Warmest Regards

Just in time for Halloween, this bat showed up in the hallway to our apartment on Prospect. He was thoroughly confused through the whole ordeal. I swept him into a box (ever so gently) and dumped him onto a bush in the backyard where he swung into bat formation. From my very limited knowledge of bats, I understood that it is difficult (maybe impossible) for them to fly from a laid-out position on the floor or in a box. The next morning he was gone, so I'm hoping all is well.

Bat factoids:
I did some research and found out that less than 1% of bats in Michigan are likely to have rabies, but it's still something not to really mess with. batcon.org suggest that most bats who get into homes are younger bats who are simply lost. oh! and a small brown bat can eat 1200 insects in an hour!!!

The work on Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate in Chicago's Millenium Park continues with six or so workers in Tyvek suits grinding and polishing-out the seams on the underside. I think this is quickly becoming the most photographed public sculpture in the world. I was skeptical, but it's really quite something. On the downside, the city has started renting parts of the park for private parties... hu? It is going towards operating costs for concerts and up-keep, but it's still a controversial move. Toyota reportedly paid $800,000 to rent the park for day in September. Grand Rapids own Rosa Parks circle is also operating largely on Corporate Sponsorship these days. Is this problematic, or a fine way to run city parks?

My brother Brandon, Meagan, Anne Brown and I went camping over the weekend at Hoffmaster. Sunday morning Brandon made some amazing hot-dog omelets for us all while we played UNO and drank coffee. I haven't been more relaxed in a long time. We're calling it the 1st ANNUAL 1st FROST CAMPING EXTRAVAGANZA! There was no frost, nor extravaganza, but sometimes tradition needs a little help from unjustified pomp. Basically, what you do is look for the first freezing weekend of the season and go for it.

My brother is now playing drums with David in Cains and Abels. Besides how much I like David's writing, and this band in general, this is great for a few reasons:

1) I used to play drums and things for this band, and
2) I have never seen my brother play even though he's been in half a dozen bands and
3) I like his drumming a ton

So they played on Friday at the DAAC with Tiger Passion. Not a ton of people showed, but both bands sounded great I thought. It's much much easier to hear a quite two piece band than a rock band like Tiger Passion at the DAAC (on account of the brick walls) Check out that snare drum by the way. CUSTOM!!!