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A couple weeks ago, Marvel started a new X-Men series that is sort of resetting the timeline of the X-Men comics. There are two series, House of X and Power of X, each six issues long with an interconnecting story line. When you pick up the comic, you can tell these things are legit. They're heavy, printed on thick sheets of paper, and the colors are really vibrant. Plus, the story has been EXCELLENT so far. When I went and got the first issues in the series, I without thinking asked for variant covers of two of the comics, because in my mind, variant covers are automatically cooler. While they do tend to be cool, I've also noticed that lots of times variant covers don't necessarily match the story inside the comic. And after I finished those two issues, I sort of regretted the variant covers and wanted to find copies of the comics with the original covers. The one problem? There are nary an issue to be found. These issues are really popular right now (with House of X #...

Only a few days after we moved to Dexter, John discovered a B2B trail that started in Dexter and went several miles out to Huron Metropark.  I can still remember how excited he was to tell me about it when I was at Interlochen.  He was jumping in adjoining Mill Creek after every run to cool off.  When I got back, I started walking it immediately. It's a great "trail".  It really is a mile-long boardwalk that connects to a paved footpath that winds through forests and meadows.  It's almost perfectly flat, and it comes with a porta-potty a couple miles out that is always stocked well with toilet paper.  I've walked it through both negative winter temperatures and arctic winds as well as through oppressive humidity and sun.  It feels like the best times to walk it are in spring and fall, but I must admit that I've gotten used to the harsh winter months.  It's really the best way to get into a winter, Narnia-like forest, and I rarely see anyone else...

I appreciate the activities and experiences that I have chosen to have over the years that have taught me important things.  I don't choose to do them with the intent of being taught, but inevitably, with my introverted self, I find analogies for real life.  When I was running marathons, I initially set out to run the first just because I wanted to see if I could, but I learned many things along the way about perseverance, pain, the important of support systems, and crossing the finish line of life.  The same goes for SCUBA diving.  We set out to learn how to dive because we thought it would be cool, and we could do something we hadn't done before, but I have learned more about myself and the human experience by taking the plunge (yes, pun intended). I've written about it before, but I'll never forget when my mask failed at 80 feet off the south side of Grand Cayman.  It was the first dive I had made with Mac, and he noticed that I had bubbles coming out of my...

At our last Mia Maid presidency meeting, I asked the presidency what they wanted to do for a class activity....with some caveats (if I leave it completely up to them, we always  end up cooking in the church's kitchen).  I gave them three options:  go to the temple as a class, do the Cherry Republic scavenger hunt downtown, or just hang out at someone's home (not mine, obviously) and watch a movie.  To my utter delight, the girls chose going to the temple! Sometimes when I throw out these big ideas, I kind of regret it a half a second later because I realize it's a lot of work and/or stress.  However, I had been asking my own YW presidency to figure out how to get the girls to the temple with no success, so I figured if the girls wanted it, and voted for it, we were going to do it! It wasn't hard at all.  I sent out a text to the parents of all 12 girls, asking if they would like to come.  I knew several were already out of town (it being the summer...