The Turner Family

Mega rock band U2 announced around Thanksgiving 2009 that they would be touring and performing at Michigan State's Spartan Stadium in June of 2010, and as a previous MSU ticket purchaser, I was given advance access. Thus, during a mandatory high school wrestling parent meeting on some November 2009 evening in the library, I stole over to my laptop to purchase 4 tickets, opting for Section 126, northwest of the stage. Fast forward to spring 2010, and during rehearsals for the shows, Bono goes and injures his back , which forces a year's postponement of the tour. As ticket possessors, Tiffani and I propose to our western New York friends Drew and Mary Beiter that they join us for the show to complete our 4 tickets, and they agree to a weekend visit and concert. Subsequently, and coincidentally to Bono, a back injury keeps Mary from traveling, so it was then suggested that the boys attend instead: Drew's Mitch, and our Nick. The plan was to organize all the folks ...

Stacy, a Grand Ledge graduate, explaining the labeling machine that was acquired from Budweiser. Cruising through the  Twitter  this winter , I note that  Aradia  -- a semi-local brewpub, and of which mom and dad are founding members -- is having what they term a 'beer dinner' on April 28, which also happens to be dad's 70th birthday. Thinking that it's a natural occasion and destination to celebrate dad, the Turner boys scheme to get him there. When we arrived (albeit, a little late, due to unforeseen Michigan Avenue construction in Battle Creek), we were provided with a brief tour of Arcadia's production facility, and given a menu agenda for the evening. Chef Sean described the evening's meal as turning food inside out, changing our perception of what we typically perceive, encounter, and eat. Tables were set up separate from the restaurant, again on the production side, where they were white-linen clad, and supplied with plates of Swiss...

This past weekend, I had the good fortune (and good sense) to go to Traverse City for the ceremony to induct Cynthia into the Traverse City Bowling Hall of Fame... Of course, before you can be awarded...you have to bowl. I got to see Cyn and Glen in action with one of their regular (and favorite) groups on Friday night. Glen, his cousins Frank (Sonny) and Al with Connie and of course, Cynthia. The inductee! Everyone wanted their picture with the hall of famer! Two very handsome photos of Cyn and Glen... Cyn and fellow 2011 inductee More family photos.... Devyn, Jamie, Dennis and Cyn me and cyn (family resemblance?) the evening had a fantastic Elvis tribute singer during dinner (and a ventriloquist !! after dinner) wow. Yooperman joined us for breakfast the next day.. Thanks, Cyn for a great reason to come up to your city! It was wonderful to see how loved and respected you are by the whole bowling community...I am not at all surprised!

Tiffani and my one word DALMAC summary: awesome! The weather was occasionally brutal , poor enough for some of the rest of the time, and delightful on the final day. But the sheer fact of riding 325 miles over 4 days with (dwindling) like-minded people was really inspiring. Then, a day off for Labor Day , and WHAM! Back to school and my new job. The timeline of our DALMAC: Day 1 Thursday's route took us from the  MSU Pavilion to Vestaburg, which we managed by 1 or so P.M. But, of course there was a complication: in all of the lists and preparations , I had decided to chill our four water bottles in the refrigerator, and you can sense where this narrative is going: we discovered they were left at home when we were en route with Dad and the kids to our departure spot. And Dad, of course, shoved the slight panic aside by volunteering to drop us off, then retrieve our bottles, and meet us somewhere north later that morning. We hooked up with an ex-student and -athlete of m...

The Turner/Crocker clan trooped off to the Breslin Center on a recent Friday for the Caravan Circus 's visit to the mid-Michigan area, and it was as much of a treat to the adults as it was the kids. See how excited they are? I don't really see the point of clowns, but the kids seem to enjoy them. Even the famous Flying Wallendas were part of the attraction. The 7th inning stretch.

Emilee with her friends Gabby and Emily just before the banquet. The gang had gathered for pictures. Great looking group. Can't believe she is growing up this fast!

New Years found the weather mild, and the Belknap Turners itching to do something outside. Sorry I wasn't able to capture Cori and Tiffani in the photos, but it was a good 90 minutes at Fitzgerald Park's sledding hill nonetheless.

For the past couple of weeks we had been finally considering another dog, Otis having passed in June. Evenings found us as an easily-lampoonable suburban yuppie couple, each of us window shopping on our respective laptops on the couch. On our Sunday bicycle ride we earnestly began discussing the characteristics that we wanted: mature dogs, no puppies; a rescue from a shelter, not something for which we had to pay. But Tiffani spotted Izzy on CraigsList and all that criteria gladly went out the window. Contact with the owner was made, and we drove ourselves to Belding yesterday afternoon with the kids to see if the dog and our family would be a good, two-way fit. The owner was forced to get rid of her due to a breakup and she was sad to see her go. She's a Catahoula Leopard , of which we'd never heard , and the breed seems to have a colorful, if not completely fantastical story. The kids all played with her and Cori walked her, so Izzy slept well in a crate overnight, I hard...

Video and description coming soon.

The games yesterday were wet and the fields reflected the weather, as did the kiddies. Tiffani suggested a picture after the game, with both a front and back shot, but only some of the troops cooperated or understood. That's Seamus's distraction -- er, best buddy, Max -- on his left. Dylan, 4th from left, had no qualms about walking directly to each puddle to stand in, reveling in the quality of the mud, flicking it with his cleats toward the goalie coach (me) like a bull preparing to charge.

In the instruction phase, it's all about the confidence. In the aftermath, it's all about the freedom. Family friendly edit Original, adult version

So, we're exiting the High School after working out and playing basketball with the kids on Sunday, and with the wealth of rain we received over the weekend, there was a commensurate wealth of worms on the sidewalks and pavement. Tiffani offered a Big Mac to whomever chewed and swallowed a worm, to which there were no acceptors of the challenge. Cue to our turn on to Belknap Street a few moments later, and the peripheral notice of the giant puddle that appears every spring behind the house on the corner (recall the rain mentioned in the previous paragraph). The weather was cool and gray, certainly not swimming conditions in the midwest, but a new challenge was proffered: submergence in the Belknap Lake would also merit a Big Mac. The results... Big Macs all around. Sophia charged out of the van for the water, but Nick's chum, Ezra, was the first to actually log roll through. Warm showers, and then a hot lunch .

Thanks to the downturn in the economy, Glen's company hasn't had much work, so he hasn't had any either. In this northern Michigan winter that will not end, he turned his attention to indoor projects, which got him started on "sprucing up" his pow wow regalia. When he realized how much he enjoyed doing that, he started working on things for other people. This is all very labor-intensive stuff and I'm very impressed with his efforts. Thought you might like to see some. The first thing he made was a fancy strap for his "medicine bag" In the olden days, the longer white and dark pieces would be made of hollowed-out animal bone and horn. Nowadays, if you can't find those items, it's acceptable to use plastic. There's a couple of local places where you can actually get bone and horn "stringers". From the first project, he went on to make a tiny breast plate for our 4 year old grandson, Parker. All of the beads, buttons, fringe, etc,...