Ben Benner’s Blog

Now, some of you may or may not know this term. I just learned it myself, from my father-in-law.

It is the hole or break in the bad weather (or clouds) that gets folks to think that the weather is finally shaping up and is going to be just fabulous, therefore they get their swimsuits on, they load up the boats or jet-skis and head out onto the lake. Then it hits you, the clouds roll in and most likely the rain starts.

Ummm, so we were all packed up (I mean the car was completely loaded and we were like five minutes from loading dogs) and then it got sunny and the weather turned nice, so very nice.

You guessed it, we stayed another day. I even got the silver floating lounging blow up thing and was in the water, I borrowed the anchor and tied to the lounging thing (don’t worry Tom I returned it to the boat when I was done, right were I found it).

However, the weather was only nice for about an hour or so, then it started to get cloudy and about five minutes after that, it started to rain, about 10 minutes after that it started with the thunder and lightning.

Major suck.

The storms blew threw after about two hours, resulting in only a mostly cloudy situation. We went back out onto the dock and hung out for a bit. I was too cold (seeing as my shirt and shorts were still wet from lounging in the lake earlier. Gina on the other hand stayed out there for several hours.

We had dinner at The Club in Central Lake, they have by far the best burger I have had in Michigan (there are a couple of contenders down in Texas for Best Burger Ever).

I woke up and let the dogs out and found the lake covered in a pea-soup like fog. An hour later the fog had burned off, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky, the lake was crystal clear and calm. Gina jumped in and had a quick swim and began the debate on whether or not we were going to stay up north just one more day.

I told her we should probably head down state today and remember the lake being beautiful rather than staying and possibly being sucker holed again, though I am sure with our luck it was gorgeous all day long.

Well, we are back in the Lansing area. We have done our shopping for MSU gear and had the chance to  hang out with Joe Kursch at Buddies in Okemos (or whatever town is out near the Meridian Mall).

Tomorrow morning we are having breakfast with my mom and then lunch with my pops down in Pleasant Ridge (near Detroit).

I need to wrap this up and get to bed, morning is going to come too early and breakfast is at 8:30.

Laterz

After breakfast I took a “30 minute nap” (it is in quotes because in real world time it lasted about two and a half hours), I woke up to find Gina outside sunning herself. The weather had turned out to be quite nice. It was still a little chilly but had gone from being mostly cloudy to just slightly cloudy, so in the sun it was quite nice.

I managed to get a wee bit sun burned, even though I had sprayed myself with some SPF 30 misting sun screen. I suspect that I did not spray enough on.

I sat out there for about three hours or so, we listened to the radio and read books. I am just about done with Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae. There was probably another hour left of sun, but both Gina and I were feeling a little crispy, therefore we decided to head into town for dinner.

Gina wanted Pizza from Short’s Brewing Company, the Pizza was good. I had the Bellaire Brown, which in the past has tasted really good to me, this time around it was a little bit harder to finish the pint, I think I should have gone with their Chocolate Stout.

Gina checked her email and had a pint of their Locals Light. From what I overheard Short’s is doing really well, apparently they have started distributing their beer to restaurants and they are expanding their operations from 7 barrels to 30 barrels.

We had been hoping today would be nice. However, it is looking like it will actually be a windier day than yesterday. The wind opened up one of the screen doors to the cottage.

We are packing up and are definitely going to head down state today, though the sun is tempting us even now breaking through the clouds, urging us to stay one more day here at the cottage by the lake.

I am going to grab a slice of leftover pizza and start packing up.

Laterz

I only sort of wish I had a kite. It would be interesting to try to fly a kite off the end of the dock. It certainly has been windy the last couple of days.

I think the temperature on the thermostat here never read over 69F yesterday, today It hasn’t broken 65F.

Gina made breakfast this morning. I have to do the dishes, right after I finish this post.

We are pretty sure that we are going to head down state later today instead of Wednesday. I think we will be heading back to Texas on Friday morning.

The sun is peaking out from behind the clouds here and there while I am posting this, but the temp is just not hot enough to sit out and get a tan. Bummer.

We saw Hancock on Friday, it was pretty good. I really liked the first half of the movie, it felt very original but just as the storyline was getting good they started wrapping it up, they managed to keep the movie to an hour and a half, but in doing so the whole ending felt rushed.

The little theatre in Bellaire is really great. It has two screens. They had just done a fresh batch of popcorn so I had to get some. I have gotten into the habit of buying the kid’s packs, that way you get a little bit of popcorn, a small drink and some candy. Normally the candy is something really small and not always that great. However, the Bellaire theatre offered you a selection of candy from the bottom row, which was cool. They had a good assortment to choose from. I got peanut M&Ms.

I found out that the family that owns the Bellaire theatre, also owns the theatres in Gaylord and Petoskey.

The BBQ on Friday turned out really well, everyone really enjoyed the pork, coleslaw and chicken. Mary Wight brought over her famous spaghetti salad, it was very, very good.

Well, I better get the dishes cleaned up.

Laterz

“See the bay and buy a Wii!”

So last year Gina and I saw that the Traverse City Meijer’s had several Nintendo Wii video game systems. We didn’t buy one when we saw it, stating that we were planning to be back in Traverse City the next day and if they still had some we would buy one then, because then it would be kismet.

However, we did not make it to Traverse City the next day, and therefore did not purchase the Nintendo Wii at that time.

This past Monday, we went to the Traverse City Meijer’s with the intent of purchasing groceries for the bbq tomorrow and some other foodstuffs. Before we set out on the trip north Gina and I had stated that we would need to check to see if that Meijer’s in Traverse City had a Nintendo Wii available, as there have been NONE available in Austin. (They sell like hot cakes, or are secretly diverted off to eBay.)

Well, they did have a Nintendo Wii available, two of them in fact. We purchased one, it is still in the box. Since they were having a sale we also purchased a second Wii-mote, that came with the latest Wii-Sports game disc.

I asked the clerk if they get regular shipments of them (Wii systems) delivered. She told me that they get a delivery about every 3-4 weeks, and that they usually get 20 units. However, this last time they got 50 units.

From what I have been able to get out of some (ToysRUs, GameStop, etc) clerks down in Austin, they get a shipment every 1-2 months and only a handful of units (5-10). So 20 units being shipped to a Meijer’s in a town that is a decent size, but known for being a resort town seems to be a little off.

But as I tried to say with a straight face to Gina, “It is a by-product of attempting to have an equal distribution of product across a chain of stores without taking into account the the regional demographics.”

I said that mouthful before I found out that the latest shipment had 50 units, of which they had already sold 48, err 49 with our purchase. So regardless of Traverse City’s reputation for being a resort town, that Meijer’s can sell some video game systems. The clerk informed us that one lady purchased three systems. Leaving the store and returning each time, therefore fulfilling the “limit one per purchase/visit” policy.

So I definitely think that given the trouble the tourism industry is having in northern Michigan, that Traverse City should do a promotional campaign and promote the fact that the Traverse City Meijer’s has Nintendo Wii’s available (fairly regularly) as a way to bring in more visitors to the city to have them see the Grand Traverse Bay.

Ok, time to shutdown and go to bed.

Laterz

I am waiting for my brine to cool down enough to put it with my pork shoulder (also known as a Boston Butt).

I made a nice spinach salad tonight, consisting of spinach, carrot, celery, green bell pepper, onion, and cherry tomatoes. The salad went nicely with the chicken thighs that I grilled. After dinner Father Anthony asked me to make some stove-top popcorn. I burned the first batch just a little, like prolly 15 seconds too long. The second batch was pretty much perfect.

I made the coleslaw for tomorrow right after eating dinner and before I made the popcorn. The coleslaw is from this Texas BBQ book Gina bought her dad a while back, the slaw is pretty much the same as the slaw you get at the Salt Lick. Only difference I think is that the Salt Lick uses more vinegar in theirs.

I am going to be smoking pulled pork, chicken and some sausage (which reminds me, we need to buy some sausage).

All for now.

Laterz

I just woke up from a short nap to the discussion about how Emma snagged an M&M laced cookie off of someone’s plate up here at the cottage a couple of hours ago.

There was a brief discussion as to whether or not Emma should be forced to return the cookie, you know following the same path it went down. That procedure requires you to feed the dog some hydrogen peroxide.

But given that she is acting perfectly fine and that one time she wolfed down an entire sleeve of those coconut and chocolate cookies (I think they are sometimes called Somoas) and this is just one little Keebler elf cookie, there isn’t really a worry.

I fed her some canned pumpkin, along with everyone else just to make sure that her stomach (and everyone else’s) is OK.

Well, I need to go run some water through my hair and get ready to go to the dinner party.

Laterz

I slept until just past 1pm (mind you I woke up at about 7AM to let the dogs out), it is 10:30pm and I am drinking a PBR and playing around on the Internets (via my leeched WiFi).

Yesterday was a pretty good day, Father Camilleri came along with Gina and I to Traverse City. We stocked up on provisions for the week at Meijers after having a good lunch at BD Riley’s Mongolian Grill. I bought meat and a couple of BBQ supplies.

I am going to smoke some Pork Shoulder and Chicken on Friday. I am also going to make some coleslaw as well.

We bought some sweet corn, which looks really good. But my father-in-law cooked some last night and it didn’t turn out too great. I am thinking it was underdone, but there was a leftover piece I had at lunch today and it looked completely done, but just didn’t taste right. Suck.

We also stopped at Folgarelli’s Imported Food Market in Traverse as well. All three of us commented almost instantly that it didn’t look nearly the same as last year. We had heard some rumor that some changes had taken place recently, but no one had a definite answer as to what the change was.

Well, apparently three years ago Folgarelli’s was sold, then some time in the last few months it went bankrupt. Seven weeks ago the original owners bought it back.

The three of us all speculated about what caused the bankruptcy. Gina took me to Folgarelli’s about 4 years ago (ie original owners) and the place was very cool. It had some good looking fresh bread, a great deli counter, a small but good wine selection, some Italian foodstuffs and a small freezer (pretty sure I remember a freezer) of stuff. They were known for their sandwiches.

The following year, things had changed up a little. It appeared as if they had expanded the foodstuffs and were carrying more than just Italian foodstuffs, there was Indian, Greek, and what I think was supposed to be a Mexican or Latin food section. There were more freezers. The deli case was still great and they were making sandwiches. They also started carrying some fancy olive oils, notably this FANTASTIC olive oil from Spain. It was in a 55 gallon drum to which they had hooked a pump. They had it bottled  and ready to go. They had taken over the small building next door and expanded the wine selection.

Last year, everything was the same as the year before. We bought some more Spanish olive oil and had sandwiches, we  also bought some deli meats and cheeses.

This year however, things were different. We walked in and the olive oil was missing, there appeared to be less foodstuffs available than the year before. The deli case looked a bit barren (there were less meats available than previous years). And the Boarshead logo was missing. The same number of freezer cases appeared to be there, but there was no bread in the window (they still offer it, but they were sold out).

While waiting for my deli meat I heard one of the clerks mention that they were waiting to get their liqour license back and that is why the little wine room was closed. The wheels were already turning once we entered the store, given the change in extremely visable items not being available (ie no 55 gallon drum), and the earlier rumor about some changes occuring.

We began to speculate about what happened. The best thing I could figure out was that a change in ownership had occurred, it seemed like the only logical reason why they would be re-applying for a liqour license, given that they were not a bar so the idea that they would lose it for selling to a minor seemed HIGHLY unlikely.

I inquired with the clerk about what happened while checking out, she informed me that they original owners had bought the place out of bankruptcy 7 weeks ago. That the original owners had sold the place three years ago. That filled in the blanks on why the inventory had changed up that one year.

Well, we LOVE Folgarelli’s and want to see it thrive again.

On a side note, there have been a couple businesses close here in Central Lake and Bellaire, MI. We speculate that they closed due to BAD management. However, there is an issue that all businesses in Northern Michigan are facing. The gas prices are forcing more and more families to forego spending their vacations and weekends up here. And those that do spend their time up here are also forced to spend less money.

I remember the conversation I had with the owner of the Bed-and-Breakfast where Gina and I spent out honeymoon, The Grand Victorian. Back in 2005, he was commenting on how the price of gas was hurting the B&B busines (and tourism in general), that was back when gas was in the $2.25 a gallon range.

Well, it is late here and I need to get to bed. 1pm is going to come to quickly.

Oh yeah, I got PHP, Apache and MySQL installed. So maybe tomorrow I will finally make some progress on one of my personal projects.

Laterz

My father-in-law, Tom caught a 40 inch muskie this morning.

He said that in the 30 years he is has been fishing, on Intermediate Lake, he has never caught a muskie.

From what I have been told the 40 inch fish is the biggest caught on record amongst the guys in Tom’s circle.

Tom said that the muskie must have been about 20 years old. Tom set the fish free and hopefully the fish has successfully returned to the deep part of the lake to recover from the whole experience.

The route has been updated (twice technically).

My previously posted version was a mistake, I am not sure how it happened (maybe I took a snapshot of the wrong Firefox tab) but I had posted a route with us going through the greater Chicago area. I originally had planned for us to go through Fort Wayne and Lansing.

I corrected the mistake and then was just working on booking the hotel, in the Nashville area. That didn’t work out, the only LaQuinta in the Nashville area that wasn’t too far off the route only had smoking rooms available.

Therefore, I started looking for LaQuinta locations along the route a little further up the road. I found and booked us a room at the LaQuinta in Elizabethtown, KY. That particular LaQuinta is very proud to state that all of their rooms are non-smoking.

This LaQuinta, like the majority of the others is pet-friendly, only slight difference is that there is a $50 pet deposit. Luckily it is refundable.

Below is the (new) new route!

Laterz

We are going to stop in Nashville for the night. If we can get on the road by 8am then we should be able to get to Nashville by 10pm.

All for now.

Laterz