Monthly Archives: August 2008

This is good … right?

The Detroit Free Press has been slowly releasing its high school football preseason top 25; when 11-15 came out, who should be included but little old Chelsea:

Since the Detroit newspapers’ western world tends to end at Ann Arbor, it’s nice to see Chelsea getting some love in the Free Press.  But … well, preseason rankings are among my least favorite things in the whole world, right down there with dentist visits and Brent Musberger.  Preseason rankings are like political conventions: they’re obnoxious and largely irrelevant and thus should be ignored, but for some reason they still manage to affect perceptions (particularly in the realm of college football, where the preseason rankings directly affect the early-season rankings — but that’s another post).  But they’re here and they’re not going away, so … woooo!  We’re number 14, and we didn’t even have to play a down of football to get there!

Oh, and don’t forget: Chelsea opens the season this Friday evening at 7:00 at Ann Arbor Huron.  If you’re not there, I will hunt you down and drag you to the next game.  It would probably be pretty embarassing for you to be dragged anywhere by me, so I’d suggest you save yourself all that embarrassment and just show up at Huron on Friday.

Sadly, Uniteds / Tatesofamerica didn’t qualify

The other day, I was watching the United States’ beach volleyball tandem of Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers dismantle yet another hapless opponent.  The victim happened to be a team from the country of Georgia, formerly a division of USSR, Inc. and currently in a whammy-kablammy conflict with Russia.  (Insert your own “no, not THAT Georgia” joke here.)  It wasn’t much of a match, as Dalhausser is approximately twelve feet tall and uses his eight-mile wingspan to block the pathetic spike attempts of mere mortals, but it was notable for two reasons: first, the victory put the United States into the gold medal game, where they defeated Brazil to win the whole kit and caboodle (and give the U.S. the beach sweep, as the U.S. women won gold a day earlier); second, the names of the pair from Georgia … well, take a look for yourself.

Park it real good, vol. 2

Biker Mike and I helped Artist Ashley and Mathematical Laura move over the weekend, and during an intermediate stop at Arborland Mall, we watched someone park in a Blue Wheelchair Man Group parking spot.  He had the necessary permit, but … well, I’m not sure about his parking skills.

Self-flagellation at its finest

Last weekend, I traveled up north* with Mathematical Laura, Troubadour Jenny, Road Trip Andrew and Biker Mike.  Laura’s family has a cabin on Hubbard Lake — located somewhere between nowhere and the end of the earth, a location some progressive cartographers call “the Alpena area” — and they graciously allowed us to invade Barkley North for the weekend.

*(For those of you unfamiliar with Michigan, “up north” means “wait, where did all the people go, and who put all these trees and lakes here?”  For many of us Michiganders from the population-dense southeast, up north is a pleasant escape; for other Michiganders who enjoy stress, traffic and endless seas of cookie-cutter home developments and obnoxious chain drug stores, up north is a strange foreign place filled with … well, nothing.  Which is to say it’s filled with lots of things that used to exist in southeastern Michigan before someone decided that pavement and strip malls were way better than icky dirty things like trees and grass and open space.)

Like many such lakes, Hubbard Lake features copious amounts of water, which makes it ideal for fast water-based activities like water skiing, tubing and motion sickness.  And, like many such cabins, Barkley North features a boat that allows its occupants to enjoy those activities (except for motion sickness, which is difficult to enjoy).  I don’t often get the chance to photograph things like water skiing and tubing, so this presented an opportunity for me to have some fun with my camera.

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