And so summer begins with a burial...

After a Saturday and Sunday of rain and thunderstorms, we finally had the perfect beach day: 90 degrees and sunny. So Anne, Nick, Michael, and I piled into the car and caravanned with Travis and his family to the Warren Dunes. The beach was busy as expected, but we were able to find a nice spot right next to the water to set up the Brown family beach tent. After some head scratching, the tent was finally set up and we began to head into the water.

The toe-test yielded a temperature so cold that many of the group debated if that was enough to keep them cool for the rest of the day. However, slowly we ventured in, first Travis, then me, and so on. It took about 2 min for the cold to start numbing my legs and then another 5 min for the pain to disappear, but once hypothermia set in the water began to feel wonderful.
We still didn't stay in the water too long.

After a quick snack break, it was time to honor the beach tradition of burying a party member in the sand. Michael was chosen as the sacrificial victim. Since none of us are civil engineers, our mound planning was not well done and Michael was able to easily escape from his sandy prison.

Once Michael has rinsed off, Nick, Michael, and I headed out to go visit Michigan wine country. We decided on visiting Tabor Hill Wineries for a tour and tasting. The vineyard was smaller than I expected for a brand I see all over the place. The tour took us out to the grapes and then to the winery building, where we saw the grape presser, fermentation barrels, and the bottling facility. The bottling facility is run by three employes with one hand-inspecting every bottle that is made. Again, the size of the operation seemed so small compared to the amount of wine produced. By the time the tour was over, the wine tasting room had closed, but we plan to return and make a day of traveling the Michigan Wine trail.

On the way home, we stopped in New Buffalo at Bentwood Tavern for dinner on the water. The food was good, but slightly overpriced due to its location in a resort and the neighboring yacht club.

The day ended with all of us having the wonderful tired feeling you can only get by spending the day in the sun with friends.

That's Not My Name

I always find it interesting to listen to what people call me after I introduce myself.  It doesn't bother me if people call me Claire, because it is a valid nickname for Clara.  What I find interesting is that most people don't really listen to me when I introduce myself; they only hear what they want to hear.  Many times I the conversation goes like this:


Stranger: Hello, I'm ____.  What's your name?
Me:  Clara.
Stranger: Nice to meet you Claire.

Then about 2-5 minutes later...

Stranger: Did you say Claire or Clara?


I think this casual interaction just goes to show you how common it is for people to not pay attention to what they are hearing or they only partially listen to what's being said.  As I said before, I don't mind if someone calls me Claire as a nickname, but only when it isn't right after I introduced myself as Clara.

Spring has sprung, but my teeth hurt.

The weather has been yoyoing back and forth between hot/humid and chilly. Fortunately, the chilly days have been on the weekends, so I have actually been able to enjoy working in the yard. One of my primary goals is to grow grass in the backyard where the pool used to be. So far, I have covered about half the area with about 1200 lbs of top soil. The grass is finally starting to come it, but it is slow going. I will probably have to wait until fall to get the next half.

I also ripped out a bunch of the overgrown shrubs that were taking up alot of space in the back of the yard. Now half of it is growing grass and the other half is my garden. This season, I am going to try growing peppers, tomatoes, corn, peas, lettuce, spinach, and cantaloupe.

In the other parts of my yard, I have planted raspberry and blueberry bushes. I also have planters that are starting to sprout cilantro, catnip, chives, and basil. We will see how green my thumb ends up being.

Herb Planter

Garden

I have also been working to make the backyard a better hang out spot. Michael bought me a stand for my hammock and I also purchased a gazebo for the deck.

In the meantime, I have been racing to have all my dental work finished before I lose my dental insurance.

Fruit Bushes

New Gazebo

I went to Mahoney Family Dentistry for my first annual cleaning in about 3 years only to find out that all of the fillings I had done about 5 years ago needed to be fixed. Originally, the plan was to do different sections of my mouth over the entire summer, but that same day I found out that my father's company had been bought by GE and our dental benefits were going to end. At the time, I thought they would end within the week, but I was able to keep it until the end of May which meant that I had a 2.5-3 hour dental appointment for each Tuesday of the month of May. While painful and annoying, the experience was about a good as it could be. The dentist even said that I was easy to work on and he liked that I came dressed in PJs so I could be comfortable while he worked.