Good Drummer Gone Bad

When I showed up Saturday night to shoot a group photo and some candids for my brother-in-law's 40th High School Reunion from Houghton High School, I ran into my friend Mark. It turns out Mark was at the same venue celebrating his 30th reunion from Hancock High School. Can you smell the rivalry?

I've known Mark since our college days and played in several bands with him. We've also made a couple trips to Jamaica together when we were in the MTU Jazz Lab Band and he's married to one of my High School classmates. Most recently we backed up Hannah Bethel for two performances. Mark is the epitome of the professional musician and is one of the best drummers I've ever had the privilege to play with. Mark does have a dark side though. He's got one wicked sense of humor and at times its so off-the-wall you need modified military radar to pick it up.

Anyway, as I was trying to get a bunch of 58-year olds with a couple of drinks in them lined up for a group photo with Portage Lake in the background, Mark shows up again. This time he planted himself along the left side of the group with this goofy smile on his face like he just belonged. He was going nowhere. My sister-in-law who helped organize the whole event started freaking out and kept saying things like, "Who's that guy" and "He doesn't belong in the picture" and "Is he going to leave"? If you know Sharon, you know she's a pretty cool cucumber, an excellent Emergency Room Nurse and doesn't get easily riled so I was playing this out for all it was worth just to get a little reaction out of her. After all it was a night for a Houghton/Hancock rivalry and I knew Mark would eventually bow out of the photo (at least I thought he would).

Well...after about five minutes of this, I thought maybe he wasn't going to leave. The guys with their creaky 58-year old knees were on the ground (probably wondering how they were going to get back up), the ladies would not stop gabbing long enough to look at the camera and there's Mark with this goofy smile going nowhere.

So finally Mark left the immediate area and we were able to take the picture with most of the ladies stopping their gabbing long enough to look at the camera. As you can see from this series of photos Mark was introduced to and made-up with my sister and brother-in-law afterwards and all was well. I have to tell you it was one of the more humorous photo sessions I've been involved with.

Ponce DeLeon Lighthouse

Finally got one more set of vacation pictures uploaded. This set is from our visit to the Ponce DeLeon Lighthouse. Kriss tells me it is the second tallest lighthouse in the country. After climbing all the steps on a 98+ degree day, I think its the tallest.

The set starts with outside pictures and then shows us climbing up and down the stairs. The stairs were really neat and made for some abstract shots which may look good in black and white down the road. The pictures from the top are of Daytona Beach and the surrounding waterways.

The next pictures are of the grounds and museum buildings. One of the buildings had a bunch of the glass from decommissioned lighthouses. There are some pictures of the nature trail and finally a tortoise. If you look at the first tortoise pic, you see a bottom fence slat broken out. The tortoise had just broken that part of the fence when we arrived. A pretty determined creature.

Anyway, that was our hot muggy day at the lighthouse. Definitely a recommended stop in Florida.

Ela, Ava, and Supporting Cast

Some portraits of the little kids, Ela and Ava. The bigger kids participated too along with some pests pets.

Happy Birthday America

Pictures from the 4th of July parade in South Range. Check out Gabby's "bag" for candy. Its her Polly Pocket lunch box.

Also, for the dog lovers, there was a neat little encounter as we were leaving between a big boxer and a little boxer.

Cool Drill Machines

I work at a printed circuit board manufacturer in Calumet, MI called Calumet Electronics Corp. We manufacture boards for companies worldwide and we have some pretty cool machines and technology throughout our plant.

Since the whole plant is off for the the July 4th weekend, I thought it would be a good day to show off some of our Drill and Rout machinery.

Cypress Lake Airboat Ride

Some more Florida vacation pictures. This gallery is from our ride on an airboat at Cypress Lake. Kriss carefully researched and found that this one hour ride was the longest available.

I have to admit I was kind of lukewarm on the idea since the drive was so long to get there and it was in the middle of nowhere.

In the end, it was one of the most fun days we had and the photo opportunities were amazing.

Makenna is Six Years Old

Rodney and Erin's daughter Makenna celebrated her sixth birthday Tuesday evening. The celebration included a young juggler duo. They were great entertainers and really engaged the kids in their performance. If I could remember their names, I would give them a plug.







Congratulations Makenna, its fun (and sad) to see you and Gabby turn six years old. Before you know it, you two will be graduating from High School.

A full gallery of party pictures is found here...