Vinny Got Run Over by a Mazda!

Okay! Maybe the title is in poor taste. But its my blog, and I'll laugh if I want to. So anyway, for those who have not heard, Vince was involved in a little accident last week. On Wednesday night, as he was returning to his apartment after work, Vince was hit by a car while crossing the street. He had the light, but someone making a left-hand turn behind him just didn't see him. He landed about 15-20 feet from the crosswalk on his side. Miraculously, nothing appears to be broken or permanently damaged, but we'll let the doctors make that decision. Needless to say, Vince took a ride to the hospital, where he spent 2 hours in the ER getting poked, prodded, bandaged and X-rayed. He was given some pain medicine and asked to do a follow-up with his local doctor in one week. He received some scrapes, bruises and sore muscles, and spent most of the remainder of the week resting in the apartment. But he is back at work on Monday, and getting around reasonably well. We hope the doctors will give him a clean bill of health later this week.

Oooooo....Bad Blogger!

So we started this blog with the best of intentions. Every other day for the first week or two and then transitioning to once a week. However, as you can see, our last post was over a month ago. But we have some news now.

For those who haven't heard, we will soon be moving back to Chicago. Vince has been asked to return to the position of assistant registrar at Garrett-Evangelical. This came as a bit of a surprise a few weeks ago, as Vince was not actively looking for another job. But when this opportunity, as well as the opportunity for advancement in the seminary, came along, we knew we couldn't turn it down. So Vince moves back this week to start at the beginning of December. April plans to stay in her position in Detroit through the end of January, when she and the pets will join Vince.

525,600 minutes

How Do You Measure - Measure A Year?

So here we are at the end of our first year of marriage. It has been a year full of ups and downs and lots of changes. And we start this year ready for the next. We celebrated our anniversary much as we celebrated our wedding - with a little alone time and a little time with friends.

To start off our anniversary weekend, we went to the Coach Insignia restaurant. This is a very nice restaurant which sits on the 72nd floor at the top of the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. We had a very nice view of the river and Canada on the other side. We toasted one another as we started our meal, which began with their famous Lobster Corn Dogs. No, I know that sounds a little strange, but they are quite outstanding - bits of lobster coated with a light batter and then fried. Oh, yeah - they're on skewers. :-) Then April had a very tasty salad, followed by seared sea scallops and risotto. Vince had a 10 oz filet Mignon and a baked potato that was almost as big as a football. Desert consisted of a pumpkin chocolate tart - pumpkin pie filling in a crumb tart shell covered with chocolate mousse.

On Saturday, we invited friends over to share an evening of finger food and games with us. There was a game of Skip-Bo, a rousing bout of War, Mancala, an extremely long round of Phase 10 that was called after about two and a half hours, followed by a couple of rounds of Clue. Lots of friends came over to share this evening with us, some we realized we hadn't seen in several months. They also brought over some outstanding food to share with us, which we are still enjoying today.

On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we spent a lazy day at home after church. We exchanged cards and just enjoyed each others company and the company of our pets, as well as a few phone calls from family and friends.

We are looking forward to many more years of celebration with one another. And we look forward to enjoying those years with our families and friends, those we haven't yet met and all of the neighbors we meet along the way.

How Do You Measure/A Year In The Life?

How About Love? How About Love? How About Love?

Measure In Love

Confession is good for the soul?

We all know the old adage that confession is good for the soul...and I hate to drop this kind of thing on you all over the internet...but this is just something I couldn't talk to you about face to face....Are you ready? Here goes...



I bought the new P!nk album...



And I LOVE IT!!!


I am listening to it constantly. It is a great companion on my daily 30 minute commute. It is thoughtful, crass, upbeat, dancy, sensitive. It's also a bit unorthodox, but I can't help but find it charming and fun!


The album begins with a song called "Stupid Girls," which basically chronicles the lives of the Paris Hilton types. My favorite verse is this: "What happened to the dream of a girl president? She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent. They travel in packs of two or three with their itsy bitsy doggies and their teenie weenie tees. Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?" CLASSIC...


P!nk and the Indigo Girls partner up for a song called "Dear Mr. President." This is truly an amazing song! It's a one-sided conversation from P!nk to the pres. She asks, "What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?" AND "What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?" I have listened to this song a million times. I think the Urban Tumbleweeds may need to come out of retirement on this one!



The penultimate song on the album...yes, I've missed being in seminary where I get to use words like penultimate...is called "Conversations with My 13 Year Old Self." How many of us would wish for this chance? To talk with ourselves when we were that awkward thirteen year old, wishing that life wasn't so crazy. I would love to go back to that April...and tell her it does get better...but not without some work.


So this is just a taste of P!nk. There's really not a bad song on the album. I highly recommend that you rush out and get I'm Not Dead. You can don't even have to rush out...sit in your pjs and download it now!

Crazy Weather?

So, I know that weather in Michigan can be crazy anyway. People love the cliche that if you don't like the weather, wait a few days. However, the weather this weekend has really been crazy. This week, we are approaching our first anniversary. Last year, during the week leading up to the wedding, we had some light snow showers here in the big D. All of our family from the South was freaking out, wondering if we should be out driving. Of course, none of the snow was sticking; it was less annoying than a misty rain. But it was still kind of funny.

Here we are one year later, and today the high was 90. It was 90 yesterday, and it's supposed to be 90 again tomorrow. No one's even considering snow right now. Well, not for a couple of days, anyway.
;-)

Tub-time for Duchess

This week has been a super busy one, but there's always time for the "wet-dog" look.

Duchess got a bath this weekend. She's actually quite good in the tub, but she doesn't like it. She was quite stinky when we got her. She had just been spayed and wasn't allowed to be bathed for at least a week. So we had a couple of weeks of grit and grime to scrub off.

Afterwards, she was pretty pouty...at least she had a fresh lavender scent!

A Trip to The Henry Ford

A couple of weeks ago, Vince's parents came through town for the beginning of a train trip to California. The plan was to spend a couple of days in Detroit before jumping a train to Chicago and then from there to California and back. On the Monday they were here, we all went to The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn. The museum was really great. There was a display on rock stars' cars and guitars, lots of historical displays - including some toys from our childhood...

...and, of course, cars.

One of the displays talked about the struggle for liberty in this country and included the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot and the bus that Rosa Parks was riding when she refused to give up her seat.

Greenfield Village is a historical little town that Henry Ford began in the early 1900s as a place to save buildings slated for destruction. It began as a way to save his own childhood home, and now includes buildings from all over the world. We saw a house that Frost had lived in in Ann Arbor and some of the buildings that Edison had done his work in among others.

Unfortunately they had to cut the trip short when Granddaddy went into the hospital for a couple of days with chest pain. They were able to reschedule their trip and will be swinging back through here in a few weeks.

Our darling Duchess

By popular demand, we present the newest addition to our family...Duchess. We got Duchess last Saturday. She was rescued from an apartment where she was abandoned when her owners were evicted. She's an older girl...probably between 6 and 9 years old, but she's super sweet. She's a Scottish Terrier whose hair is growing back after falling out because of poor care. We are still working on the doggie/kitties interactions. Hopefully, this will get better with time. Check back when we've got some better pics of her. She's new, so she's a bit camera shy.

The blog to begin all blogs...

As shocking as this may be to some...yes...April and Vince have created a blog. This isn't even one of those up-too-late, "I-have-a-crazy-idea" moments either. It was a idea that was discussed many times before the ever-impulsive April finally just went to blogger.com and picked a random name. The story of the name is thus: Vince decided, when he got his new email addy, that our last name was too long. So he took the "McG" of April's name and the "El" of his name and created McGel. We know it sounds like some bad new dessert at McDonald's...but what are you going to do.

And so here we are. We do not promise daily entries, but we do hope that you will check in with us as we find our voice. We hope this will be a place for us to share what's going on in our world, discuss serious topics, bemoan our woes, and gush over our excitements.

Visit our online home whenever you like...the door's always open at McGels.