Detroit Diva

Damn, I was hoping the Shrub's press conference today was going to be an announcement of his resignation. No such luck.  In local political news, Jackie Currie, the City of Detroit's former City Clerk, the person who oversaw Detroit elections, and the hirer of friends and relatives, was voted out of office in the November election mainly due to the fact that the Feds had come in and were investigating her for voter and ballot (she alledgedly sent absentee ballots to dead people and amazingly enough got them back) fraud.  Here's the irony - Ms. Currie has asked for a recount of the ballots and her reason for a recount, you ask? She cites voting irregularities.  What's the problem? Not enough dead people voting these days? Jeez, the nerve of some people.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  Mine was pretty good – I went up north and spent the weekend with my family.  Other than the fact that the toilet backed up and we had to run down to my sister’s house to pee (which isn’t fun when it’s 5 degrees and snowy), it was a pretty good weekend. I went to a hockey game with my dad, brother, and nephew. The Alpena Ice Diggers vs. the Youngstown Phantoms.  Don’t you love those names. The Ice Diggers won, which apparently they never do. The teams are made up of kids in the 17-21 year old range and I think that pretty much explains the large number of teenage girls at the game. Not that I don’t understand wanting to go where the boys are – hey I get all giddy over a certain man (at work, no less) and you wouldn’t believe the excuses I can come up with to walk by his office. Juvenile and stupid, I know. Oh well, let’s not go there cuz it’s pretty sad.

Have you seen the preview for the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, starring Paul Giamatti, The Lady in the Water? Oooh, creepy.

Sarah at The Banterbury Tales sent me the link to this article bout a riot at an Ikea store opening in London. Note to self: Remember to stay the hell away from Ikea on the first day. Yikes.

I'm heading to Northern Michigan tomorrow for Thanksgiving with the family so I won't be posting until Sunday or Monday. I hope you all have a great holiday and safe journeys, if you're traveling.  If you have time on your hands over the holiday go check out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I really liked it but it's kind of weird to see the kids getting older (check out the Weasley twins - my God, are they like 30 in real life or what?). I thought Mad Eye Moody was hilarious.  let me know what you think about it. 

I know it took me a long time to post this but everytime I tried to get into Typepad it was down. Of course, I didn't have any Typepad problems until after I told them that I wasn't having any problems and didn't have to be reimbursed for lst month's fee. Should of knocked on wood when I said that. Oh, well here it is.

I went to Chicago over the weekend with Cathy, Jane, and Chris.  I know I said something about posting pictures last week and I would have done so but my pictures turned out really dark.  My batteries were dying as I was taking the pictures and I think that’s why they didn’t turn out.  I had grabbed batteries on my way out of the house on Friday but it turned out I grabbed the AAA’s and I needed AA’s.  So, you don’t get to see any pictures from the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Historic Skyscrapers tour.  It was a really interesting tour.  Cathy and I had both read the book Devil and the White City which is primarily about the Chicago World Expo of 1893 and talks a lot about the buildings that were built for the Expo, including what is today, Soldier’s Field, the Field Museum and the Chicago Art Institute, and the architects that designed them.  The tour guide talked about the Expo and we visited other buildings by some of those same architects.  I read a review in the Chicago Sun Times last Sunday about the book The Chicago Architectural Club by Wilbert Hasbrouk and I’d really like to read it – Chicago’s architecture is really fascinating and if you ever get a chance try and make time to do one of the many CAF tours.

After the tour we met up with my friend Melanie, who is a librarian at the Chicago Art Institute for lunch at a very packed and crazy Marshall Field’s.  In one of those it’s such a small world things -- it turns out that Melanie’s Grandpa and Jane’s Dad were close friends. Melanie and Jane met for the first time on Saturday and I don’t even know how they discovered the connection. I was telling my Mom about it and she thinks she knew Melanie’s Grandma and Grandpa, too. That is if they were Mel and Marge. Which I don’t know.

After that we hit Michigan Avenue, which was just insane, so after looking in a few stores, each packed with people, we went back to the hotel and pigged out on all the food Jane and Chris brought. The ladies know how to do it up – dips, biscotti, crackers, cheese, wine, etc.  Cathy and I brought nothing. Yikes, sorry! Next time the spread’s on us.

On Friday night, Cathy’s brother John took us to an Ethiopian restaurant called Mama Desta’s for dinner and then very kindly picked up that tab. Thanks, John! If you haven’t tried Ethiopian, just do it because I can’t describe what it’s all about other than it’s sort of Middle Eastern, sort of Indian, veggies and meat served family style with a spongy bread that you use instead of utensils. It’s good – go get some.

On Saturday night, we all went to Italian Village for dinner. Cathy and I have been there before and it’s so good. It’s Italian, what’s not to love.

Sunday morning was Ikea. Ooooh, ahhhh. I have never been in a store that damn big. Wow. It wasn’t exactly overwhelming just way too much stuff to look at in a couple of hours.  I didn’t get a couch or chair because they don’t break down enough to fit in a car. Go figure. Oh, well – I’m now waiting until the Detroit area store opens next summer. Business Week had a big article on Ikea recently and if you’re the first person in line at a new store opening they give you a $4000 gift certificate. While that would be nice, the last person who got one set up camp outside the Seattle Ikea 7 days before it opened. Yeah, I don’t think so.  Although if they kept me supplied with Swedish Fish and Ikea coffee, I might consider it.

I'm working on a long post but in the meantime check out these pix over at Yep, Another Goddamned Blog. They're from the shrub's visit to Japan. The captions are hilarious.

Just when you think people can't get any dumber - you get this.  The Detroit Pistons played the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento the other night and some genius with the Kings organization came up with this bright idea -- when the Pistons are introduced at the beginning of the game, let's show a montage showing all the bad things about Detroit.  Abandoned buildings, garbage on the streets, etc.  Hey, that won't be offensive, racist, or anything but funny.  Well, guess what wonderkin, the people of Detroit don't find it funny.  The NBA doesn't find it funny. The citizens of Sacramento shouldn't find it funny.  It's not funny, it's sad and pathetic.  The Kings have said they won't be firing anyone over the incident which I think is a shame. I would fire them for showing such ignorance and unprofessionalism.  At the very least they should have to come to Detroit and apologize in front of the crowd at a Pistons game. If you're going to be stupid, you should suffer some consequences and apologizing before a crowd would certainly make you think twice before doing something stupid again.  There should be some very ashamed people in Sacramento (and not just Arnald) right now.

I want to say hello to Sarah, who I met via e-mail through my friend Melanie.  Cathy and I finally met Sarah in person last night when we got together to knit.  I showed Sarah the knit stitch, which she caught onto really quickly. She then went home and taught herself how to cast on. WooHoo! In addition to a knitter, Sarah's also a blogger (check out her The Banterbury Tales) and a soon to be library school student.  I was complaining to her about my inability to post pictures that aren't the size of posters on my blog and she told me about flickr.com.  I'm going to check it out and hopefully you'll be able to see some photos here soon. Photos of what is an entirely different story. Maybe of my trip to Chicago this weekend.  I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Cat sent me a link to Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas over at McSweeney's (so ya know it's going to be funny). All of the dispatches are pretty funny but I really like number 9 and the Patron of the Week.  I know that you non-librarians will read and think that he's making it up. He's not.  My favorite patron of the week from my own library is one a little old lady that called a co-worker of mine.  She wanted the number to NASA. When my co-worker asked if there was a particular area of NASA she wanted (because they had a ton of areas and phone numbers), she said that she wanted the department that handled space heaters because her house was cold and she wanted to order one.  True, yes, true story. You could not make this stuff up.

Our past President, Bill Clinton, our should've been President, John Kerry, and our future President, Hillary Clinton, are in town today for Rosa Parks funeral.  See the pics here.