Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Artisan Cheese


Southeast Michigan is lucky enough to have a small-scale artisan cheese-maker in the area. The Boulevard Market (www.boulevardmarket.com) even has its own, tiny creamery!
Stilton is one of the cheeses to which mold is added to create bleu. I bought two versions of it sans mold – one was cranberry and the other mango and ginger – both too good to be true!
They are all beautiful.

Monday, January 24, 2011

First Responders' Warning


The sign outside the Fire Department about a block from the hockey rink on the Ottawa River.

Ice Sculpture Festival


Sarge & I went to the Tecumseh Ice Sculpture Festival over the weekend. It’s fun to watch the artists carving; they usually get a round of applause at the final touch, a blowtorch to put a shine on the sculpture.

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My favorite was the Air Hockey Table (no air necessary!).

Tecumseh’s downtown covers a relatively small area and retailers took advantage of the extra visitors with other events: a chili cook-off, winery samples, Legion Post breakfast, bake sales, etc. The town was jammed and everyone was ducking into stores and restaurants to get warm.
We went into a little restaurant and they were just blown away. Every table in the place was dirty, although only a few tables had people at them. We waited for about 10 minutes for someone to bring our drinks and then decided that they needed some help. We got up and bussed the tables for them! It took about a half hour to clean up both dining rooms, but the place was presentable when we finished. When we were done, we just left.
It’s fun to drop in, help out, and disappear!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Shawarma Amongst the Cacti



My friend Becky had a great idea for chasing away the winter doldrums – she recommended meeting for dinner at a conservatory!
We went to the one at Matthaei Botanical Gardens; it features a tropical room, a temperate room and an arid room with desert plants. The tropical area has a waterfall, which makes for nice white noise. A Zen garden is featured in the temperate section.
What a rejuvenating way to spend a winter’s evening!

Monday, January 10, 2011

River Rink


Here’s an improvised hockey rink on the Ottawa River in Toledo. This is near the river’s mouth, so it’s one of the deepest points. I’d be so afraid to do this, but I’ve been witnessing a lot of ice play on the Maumee Bay and Maumee River the last few weeks.
These people are braver than I am!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Roomies


I have a roommate!
Nance stayed with me for about a month a few years ago. She is retired and took care of all my home chores for me: cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, garbage, etc. My cats adore her; she spoils them with constant attention and (unlike me) never does anything they don’t like.
She became the regular caretaker for my cats, so she has spent a lot of time at the house. She is familiar with all of the home’s idiosyncrasies – don’t drink the well water, watch for raccoons in the garage loft, don’t run water from two or more receptacles at a time, pump out the crawl space in the spring, etc. She’s fine with my erratic schedule and she likes my cats.
Nance has been there two nights and I and my cats are already spoiled.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Got Resolve?


Drive the speed limit.
I love this time of year; hanging a new calendar makes for a great time to take stock. I usually start getting rid of things at the start of a new year.
I like reflecting over what has passed, assessing what I want and whether or not I’m headed towards it, and the excitement of what the future holds. I’ve learned that I don’t get serious about forming resolutions until January 1st. Then it takes me some time to narrow down what I want, so I usually give myself the entire month to figure them out. I don’t think I’ve ever kept all the ones that I make, but I don’t care. I still keep a lot of them!
This year, I’m having some trouble distinguishing between my “To Do” list and resolutions, but I’ll get there.
What about you?