...and we're back.

December 2, 2008:
Our trip to the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi, Finland. After going through the pictures on my camera, I realized that all the good ones were taken with Becky's camera. Hopefully one of us will post those soon too.






December 14, 2008:
The last night in our apartment in Oulu, Finland. At this point, the only thing we had left in our apartment was our luggage and mattresses. Everything else, including the light fixtures and curtains, was moved out. This is a picture of Becky using her computer on the floor of living room.

December 19, 2008:
These are some pictures from my Dad's house in Michigan. That's a pretty big snow drift at the back door.


That's my Dad clearing the driveway.


Here's my goofball friend Eric in front of his house.

These are his bunnies. If you look in their eyes, you can see the hellfire that spawned them.

December 25, 2008:
Some pictures of Stoney Creek Metropark. You can see that I learned to stay warm since living in Oulu.

Here's my Dad!

America's Least Green States.

I just read this article and it ranked the "green-ness" of all the US states. The five at the bottom of the list are:

• 45 - Kentucky
  
• 46 - Mississippi
  
• 47 - Louisiana
  
• 48 - Alabama
  
• 49 - Indiana
  
• 50 - West Virginia
  

They are at the bottom of the list because they "all suffer from a mix of toxic waste, lots of pollution and consumption, and no clear plans to do anything about it." At the top of the list are:

• 1 - Vermont
  
• 2 - Oregon
  
• 3 - Washington
  
• 4 - Hawaii
  
• 5 - Maryland
  

Michigan is near the middle at number 24. Why are Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana always at the bottom of every list? Do the people of these states just not care about anything?

Stoney Creek.

Here are some pictures of Stoney Creek when my dad and I walked the entire 6 mile path on January 2, 2007.

Squuuuuuuuirrel!

These videos and picture were taken in Dodge Park. By the way, the title of this post is a homage to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which is one of the finest comedies ever made.



This is the best video out of all of them. Check out how fat the tree rat is.

Michigan Pictures.

Here are some pictures of my trip to Michigan so far.

This is a tree that a beaver had it's way with in Dodge Park.

Here's another one.

Here's my dad pointing out what beavers can do.

Here's the same tree, sans my dad.

This is the view from the top of a hill in Stoney Creek Metropark.


Winter-time in southeastern Michigan is usually like this.


The remains of the old Stoney Creek farm.



The old road that led to the farm, with a new stone table placed in the middle of it for some reason.

Where Do You Want To Live?

According to this list, 61% of the cities on the list are safer than Tuscaloosa. This place has about the same number of people as Sterling Heights, MI (my hometown). Only 4% of cities on the list are safer than Sterling Heights and it's a suburb of Detroit (99.7% of cities are safer). All of the largest cities in Alabama are pretty high on the list. The safest city in Alabama is Tuscaloosa and the most dangerous is Birmingham where 98.7% of cities on the list are safer.