1200 Miles West

On Thursday’s I usually look forward to watching Grey’s Anatomy, however with the writer’s strike still in full force I had to resort to watching Fox and the corny game show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?“.

Here are some sample questions that were presented on tonight’s show:

1st Grade Animal Science
True or False - A camels hump is primarily used to hold water.

2nd Grade Geography
True or False - The State of New Mexico borders the Gulf of Mexico

3rd Grade Math
If 15/35 = N/7, then N must be equal to what number?

4th Grade Cultural Studies
Buddhism is a religion which began in what country?

I’m not sure where they find the contestants for this show, but the frat guy who was on tonight said that Buddhism started in China. Surprisingly he went home with $25k. Maybe I should try out for the show…

Mike and I have been “catless” for the last four months and I’ve forgotten how much fun it is to have a furry four legged friend around to entertain you.

Here’s a few snap shots of Karmel hanging out with us in the family room.

Karmel doesn’t know how to use a computer, but he sure does like Mike’s computer bag.

He also likes to lick our windows and drink ice water out of a glass.

I’m not sure if it was related to the 1200 mile drive yesterday, or if this is just a sign that I need new tires on my Liberty, but tonight we pulled into the garage to discover that the left front tire was going flat!While we weren’t happy about the flat, at least it didn’t happen on the road or the highway!

Note to self - add new tires to the to-do list.

While shopping at Target today, we purchased 150 feet of lights. We had used icicles lights at our old house, but wanted to change it up this year and use colored lights.

While Mike did most of the work, I did climb up and down the ladder a few times to hand him lights.

Here’s the end result. Click on the picture to open the full size copy so that you can better see the lights.

Kudos to Mike for getting up on the roof and not falling off!

Yesterday morning we left Livonia, MI and headed back to Colorado after visiting our family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday.

When we originally drove out to CO back in early August, we took our time spending the night in Council Bluffs, IA and driving the remaining 8 or so hours the following day.

This trip was different as we were driving my Liberty, we weren’t stopping to spend the night and we also had two cats with us. We figured it would take us 18 hours to get there and we weren’t sure how long the cats would cry. Here’s some of our tweets from the trip:

mgminton Leaving livonia. Cats crying. 6:32 AM
erinmquinn One hour into the trip & Karmel is still crying. 7:12 AM
mgminton Battle Creek. Cats still crying. 7:41 AM
mgminton Getting gas in Gary IN. Cats crying less. 9:28 AM
erinmquinn We are getting close to the Iowa border. 11:25 AM
mgminton Getting gas and food in Davenport, IA. 12:30 PM
mgminton Erin is driving now. The cats are also not crying so much. 12:48 PM
mgminton Meow, meow, meow… 3:25 PM
mgminton Iowa is cold and barren. 50 miles from NE. Gas and ice cream. Fish sounds good. 4:06 PM mgminton Good thing for the kitties that their owner is smoking hot else they might be Nebraska residents. 5:19 PM
mgminton Driving at night through Nebraska is good because 80 feels like 150 mph, the kitties sleep (cept for bumps and swerves), no see the emptiness 6:00 PM
erinmquinn We’ve been on the road for 12+ hours now and Mike still hasn’t stopped to let me pee! 6:58 PM
mgminton Still in NE, fueled up on cocaine and whiskey… Er.. Taco bell and diet pepsi. 8;09 PM
mgminton The kitty calmness has broken. They are now very distraught. 266 miles to go. about 24 hours ago
mgminton Welcome to Colorado! about 23 hours ago
erinmquinn A little more than an hour left to go! about 21 hours ago
mgminton E-470! about 20 hours ago

Overall the trip was good. The cats have started to adjust to their new surroundings, however we aren’t planning on taking them on any cross country trips, at least not in the next few months.

Total miles driven - 1263.6
Total time spent driving - 16:56
Total time - 17:53
Average speed - 74.6 mph

Mom and I headed out to Twelve Oaks this morning, but not until 8:30am. We didn’t see anything in the circulars that sparked our fancy, so we didn’t feel it necessary to get up a 4am. It didn’t take us long to find a parking spot, which was good as we were only in Macy’s for about 45 minutes. We each walked out with one bag which contained nothing for either of us. Lucky Mike and Dad!

After leaving Twelve Oaks, we headed to Laurel Park to see if there were any deals at Parisian. Mom ended up buying a necklace, but nothing for me. I did pick up two long sleeve t-shirts at Eddie Bauer and we enjoyed a Gingerbread latte while people watching in the middle of the mall.

This afternoon I’m meeting Averill for lunch at Noodles and then Mike, Mom, Grandma and I are planning on heading down to the new MGM casino. Updates to follow…

I read somewhere that the average person consumes 2700 calories while eating Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t think I went over board today, but I did consume my fair share.

This year Mom cooked a fresh brined turkey along with all the fixings. I helped prepare the corn casserole, but other than that I was just there to eat.

Michael prepared two delicious pies - one pecan and one sweet potato. Yes…I had a piece of each!

Last night I drove out to Gaines, MI to spend the night with my friends Todd and Monica. I’ve spent many a pre-Thanksgiving night with my college friends, but before we headed out to the bar to enjoy a few cocktails I got to spend some quality time with the kids.

Ethan is now now 17 months old and he’s cruising around like a mad man. He loves to read books and will be talking soon.

Here’s a picture of him chillin’ in his sisters exersauser.

It was also my first opportunity to meet Addison, who was born on Aug 14th. I had seen pictures, but it’s never the same. She’s a beautiful baby who is extremely mild mannered, plus she doesn’t like to lay down. Instead, if she’s awake she wants to see what’s going on.

After hanging out with the kiddies, Brian and Amy showed up and then Shannon arrived shortly after. We all piled into the car and headed down to the Gaines Bar which was recently purchased by Rose and Alden - Todd’s Dad and wife. We spent a majority of the night at the bar in Gaines.

Monica wanted to head into Durand and see what was going on at the 206, so we drove over there to find the bar pack. We did a little dancing and a little more drinking. Okay it was more than just a little, but it was fun to hang out two of my favorite friends in the whole world.

Mike and I drove separately to Ann Arbor on Tuesday, however we had lunch together along with a few old co-workers. We met up at Max & Erma’s and caught up with Cristine, Vickie, Sandra, Averill and Dave. It was great to see everyone and based on our conversations, everyone appears to be doing great.

After lunch, we headed back to Sweetwaters and spent the rest of the day working remotely. Mike stuck around until about 3pm when he got in the car to drive the 4+ hours to Alpena. I remained at the coffee shop until Kim showed around 4:30 and we headed to the Grizzly Den for a few beers. After 5pm we were joined by John and Carey. It was great to catch up with the three of them.

After Happy Hour, I headed back to Livonia to visit with my friends Jen and Rich. Aunt Quinn (that’s what Haley and RJ call me) was excited to spend some quality time with the kids. Haley told me all about going to kindergarten this year and her adventures riding the bus. RJ is starting to talk, so he didn’t say much…but he sure is a cutie pie.

It’s hard living 1200 miles away and not being able to see our friends more often, but we’re thankful for the time we do get to spend with them.

Today, we spent the day working remotely from Sweetwaters Cafe in Ann Arbor. We were fortunate to get a table that allowed us to both plug in. Other than the chatty old bats that sent next to us, it was an enjoyable morning.

Here’s a few tweets from both Mike and I that were entered during our morning session:

mgminton remembering I am in Ann Arbor which explains why there are so many useless people with so much extra time.

mgminton trying to figure out why so many people have so much time to sit around in coffee shops and cackle like hens about useless topics.

erinmquinn The old ladies at the next table are talking about wearing thongs…I really need to turn up the volume on my IPod.

At lunch Mike met up with Dale at Red Hawk and I had lunch with Archie, David, Gordy and Shaun at Grizzly Peak. After lunch we spent some time with Shaun at the coffee shop discussing the world of Real Estate and the upcoming priorities for CareerSite. We finished out the work day by catching up on some outstanding emails.

After work we met up with the guys at the Grizzly Den. It’s a local brew pub that has a great happy hour.

It was great to catch up with everyone over a few beers. Here’s what we learned:

• Ryan still doesn’t have access to the internets at work
• Eric is now a fashion expert as he just finished working on a project for WetSeal
• David and his family are more than likely moving to Maryland, but St. Louis, Albany, DC and Indianapolis are still in the running.
• Archie is Archie. What else can we say?

Here’s a couple of pictures from the festivities:

These pictures were taken only about an hour apart. Which one of these
is not like the other?

Cheers to everyone who met up with us today! We miss all of you can hope to see you in Denver soon!