Detroit Diva

I've seen one movie on Roger Ebert's top ten of 2005.  It was Me, You, and Everyone We Know which I thought was ok but wouldn't have put on a list good, bad or otherwise.  I want to see the other 9 on his list though - especially Munich.

Need a gift idea - try one of these t-shirts . Too funny, except for the Michigan one. Haha.

I've been tagged by Catherine over at PovertyBarn.  Here are my 5 random facts.

1. I have a scar on my right hand from putting my hand through our glass front door when I was about 10.  What cracks me up about it is that there are little dot scars around it from where the needle went in when they sewed it up.

2. I've had the same best friend since I was 8.  Hi Jane!

3. I love Tom Jones. A love I share with my Mom, sister, niece, and my friend Mary. What's up pussycat?

4. My favorite holiday is Halloween but I hate to get dressed up in costumes.

5. I love cheesy musicals like Hello Dolly and Mame.

I'm tagging Sarah at The Banterbury Tales. What are your 5 random facts? I'd tag Cat and Jane but they won't give in and get blogs. Blog, dammit, blog.

Peace Cranes

Sarah showed me how to make peace cranes tonight. I made 2 and you can see them in the pic above. Sarah told me that in Japan if you make 1000 cranes you get to make a wish and maybe it comes true? You oughta get something after making 1000 of those babies. We're going to try omega stars at a later date but the origami paper I bought came with instructions for other animals and I'm going to try some of those. Origami makes me feel crafty and other than knitting, I'm not all that crafty.

Check out PovertyBarn for all the latest shrub happenings including Barbara Boxer checking into whether or not W has admitted to an impeachable offense with the whole spying thing. 

Feel the Love

Project for Public Spaces named Detroit's Campus Martius one of the top 12 public squares in the U.S. and Canada.  See article on Martius here.

I was listening to one of the local radio stations on the drive into work this morning and they were doing an interview with chef Mario Batali. Mario has a new cookbook coming out called Mario Tailgates Nascar Style. It turns out Mario is a big Nascar fan and goes to several races a year. I think his tailgate would be worth going to the race for. That sounded kind of dirty didn’t it?  Also, it turns out Mario spends his summers in Michigan, up near Traverse City.  Cool. His favorite restaurant in T.C. is Taqueria Margarita.  So, if you’ve been there let us know how it was. 

Meeting up with Sarah at the Coffee Beanery tonight.  She’s going to show me how to make the omega stars. Yeah!  Thank you Sarah!

This from the American Progress Action Fund: "The Standard-Times reports "A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called 'The Little Red Book.'" The student "was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor [Robert] Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism." Pontbriand said, "I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book. Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it." According to the student, "the Homeland Security agents told him the book was on a 'watch list.'" How's that for irony?  I bet that student gets an A on his paper because he can now incorporate some direct knowledge on fascism and totalitarianism.

Sarah at Banterbury Tales hosted a White Elephant party and she sent me this link that explains what a White Elephant party is all about. Sounds like fun! Keep all those tacky gifts you get this year and you can give them to your friends next year.

In a post earlier this week I talked about the Thai tuna stuff  that Sarah showed me at Trader Joe's.  Well, I tried the Red Curry with Chilies and it was really good.  I thought it would have veggies in it but it didn't,  so next time I would add some vegs but otherwise it was really tasty!

I made muddy buddies this weekend.  They are so good and I'm really hoping I don't eat them all before I can get them to work tomorrow. I made them as a holiday treat for my co-workers and I would really rather not eat them all myself cuz that would just be sad. 

The shrub is now channeling J. Edgar Hoover. The shrub has admitted that he allowed wire tappings of American citizens. On Face the Nation this morning Senators,  Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Lindsey Graham were highly critical of the President.  They stated that there are laws in place that allow for wire tapping as long as you make a court request within 72 hours of the tap.  In other words, as long as the tap can be justified and you go get a court order you can tap anyone you want.  What the President did was circumvent the law and allow for wiretapping without a court order and probably without any justification.  Evidently they tapped people who were making calls overseas and they tapped calls made between New York and California.  Senator Biden made the point that the government could be tapping his mother calling his niece who is living in China and for what reason.  In addition, Senator Graham kept saying that he couldn't understand why the President would do this when there where laws in place that would allow them to tap people if they had sufficient reason.  You know the shrub has messed up when the repubs are on the tube taking shots at him.  Yes sir, I think the shrub is going to see his poll numbers just skyrocket cuz who doesn't like to think the government is wiretapping them?