Detroit Diva

Happy 75th Birthday to Babar the Elephant.

Last night on one of the celebrity gossip shows they were talking to Ivana Trump and they asked her what she would buy if she went shopping at Target.  I don’t think she knew what Target was because she looked kind of confused and kept repeating the word Target. There was a cut away (at which point I’m pretty sure they had to fill her in on the fact that Target is a store) and when they came back she said she would buy sheets at Target.  Sheets to cover her furniture with – like if she was closing up the summer house for the season or something.  Quite sad really.  Poor Ivana does not know the joy of shopping at Target or the apparent pain of sleeping on cheap sheets.  I have some expensive sheets and they are quite nice but we’re talking sheets here. I guess it’s all relative – Ivana can spend $200 on sheets, which is probably cheap to her and I can spend $20 on sheets and still feel like they cost too much.  I looooove Target and to think that there are people who have never shopped there is so heartbreaking – maybe we could get Bono to take it up as a cause.  Are you an over-privileged celebrity who has never shopped at Target? Call us now for help because that’s just sad.

I was reading People last night and they had a corner on one of the pages where they are actually doing a countdown on how many days it's been since anyone has seen TomKat's baby.  It's 63.  On the radio this morning they were talking about it and they speculate that the baby doesn't exist.  As much as I think Tom Cruise is a freak, I really don't think he'd go to the trouble of pretending he and Katie had a baby.  Tom made a statement about the whole thing saying that he and Katie don't want to exploit their baby. Hmmm, apparently it's ok to exploit Katie when she was pregnant by trotting her out like she was some kind of show dog but not the baby. Which is fine, I don't think you should exploit your kids (unless of course they can get you $4 million plus for charity. Ouch!).

In other celeb news, wacky Selma Blair and Ahmet Zappa are getting a divorce.  What? Another Hollywood couple splitting. Reeeaaalllly?

Finally, in non-celeb news - are these not the cutest things ever? Check out some of the other weird stuff they have like the holy toast stamp.  Too funny.

Today's the official first day of summer. Hope you all have a great one!

I've been really lazy about posting this past week, so let me fill you in on what's been happening. The weekend before last I went to see Wicked, which is based on Gregory McGuire's book by the same name. I highly recommend both - the musical, especially, was fantastic.  The next day, Paige and Gina and I headed to Dayton, Ohio to see the Princess Diana exhibit at the Dayton Art Museum. Other than the 4 hour drive and the 2 hour wait to get into the exhibit, it was well worth going to see. They had her wedding dress and other clothes, along with childhood items and the like. It was really well done.  Went to a couple of good restaurants  - an Irish pub and a thai restaurant, both in Dayton's Oregon Historic district.  If you ever get to Dayton be sure to go to the district just to see the historic homes - beautiful!

Today ended the 2 weeks of Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. I lost 9 lbs! On the first phase, the book said you could drop 8-14lbs and get rid of your cravings. Remarkably I have lost my cravings. The past 2 times I've gone to the grocery store I didn't even think about chips or sugar-laden foods. Which, for me, is some kind of miracle.  All 3 of my co-workers lost weight ranging from 4-8lbs. All very good losses for 2 weeks. The craving thing went away for 2 of us and not for the other 2. So while I recommend South Beach, it's obviously different for each person.

In the "fucking pisses me off" categorie:  As if the immigrant roundups I mentioned last week aren't bad enough, the government, in a continuation of it's pogram (no, that's not misspelled) against illegals, has announced that in order to receive Medicaid, applicants will have to prove their citizenship.  What's next? Will we have to prove our citizenship to buy groceries or get treated by a doctor, or prove we can speak English. We have 2 more years of this crap and it gets scarier by the day.

As if the whole immigration thing isn't bad enough, the government has now started rounding up illegal immigrants in cities like Detroit.  Over the past couple of days we've had  Operation Motor City  - law enforcement agents went into restaurants, etc. and arrested 63 people.  This is so scary - I have visions of people walking around with the equivalent of the Star of David pinned to their chests. Maybe a big I.  And if you think that isn't possible think again.  Places like Rwanda and Dafur show that we do let history repeat itself and that the vast majority of us sit by and watch it happen without saying a thing.  I really fear what further damage this administration can wreak.  I never thought I would get to a point where I had such mistrust in the government or believed in conspiracy theories but folks, I am there.

Ikea opens in the Detroit area tomorrow and people started lining up yesterday.  I really think that they should've opened it today since it's 06/06/06 cuz you know that being in the store on the first day is going to be sheer hell.  I'll be checking out Ikea round about August or Spetember when the craziness has died down.

I've been kind of bummed that I didn't get a t-shirt with some NYC kind of thing when I was there in March so for the past few weeks I've been looking for one to get. I finally settled on this one of the Roller Derby team the Brooklyn Bombshells. I think it's cute and I'm kind of fascinated by the whole Roller Derby thing.  Today I surfed over to Mihow and they went to see the Bombshells over the weekend. How freaky is that. Check out all the pics of the Derby they have posted. Way cool.

Reading PovertyBarn today reminded me that tomorrow is 06/06/06.  Hell, Michigan is really getting into the whole 6/6/6 thing and are having all kinds of festivities tomorrow.  I personally would get a big kick out of living in Hell.  Hey where are you from? I'm from Hell,  or to be able to say I'm a member of the Kiwanis Club of Hell (although I have to say I'm a little disturbed by the picture of the Pied Pirate Piper entertaining the couple in bed on the front page of their website. Yes, you read that right.) I can't go to Hell tomorrow but I'm sure we'll be able to see what went on there on the news tomorrow night. I don't know about you but I'm a little superstitious so I won't be going to see The Omen tomorrow. Quite frankly it took me years to get over the original it was so scary and the previews for the new one look even scarier.

Today I'm starting the South Beach Diet along with 3 of my co-workers, one of their husbands, and my sister.  We do phase one for 2 weeks which means no bread, rice, pasta, or fruit for 2 weeks.  The hard part for me is the fruit.  I was at the market yesterday looking at the beautiful strawberries, watermelon, etc. and was totally bummed. I eat 3-4 pieces of fruit a day so I'm a little worried.  But given that the diet says you can lose 8-14lbs in the 2 weeks, I think I can handle the lack of fruit.  I actually think South Beach is very doable  - it basically encourages eating more fish, lean meats, veggies, and whole grains and less high sugar foods and who shouldn't be eating that way.