Slush, Slush Everywhere

Billy Joel tickles the ivories at The Palace of Auburn Hills Saturday night.

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The entire street, neighborhood, city, and county are under three inches of slush today. It will get interesting when it all freezes in a few days. The roads are going to be icy, bumpy, and impassable, and I'm already regretting the decision to sell my hovercraft on eBay.

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Headline: Billy Joel Still Able to Play Piano, Sing at Same Time

The four of us went to Brighton and grabbed Laurie, then zipped over to the Palace to see Billy Joel last weekend. J and I have seen him before. I'm not sure how many times - five or six or eleven or something. He can still pack the Palace and put on a good show. J got these great pictures.


Instead of a giant screen behind the stage, there were long strips of screens that showed various scenes from the stage, and/or pictures of cityscapes or bright colors to go along with the songs.


M and K weren't the youngest people at the show, but there were not many people their age. Here they are standing near the entrance to our section, with Piston Chauncy Billups on the billboard overhead.

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Sleddin'

A few weeks ago, M and K (and three of their friends) piled into the van and we headed to Vets Park for some sledding. I'm not crazy enough to go down the hill with all of its ramps and bumps. I bruise like a grape, as Daffy Duck would say.


M, right, and a couple of neighbor friends show off their sledding gear.

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Birthday Extravaganza
We trekked in what was very pleasant weather to Jackson to visit mom and dad and celebrate all of our family's January and February birthdays. Mary, Jeff, and Daniel were there, and we were able to Skype with John, who was in Australia or New Zealand or the South Pole or somewhere like that.

Happy Birthday, Everyone!


Daniel, K, and M laugh it up with John on Skype.

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This is fantastic! I was hoping we'd get more snow!

I think we're going to need a bigger plow. The ones in our neighborhood have trouble getting closer than six feet to the curb.


M (left) and his friend, M, demonstrate their horn skills. Their identical shirts were not planned.

M and I went to Livonia last weekend to middle school Solo & Ensemble. He performed two songs for his piano solo, and he and his friend (also named M) played a sax/trumpet duet. Both performances earned a One rating, and now he has two more blue medals to add to the one he got last year.


K plays violin in a recent sixth-grade orchestra concert. They have come a long way in the last few months, and sounded very good.

Indoor Tennis Fun

J, K, and I went to see a UM men's tennis match at the indoor tennis facility that hosts K's tennis practices. They were playing North Carolina State. Since years of hating Ohio State has caused most Michigan fans to despise the color red, this seemed an appropriate contest for us to attend. We have seen some of the other non-revenue generating sports, such as swimming, and this match was not only free to watch, but we all got complimentary t-shirts and K won a hat in a raffle. No wonder they don't generate any revenue. For heaven's sake, they only had one can of balls for each court, and the players had to chase the balls around during the match.

They played the doubles matches first, and a UM player crushed an overhead slam that bounced so high it flew into the stands where we were sitting. I reached out and caught it, as I have the reflexes of a cat. I showed the ball to K and J and we laughed a little about it. I commented that for all the time I've sat in the stands during K's practices I've never had a ball go into the stands.

We looked back down at the court to watch the continuation of the game, and realized that while we were joking about the ball, the two NC State players had been standing on the court, staring up at us with an annoyed look, waiting for me to throw it back to them. Oops! Sorry for the delay of game, guys!


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