You can never get enough of Oliver

We've been through a series of exercise balls but Oliver never tires of chasing and herding. We have major playtime at least 3 times a day. We can't end the day and head for bed without a late-night bout of chase the ball. It's what he does best. And now he's on YouTube.

Baseball

Nicki and I attended a Lake Erie Crushers game last night against the Evansville (Indiana) Otters (Frontier League independent professional baseball). Same division as the Traverse City Beach Bums that we saw with Steve and Judy. The Crushers won - started out strong 11-0 and held on to win 11-8. Cloudy and slightly cool evening - great for watching baseball. Very good seats right behind home plate. Nice for our first game.

Roof Work

Week one of the roof work. Entire roof shingles removed and new ones installed. Replacing the 3 skylights on our porch roof and moving them to our garage. New skylight over our kitchen. Pictures will be added as we head towards completion.
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Roof work (shingles and skylights) was completed August 28th with the gutters being added August 31st. Now for interior touch-ups.

Michigan Trip 2

Completed our second trip into Michigan last week. This time we pulled the kayakamobile with us to add to the adventure. Tuesday it was a straight drive to J and S's place on Long Lake near Traverse City. Completed the day with a stop at Moomers Ice Cream - great old-fashioned ice cream with a view of the contented cows grazing on the hillside below. Wednesday was kayaking in the hot sun on Long Lake, a baseball game with the Traverse City Beach Bums losing a close game against the Sauget, Illinois, Gateway Grizzlies, and then another visit to Moomers. Thursday we did another outing in the kayaks on Long Lake, then a car ride to the Short’s Brewing Company for late lunch/early dinner, a little shopping in downtown Traverse, and a stop to pick up a pint of ice cream at Moomers. Of course each day we had excellent sunsets and topped the evening with games of Spinner. Friday we did a morning kayak on Long Lake and then started a round-about return trip to Oberlin, driving to the west coast of Michigan down to Manistee (watched a freighter heading out onto the big lake), dinner with B & B in Lansing, and finally home a comfortable 20-30 minutes before midnight (no stops for ice cream). The kayak trailer worked well, the traffic was tolerable, and the vacation was enjoyed by all. So ends the summer.

Houghton Lake

A weekend at Bob and Barb's cottage on Houghton Lake (Michigan). A quick drive up last Friday collecting Barb and Bob's mom in Lansing on our way. Laura stayed with Lucy and her parents in Lansing. David and Ashley arrived at the lake Saturday with their two dogs. Lots of wind, cool evenings, moderate days, some heavy rains, decent sunsets, great food, quiet times, good conversation, no boating. Back to Lansing Sunday. Returned to Oberlin Monday.