Melissa and I had a unique opportunity tonight to listen to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a small intimate setting in Southfield at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. I have seen this building from the road almost daily for the past 2 years now and while my thoughts were that it was a very attractive building that clearly had a religious affiliation, I did not know what it was until this event. It is as beautiful inside as it from the outside, and now that I know what it is, you can see images of it on Google. For their part, the DSO, was amazing! This is the first time that I can remember hearing a professional orchestra play as a standalone event, having heard that before with plays and musicals, and I have to admit that it is a completely different experience when what you are focusing on is the music and the players and not what it is accompanying. The acoustics within the building were a lot better than I had thought they were going to be as well. This experience has made me more aware of how enjoyable going to an orchestra event can be, and as such I am going to try to keep an eye on what performances they are doing, perhaps next time we will go see them at Orchestra Hall.
Monthly Archives: April 2015
Still, Everyday
Forever in our hearts
Turkey Adventures, Round 2
I just returned from what might very well be my last hunting trip of any kind for a while. My brother and I tried our hand at turkey hunting again this weekend, and it was miserable. My brother’s coworker let us come up to his place to hunt on some land near him that he said he sees turkey on everyday. It sounded like a good lead, however, once again, my brother did not have the time or opportunity to go and scout the area. The lack of scouting is something that is a huge problem for me, I do not like going into land that no one in the party is familiar with in any way beyond looking at a google map view of. As such, much like our last trip almost two years ago, we were not very lucky. Actually, this trip was much worse than that one. For starters, this time we were sharing a tent that my father-in-law lent us whereas last time we stayed in his father-in-law’s house. So the accommodations were much worse this time in every way possible; We shared a queen sized air mattress, had individual sleeping bags, thankfully his friend lent us a tent heater because it was extremely cold, to top everything off (and the main reason it will be a while for my next trip) is that my hunting boots literally fell apart. They separated from the sole, and the inside of that area was basically all dry rot. My feet were hurting so much by the end of this trip! I will need to do some research for the next pair, as I thought these were supposed to be a good brand, but they only lasted a few years, and realistically they were only worn maybe 20 days. Also I will need to set aside some money for the purchase. Needless to say, we did not see any sign of turkeys on this trip, though it certainly wasn’t from lack of trying. In the end though, all the negatives aside, it was still really fun to spend some time with my brother again. Who knows, maybe the third time will be the charm?
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day 2015
Today was the first time that Kylie and I have gotten to participate in bring your daughter to work day, and I have to say it was pretty cool. Kylie and I arrived at work a little later than I normally do, just because of the timing for when the day’s events were scheduled to start, but still early enough that I was able to show her around a bit. As always, she was very interested in my white board, so I thought she would get a huge kick out of our technical engineering room, which is a room where three of the walls are floor to ceiling whiteboards, and man was I right! Thankfully the boards were empty and the room wasn’t in use, so she had a blast drawing and writing on the walls for about fifteen minutes, and then it was time to start the day. The day began with us going to have breakfast together, which consisted of a catered buffet of french toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, juice, and toast. During this time some of the committee members gave a small presentation outlining what the day was going to consist of and telling the kids how to find out what group they were a member of. Then she joined her group, met her group leader, and went off for a day of adventure. The day was broken down into about 7 activities that the kids rotated through. Each activity was presented by a member of our staff and the topics ranged from learning to code, to building wooden cars depending on the age range of the groups of kids. We then all went back to the meeting area and met for lunch, which was the always popular pizza. Kylie told me about some of the things she had done so far and that she was having a really fun time, and then ran off to her next set of activities. About 3:00 we met back up again for the end of the day and I got to hear all about the fun that Kylie had. Even though she had liked all of the activities and said she had a blast at all of them, her favorite part remained the “drawing room!” She is already asking if she will be able to come back next year! I’d say today was a pretty successful day, and I hope I will be able to bring her again next year!