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.
Category Archives: Ed
Labatt is nasty
I got a disappointing phone call tonight from Tiffany. She wanted to let me know, just in case Kylie decided to tell me this coming weekend, that Kylie does not like the taste of beer. Specifically she does not like the taste of Labatt beer. Apparently Aunt Sissy and Theresa were preparing to go out and in there pre-outing preparations were having a beer. When I asked why this meant Kylie had to try some I was told that Kylie had asked multiple times when Aunt Sissy, or someone else were drinking, to try the beer. All the other times she was told “No, this is an adult drink” but for some reason tonight Mommy decided that she could try it. She told me that Kylie immediately decided she did not like the taste of the beer and spit it back into the bottle, apparently she disliked the taste so much she even licked a towel. Tiffany asked me if I was mad about this event to which I replied “Doesn’t really matter, it’s done and there is nothing I can do about it now.” I’m more disappointed than I am mad, and I have no doubt that if the situation had been reversed that Tiffany would have been pissed at me for letting this happen, yet I got the impression that she felt this situation was humorous because of the way Kylie reacted. I don’t know, perhaps I am just being over protective.
Lodi Farms
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
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!
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!
Owls
They say you learn something new everyday, and today I learned that in order for Zales to properly inspect, clean, and put a new back on Kylie’s earrings they need to send them out. Apparently each back is custom to the stem, at least for the current stems on her earrings. 
I was not expecting this and so in order to let them do this we first had to find a new pair of earrings to buy Kylie so she could still wear a pair and we could send out her diamonds. So off we went to other stores and after some serious searching Kylie found these owl earrings that she liked. So tonight we got new earrings and sent out her diamonds to get cleaned and fit for a new back.
Mad dash to the mall
Tonight after Kylie got done taking her shower we discovered that she had lost a back to one of her diamond earrings. This would normally not be an issue because she could just put in another a pair, but she doesn’t have another pair at Daddy’s house. So at 8:45pm Daddy jumped in the car and headed to the mall, which closed at 9pm, to try to go to Zales and get a new back for the earring. Needless to say Daddy made it to the mall in time and was able to get a new temporary back for her earring. The back is temporary because it is a yellow gold back and her earrings are white gold. Tomorrow we will need to go up to the mall and see about getting a new back that matches and also get them inspected and cleaned.
New Shoes
For the Envoy that is. Today is the first time I have spent some serious cash on the Envoy… I woke this morning and decided today would be a good day to go up to Discount Tire and take advantage of their free tire rotation. I knew the tires were starting to round on the outside and seeing as I had never had them rotated in the almost two years I have had it, thought it was about time. I bought this Envoy used and am pretty sure these are the original tires that came with the truck when it was new, additionally I don’t know anything about the previous owners maintenance, so I have to assume they have never been rotated. After sitting at the store for about 30 minutes while other vehicles were worked on, a technician came out and called for me. As it turns out the tires were more worn than I had realized. All four tires were either down to or below the wear bar for there tread depth. As such I had to make the decision to go ahead and replace all four tires. I went with the General Grabber HTS tire based on some discussion with the technician. With the addition of the warranty package and tire disposal and such, when all was said and done I ended up spending $710. But hey, I got that free tire rotation! 🙂
History and Home
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
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.