Comerica Park

On Friday Brian and I ventured to Downtown Detroit for a Tigers Twins game. We picked up some pretty good lower box seats at a pretty good price from some scalpers. I think the acquiring of the tickets may be one of Brian's favorite parts of the experience. Comerica Park is a really cool stadium similar to many of the other new stadiums with lots of unique open spaces to move around and watch the game from different view points. The game started out great with Verlander and Johan Santana pitching great games, but Verlander walked the bases loaded in the fourth and Joe Mauer hit a grand slam which was pretty much the end of the game. After the game as the Tigers do for every Friday and Saturday night game there was a pretty good fireworks display. It wasn't Wrigley (go Cubs) but it was a great night.

Mexican Vacation

As a graduation gift and a celebration of having all three kids out of college, my Mom and Dad decided to take the family on a vacation. We went for 6 nights to the Riu Cancun. It was great. Wherever we would have gone, we would have had a great time because we were together but the blue ocean, white sand, and the non-stop food and drinks sure helped. It was a family vacation to remember. Thanks Mom and Dad, you're the best.

We have some more things to post later, but here are some of our shots.

CLICK HERE for vacations pictures.

Schools Out For Summer

Today was officially my last day of school for the year. It feels so nice to be done for a little while. I think I was anticipating summer break even more than the kids. The 90 degree + rooms without air conditioning certainly didn't help things these last two weeks, but all in all it was a very successful school year. It will be nice to return to the same school next year and see the same students and colleagues again. My year may have started out tough, but turned into one of my favorites as a teacher. I am also excited to report that for the first time in my teaching career, I will be teaching the same subject as the previous year! Over the summer I look forward to tweaking my plans and adequately preparing for next school year, after I unwind a little of course. It will be so nice to have a summer where we aren't packing all of our belongings and moving to another state. I barely know what I will do with myself. On a very exciting note we're kicking off our summer with a celebratory college graduate vacation with the Bundalos. We are leaving tomorrow for Chicago and from there we will head to Mexico. A week on the beach is more than we could ask for, but with our family it will be perfect. Hopefully, we'll have lots of pictures to post when we return.

Snake Free! (Hopefully)

A couple of weeks ago I had an encounter with a rather large snake by the shed in our back yard. I tried very hard not to exaggerate in describing it to Brian as I told him it was as thick as a garden hose and about two feet long. I don't think he quite believed me until today. After dinner I went to go water my garden and in a neat little coil on the sidewalk outside our shed was... The Snake. I yelled for Brian who came over with a shovel as The Snake tried to slither under the foundation of the shed. Brian valiantly hacked at the snake with the shovel severing it in two. He's my hero! One half of the snake is now hopefully dead under our shed and the other half is disposed of in the woods next to our house. When I asked him if it was as big as I described, he said The Snake was actually about 4 feet in length and certainly as thick as a garden hose! Creepy. I just hope this snake was the only one, that we don't have a nest of snakes under our shed, that this particular snake is not a poisonous variety, and that snakes are not like worms and can regrow severed parts. Now it is on to our mole or groundhog problem. We haven't quite decided yet what we're dealing with. I was feeling a little like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack today and I tried to flood out some of the tunnels as I watered. Every where I turned though I thought I saw another snake. I was still a little jittery from earlier. I actually feel I have been extremely brave during all of our critter escapades here in Michigan, but I have to admit not as brave as Brian, now the Great Snake Hunter.

After googling Michigan snakes here is the info I found. I believe our friend was an Eastern Garter Snake.

NY Trip

Brian and I are back from New York and had a great time! We flew to Albany on Wednesday night and got to spend all day with Wa, Linda, and the Libuttis. We got to swim during the day, Brian got to play BLC softball, we had a small birthday party for Cheryl, and we had a sleep over with Michaela. On Friday it was off to New York for Michael and now Jaimie Libutti's wedding. It was a great party, and we had a great time visiting and celebrating. Check out Cheryl's Blog for some great pictures of the evening. The girls were just adorable! Jenna and Michaela were both dancing up a storm. The pictures above and below are from Cheryl opening her presents.