Valentine's Day ... and our Loviversary

On this night Jason arrived to take Kelly out for heart-shaped stuffed pizza at Giordano's (now an annual tradition) and presented her with a card with this beautiful poem in it that made Kelly have tears in her eyes:

What We Are

It's more than "I need you."

Merely that doesn't

send enough love to our hearts.

It's more than "I love you."

Our souls know the journey

goes far beyond words.

It's this (yet more than;

a poet can only go so far) --

We are the shining light

in the palm of God.

Kelly presented Jason with a hand-made card with a frog on it, in honor of Smacky. Later that night, they watched Six Feet Under episodes and had yummy dessert.

Incidentally, 2/15/08 is our Loviversary ... the anniversary of when we first said "I love you" to each other. We remember this because we had the decency to avoid saying it on chintzy Valentine's Day ;).

Wine and Showshoe

It was less than a year ago that Jason and I went up to Traverse City, Michigan with Susie and Tony for the Taste the Passion wine tasting event put on by the Leelanau Peninsula Vitner's Association. And here we are again ... but this time, we brought a whole crew of friends. Ten people in all, the Sands Motel was certainly happy to see us during this super slow tourist time. Christina and Rodney gave us a ride up Friday night. We arrived late to find our room keys in envelopes taped to the locked motel lobby door. This sort of thing would never be safe where we come from, but in the far North, why not?

The next morning we headed out to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore where Jason and I collected a new stamp in our national parks passport book. Then we snowshoed the Pierce Scenic drive which they close off for the winter season for snowshoers and cross country-skiiers. We didn't make it far since we dallied in the winter wonderland to make up mini snowmen and to have fierce snowball free-for-alls. Only a few injuries were reported. The boys enjoyed striking out off the trail like polar explorers while the gals wondered if we might ever see them again.

Then we headed over to our first winery stop: Cherry Republic, where we had some delicious chicken mole tacos and cherry wine for our first wine-and-food pairing. Kelly snagged the recipe but will be unable to replicate it without a food processor. We also tasted some cherry champagne and a cherry port that tasted like cough syrup. Next door this winery/cherry emporium sold everything you can imagine with cherries in it, including cherry salsa, cherry pretzels, gummy cherries, on and on. We could have easily stuff ourselves there with sugar, but instead we headed over to nearby Boone Docks for lunch.

That afternoon we hit a few more wineries, went out for dinner with Susie's parents, then went to Susie's parents' home for some hot cocoa, cookies, and hot tubbin'. The next morning we had to forgo snowshoeing because we'd been hit by a blizzard! It was painfully cold out and the wind blasted us with icy flakes. So we opted for a leisurely breakfast that ended up with the worst luck in service ever. Kelly ordered a tea to try called "Heartwarming Cinnamon" which she detested. Jason ordered an omelette without onions that arrived choked with them. Susie had a misunderstanding about the kind of bread she wanted for her french toast. Then the bill arrived and we'd been charged for an extra omelette. We headed over to a book store in town and Jason found a book of haiku by Japanese writer Basho, whom he'd read about in a National Geographic article left in our room at the Sands which we later stole. Because of the foul weather, we spent the entire day wine tasting rather than snowshoeing although the roads between wineries were harrowing. A couple times our car coming down the hill was unable to stop, but luckily we avoided incident.

That night we had dinner at the North Peak brewery, and afterward discovered this great Irish pub downstairs where live Celtic music was playing. We stayed for a few songs, and even got to sing along.

The next morning we arose early to hit the road. On our way out of town we stopped at the Traverse Pie Company where Kelly bought Jason a piece of cherry crumble pie that she owed him from last year. Then we hit to road, stopping at the Bob Evans for lunch near St. Joseph on the way home. The roads were still nasty, full of scary potholes and unplowed sections of the highway.

Eleventh Month Anniversary

Our 11th month anniversary was on a Wednesday, my school day. Fortunately, the teacher let me leave early. Kelly came over about 8:30 pm. I gave her a card with two Christmas tree ornaments attached; an owl and a frog. Kelly gave me three CDs by the band Live. Unfortunately, I had all three already! But since two of the CDs were burned copies, I kept those; I gave her the one I already had. We talked for awhile and realized it was too late to do anything, so we watched a short film called "One Too Many." After that, bed!

Dick Young Forest Preserve (or as I grew up with, Nelson Lake Marsh Nature Preserve)

Although a brisk morning, me and Kelly bundled up tight and went to Nelson Lake Marsh in Batavia for some autumn birds. I was certain it would add a few avian wonders to Kelly's list, as it has mine for so many years now. My footsteps are all over this place, the first being those of a preteen. I spent many weekends walking the trails, admiring familiar feathered faces and searching for new ones. It's a beautiful preserve, with prairie, woodland, savanna, a large marsh (technically a kettle), and a 40-acre lake. I was excited to finally be taking Kelly there.


We parked by the old silo at around 9:15 and began walking towards the lake lookout. It was overcast and drizzly but the birds were active. As we approached two returning birders I stopped, took up a karate stance, and told them to tell us what ducks were on the lake.

The man fell to his knees and grabbed my coat, "Please don't kill us, Mister. Please, please don't kill us!"

"The ducks," I said calmly. "Tell me the names of those ducks and I'll spare your worthless little lives."

"G-g-green-winged teal," said the man, shivering. "And scaup. That's it. That's all we saw."

"Don't lie to me punk!" I yelled, drawing a chop high into the air. "I will slice off your head with my hand if you lie to me!"

The woman fainted.

"I swear to God that's all we saw. Those are the only ducks we saw!"

I lowered my weapon and clutched my binoculars. "Okay, I believe you. Now pick up your ho and go. And don't ever show your faces around here again, understand?"

The man gulped. "Yes, yes, I understand. I understand! Thank you."

As he began smacking his wife's cheeks, me and Kelly turned and resumed our walk to the lake. Kelly took my hand and gave me a seductive look. "That was sexy," she said.

The rest of our visit was quite pleasant. We walked maybe a quarter mile to the north before deciding to turn back. The most common birds we saw, by far, were Cedar Waxwings and American Tree Sparrows. Afterwards, in the car, we wrote down all the birds we saw in the "birder's shorthand" that I use:

A Goldfinch 5+
B Jay
BC Chickadee 2
C Goose 20+
C Waxwing 50+
DE Junco 20+
Fox Sparrow 10+
Gull sp.
GW Teal - small flock
M Dove
N Cardinal 5+
RB Woodpecker 2
RT Hawk
Scaup sp. (too far away to ID) - small flock
Tree Sparrow 40+
WT Sparrow

Good Pizza and a Lame Poetry Reading

Kelly and I went to Limestone Coffee & Tea in Batavia for their first open mike. It's located on the corner of Wilson and River streets, and is an elongated space with tall, sky blue walls. A few nice paintings adorn these walls and there's a room for kids to play in. Overall it's very nice, and the coffee is good, but the five or six tables may limit the amount of people able to participate or enjoy the open mike there.

Nicole M. was already there when we arrived. She was sitting with Jennifer, the host, but no one else had shown up yet. Since we were hungry, me and Kelly decided to bail out and have dinner. We promised to come back later. Then we walked to Venice Tavern and had some great pizza. After dinner we went back to Limestone as promised, but there still was no turnout. Jennifer was up front now, playing acoustic guitar and singing, so we decided to stay for a beverage. Nicole left a few minutes after we got there. We talked with her briefly and then left shortly after she did, taking our drinks with us.

When we got back to my place I was excited to show Kelly Comet 17P/Holmes, which, on this night, was moving through the constellation Perseus. Very exciting! After that we decided to write; Kelly worked on her novel, and I wrote a poem called "Stopwatch." Coincidentally, both of our writings contained a similar concept: the almost apocalyptic downfall of mankind and the reclaiming of earth by nature.

Yuck Pumpkin Spice Latte

Went to St. Mark's. It was an enjoyable service. After that, went to Grahm's 318 for drinks. Kelly got chai latte, I got pumpkin spice latte, which tasted like yuck, so I exchanged it for a vanilla. Went upstairs and sat in a nice room with green walls. Talked about religion mostly, and my struggle trying to find one I'm comfortable with. Went back to my place and ate leftovers and wrote. Kelly bought me Poet's Market 2008, which was in the mail when I got it the night before, and I used it tonight. Not sure what the date was, but it was a Sunday in November.

A Perfect 10

Today was our ten month anniversary. Jason was supposed to show up around 6, but instead a weird mustached man wearing sunglasses came knocking at my door. He arrived carrying a box of my favorite chocolates and a bouquet of the most beautiful flowers, and introduced himself as "Juan." So I let him in. He proceeded to pace around my apartment, talking to me in a strange accent I could not trace. I turned my back for a moment to put my flowers in a vase and lo -- Juan was gone, and Jason stood in his place. All that was left of Juan was a mustache lying on the carpet. Jason called the man a coward for not standing his ground.

We went out for dinner, then picked up a couple movies at a local video place we were checking out for the first time. Then we built a fire -- the first time using the fireplace in my new apartment. My living room was bathed in a warm glow. We were enchanted, and sipped on wine and talked, then put on the movies. Jason couldn't keep his eyes open, however, so we kept the movies for another night.