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to piggyback off this - my…

to piggyback off this - my family goes up north every year and we generally end up a different place every time. we love being right on the water (usually lake michigan), but find it fairly difficult to locate a rental with enough space (generally looking for 6 bedrooms) that has a sandy beach (four kids between the families) and isn't $8,000 a week. we're considering alternating between having an expensive year right on lake michigan with the alternate year on a cheaper inland lake. i know of several of the lake being discussed here (torch, crystal, walloon, higgins) and have looked at rentals on them, but the prices are generally close to being right on lake michigan.

can anyone recommend a lake that is good for a family up north vacation, doesn't have to be the absolute prettiest, but good for swimming for little kids, low key, pretty quiet in terms of boat/jet ski traffic (or no wake)? burt and mullet piqued my interest, but wondering if there are others. or if anyone has recommendations for finding rentals through local agencies (we usually use vrbo or airbnb), that would be great too. we're willing to go anywhere in the lower peninsula, and would consider something that was close to the bridge in the up.

thanks all. love the…

thanks all. love the discussion.

hey sopwith, question for…

hey sopwith, question for you - if the antibody tests aren't very accurate about telling us if we've had covid/still have immunity to it, do you think anything will be developed to test for those memory b and t cells, or is it unrealistic to do on a large scale? i'm one of those people who are looking back at a january illness and wondering if i had it (sickest i've ever been with fever, body aches and cough, negative influenza, treated for pneumonia after a week of misery at home). maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it sure would be nice to know if i was immune for the next year or so. also, if you've answered this in one of your diaries, i'm happy to read it there. thanks for the info you provide.

yep, my thoughts exactly…

yep, my thoughts exactly. and life going forward is going to take so much figuring out, it will be unfortunate if we spend time and energy on things like reconfiguring office space and taking temps, etc, when that doesn't address a significant risk - namely, breathing the same air as other people for hours.

not sure if this got posted…

not sure if this got posted in any other thread, but thought it was interesting.

 

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?emc=edit_nn_20200511&segment_id=27239&nl=the-morning&user_id=5ec91bc7309a90b4a4dba23347130d1f&regi_id=81565784&te=1&instance_id=18384&campaign_id=9

 

if it's correct, it seems like spending 8 hours in an office with other people breathing the same air is just not a great idea. understand there are sectors that can't avoid it, but many can.

yes, we would notice…

yes, we would notice. seasonal flu and cold season goes thru nursing homes every year, as employees and visitors bring it in. every 75-80 year old does not just die b.c they got a cold (which is what it sounded like you implied). and even if that were somehow true, during the peak in southeast michigan u of m filled their ICUs with patients on ventilators who were and are on them for weeks and were pulling nurses from other areas of the hospital to help staff. this is very noticeable - hospitals don't do that just for kicks. it isn't all about the death rate - people being really sick on ventilators for weeks because of a novel illness (so it's in addition to what our expected capacity is, i believe u of m runs at 95% capacity normally) is a big strain on our health care system. i don't want an overstretched, burned icu team taking care of me that is using general care nurses b.c they don't have the icu nurses. and i say that as a general care nurse. we can convert hospital beds into ICU beds, we can build field hospitals, we can ramp up ventilator production. we can't create ICU nurses or doctors or respiratory therapists or lab techs or radiologists or x-ray techs or the cleaning team who now has to do at least double the work due to new protocols or all the other people who keep a hospital running with their specialized knowledge and experience.

would love some advice. we…

would love some advice. we live in ann arbor with a reasonably sized lot. i love the idea of growing food but feel a bit lost in the weeds. we put in a 4x8 raised bed when we moved in (6ish years ago) and i just kind of throw seedlings in and see what happens. we have a timed irrigation system and bird netting enclosing it and the critters seem to leave it alone for the most part. the first few years the tomatoes did well, but the last few years have been very poor. lettuce and kale do great. zucchini does well. peppers have never done well and i've given up on those (it's in the sunniest spot we could put it in, but it's not quite full sun). other things i've tried (cauliflower, cucumber) doesn't grow large enough to make it worth it. i tried bush beans, but didn't get enough beans off them to be worth it. i throw in a bag or so of something (compost, manure) before planting, but i'm wondering if i need to test the soil to see if it's been depleted of specific things. 

i also have a couple a blueberry bush i bought and put in a few years ago. it seems to do well and fruits but i'm wondering if i need to be thinking about the acidity of the soil - does it deplete? would also love to plant strawberries and maybe fruit trees, but have no idea where to start, if our yard would work for them, etc. 

tldr - i'd love a 'edible gardening for dummies in southeast michigan' that will tell me step by step what i should do.

hey xtra, have you and your…

hey xtra, have you and your wife ever written out anything about your approach to homeschooling? our son is 4 and we're starting to bounce around ideas for what education might look like for him. i'm interested in getting as many opinions/experiences as we can as we think about it.

fitnessblender.com

workouts…

fitnessblender.com

workouts are free and you can filter by length, type, body area focus, intensity, and available equipment (including no equipment). i worked out with a trainer at least weekly over a three year period and i feel like these are as high quality as his workouts. i think there's really something for everyone, no matter how out of shape or in shape. there are some paid options for workout programs and meal programs, which i've never tried, b.c i feel like it's the rare free offering that is really well done, not just bait to get you to pay. 

i find the allusions to h1n1…

i find the allusions to h1n1 really interesting, b.c i just had a conversation with some friends about this. their perspective was that it was completely overblown, one of them had it and was completely fine, so the whole thing was no big deal. i remember h1n1 as a big deal. i was working at mott. it wasn't the bubonic plague part two (which seems to be often the only reason people would concede we need to be concerned bout something) but it hit young people particularly hard, so that the hospital's ECMO circuits (heart/lung machines, the most life support you can be on) were fully of young, healthy people without other medical complications - to the point where scheduled surgeries were stopped, b.c you can't do open heart surgery on someone if you don't have the ability to put them on ECMO if they need it. just think about that please - a major academic level 3 hospital with the sickest people in the area wasn't operating - b.c of h1n1. so there were obviously the people who actually got h1n1 bad enough to be hospitalized that were affected - but everyone else who was sick and needed hospitalization at the same time was affected too. i feel like we have this need to categorize things either as a big deal, everyone is going to die, or it's nothing and completely hype. i'm guessing covid is going to land somewhere in between - and not b.c of it's death rate. but b.c our health care systems are not equipped to deal with extra sick people, supplies are not stockpiled and the supply chains seem to already be being affected, etc. caveat - i know covid specifically seems to be serious only for the old, so only using the example from h1n1 to show it's not only the death rate/infection rate that makes an impact. also thought this article was really interesting, particularly from a perspective of how the death rate from h1n1 is still not agreed upon, and how it truly was different between locales:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/11/26/247379604/2009-flu-pandemic-was-10-times-more-deadly-than-previously-thought

 

 

thanks all - really helpful.

thanks all - really helpful.

helpful as always, rgard. i…

helpful as always, rgard. i take it those are all season?

priorities for non-winter…

priorities for non-winter would be wet grip and handling, i'd say. we don't go soft roading on purpose ever, but have certainly been down some seasonal roads up north that pushed the definition of road, so that's a helpful point.

i know this is late to the…

i know this is late to the party and probably won't be read. i just had influenza. i didn't get my flu shot for the first time this year b.c of laziness and forgetfulness. i am young and healthy. i've never had the flu before. i did not die. i still wish i got the shot. i was miserable for 10 days, i got pneumonia, my husband had to work from home for a week and take care of the kids while i couldn't get out of bed. i am way better now, but still weak, tired and my lungs probably won't be completely normal for several weeks. there isn't only 'die or not die', there is also 'get the flu and be miserable or not'. everyone else in the house got the shot, and did not get sick. i know the flu shot is a long way from 100%. i'm still grateful for it and have been duly punished for not availing myself of it. i know this wasn't really your point, and i can't argue with your experience of 10+ years, but just wanted to offer another perspective.

there are websites that will…

there are websites that will tell you specific car seat configurations that will fit in specific cars. this is an example:

https://www.thecarcrashdetective.com/3-across-car-seat-guide-html/

the problem with measurements is that it isn't as straight forward as the width of the car seats added together being less than the width of the back seat - how the seats fit next to each other can prevent it, even if the addition works out. i've looked into whether we could do three across our outback, but it would require buying new car seats.

 

caveat - mgomom

there are websites that will…

.

i've posted this before but…

i've posted this before but i think it bears repeating.

i used to work at the old mott. one day i noticed an older man standing at the intersection of two halls, looking lost. i asked if i could help. it was lloyd carr looking for the pctu (the icu for kids who just had heart surgery). i walked him over, and as we walked tried to ask him questions but he kept turning the conversation back to me. i did find out he was visiting a family with a very sick child - with no fanfare, just because they were big fans and it would lift their spirits. i thanked him for it, and he was just so gracious in his reply, saying all the tough work was done by hospital employees and we were the ones to thank. 

not too long after that, i went to the first under the lights. one of the most electrifying experiences of my life, and as we're walking back after the game, still high on adrenaline, i turn around and lloyd carr was behind us. not sure what to say, so fell back on "go blue!" to which he responded in kind. it felt like the perfect end to the night - but also kinda crazy that lloyd carr was walking back thru allmendinger park after a night football game with the masses.

logged in just to say this…

logged in just to say this is one of my favorite places on earth. maybe specifically narnia.

any detroit-style experts…

any detroit-style experts here? i have a great recipe that means ordering pizza is always a disappointment, but i have not been able to find brick cheese. does anyone know any sources around ann arbor?

i recently took over making…

i recently took over making the turkey and gravy from my mom for thanksgiving. we are in the streamline stage of life (two young kids), so i've adapted from the traditional roast a turkey the day of and then make the gravy. the last two years i've sous vide'd the turkey. it have come out amazing - one of the rare times the easier way is also the better way, but doesn't give you pan drippings to use for gravy. i used cook's illustrated recipe for make ahead gravy, using the wings and other extra bits to brown first in the pan to start the flavor base, which means i can make it a day or two ahead. but here's the realization i've come to - turkey just doesn't have a lot of flavor, so it's not surprising that the gravy doesn't have a lot of flavor. i've found that adding a splash (or two) of white wine takes the gravy from tasting fine to tasting good and providing a good balance of flavor to the turkey and mashed potatoes. 

we went to dessous earlier…

we went to dessous earlier this month for my birthday. it's melange reinvented, as of june - same owners, but they have brought in eve as a consulting chef, from my understanding. it was very, very good. the atmosphere on a friday night got a bit noisier as it got later (they have a live band over by the bar on weekends) so not as quiet and romantic as, say, the earle, but good ambiance and we highly enjoyed everything we got - appetizer, entrees and dessert. service was good, but low key - i think they make an effort to not be too fussy or pretentious. we will definitely be going back.

mini-van (!) though not for a

mini-van (!) though not for a couple years, unless our 2001 honda civic goes first. seems like they have improved a lot as a class and i hear positive things about several (odyssey, sienna) but curious if there were any deciding factors that pushed people towards one or another, and if they have been happy with it.

thanks

those were good reads. we're ultimately practical people, so feels like we're minivan bound. sounds like things are better than the aerostar days, though.

we started out looking at the

we started out looking at the crosstrek (as in, certain that's what we would buy if we got a subaru). and i had made fun of my sister and brother-in-law for getting an outback, since they seemed so huge. but then we opened the trunk of the crosstrek and.... it's just so tiny. of course, the salesman had a forester at a really good price if we wanted to test drive that - which we did, and felt like, maybe the space would be nice. the next time we went to the dealership, driving an outback seemed like a good idea - and were just hooked by the space. but we go up north at least every few months with a bike, and now with a kid have other junk to take, so it's worked out really well for us. but if we didn't have a kid, i think we would have gone with the crosstrek.

it will probably be a few years

but next car for us will most likely be a minivan or third row suv when we decide trying to put three car seats across is ridiculous. i grew up with ford aerostars until they came out with the windstar and i'm a little scarred, so i have a fantasy about avoiding a minivan but seems like that's what most people end up with. anyone get a minivan and wish they got something different? anyone get a third row suv and wish they got a minivan? anything coming down the pipeline that is intriguing?

just got an outback

we just got an outback last june, so we've been thru one winter with it. we actually got some input from these threads before we bought, and got the same advice - just get winter tires! and i have no doubt everyone is right and knows what they're talking about - but man. the awd. it was such a difference driving in the snow. i grew up in michigan, feel pretty comfortable driving in snow and ice, and i had a car that i thought handled reasonably well in the snow. but driving the outback just made it feel like weather was a non-issue when considering going out. it felt really comfortable and responsive, no matter the conditions. and... why not just have awd AND winter tires? also, the space is wonderful for taking a bunch of gear up north (both outdoor and baby related for us)

awww

have to jump in and offer a different perspective as a wife, since i think my husband enjoys his game days with his family. as this is our first football season with a baby (8 months), they aren't quite 'traditions', but.... zingerman's coffee and pastries for a late breakfast, watch the game if it's at noon, go out for a walk if it's later, hope the baby takes long naps during the game, laugh when he invariably doesn't, look forward to the day when we aren't trying to prevent him from looking at the screen all the time and he hopefully wants to watch the game too (most two year olds like watching a football game, right?)

petoskey

we're in petoskey for the weekend - any advice? we have our 6 month old with us, so looking for something a bit family-friendly (also our first season figuring out how watching football with a baby works).

congratulations!! we're five

congratulations!! we're five months in with our first - best thing ever.

i do love my concrete.

i do love my concrete.

yeah, i just embrace the

yeah, i just embrace the etching. and try to work with the more acidic foods on the concrete perimeter, but i'm not super uptight about it.

my mom has had white laminate

my mom has had white laminate in her kitchen forever, with a butcher block island. they re-did some of the kitchen a few years back, and she went with white laminate again. it's so durable and cleans up really nicely with a mildly abrasive cleaner. not the trendiest/most beautiful thing, but really hardworking. 

how do you reheat coffee? or

how do you reheat coffee? or spaghetti?

marble

marble

yeah, it's the last year they

yeah, it's the last year they offered a manual on the outback. my understanding is the reason they don't anymore is to meet fuel efficiency requirements, as  the manual transmission added too much weight - but don't quote me. the forester and crosstrek still both have a manual trim level.

hey jeepin' ben

just wanted to thank you, as well as hatter, skurnie, swan flu, ghostofhoke and dr jaws for weighing in last week on subaru/other options for a crossover-ish family car. in case it's interesting to hear the resolution (i know a lot of people ask advice in tct threads about buying a car), we found the unicorn - a 2014 manual outback - and bought it saturday. my contribution to #savethemanuals. and i'm pretty sure this means i can just drive however i want in the snow since it's awd, right? i hear it's especially good for helping you stop.

 

/s

when you say better off with

when you say better off with the third pedal - do you mean the benefit of, say, downshifting to get up a slippery hill outweighs 4wd? i've only ever owned manuals and never had 4wd so i have no experience comparing, but i feel like i use the manual transmission in snow in ways that help me that i wouldn't be able to with an automatic - but i'm not really a car person, so i don't know if there are better words to articulate what i'm saying or if it's not as much of a benefit as i imagine it to be. and i feel like the 4wd debate is confusing - i hear people saying the majority of drivers don't need it, just get good snow tires, but there are definitely people who have it on their every day car and love it for weather conditions. are they just imagining a benefit? is there any sort of objective testing on 2wd/good tires vs 4wd?

if only i had a nickel for

if only i had a nickel for every time someone told us to get a minivan.... though it seems like most people who say it don't own minivans themselves.

the plan is for this to be the primary car for kids/vacation until a minivan is necessary. we currently have two older civics ('97 and '01), so when we find our unicorn of a car (did i mention i'd really like it to be a manual?), we'll get rid of the '97, keep the '01 for an in-town work commute, and then sell it once we get a minivan.

pretty sure the rule only applies to original owner. hence used.

wife here

as far as the space we need, we do lots of trips around the state, and while we had stuff we liked to take before (biking, water sports), with a baby there's just so much more. we want a car that can handle all that, as well as another kid(s) at some point in the future. we test drove a cross trek, and it just doesn't seem to have enough space. plus, a real downside for me is how most cars now seem to have such poor visibility out the back with teardrop shaped windows, which was true in the crosstrek but not the outback or forester. (we also test drove a mazda cx-5, which i really liked, but had similar rear visiblity issues and had less cargo space). 

as far as needing 4wd.... eh. we both have civics that are fantastic in the snow, which seems to be a result of how the weight is balanced over the car. there have been situations where higher clearance would have been helpful, and maybe 4wd? for me, it's more of a question of if subaru outback/forester ticks all the other boxes better than other cars (reliability, cargo space, availability, price) and then the 4wd is a bonus, of which we'll see how useful it is?

budget would be $15,000-20,000, looking at used, 2010 and onward. 

only home workout

this is the only home workout where i felt like it was close to as intense as working out with a trainer:

 

https://www.fitnessblender.com/

 

it's free, you can search by many different metrics (time, difficulty level, equpment, body area, technique) and they are legit good work outs (ametuer opinion, based on working out with a trainer for 3 year and trying various home workout methods). it really helped for me because my biggest obstacles to working out at home were/are boredom and getting off track if i was doing a method (e.g., oh, i didn't do the video yesterday, might as well give up until next week). no matter what time i had or how i was feeling, i could find something to do on here. you can come up with your own weekly outine, do whatever you're feeling on a day to day basis, or pay a bit of money for a structured plan.

malfunction in the UP

in high school i drove a ford escape across a chunk of the up (cedarville to houghton). i had cruise control on for those 55mph, 2 lane roads with no traffic on them, but started noticing my speed kept creeping up. turned cruise control off, no change. i pulled over on the side of the road, which caused the brakes to smell horrible, and called ford (it was a lease car). they told me my fastest bet was to continue on into marquette to a ford dealer and have it checked out, as we were in the middle of nowhere and a tow truck would take an eternity. that was fine for the time we continued on the two lane roads, but trying to drive through marquette was too much for my 16 year old nerves at that point - sitting at every stop light, the engine continuosly revved and the car smelled like burning rubber. so the dealership came and towed the car. turns out the connection to the gas wasn't disengaging after the crusie control had been turned on (a car person could explain this much better, i am sure), therefore the continuous acceleration. they were able to fix it in a couple hours and we continued on our way to houghton. 

as an aside - anyone have any tips for negotiating a used car price at a dealership? think we may be close to pulling the trigger, but don't have any experience with car buying.

my husband is getting dinner

my husband is getting dinner together so i can read mgoblog. pretty good valentine's day.

apparently

apparently yes. 

wait

So in honor of that and Brian's new addition, let's talk some ideas for Michigan legacy baby names!

did i miss something?

I had looked at the

I had looked at the countryman but was turned off by consumer report's low ranking of brand reliability. Wasn't sure if they have a generally good/poor reputation.

late to the party....

but i'll throw in a request for advice as well.....

we're expecting our first baby in a few weeks and have been looking at getting a more baby friendly car. we're drive cars into the ground type of people - we currently have a '97 civic with 160k and a '01 civic with almost 200k on it. we're looking for a hatchback AWD, 2010 or more recent, around $20,000, reasonably compatible with a car seat. we'd really like to have a manual transmission as well. the majority of driving would probably be short distances in town (ann arbor), with a few road trips a year. from what i've been looking at, a subaru crosstrek seems to fit the bill pretty well. anyone have any other suggestions?

there is also some interesting research

there is also some interesting research about the health benefits of full fat dairy products coming out.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/02/12/275376259/the-full-fat-p…

obviously it doesn't help for people who are lactose intolerant, but i don't think we can say 'milk is actually far from the healthiest option'. there is so much about metabolism we don't understand.

there was another one

there was a ponderosa on stadium, near liberty. it's gourmet garden now. (not actually relevant to the topic, but just for historical accuracy :)

this.

21 years olds should be idealistic and think they can change the world, making them a bit insufferable to be around at times. at least he's thinking and trying. the cynicism and apathy comes for too many too quickly. and he's even taken it beyond normal college-age idealism of sitting around in coffee shops and talking about things - he actually built something and is trying out this lifestyle. i would guess it will teach him some things, most of all that very little in this life is simple. but bravo to him for trying it out - and it would be really interesting to have a follow up interview in a year or two.

i think yost deserves the credit

granted, bo's quote about a michigan man is much more well known, but yost used the term in speeches. this is probably the best known one:

"My heart is so full at this moment, I fear I could say little else. But do let me reiterate the Spirit of Michigan. It is based on a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways. An enthusiasm that makes it second nature for Michigan Men to spread the gospel of their university to the world's distant outposts. And a conviction that nowhere, is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours."

this is what i think of when i think of a michigan man - it doesn't matter where you came from, went to school, who you coached under - 'getting it' is getting how wonderful michigan is, which anyone from any background can get, therefore getting rid of that inbred nonsense.