day Saturday laying down the tile. We then took Sunday to grout the floor. It was a long, exhausting process, but in the end it was a rousing success and Jon and I both were amazed at what we had accomplished together. And we also found out we can work together quite well at home improvement projects. The one downfall of this WHOLE process is we forgot to do before and after pictures so you will have to use your imagination as to the before picture....think Grandma...

FRIDAY NIGHT

This is the best before picture we have on the tile. Unfortunately, I did think of it until after we started applying the leveler. So, all the grey/black stuff is leveler, not his tile. Look at the flowers!!

This is while we were laying out the design of the tiles.

Jon practicing his rolling pin skills. After you lay the tile, you have to roll it like a pizza crust. That was one of my jobs!

SATURDAY

So, we have laid all the tiles and I am taking a break....ugh, what a lot of work it was to do. Jon posing after we cleaned up and were going to head out to the Twins game. You can't tell, but the floor wasn't grouted, but still looked a million times better. Psst...the valances were gone behind him too....thank God in Heaven above!! Okay, no blog would be complete without a stupid posing picture.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

The cracks are grouted and Jon and I are stunned at what we have accomplished.

Look at how sharp it looks!!

Denise's Graduation

Okay, so it isn't that I have been getting lazy and not posting lately. It is that not too many interesting things have really been happening. However, my best friend Denise did graduate from college with a Dietetics degree. I flew to MI and was able to watch her walk across the stage and receive her degree. I was very, very proud of her and all of her hard work. I was able to make her a gift, remember to get her gift into my packed bags, get on a plane, go to MI, get dressed up, drive an hour to her college, arrive on time, but I couldn't remember a damn camera!! So, I have absolutely no pictures to post! Some other people took pictures and promised me copies, so if I get them, I will post them!