Back in the day, Chris Shea, Adam Lamb, Austin Moening and I built a 4-story tree fort in the fields by my backyard. It started as a 1-story fort but we could not resist the urge to continue to build higher on the perfectly-suited tree. It was a majestic thing with a superfluance of nails.

The first level was enclosed in plywood and the second and third levels were just floors made of 2 x 4s. The fourth floor was more like a ceiling or roof. There were no guard rails on the fourth floor and it was very high up and kind of scary. It was one of the triumphant accomplishments of my youth. Me and Shea hung out there a lot--and yet--I don't have a single picture to prove it.

Update: I found a picture of us on the fort but it is at night and all you can see is a 2x4.  I was talking with Chris the other day and he said that my aunt took a picture of us all on the fort.  I will have to search my parents' albums for that photo.  Dave, when can I borrow that document feed scanner?

A rival fort emerged near the top of the hill by the power lines in the fields.  It was probably more soundly constructed and it was completely enclosed on all four sides.  However, it did not have the height that ours had.

I remember that me and some of my high school buddies challenged the owners of the rival fort to a game of capture the flag.  The flag was a person from the other team that you had to rescue and return to your fort. 

What resulted was a fierce and no-holds-barred competition.  Not content to simply chase or out run us, the other team absconded Rick Davies and began to give him an ample beating.

That pretty much ended the game.  We treated our captives nicely though.  Despite the fact that they were forced to sit atop the fourth story where there was no guard rail, we provided them with efervescent beverages from my dad's green cooler and "gentlemen's" magazines.

In the summer of 2004 my friend Luke's family went on their annual canoeing trip and newsie682, Kate and I tagged along for all the fun. I don't know the name of the river that we went canoeing on, but it was at least two or three hours north of Grand Rapids MI. I remember first taking some pictures of newsie682 sleeping in the car and she hated the way they look (but I will put them on the internet anyway because she is so darn adorable). When we got there I also took some photos of Luke's family. You might notice a douche bag named Dave in those photos (in the reflection). He cut his own bangs just a few days before. Look how sexy they are.



Once newsie682 and I got into the water and were on our way we came into some difficult times in canoeing because we both really didn't know how to work together. We seemed to be both going the wrong way together at all times. And it didn't help at all to have all of these objects reaching out over the river where you can get . . . Read More..

newsie682 and I went with a bunch of friends out to a cottage in Grand Bend Ontario some of her sorority friends (including Kelly) rented out. I think we went out on a Friday or something and came back on Sunday. We only stayed over a couple of nights, but we had so much fun out there.



The drive was super easy from the Detroit area and we found it easily. That night we all got drunk and chilled out. The next day we hit up the beach, but before that, we stopped by the liquor store and it started raining like hell out. I ended up getting a wine bottle cap too for 2 dollars. I think newsie682 bought it for me.



The beach was really nice. We played a lot of football in the water with the guys that were there and I went on a nice walk with newsie682 out to the pier. I dont remember much more of that time at the beach, mostly just relaxing and drinking. But what I do remember is my run that I did before dinner that night. I ended up running with this guy that was there to the . . . Read More..

Before we left for a standard Taylor family party (including Mike,Patsy,
Sheila and Barb who havent signed up for memorycrawler yet), my mom reminded me that we should give Mike his old 1968 jacket back. This jacket was given to us probably because he moved a lot over the years. The thing is fantastic. It is super skinny, brown leather and even has a spot to hide your marijuana (remember its a hippie jacket). Since we were giving it back I decided to go all out and dress up like a total desuche bag hippie.

Just look at the photos. The funny thing about that day was the fact that newsie682 randomly wore a cowgirl type outfit.

I think I resemble Scott Wylat from Stone temple Pilots in these photos. It was pretty funny. I totally had an alter ego when I was dressed up like that.