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jenny & i went back to lake michigan for the first time in 3 years. there’s even a 2015 state park sticker on her windshield to prove it. on this trip we went 100 miles further up the coast to stay in the village of pentwater & got a room at the channel lane inn. lake michigan’s water temperature was too cold to swim in, but the beaches were sandy (no rocks!), the weather was perfect, the natives were friendly, and it was over too soon.

mom & jim gave me a lowe’s gift card last christmas, and i finally used it! i bought a tarp and a power converter. the truck bed isn’t 100% weather proof on long roadtrips– but if our travel bags are pushed up against the cab & wrapped in a tarp, everything should stay dry. a power converter is just something everyone should carry on the road.

saw my doctor for an annual check up & she said “find a physical activity that you like, and just do it.” so i drove to lake olathe last friday, and walked on a path that went from the dam to the beach house. the last time i went to this part of the lake, it was only as far as a geocache hidden just off the path. i never made it to the beach house until now. later i went to a pizza place and played pinball.

last night i was listening to my favorite podcast like a little kid when i found out i won a book! a few weeks ago the hosts of stuck in the 80′s played a short clip of an old TV show intro. they invited listeners to email the name of the show & then be entered into a drawing to win an autographed copy of 80s redux: your favorite musicians today. i figured out the clip was from AfterMASH, and entered the drawing. when i heard the podcast host say only one person got it right i squealed like a little girl.

most of the customers i saw yesterday at homer’s were off for labor day. i went into DJ mode & told chloé we should play appropriate songs for the holiday since we still had work. now don’t get me wrong– it was cool that i got to sleep in because the shop opened much later than usual, but work is still work. here’s a song medleyy that echoed our sentiments.

did some reading on the history & origins of labor day. i wasn’t surprised that the holiday we currently observe came out of strikes & riots 124 years ago. it’s surreal that 12 hour work days aren’t a thing of the past… for some folks, the struggle still goes on today.

…now he’s headless! well, as headless as a 4-year-old tries to be in public. jenny & i watched ryan for a few hours recently while his parents were working. he liked playing with the speak and spell that sara and i circuit bent & rewired last month. when we went grocery shopping he had to entertain himself, so he pulled his shirt up over most of his head. i’m not sure if he was trying to scare me or make me laugh… so i laughed.

tara, a bar of soap is the latest guest on everything is alive, the show where inanimate objects answer questions and tell stories. this week tara talks about the fear, apprehension, and indignity she suffers when a child says something bad. it was weird to hear that moment described from her side. previous guests on the show have been a pillow, a lamppost, and a can of generic cola.

bad can be a relative term, or it can just be… BAD. last monday, chloé showed me a picture of some men from the 1970′s dressed in polyester & macramé. she made a caption that read something like: “it was a long time before these guys had girlfriends.” it reminded me of bad album covers i’ve seen over the years. the two i’ve posted here are from a list of 20 on teamjimmyjoe.com. if you wanna see the other 18 click here, but be careful because there are some things you can’t unsee. the one below was in my parents’ collection.

last week i drove out to rich maxwell’s garage in shawnee. we rigged aluminum foil to trigger music and sounds using his marbles & my makey makey. once we put it together, we couldn’t believe how simple the concept was: the marble’s weight pushes two pieces of foil together (each piece of foil is connected to the makey makey), and we get audio! the next thing rich wants to do is trigger sounds & music from star wars!