After exhausting Bronner's, but not ourselves, we had other stuff to do in Frankenmuth, the Bavarian-themed city. First was getting over to the Cheese Haus to see what kinds of cheese they might have. The first disappointing part was: no free samples. Those haven't been brought back since the pandemic began, since we can only bring back ( Read more... )

bunny_hugger's birthday was our next big event; it was also, you may recall, Election Day. I had voted early at the community center nearby and got one of those wolverine-tearing-his-shirt stickers. She voted the day of, with a lunchtime wait that wasn't anything to speak of, somewhat surprising me; we both expected a higher turnout. Well, that wouldn't ( Read more... )

This week my humor blog saw the conclusion of two projects, the long-running reposting of the MST3K fan fiction based on Sonic the Hedgehog fan fiction Jaded Views and me riffing on what I guess is accidental clickbait where I give answers to where area code 661 is, just as though 661 were a real area code that exists somewhere.

• MiSTed: Jaded ( Read more... )

Other things done at Kennywood. One was getting to the Old Mill ride, which the updated National Historic District sign explained had been named Panama Canal, Fairyland Floats, and Garfield's Nightmare at different points in its history. Never the Tunnel of Love, though, though it is the sort of ride they're talking about when an old-time ( Read more... )

So what to say about our day at Kennywood. Our first ride was the Merry-Go-Round, of course, the one not quite a century old. It also would be our last ride of the night. Two rides, in fact; we went out and got a second go-round. That second time I recognized someone, an older (that is, maybe my age) man wearing a t-shirt with a tuxedo printed ( Read more... )

We did not get up early enough to hit Kennywood at opening, which we expected would probably cost us time on some rides. Exterminator, most likely, since the indoor spinning wild mouse ride gets long lines early and never ends. And since we were going on a Saturday, a warm but not brutally hot sunny day, we figured the park would be packed. ( Read more... )

Among the many things we lost to Covid-19 was Pinburgh, the center of the pinball calendar, greatest contest in the world. It ran as an adjunct to the ReplayFX convention, and alongside Pinburgh ran several side tournaments, the Intergalactic Pinball Tournament and the Women's International Pinball Tournament. The vast collection of the ( Read more... )

Couple Saturdays ago we were at the hipster bar where we play pinball, for the several-times-delayed Women's Launch Party for the John Wick table. As we were going upstairs to set things up we saw the little chalkboard standee proclaiming: 'High Score - HMZ - 50' and 'Beers and Cheers for 50 Years'. And on the big table, the one we always use ( Read more... )

So the big family reunion (mine) for early August, and bunny_hugger's brother's wedding, meant that bunny_hugger would miss the chance to go to the Jackson County Fair and the Calhoun County Fair, where she's racked up like three ribbons per photograph submitted the last couple years. The obvious alternative: find some other fairs she could submit to. Thus, and our ( Read more... )

What's happening on my humor blog? I was baffled by the most baffling comic strip out there, and then I looked at my statistics to see that people don't know where area code 661 is. I'm running with that. Here's what you missed if you didn't see it as it happened:

• MiSTed: Jaded Views, Part 18
• Thank you, _Compu-Toon_, for sitting on my ( Read more... )