superstorm!

Yesterday if you were in my neck of the woods, you experienced a major thunderstorm. It was fine, partly cloudy, then suddenly the sky was dark and it was absolutely pouring. And hailing. And windy. With lightning and thunder directly overhead, shaking the buildings. I was at work, watching the parking lot flood, sure we were going to lose power. I wouldn't have cared if I lost power at work, but my apartment is on the same power grid, so I would have lost power at home too. That is more annoying.

Armageddon rained down for about an hour. Apparently during this time, people just a few miles away from me had no idea the world was ending. This is evidenced by my boss calling me while this was happening:

telling me about a fax he was sending. I had turned off the fax machine because the power was only one blink away from going out completely, and I was sick of the fax machine beeping to reset itself.

Then the storm stopped as suddenly as it had started. However, there was major damage all over the place: tree debris, downed power lines, tar pulled up from the very roads, etc. Traffic on the corner where my store is was backed up for miles in both directions. It took Jay almost 2 hours to get home from a place that is 20 minutes away. So I walked home.

I didn't have my camera with me because I wasn't expecting any excitement. But I had to take pictures of the beautiful rainbow I saw during my walk, so the phone cam had to suffice. (As always, click to enlarge.)

Then in my apartment complex, I saw that some of the trees were no longer in tact. Example:

Our place seemed to be good, though Jay says it sounded like one of the windows had taken quite a beating, and there were branches all around too. The animals were understandably freaked out. Shoot, I was a little freaked out while I was at work.

It was a helluva storm.

back in the habit

I do believe I'm going to walk home from work more often. I already do it once a week, but why not every day? I get off late enough that the sun isn't bearing down, but early enough that it still exists. It's a very short, easy walk, and my laptop fits comfortably in my backpack. Plus, there are lots of cool photo opportunities, like this field full of dandelions:

Or the guy that was using a discman instead of an mp3 player. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that one. But those of you that follow me on twitter got that news as I immediately updated from my phone.

When I lived in NYC, I walked everywhere. I loved that. I miss it. You would think not having a car in Michigan would be reason enough to walk places, but I do still have a chauffeur of sorts. However, I think I am going to try & get Jay to walk with me. Can't hurt, right? But even if he doesn't wish to accompany me, I can easily do the 10-minute walk by myself. 

ps - If you want some pretty jewelry, check out my etsy store. Failing that, I can make you something special. Just tell me what to do.

pps - the other day leaving the apartment complex, we saw that a squirrel had gotten hit by a car. We swerved to avoid the little body (the guy behind us did not! Jerk.) but couldn't tell if it was Griswold or not. I haven't seen her in a bit, so I really really hope my adopted pet squirrel is ok.

storm clouds

One of the things I will miss about Michigan are the storms. There are some spectacular thunderstorms here. I've never experienced any damage from them, but if you read the news a bit you will see that some people unfortunately have. I just look at the clouds.

These pictures were taken on the way to the grocery store yesterday about 1/2 mile from our apartment with my super amazing phone cam. Click to make bigger.




That cloud in the second picture literally went on for about 20 miles. You can see the definite line between light and dark, which followed it the whole way.

Once again the rain cooperated with us to only sprinkle while I took the 2nd picture in the Meijer parking lot (the first one was taken from the car), but I decided not to tempt fate by taking more.

adventures at the MetroPark

Sunday Jay and I went to the MetroPark beach, which even though it is only a few miles from our place, I had never been to. It's on the shores of Lake St. Clair, which is an "unofficial" Great Lake. Apparently it's still really big and deep like the real Great Lakes, but for some reason didn't make the cut.

Get ready for picture overload.

See? Pretty sunshine.

Jay in as much water as we went in.


Michigan is famous for it's lighthouse, but this was the first one I've ever seen. Trying to see it in my camera's display in the sunshine glare was near impossible, but it's there.


The first wildlife of the day.


Unfortunately, the second wildlife of the day.


The clouds started coming in, but it still made for pretty pictures.


Jhay found a rock that he could write with, and wrote this.


The sky and water were doing funky things, so it was difficult to make this picture come out right.



I climbed a tree!


The background looks fake, but I swear it was real.


We met another squirrel. He's thinner than Griswold, but that's because he doesn't get handfuls of peanuts every day like Gris does.


Duck butt!


I don't know what kind of bird this is, but it's pretty.


Random swan.


I think this is a woodchuck? It looked like an angry bear once it started charging at Jay.

Cloudy days often make for the most colorful - and therefore best - pictures.

Seagull fight!


This picture's not so pretty a note to end on.


We got a few warning drops of rain, and we pleaded with the heavens to just let us get back to the car before it started pouring, and lucky for us, the heavens complied. Even though our visit was cut a bit short, we had a great time. We bought an annual pass, so we'll be definitely going back often.


(As always, click to make the pics bigger!)

movie time

The other day I was eating some apples and peanut butter while Jay was cleaning up in the other room. A commercial came on that said "this weekend is your last chance to see Coraline in 3-d." Even though he was in another room and my mouth was full, he knew that I shot him a panicked look. "Don't worry, we'll go see it." he shouted. So today we did.

See? 3-D glasses.


That's the snow from outside reflecting in mine.

The movie was good. (For the record, everything is better in 3-d. It was like looking through those old skool viewmasters.) I read the book and really had to try not to freak out with things were different. Like when they invented a supporting character! Or that the family was now from Michigan instead of England. But the handmade animation was cool. It was a nice mix between the Nightmare Before Christmas, the Others, and Beetlejuice. It was creepy enough to be entertaining, but a kid could still watch it. I recommend it.

So now, I've seen 2 movies in Michigan. Both of them were in 3-d. This is a good trend. However, last time I must not have gone into the bathroom. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered this:


There's a giant curved red bench that you can see in the corner there. But I really like that whole "infinity" effect what with the lights and mirrors and space and whatnot.


(As always, click on the photos to enlarge.)

the zoo in winter

I realized yesterday that even though I've been to the Detroit Zoo several times, it's always been in winter. I did go in late March once, but most of the animals were still gone to warmer climes. Because of this, there are lots and lots of animals "at the zoo" that I've never seen.

That's ok, I still get some great pictures. Also, it feels really good going into the hot, humid butterfly house, where I see things like this:




The butterflies were being very photo-cooperative (photoperative) for me. Most of the birds were not, but this tiny duck was. He was adorable.


And of course I saw penguins.


I took lots of pictures of them, but they're all kind of the same. The penguins weren't very active.

There was an evil squirrel.


I want to be a river otter. They always look like they're having a super happy fun time.


The big cats were there. I couldn't tell how they felt about the snow. I'm pretty sure they would have been doing the same thing no matter what.



A new addition to the Detroit Zoo is the meerkat exhibition. Meerkats are adorable and awesome. This was the first time I'd ever seen them in real life. I tried to get video of them digging, but that didn't work out. So I got lots of stills.



I honestly didn't see the zebra at first. They are really good camouflagers, even in the snow.


Apparently kangaroos don't like snow, so they get stranded on their own little islands.



The bald eagles were nice enough to pose for me.


Know what else are cute? Snow foxes.


The polar bear was very pacey.


And finally, here's me in the underwater display.



I took a ton more pictures, but there is no room for them here. If you want to see them, check out my flickr.


(as always, click on the pictures to make them larger.)