Reading today: Livonia Observer newspaper
Music today: Rediscovered 96.3 WDVD radio
TV today: first half of "Oprah"
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We leave for our first experimental camping trip tomorrow. By experimental I mean first time with our Bug. The Big Bug (Roman). That's our own little pet nickname for him - no stealing! Stems back from the rattle-crinkle bug we took to the orphanage. He wouldn't stop eating the crinkle wings. Anyway...

We're going about an hour north, so if there are any problems we can come back in no time. Supposed to be low 80s with 50% chance of thunderstorms. We have a popup camper, but still... there's only so much fun even 2 adults could have in a popup. Throw in an active 11 month old, and it could be hard.

Excited though. It's so nice to have nothing to do, and truly nothing to distract us. We read. And that's about it. Oh, and drink, but we'll have to do that after Bug goes to bed. Speaking of bugs... what is being called the "periodic cicadas" are making their appearance any day now. Confused often with locusts (thus, a plague), they emerge every 17 years for 2 weeks of frenzied mating and egg-laying. Then the larva drop and burrow into the ground again for another 17 years or so. It's said that in these parts of Michigan, it will be one of the largest "crops" of bugs to hit. Yay.

Here's a fun fact about periodic cicadas - if you stood next to a male bug when he is at the peak of making his mating noises, it would be as loud as a full-powered lawnmower. Also, in the country there can be as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre, due to the fact there are no real known predators of this type of cicada. Yay.

They will disappear by the end of June, experts say.