Archive for the 'Melissa' Category

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Published on 4/21/2012 at 11:13 pm and filed in: Ed and Melissa. 0 Comments

Melissa_BDay_Sundae_taken_with_InstagramToday is a very special day, it’s Melissa’s 31st birthday! So today we decided to do what ever she wanted to, and it started with breakfast at Ihop. Of course while we were there I took the liberty of letting our waitress know that it was her birthday. Of course when she gave us the option of a Sundae and a song I agreed and requested it, because I thought it would be funny to have the staff serenade her (read: embarrass her), and I was right! She did enjoy the sundae though, as you can see. :) After breakfast we went over to Target to do some random shopping and pick up a few items Melissa wanted. Later after spending the day relaxing after shopping, she decided she wanted to go to the Quarter Bistro for dinner. Dinner and dessert were delicious, just as we have come to expect from the Quarter Bistro. All in all it was a very nice day.

Happy Birthday Melissa, I Love You!

A Wicked Good Night

Published on 12/10/2011 at 12:35 am and filed in: Ed and Melissa. Closed Tags: .

Since I have lived in Michigan I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have gone in to Detroit, and of those occasions almost all of them have been to go see an event (a play or musical, sporting event, or concert) and tonight was no different. As part of Melissa’s Christmas present, and as a gift to myself, I bought us tickets to go and see Wicked at the Detroit Opera House. In addition Melissa also received another piece of her Christmas present tonight because it looked beautiful with her dress. She received the lovely necklace and matching earrings that she is wearing in the picture (clicking the image will open the full image if you want a closer look), which she likes very much. :)

The evening of theater was preceded by a wonderful dinner at Mario’s Italian Restaurant. Mario’s is a great place and we were impressed from the moment we walked in. Neither of us are used to a place this…upscale for a lack of a better term. For instance no other place I know of brings you a vegetable and relish tray the moment you sit down. But then again Mario’s has been around since 1948, so they are a hold over from a much classier time. Because it was our first time the waiter was kind enough to give us a few tips for dinning at Mario’s, one of which was to skip the appetizer because there was only two of us and the meal portions are rather large. All of their entrees include an antipasto salad, soup, and pasta (if your getting a non-pasta entree) in addition to the already served relish dish. So we took this bit of advice and ordered just the entrees. I ordered the Manicotti and Canelloni combination which is a half portion of each of these two delectable dishes, and let me assure you they were indeed delicious! I am partial to manicotti to begin with and get it almost every time I am at an Italian restaurant so believe me when I say that Mario’s manicotti is superb. Melissa ordered the Spaghetti Marinara with mushrooms, and while she enjoyed the meal as far as pasta goes she was not all that impressed with their marinara sauce. She felt, and from the looks of it I agreed, that it was too thin and watery for her liking. Holding true to our recent obsession we ordered their Crème Brulee for dessert, and like our other encounters with this delicious dessert we were completely satisfied! I think that Mario’s is definitely a place we would come back to again if we were in this part of Detroit again.

Once done with our fine dinning we retrieved the truck from valet (oh did I mention that Mario’s has free valet parking? No? Well they do.) and headed down the road to the Detroit Opera House. There was a valet parking lot directly across the street from the Opera House that we took full advantage of and headed in. The Opera House itself is very beautiful on the inside, though we only looked around the first floor. After purchasing a few keepsakes from the show (a shirt for Melissa and a magnet) we headed in to the actual theater to find our seats. It turned out that the seats were a little more off to the right of the stage than I had originally thought, but they were still excellent seats. The musical itself was very well performed and the singing was great, and once I got over my disappointment (I’ll explain in a minute) the show was very good and I would recommend it to anyone. The set designs were amazing and beautiful, and the large Dragon over the stage representing the Clock of the Time Dragon was really cool,  particularly when the eyes lit up! Also the way the tik-tok machines were represented in the moving set pieces were very intriguing.  Now for my disappointment…. I have actually read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West that this musical is based off of, twice. The second time I read the book was to read it with Melissa so that we would be familiar with the book before seeing the play, big mistake. The musical deviates, a lot, from the book and for me that took a large effort to get over. For those who have not seen the musical but have read the book, the musical basically starts with the girls going to Shiz, nothing before. That in itself is fine, but they changed the complete background of Elphaba’s parents, her sister’s disability, and the very nature of Fiyero’s character! Amongst other smaller changes this really made it difficult for me to truly enjoy the show in the beginning because I kept finding myself thinking “that’s not how it was in the book.” I do understand that they would need to change things in order to make it all fit into a 2 hour play, though I wish the changes hadn’t been so drastic. I think if I had not gone into the show with the expectation that it would be closer to the book that I would have been fine from the beginning. That is my advice to other’s if they have read the book, don’t expect the book and the musical will be fantastic from the start!

This was really a very lovely night and hopefully we will continue seeing plays and going out occasionally in 2012! Hopefully not all at the end of the year like this year, but it is a nice beginning.

Butter and Candles

Published on 11/12/2011 at 6:25 pm and filed in: Ed, Kylie and Melissa. Closed

Making butter and candles is not how I thought I would ever spend a Saturday afternoon, but that is what we did today. Melissa had found a flyer at the library saying there would be a demonstration of how butter and candles were made in colonial times and that we would even be able to participate in the experience. It sounded interesting to us and after asking Kylie what she thought about it we all decided to go give it a shot. We got there about an hour prior to the demonstration so we could locate exactly where it would be and to allow Kylie to look around for some books to borrow. She decided today that she wanted to borrow three books: Paddington Bear, The Elephant Wish, and The Sad Princess. When it was time we went into the story room where everything was set up. The demonstration for the butter was first and the speaker explained that the butter was made from mixing heavy whipping cream and some salt. To all the kids delight they were each handed a small jar containing the ingredients and told that all they needed to do to make butter was to vigorously shake the container for a few minutes and when it started to “make a glob” that they would then have butter and the remaining liquid would be butter milk. It was rather interesting to see the butter form out of what was basically just liquid. Melissa was a little disappointed because on the flyer it had shown an actual butter churn and so she was hoping to see one of those in use. Then it was time for the candles, and the speaker explained that these were candles made from real bees wax. Many of the children did not like how the bees wax smelled, but Kylie thought it smelled good. In a crock pot there was already a lot of melted wax and each child was given a started candle and told they needed to dip the candle into the wax, pull it back out and let it cool for a few seconds and repeat. Kylie tried this but lost interest in it rather quickly so Melissa gave it a try and also found it to be a very tedious task. By the time we decided to leave we ended up with two small jars of butter, but no candle, mainly because none of us had the patience to try to make a candle and a lot of other children were also trying to make one and the hot wax was splashing and dripping all over. Thought the event didn’t fully live up to our expectations I thought it was still very interesting and educational. I think Kylie was more excited that she got a few new books to read though.

Lodi Farms

Published on 10/9/2011 at 2:54 pm and filed in: Ed, Kylie and Melissa. Closed

We took a trip out to Lodi Farms on the other side of Ann Arbor to go on a hay ride, navigate our way through a hay bale maze and allow Kylie to pick out a pumpkin. We had not heard of Lodi Farms prior to the other day when I got a Living Social deal in my email and because it sounded like a good deal we decided to make it today’s outing. The people how run the farm were very nice and the numerous cats wandering around were also very friendly. The entire experience made for a fun day, and I am not sure what part Kylie enjoyed the most, but I think it may have been hunting for all of the cats! Pictures from the day can be found here in the gallery.

An Evening in Da Moonlight

Published on 10/5/2011 at 11:59 pm and filed in: Ed and Melissa. Closed Tags: .

There was a time when I used to attempt to go to at least one cultural event a year. This typically took the form of going to see a play or a musical. However, in recent years, due to to time and money constraints I have not been able to continue this desire. Tonight Melissa and I have taken our first steps to rectifying that situation. We ventured out to Chelsea for an evening of dinner and theater.

We started the evening with dinner at The Common Grill and found it to be very delicious. Seeing as neither of us had ever been there before we decided to try the Seared Rare Ahi Tuna for an appetizer, and we both enjoyed that very much. This was a little shocking to both of us because I am not a fan of most cooked fish (though I do enjoy a bit of sushi now and again) but we quickly discovered why many people consider Ahi Tuna the Filet Mignon of seafood. For our entrees Melissa had the Goat Cheese Ravioli which was excellent and we highly recommend it. Additionally her meal came with a side salad and she choose (or rather I choose because she wasn’t interested in a salad) the Tuscan Pear and Gorgonzola Salad with Herb-Balsamic Vinaigrette. This salad was very delicious and, in fact, I thought it was better than the salad I had chosen for my entree. The salad I had for my entree was the Grilled Chicken Salad and it came with a Honey-Bacon Vinaigrette dressing that sounded awesome but in reality was really very bland and disappointing. For dessert we decided to try their Caramelized Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee with fresh berries. Crème Brulee is something we have recently discovered and it has rapidly become one of our favorite desserts. While the Crème Brulee at The Common Grill was very good we wished they had crisped the sugar topping just a little more, but seeing as they prepared the entire dish in the kitchen (other places we have been prepare it table side so you can specify the crispness) we couldn’t have them heat it further. When all was said and done dinner was very enjoyable.

Afterwards we walked across the street to The Purple Rose theater to watch Escanaba In Da Moonlight (click the image to the left to see more pictures from the show on The Purple Rose’s website). For those who have never been to The Purple Rose theater we encourage you to go and see something, anything, sometime. This is the second play I have had the opportunity to see there and it is a wonderful place. the theater itself is small with seating for about 170 people with the stage in the very center, so every seat in the house is literal a good one. Having seen the movie version of Escanaba In Da Moonlight on several occasions I was really looking forward to seeing this performance and I am very happy to say that it was all that I had hoped it would be and more! Their ability to portray the situational comedy, and display the visual effects that make that comedy work, on stage was incredible. Even having seen the movie version of this play a number of times, and knowing what was coming, I still found myself laughing out loud with the rest of the audience. Melissa and I think the actors did a marvelous job with this production and are looking forward to seeing other performances here in the future. This was by far one of the best Wednesday nights we have had in a very long time, and because Chelsea is so close to home it is one that we can repeat with a future show.

Go Blue!

Published on 10/1/2011 at 10:27 pm and filed in: Ed and Melissa. Closed

Today was the annual tailgate party that one of my storage vendors throw at the University of Michigan football game. This year it is for the U of M v Minnesota game, and once again I was lucky enough to get tickets for Melissa and I to go in to the Big House and watch the game. The tailgate was a blast, and being in the stadium to see the game is always fun. Michigan winning the game (58-0) was also a huge bonus. This year was the first year that we tried parking at work and walking to the stadium though. I think this worked out well for a number of reasons: 1. we didn’t have to ay for parking 2. there was plenty of parking to choose from 3. we didn’t have to deal with all the traffic going in to the game or leaving the game. The only real downside was that it was almost a two mile walk from work to the stadium. Now that’s not a lot and going to the stadium was easy because it was all down hill, but coming back after a long day of partying was a little rough. Also, the wind was very strong today and made for a long cold walk. We still had a blast though and as you can see from the picture, Melissa and i had a great day!

History and Home

Published on 8/11/2011 at 11:34 pm and filed in: Ed, Kylie and Melissa. Closed Tags: , .

What an incredibly long day! We woke up this morning at about 8am local time and after getting dressed we went down to the lobby and had breakfast at Starbucks, Kylie was happy they had a very nice sized chocolate doughnut that she choose to have. After we finished eating I went and asked the valet to pull the Envoy around, knowing it would take them about 10 minutes to do so, and we all went back up to the room to verify everything was packed. We then proceeded to check out and head over to the Field Museum. We made it over to the Museum Campus fairly easily and when we came out of the parking structure we realized that we were right next to Soldier Field which was pretty cool, but unfortunately our schedule didn’t allow us time to look around there, maybe next time; then it was on to the museum. Oddly enough it turned out to be cheaper to become members of the museum (which will also get us passes to a few places back in MI as well) than it was to simply get day passes, so that’s what we did. Then it was exploring time! Currently the museum is running special exhibits on whales and horses in addition to all of their normal exhibits. Their traveling exhibit of SUE, “the largest, most complete and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered,” was found in the dusty bad lands of South Dakota! A fact sheet on SUE can be found here (pdf). All the exhibits were awesome as far as I am concerned, but then again natural history has always been interesting to me. The whales were incredible and seeing the skeleton of one of these large creatures was almost overwhelming. We left the Field Museum, and Chicago as a whole, right about 4pm local time and headed back home, by the time we made it here it was about 11pm. Over the course of this trip we took somewhere around 900 pictures, so in the coming days I will need to find time to prepare them and get them in to the gallery. But now, it’s time to sleep.

A Day with Fish and Dolls

Published on 8/10/2011 at 9:01 pm and filed in: Ed, Kylie and Melissa. Closed Tags: , .

Today we got up early and had breakfast in the lobby of the hotel at the State Street Bread Company, which I personally feel was very over priced and for that price the food was just ok. After eating we grabbed another taxi (which, again, Kylie loved. I am starting to think the taxi rides are going to be her favorite part of this trip) and headed over to Shedd Aquarium. We got there shortly after they opened and got our Total Experience passes which let us explore the entire aquarium, attend one of the 4-D shows, and attend the live aquatic show. The live show was pretty cool and consisted of a four Pacific White-Sided dolphins. Additionally the also showed two different Red Tailed Hawks that also live at the aquarium. We all like a lot of different parts of the aquarium but some of the highlights were the dolphins, the beluga whales (both of which we could see swimming in there tanks below the water through some very large windows). The wild reef exhibit was also really cool and Kylie was really happy to be able to see her saw nosed shark swimming around. The last thing we saw was the Caribbean Reef exhibit, and we got there just in time to see the daily dive show where one of the staff actually was swimming in the tank and feeding the fish while answering questions from the audience and telling us about the fish. The large sea turtle named Nickle that was rescued after getting hit by a boat and the 7 foot moray eel that actually came out of his hole during the presentation and swam around the diver. After we decided we were done at the aquarium (which we feel we completely explored in the almost 7 hours we were there) we went picked up another taxi (and again Kylie was thrilled) and headed back over to the Magnificent Mile, specifically to the American Girl store. We were there specifically for Kylie because she wanted to get Alissa (her doll) her very own school backpack set which we found after asking two different associates (the first told us to look upstairs, after looking for a while the second showed us where it was). Additionally Kylie also got a little surprise from Daddy and Melissa when we decided to also get Alissa a new pet, Sugar, that Kylie had showed interest in. After leaving the store we walked back down Michigan Ave, both because that was the direction of our hotel and because we wanted to see more of what the Magnificent Mile had to offer. Finding dinner tonight proved difficult for multiple reasons; the restaurants along the mile were either on the expensive side or their menus didn’t seem to offer something that all of us could eat. In the end we walked all the way back to the hotel and decided to put everything from the day away and then just eat in the lobby again, this time at their River North lounge. The food there was ok as well, but nothing spectacular, however the prices I felt were more on par with the food and its quality. The one thing I did not like was that the waiter simply stood by our table and kept engaging us in conversation as if he had nothing else to do and we weren’t trying to eat. I guess this may be because for a good portion of the time we were the only ones there, but still at least let us eat. After dinner we went back up to the room to start packing things up so we will be ready to leave in the morning. We will be going from the hotel to the Field Museum and then home from there, so we have to have everything packed and ready to check out in the morning.

Chicago Bound

Published on 8/9/2011 at 9:53 pm and filed in: Ed, Kylie and Melissa. Closed Tags: , .

Today Kylie, Melissa, and I all piled in the Envoy and headed for Chicago. Out of the three of us I am the only one to never have been to Chicago. Kylie has already been there at least twice with Mommy and has even been to at least one of the places we plan to visit, Shedd Aquarium. As for Melissa, she has also been there a few times for various different reasons. None the less we are all looking forward to the rest of this trip. I say rest because we are already out here. :) The drive went relatively well, we played a few games in the car to help pass the time and it wasn’t until we were already in Chicago that we ran in to a snag. We missed a turn and got off the expressway at the wrong exit and had to find our way to the hotel via my phone and Google Maps with GPS. Needless to say we found our way just fine and checked in to the hotel about 3pm local time. After getting everything in to the room and taking a minute to get settled we then decided to hop in a taxi (which Kylie loved) and headed over to Navy Pier. It was really neat to see the Pier and all the little shops that lined it. Walking through the mall of shops on the inside was nice, and the Smith Museum of Stained Glass had some amazing works in it. After walking around the Pier we decided we were all hungry, so we had dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, which was a fun place with lots of music playing and the food was pretty good too. After we were done we decided to walk back to the hotel and we took a route that would take us to Michigan Ave so we could walk along part of the Magnificent Mile and see some of the sights along it. Tomorrow is going to be another long busy day.

Peregrine Falcon Rescue

Published on 7/23/2011 at 4:56 pm and filed in: Ed, Kylie, Melissa, Pictures and Videos. Closed Tags: , .

Today Kylie, Melissa and I had a very strange, and probably rare, experience. We got to help rescue an injured Peregrine Falcon. We were on our way to Target to get Kylie anew bathing suit, and as we passed the car wash next to Meijer Daddy saw the Falcon standing under a tree. After turning around and going back we were realized that the Falcon was injured. There was another lady there who said she had already called the humane society and was waiting for their emergency animal pick up, so we went on to Target. While we were there Daddy made a few phone calls to track down other possible places for the falcon to go, but none were available. When we left to back home the falcon was still there and other people had gathered as well. This time when we pulled in we found out that the emergency pick-up personnel from the humane society was not going to be able to come for the falcon as they were dealing with another issue elsewhere. They suggested that if someone could get a blanket over the falcon and gently wrap it, that we could then put the raptor in a box and bring it to the humane society. Other people were currently trying to get the falcon, but all they had was a T-shirt, and that’s when Daddy remembered that we have a blanket in the truck. After getting the blanket, and working in coordination with the two other people who were trying to get the falcon, Daddy was able to get behind the falcon and drape the blanket over it and then gentle hold and wrap it, pick it up and place it in a box. We then followed some other helpers to the humane society. When we got there we gave the falcon to their emergency unit, but they came back out a few minutes later and told us they were not going to be able to save the falcon; it’s wing was badly broken and it’s one claw was badly mangled, unfortunately that had to euthanize the falcon. Even though there was a sad ending for the falcon, we all felt really good that we at least tried to help the bird. We were able to take a few pictures of the injured falcon, also a video of us catching the falcon.

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