Riding to Cure Diabetes

For the past nine year's my wife Mary and I have been participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Ride for a Cure. Three year's ago our then 15 year old son Ian joined us. Each year we ride train by riding hundreds, in some cases thousands, of miles to be ready to do an epic JDRF ride. Six times we've ridden in Death Valley, once in the mountains of Vermont, and last year all the way around Lake Tahoe. This year's ride will be in Nashville, Tennessee and will require the most climbing of any ride we've done. But all the bicycle riding is only half the story. The real reason we are out there is to raise money to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Our older son, Jake, was diagnosed with Type 1 sixteen years ago when he was only six years old. As a family we are committed to do everything we can to help him fight this life threatening disease.

This is where you come in. Since our first ride in 2005 our family has raised over $72,000 for diabetes research. This year we have a goal of $12,000. You can help us reach that goal by clicking on this link and making a donation. All amounts are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for your support.

Tom, Ian and Mary at the start of the JDRF Lake Tahoe Ride in September 2012.

Have a beer

There are over 100 craft breweries in Michigan. The state is becoming well known for it's exceptional beers. Grand Rapids shares the title of Beer City USA with Asheville, North Carolina. Recently I decided to visit as many as possible. This means actually going to the establishment, not just drinking their beer in a bar or at the Winter Beer Festival next month. So, in no particular order, here is a list of the Michigan brewers that have had the pleasure of having my butt in one of their seats.

Founder's, Grand Rapids
New Holland, Holland
Grand Rapids Brewing Company, GR
The Hideout, GR
Harmony, GR
Brewery Vivant, GR
Hop Cat, GR
Saugatuck Brewing Company, Sauagtuck
Arbor Brewing Company, Ann Arbor
Arcadia, Battle Creek
B.O.B.s Brewery, GR
Perrin, Comstock Park
Old Boys Brewhouse, Spring Lake
Olde Penninsula, Kalamazoo
Waldorff, Hastings
Mountain Town Station, Mt. Pleasant

I noticed a few things when compiling this list. First, there are a few breweries that I left off because they no longer exist (i.e. Mackinac Brewing Company). Second, even though I've had a lot of their beer I've never actually been inside Bell's in Kalamazoo. That will need to be rectified soon. Finally, it looks like I still have plenty of places to visit.
Cheers!

Looking back at 2012

This past year has been an interesting one, full of new adventures and opportunities. The economic downtown of the last couple of year's adversely affected my business, driving sales to their lowest point ever. In 2012 things picked up a bit and stabilized. We're still not back to pre-2010 levels, but things are moving in the right direction. On the other hand Mary's business, Connie's Cake's, is doing fantastic. She found a new space in Eastown she really liked and spent a good portion of the last year planning and negotiating and then in November signed a lease. Build out started and is scheduled to be completed in the first week of January. The new shop is at 1416 Robinson Road in the historic Kingsley Building.

One of my passions is traveling and we got to investigate some new places this year. In August we spent a few days at The Headlands in northern Michigan with Mary's brother, sisters, in-laws and mom. The Headlands is located on the shore of Lake Michigan near Mackinaw City. It is an international Dark Sky Park, so the theory is that the lack of light pollution allows you to see the stars well. Unfortunately, during our visit there was a full moon that pretty much washed out the entire night sky. We did see a spectacular blood red moon set at 4:00 a.m. one morning. We also brought our mountain bikes and rode the trails in the park. The whole group spent a day on Mackinac Island. Mary and I did a lot of hiking on the island, visiting some very old cemeteries, churches and forts.

In September we did our annual JDRF bike ride. This year we opted for the ride at Lake Tahoe instead of our usual Death Valley excursion. To say it was a glorious ride would be an understatement. The weather, scenery, and atmosphere were all perfect. The people we rode with were a lot of fun and we raised a lot of money for the cause. You can read more about it on my other blog More Than 100 Miles.

Speaking of JDRF we presented the 8th annual Jake's Music Festival in April at Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids. It was our most successful event ever raising over $6,000 for Type 1 diabetes research. The band line-up seems to get better every year and we have high hopes for the 2013 edition, which takes place April 13th.

To jump back to the travel for a moment, I attended a public relations conference in Chicago in July and took Mary along with me. We've been to Chicago a lot but this was a unique experience because we didn't have the kids with us and we we're staying in a very nice hotel, the Marriott on Michigan Avenue. We spent one evening with our Chicago friend's Susan and Elvin. We also went to a couple of parties sponsored by conference vendors. One was on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building. Great views from way up there and we had a special elevator to get to the top. The next night's party was at the House of Blues. That was big, loud fun. We even got Blues Brother style sunglasses to wear for the evening.

I could write another entire post about what the kids did in 2012 and perhaps I will at a later date. Although given the frequency I post to this blog, don't hold your breath.

See you on the other side.

Posting from the iPad

As I've mentioned before I use this blog to test new stuff. Today I'm testing posting from my iPad.

World's worst outdoor dining

I've seen some pretty ridiculous "outdoor dining" set-ups. Tables overlooking gigantic parking lots. Tables stuck in the sun next to busy streets. Yes, people do like to eat outside, but not every restaurant should offer the option.

We were in Chicago last week and walked past this place a couple of times. It's near Michigan Avenue. The outdoor tables are within inches of a busy, four lane, one way street. Overhead there is construction scaffolding. Because of the construction, the sidewalk is down to about a third of it's normal width, which means lots of people push past diners in both directions. It could be worse. At least it's not 100 degrees outside. Oh wait...

Hawks in the backyard

Since early this spring we have had a pair of red tailed hawks nesting in one of the maple trees in our backyard. We watched them build the nest, which is nothing more than a loose grouping of twigs and sticks, in a crook of the tree. For the past several weeks one of the hawks always seems to be in the nest. We think they are sitting on eggs. Both the mommy and daddy hawk take turns sitting. We assume the other one is out hunting. We've only seen the two together a few times. Because of their position in the tree we haven't been able to get a good photo of them. Until tonight!

When it's 100 degrees outside everyone likes to dip their feet in the water.

We we're having dinner and all of sudden one of the hawks was standing in our birdbath. I had put water in it last night and we often see cardinals, robins and bluejays enjoying the bath. But tonight one of the hawks decided to take a dip and all the little birds, not to mention the chipmunks and squirrels, scattered. He (although it may have been the she) stood there for a few moments and then dunked it's tail feathers into the water several times. I was able to get a couple of nice photos from inside the house, but when I moved to get a better angle he took off and landed high up in one of our trees. It was amazing to see that large of a bird in the birdbath. It will be interesting once the eggs hatch.

I resemble that remark

Yep. This is me. From our friends at The Oatmeal.
I'm really looking forward to warmer weather so I can actually get outside and ride bikes again.