Ridiculously short vacation recap: Turned 25. No root beer float (yet, thanks Mert) but deep fried turkey, baked turkey, baked ham, two excellent toppings, two vastly different movies, two Great Lakes, two drives in two types of inclement weather, and too little time. The highlight was likely a Lake Superior shoreline walk in what I like to call 'Michigan Saturday weather' (ie outstanding, sun-drenched goodness) on The Castle, or Lots I & II.

Ridiculously short commentary on what went down while I was out: GM faux-cut 30,000 jobs. Clearly I'd think about this differently if I knew somebody whose livelihood was in jeopardy, but as a Big Three advocate and GM owner I would like to see the General cutting things that it hasn't already cut. Re-announcing shift reductions and plant closings that were front page news in July does not fill me with good feelings about the direction of the company. In other news, people died on the slippery roads over Thanksgiving. This makes me sad but it is a close correlation with our acceptance of sub-par driving (and many other things) on a regular basis. From Belleville in the south to Munising in the north, there was too much speed, too few turn signals, and too little respect given to the weather. Driving on slippery roads is tough enough without people charging by on both sides of a UP passing lane - nevermind doing so without a blinker or a buffer of a few feet. I grew up with "watch out for the other guy" in my ear and it paid off bigtime this weekend. Next year, we're travelling by boat.