waterloo

the weekend began with some fickle weather.  it rained.  it stopped raining.  it started again.  every hour it was something different, i swear.  regardless, come 8pm the mines hit the clock tower stage and were not interrupted by rain, hail, or any other type of precipitation.

their most committed festival of the arts fan was there, interpretive dancing her way through their set.  this is year four of her appearance.  i wonder what she'll do next year!

you run into the strangest people downtown...

on saturday we headed to kalamazoo for our brother-in-law's surprise 30th birthday party.  he was entirely surprised (he was suspicious, then recognized a bunch of cars all parked together down the road), but there was a good crowd of friends and family, and adult beverages.

we left kzoo just before 9pm, hoping to beat the storm.  we were almost halfway home when it caught up to us... and when i say "caught up to us," i mean "tried to pelt us into the pavement."  we did pretty good (minimal waterlog-edness) until we got home.  

there is an overhang on our building that juts out over the steps.  we literally had to walk through a waterfall to get to our door.  it was so surprising and cold it took my breath away.   

sunday we decided to go for a bike ride.  we hit the kent trail, and got ice cream at the end.  as we headed back to the staging area for the return trip, the sky began to look not so pleasant.  just a few minutes after we got back on the trail, we were caught in the storm.  and fyi, tree cover does not mean you won't get wet.  we were absolutely drenched.  mud spit up our backs from our back tires.  i couldn't see out of my right eyeball because my contact was drowning.  luckily we both wore baseball caps, which certainly helped with visibility.... i don't know how i would have seen otherwise.   

underneath M6 we took a short break from the deluge.  i felt like i had been swimming with how soaked i was and how breathing was kind of a struggle.

after cleaning up from our water tour, we headed out for dinner and a movie with my sister.  we saw some police lights down 44th street, and saw one tree that had been struck by lightning that blocked the westbound lane.  (we also saw a civilian running towards it holding a chainsaw, so i'm guessing it didn't block the road for much longer!) 

closer to clyde park we saw ANOTHER tree down, but we were able to get by it.  luckily none of the trees in our complex were hit and we still had power.

it's always a treat to hang out with my little sister.  and boston's is always a guaranteed winner when it comes to their pizzas.  it didn't look like it was going to rain for awhile, so we risked walking to the theatre from there.

chris and i saw kung fu panda friday night and LOVED it, so we were more than happy to see it a second time.  and i knew lisa would totally dig it (and at one point was the only person laughing in the theatre...welcome to my family).  when we stepped in to find a place to sit, someone waved at us.  it took me a moment, but our pals dwight & jenny were there with their nephew... they, too, had lost power.  i love random run-ins!

this is something i saw at meijer.