My greenest friends, Ric and Jenn.

Cool segment here from the local Traverse City tv news, which did a piece on house addition Ric and Jenn built out of bottles and logs they pulled from a swamp. In the photo here, they're on Torch Lake enjoying their first voyage on a sailboat they restored this summer. Two of the absolute nicest people I've ever known.

Ric is one of my absolute oldest friends ever, going back to Marshall, Michigan and the days of riding bigwheels up and down Mulberry Street and sleds into trees on "Dead Man's Hill." Do you want to hear the story of why they call it "Dead Man's Hill"? Okay, here it is: once, there was a dead guy there. That was the story passed down to us, at least. Chilling, isn't it? I still carry a scar on my forehead from one of its trees. To this day, my parents won't let me sled head-first.