It's a fathers' day miracle....

Okay, maybe not.  In fact we went to the zoo, which is not at all miraculous, seeing as that we do so every weekend!  But this time was a little different because we went with our friends Nathan and Diane (getting married in t-minus 20 days!), who hadn't been there in a long time.  It was a lot of fun!  We even got to see the mama wolverine chase a bird up in a tree, which also added some spice to the afternoon.  I guess that's why we go every weekend... it's always different and we don't want to miss anything!
Then this evening we had a mongolian sized barbecue for fathers' day.  We were lucky enough to have both of our families together, which is something that we love.  We gathered at the Ophoff's house (Jon's parents) and most of us munched away on snacks out in the evening sunshine while the dads grilled our way to blissful dinner happiness.  They had two grills going and cooked something like five different meats.  There was enough food to feed an army and, even though sometimes when it comes to eating I think Curtis is an army unto himself, we will still be eating leftovers for a week!  That's especially good because now we don't have to go grocery shopping.

Zootastic

We became members at the Detroit Zoo this year and in some ways it has become a second home.  We love to stop in  whenever we have a few extra hours and have even begun to imagine personal relationships with the animals (yes, I swear that the Nilgai gets mad at us when we miss a weekend!).  Thus far I think we are most attached to the baby polar bear.  She was born in December and we are determined to watch her grow up.  We have seen her play in the water, antagonize her mom, nurse, nap, and bounce in the grass and we never get bored (maybe that says something about our lifestyle?).



And finally today, after several unsuccessful wolverine visits, we got to see the two kits that were born in February.  The keepers don't yet know what gender(s) they are (no skirt lifting here), but they seem to have different personalities; one of them was constantly rambuctious, snipping around with mom, while the other was off chewing on sticks and bouncing in the water all alone.  They are learning to fight through play and quite often mom is the instigator, but at 4 months they are already almost as big as she is  (brave woman!).  They bounce, they pip, they grrr, they roll, they jump...they are constant balls of motion, even sometimes just one ball of motion together!  Hmm... suddenly our dogs seem like less of a handful.

(Re)visiting Ann Arbor

It's funny to go through your hometown with a visitor.  Rachel and Steve were here Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had a great time but we must weigh an additional ten pounds!  Since Rachel had never been here before, Steve had an entire list of things she needed to experience, most of them places to eat, like Pizza House, Charley's (for the Twists, of course), Washtenaw Dairy, Spots, and "good Chinese."  We also did a lot of walking and a lot of talking—we toured central campus, the hill area, north campus and downtown and shared a lot of stories and memories about the area.  It's funny how taking a newcomer through the same areas you pass daily can bring to mind long forgotten memories and folklore; it's like seeing it all anew, or revisiting it for yourself.  In any case, we had a great time and are very sad that the trip had to be so short, but we hope they will return soon (Steve—I know there are more places on your list so you just have to come back soon, even if only to eat). 

A wolverine by any other name...

...would smell as sweet? We heard that the Detroit Zoo was renaming its newborn wolverine kits, yielding to pressure from numerous Michigan sports fans. As a joke, the zoo-keeper (a Michigan State grad) had originally called them "Sparty" and "Bucky" after the mascots of Michigan's chief rivals, Michigan State and Ohio State. After a flood of e-mails and phone calls from offended visitors, the zoo changed their names to Tamarack and Tilia, the names of Michigan trees. A respectable change, though not nearly so distinctive. Michigan fans obviously take their sports very seriously.
We have yet to see the wolverine kits for ourselves, although we have heard a full-grown wolverine scampering around in the moat around his habitat. Perhaps we will see them this weekend as we visit in order to see the new rhinos!

The arrival

Who knew that furniture companies delivered on Sundays?  The scheduled delivery for our new set was between 8 and 11  today, but we couldn't be here because of church, (and church was especially important and long this morning because it was all-church picnic day and "good-bye" Lloyd day, a wonderful man who we will all miss).  We were all set to have Cortney's parents come and hang out during the delivery hours as a special favor (and because Cortney's mom loves the dogs) but low and behold, the delivery guys called at 7:10 am and wondered if they could come early—they were right around the corner.  Worked for us...although we were almost late for the 8:00 service.
But the furniture is great. It is bigger than what we had before so it makes the space seem a little smaller, but we were expecting that and it still looks great and is really comfortable!  Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a lot of time sitting on it.  Instead we tried out the weed whacker and mowed the lawn in sprinkles of rain, and we cleaned the bathrooms and our offices, and even some of the basement.  We always keep a clean house, but it has to be spotless this week;  Steve and Rachel (our best friends) are visiting from Seattle Wednesday and Thursday.  We are really looking forward to seeing them, but I'm not sure they were worth the lawn mowing in the 86 degree heat. Finally, after finishing the above and grabbing a shower we were able to sit on the new furniture...but it was 6:00 by that time!  We want to point out that even the animals look pooped in this picutre, and they sat inside in the air conditioning all day!