Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ghouls Beware

We’ve had a lot of evil spirits rooting about our neighborhood lately.  Frankly, it was simply becoming annoying.  We tried calling professionals first, but nobody was answering at Ghost Busters.  They probably get a lot of crank calls this time of year.  Can’t say I blame them for not answering.

Finally, we realized that we needed to take matters into our own hands.  The only option left was to carve up some very scary pumpkins, put on our scariest duds, and save our corner of town from certain destruction and even lower property value.

Pictures of our assault follow.  Brace yourself though…they’re graphic!

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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Progressive

The other day Aimee reported that a deer had sauntered across the road in front of her.  In Lansing.  Crossing Michigan Avenue.  At first, I thought “Those dumb deer”.  After some longer reflection I amended myself.

A car outside the city is usually travelling between 55 and 80 miles per hour.  A car on Michigan avenue doesn’t travel any faster than 40, and has a lot more time to see a deer ambling across the road.  The kicker?  You can’t discharge firearms inside the city.

Dumb deer?  I’ve decided that deer is pretty smart.  Progressive, in fact!  I suppose it can saunter wherever it pleases!

Warning Signs

Three of us are travelling to Chicago in two weeks for a concert.  Stu and I got together today to find a hotel and finalize our plans.  We decided to take a train from Battle Creek, which is a bit pricey…but it gets us completely out of navigating Chicago traffic.

After getting train tickets, we started searching around the venue for hotels.  The venue is The Riviera.  When we first purchased the tickets I did a Google search around the venue with limited success.  A street level view of the venue didn’t reveal much of anything.  There were a lot of well maintained, but otherwise inconspicuous buildings.  No hotel signs to be found.

Travelocity didn’t show any hotels closer than 1.5 miles from the venue, and obviously we have no intention of walking that distance through downtown Chicago in the middle of the night.  We tried Expedia and Orbitz too.  No joy.  Finally, I resigned myself to doing a Google hotel search around the venue.  One of the hits was on the same block.  Chaching!

We did some searching for reviews on the hotel, but didn’t find much.  Finally we decided to take a chance, call the place, and get a reservation.  I dialed the phone, and a nice enough gentleman answered.  When I enquired about the distance to the venue, the man indicated that yes, it was very close.  When I asked to make a reservation, he said something that surprised me: “We’re first come, first serve.  No reservations.”

We decided to stay downtown and take a cab the five miles to the venue.