Detroit Diva

I hope you all had a good holiday weekend. We had rain on Saturday and most of Sunday but that really didn't stop my sister, niece and I from doing anything. Especially since it mainly involved shopping. We went to Ikea where I spent a whopping $3. Yep, 3 whole dollars. I think I've lost my shopping skills.  I bought a cheese grater and a silpat chopping board.  Oooh, aaah.  We followed that up with the new Pirates of the Caribbean.  It's rip roaring pirate fun.  On Sunday we took the kid to the University of Michigan.  It's never too early to instill higher education and vegetarian food at Seva.  None of us are vegetarians but my sister actually ordered tempeh and my niece was all about the homemade quacamole.  I like to eat at Seva when I'm in Ann Arbor, mainly because they have the best yam fries ever.  That was about it for our weekend, they left for home early Monday morning and I spent the rest of the day running errands and laying on my couch watching Weeds.   Now it's back to work which begs the question - Why is it that 3 days of a long weekend go by at 10 times the speed of 3 workdays? Have a good week everyone! 

Thanks to Catherine over at PovertyBarn for checking up on me.  I hadn't posted in so long she thought I might be sick. Nope, just having wireless and laziness problems.

Barbara Kingsolver has written a new book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.  She and her family took a year and only bought food that was grown or raised  in their neighborhood or by themselves.  In the book, Barbara throws in this little tidbit : "If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week."   The amount of oil used to grow our food and primarily, to get the food to us, uses an outrageous amount of oil.  It really makes you think, doesn't it.  I know I'll be heading to my local farmers market on a more regular basis.  My challenge to you is to do the same and to eat just one meal a week with your locally grown food stuff. It's such a small and easy thing - even my small northern hometown has a farmers market - but wow can it make a difference!

I went to Jacksonville,  Florida a week or so ago for a conference.  In between the conference festivities, we took a day trip up to Cumberland Island, Georgia.  The Island is run by the National Park Service and was once owned by the Carnegie family.  You may remember it as the place that John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette got married.  No cars, other than those used by the Park Service are allowed but you can rent bikes or go on one of the many hiking trails.  You also have to pack in food and water and take your garbage out with you. There are restrooms, which is always a bonus.  I recommend 2 things - make a ferry reservation way ahead of time and once there, take the Park Ranger-led tour first.  If you're ever in the area, it's worth the  trip.  Check out my pictures.

From MSNBC.com,

"President Bush used his veto pen for only the second time Tuesday after Congress sent him a war spending bill that would impose timelines to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, which he called a “prescription for chaos.”   And he can say that with a straight, albeit goofy, face. Dude - take the rose colored glasses off.  The chaos has been going on since you took office.  Take 2 pills of resignation and call me in the morning.