It’s a typical Michigan Saturday afternoon in January. A light snow is falling, there is a reasonably stiff wind blowing (8 mph), it’s 23 degrees (F) and the air is somewhat damp so it goes right into your bones. So, what should we do today? The answer to this almost seems so obvious as to be ridiculous – we head outdoors and go to the Plymouth Ice Sculpture show of course!

Every Year the town of Plymouth Michigan holds the “Plymouth International Ice Sculpture Spectacular” and is billed as “The Oldest and Largest Ice Sculpture Show in the World“. Quite a claim there I would say.

Never having been to any other ice carving shows I cannot dispute this, and guess I really do not even want to do so.

This seems to be another new annual tradition – that of freezing our fingers, toes, noses and anything else that lives outside of several layers of clothing. We also went last year and the temperature was even colder with wind chills in the negative numbers. (January 19-21, 2007 it was 15.1 °F / -9.4 °C ) Apparently it was so cold we did not even attempt to take pictures since I cannot locate any in the archives! I can only find 2005 and I think we missed attending in 2006.

For some reason in the past we always went in the evenings, which is nice since the carvings are lit with colored lights, but did not really see people working on the carvings. We went early enough this year to see the artisians entered in the competition still at work (it is timed). It was pretty interesting watching some of the techniques and “tools” used.

• standard electric chain saws (from 12 inch up to about 24 inch bars)
• chisels, from about 1/4 inch or so up to several inchs wide with handles two plus feet long (modifed wood turning chisels?)
• electric drills with a wide variety of bits
• brushes (hand – car window – paint – scrub -and about anything else)
• small hand held and large “wand type” propane torches
• and our favorite, the regular old steam iron as used on clothes (remember those were used a lot before “permanent press” came along. I am told you can still find these in antique stores.) Now used by the craftsmen for smoothing the surfaces and giving a very nice glossy finish.

Paul has already mangaged to get some photos out on the web site so you can take a look at those.

Hopefully I will get mine posted in the near future also, although his photos are usually better and more comprehensive than mine anyway.

After walking around for a hour or so we decided some food was in order so we hit a nearby Thai place for some hot – of both the temperature and spicy varieties – food.

The feeling returned to our toes about the time we were done eating, and so we ventured back outside to retrieve the car and head home.

Until the final snowflake falls in Michigan,

A weekend trip! Hooray. The ever restless Kasdorf Activities Director found another fun trip for us to take. When we were attending Purdue University we always visited the “Feast of the Hunters Moon” held every year in West Lafayette Indiana. We had been only one time since then and that was . . . er . . . “several” years ago. We all decided it did indeed sound like a fun weekend so we made a few calls, packed up and took off early Saturday morning. We made it there early and spent the rest of the at the Feast until they lowered the ensign and marched off into the sunset. A full photo album including some movies of the Fife and Drum Corps, including one of the only bagpipe units has been posted. They had nine corps which supposedly is more than ever gather anywhere else.
It was great fun seeing all the trappers, Indians, British, German and American soldiers, and others dressed fitting for the period. Bigger than I remembered, I believe it has grown, but it seems mostly the food stands and trinket sales has grown. The military encampment is not what it used to be, but otherwise very similar to 30 years ago.
We also visited the Purdue campus and pictures will eventually make their way onto the web site. We visited the old hangouts… Harry’s Chocolate shop and Arni’s restaurant. The main hangout “Pierce Street Station” is now gone and has been replaced by a six story parking garage… NOT progress in my mind! Nancy went into her old dorm and it was as she remembered. We also visited “Grad House” where we both had rooms… and we met… (awwww…..) visiting the reception desk, the scene of a late night “streaking” years ago. (Hi John!) I forget names, but do believe Cindy sticks in my mind, even through the near asphyxiation brought on by the use of a brown paper bag… okay, enough reminiscing!

Until the last bottle of Ripple is drunk,
George

Curious? Morbid? Grotesque? Educational? or just “edu-tainment” for the masses. Having no specific plans for the Fourth of July holiday we saw the Our Body exhibit had been held over at the Detroit Science Center. There is not a lot of good entertainment in Detroit proper, but this sounded pretty interesting. ???? ?????

We had wanted to see the Body Worlds exhibit when it was in Chicago at the museum but the timing did not work out. After the typical discussion surrounding the “when to go” we decided that we would do well to leave early in the morning. So we did.
It was the first time at the Detroit Science Center for me, so I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the facility was. Our plan of arriving early (9 am) as soon as the doors opened worked out perfectly. There was front row parking, no line for tickets, and we got into the first viewing group at 9:30. The exhibit was not crowded at all which made getting up to the individual items very easy, and could stay and read about things without feeling like you were holding up the line… since there was no line. It actually was quite enlightening. ???? ???? We found the actual spinal cord all laid out, with it’s 31 pairs of nerves running from it, to be intriguing. Since I don’t typically see a lot of body organs, seeing the size of some compared to others a revelation. ie Lungs are smaller than I though, while the heart is larger.
Unfortunately there were many signs, and a number of guards, reminding there was NO PICTURE TAKING in the gallery. So, the only things to see are from the brochure, or you can visit the web sites using the links above.
After leaving the Our Body gallery we spent a couple of hours in the rest of the museum. We had a great time, especially with the musical instruments… a little Jimmie Hendricks in all of us I guess.

Until the last “Air Guitar” is played late into the night,
George