Why doesn’t anyone have a bike rack any more? It’s a pain in the ass when I need to park it somewhere. I’m being healthy and ecological and have to climb in the bushes to find a place to lock it up. The only thing around with one is the library. Although I guess since I’m at McDonald’s, healthy isn’t the first thought in my head.

I’ve got these stupid songs from Glee (that link goes to a free HD download of the pilot), running through my head. The two songs in particular are You’re the one that I want from Grease and Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. Kind of a cute show, most of the adult characters are pretty lame though (the women especially). I just noticed they’ve got the cast doing Don’t Stop Believin’ at iTunes.

I think I need to go see Night at the Museum II and/or Terminator Salvation some time this weekend.

It’s another awesomely sunny day out too!

So since the last time I looked the temperature has jumped from -8° F to -9° F but the “feels like” has stayed at -26° F!!!! And yet it still says “fair” on the report. But at least they are changing the “WInd Chill Warning” to an “advisory” until 10 AM tomorrow.

At least it’s bright and sunny out!!!

And for my foreign friends -9° F is -22 Celsius and -26° F is -32 Celsius. I’m not sure many of my Costa Rican friends can even comprehend cold that cold…

Everyone, please travel safe during the holiday festivities! In Michigan the roads are awful but be careful no matter how the roads are (especially if you’re drinking while celebrating).

Be thankful that you get to spend time with your family and friends. It’s a time to be nice (so don’t fight with your family about stupid things)!

And if you’re in a place that has snow, don’t forget to go for a ride and look at the Christmas lights!

The roads are awful right now. I’m working my way down to my neck/back doctor’s office and finishing up Christmas shopping as I pass by places. The speed of the traffic determines how many of those errands that I’ll get done. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be anywhere near enough time…

And the weather doesn’t make it look like it’s going to get any better any time soon. That’s Michigan in the center if you can’t tell…

I cannot believe how much gas has dropped in the last few months. It’s really insane, but in a good way.

I was talking two years ago about “how low” prices had dropped but it almost peaked at a dollar less these past few weeks.

FYI, when I buy my gas I try to check DetroitGasPrices.com (I think it’s an offshoot of GasBuddy.com). I’m not going to drive way out of my way for a few cents, but if I’m driving through an area that’s cheap, I’ll wait until I get to the cheaper place…

Random results thoughts – (these are based on my observations not statistical calculations)

I was suprised to get this e-mail a few moments ago…

Subject: Sold out but more to come
Date: November 5, 2008 4:46:47 PM GMT-05:00

With the announcement of a new president and high voter turnout, this election has proven to be historic on many levels. Due to numerous requests to purchase additional newspapers, more copies of today’s Free Press are being printed and delivered to local retail outlets and select locations in outstate Michigan.
They will be available Thursday morning.

It’s just not a typical e-mail that I get from my paper…

Smart marketing though!

15 minutes later – I seem to have gotten a second copy of the same message.

One of the oldest blogs and most political blogs I read is Dean’s World. Their tag line is “Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.” Lots of authors for posts so lots of different viewpoints are shown. They cover topics ranging from politics (mostly) to humor to Battlestar Galactica (and have an open comment post once a weekend where you can talk about anything).

I’m not very political so many times I don’t know what they’re talking about but that doesn’t stop me from coming back. But if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth checking out.

When I say “oldest blog” I mean they are one of the blogs I’ve been reading for the longest time. I’m not sure how I first found them – from a national story or something more local (Dean is in South-East Michigan). Check out some of the many times I’ve mentioned Dean’s World in my blog.

Unfortunately, you do have to register to comment, but they do make it pretty painless and it does count out a lot of the junk.

October is Domestic Violence month. They say one in four of us are affected some way by it and it’s why you’re seeing the purple ribbons this month. Every 15 seconds a woman is battered (it’ll probably take you twice that time to read this blog entry). October is kind of an everything month (there are only 12 months to share) and breast cancer seems to get a lot of the attention and sometimes DV gets overlooked. (Related news.)

First Step is a local shelter in Wayne County and they are celebrating their thirtieth anniversay this year. Over 14,000 crisis calls, 7,000 nights of shelter and 20,000 hours of counseling are provided almost every year. I’ve volunteered with First Step, generally I’d be on call a few times a month (8-12 hour shift) and get called to hospitals (police stations, etc.) and talk to people and their families after they’ve been assaulted, I’ve also done things with the kids such as day care, field trips, etc. I originally started doing this at a shelter in Lansing; taking the kids on field trips and watching them while the Mother’s were in meetings/sessions. Field trips were just the older kids (ones who walk on their own), but when were were just watching the kids it was from infants on up.

First Step always having fund raising events so keep your eyes out for those, it’s a way to donate and have fun at the same time (sometimes it’s a movie night with auctions, shopping at department stores [you get a discount and they get a cut]). Shelters are always looking for donations, please don’t just think of them around the holidays, they need donations all year round. They always need volunteers to help. My links here just point to First Step, please search around for services in your area.

So the school system in the State of Michigan has an option as part of it’s retirement plan. You can actually “purchase” up to five years of work (called Universal Buy-In) and then then when you have twenty-five years of work into the system it actually counts as thirty so you can retire five years early. Now it’s a convoluted formula based on your age, your maximum salary and how many years you have in the system; so the younger you are and the least you make they cheaper it is. Plus, they’ll take the money out of your check pre-tax dollars so you can get into this deal for as about $35 less every two-weeks (that’s $50 pre-tax). When I got in on the deal the plan was better, now they charge you interest on what you owe, so now you’re better off paying it off fast, before you had to spread it out. (Warning: if you’re bored now, the post really doesn’t get much more interesting. The part in bold near the bottom is the slightly/semi-interesting part that caused me to write this post.)

I recommend this plan* to people who are in the Michigan retirement system and I always mention it to the new teachers at school. The younger you are when you start the cheaper this will be; I don’t want to hear you say you can’t afford it, you can start this at about $17 a week, that’s not that much and it should really pay off in the long run.

In my case, I didn’t hear about it until I had been in the system for a few years so it wasn’t cheap but since I knew I’d get five extra years of retirement payments so it seemed like a deal to me. I had it spread out evenly over the years I had left so it’s been getting paid down slowly.More details: If you leave the system (aren’t employed for a while by this system) they credit the years you’ve paid for and if you come back they’ll redo the above calculation with you being older, making more, having more years in system and factor in interest. This didn’t sound like such a good deal to me. Also, If you don’t actually work the 25 years, you have to wait until you’re sixty years old and it just increases your payment (or I think you can roll it in to some other kind of retirement).

So late last year I decided I wanted this paid off work was way too stressful late last year and I felt as if I could quit at any time, so I increased my contribution quit a bit. It wasn’t going very fast so I stopped contributing to my other IRA/403b retirement-type things and put almost all of my check into paying this off (I lived off of savings in the meantime) and eight paychecks later I was done. Hopefully, putting that much in pre-tax doesn’t goof up my exemptions come tax time.

This allowed me a few different things:

I hadn’t been feeling great these past few days and yesterday it got a little worse, I did go in but since I’m worse today I’m thinking that wasn’t the best idea. Actually the last seven days have been pretty busy, so not a shocker that it caught up with me. Today I went in for a long morning meeting that I needed/wanted to be there for, but then I headed home.

I stopped at Bangkok 96 in Dearborn for some great fried rice with chicken, peanuts, shrimp and more in it. It’s delicious but a little spicier than I remembered. That might not have been the best idea…

A nap will really be nice but unfortunately, I had a lot of fun stuff I wanted to do tonight after work

I had posted that comment on Tiger Stadium last night from my mobile right after seeing the building. They had guards posted, Im assuming this is so that people didn’t come by and pick up souvenirs. Seems kind of funny they need to dispose of the building, they’ll pay for disposal but people would probably take a chunk of it away for free.

I do understand there would be insurance issues but it just seems like they could make it an money-making adventure. You’d have to purchase a $25 commemorative hardhat (shaped like a Tiger’s baseball cap) and it’s $50 a pound of whatever you carry out. The building would be gone in days. They could have even stated it before there was rubble (or even keep you at the other end of the lot).

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Later: Someone at lunch just mentioned that they stopped demolition, which explains why the above photo doesn’t look much different than it did last night.

I’m not a big sports fan but I just drove by Tiger Stadium and they’ve started tearing it down already. It made me kinda sad…

Can you suggest some Detroit-area people to follow on Twitter? I’m looking for something that has a local geographic flavor, like Dearborn (or Detroit) Michigan.

I’m always looking for more people to follow, but today I’m soliciting suggestions for the Detroit area just to get a slightly less global feel for this Twittery goodness/chaos. I’ve got a lot of great people that I follow, but I’d love to see some tweets about local restaurants, bars and music.

So send me a message @GaryLaPointe with suggestions or tell someone you know to follow me and I’ll find them or just leave a comment. Thanks!

So the snow is making the traffic pretty bad around here, it was the longest ride home from work ever! Probably 45-50 minutes, when on a nice day I can sometimes do it in 20 minutes; I think 15 minutes is my record and that’s not catching any lights and probably some speeding involved since I think it’s 14 miles door-to-door.

But I gotta say it looks really pretty on all the trees and bushes.

I know everyone keeps their eyes open for good gas prices and will hit one gas station over another since it’s a few pennies different. I’m sure some people sometimes waste gas by driving a little farther. I know I’m always happy when I can save a few pennies per gallon (I usually fill up on Tuesdays since I’m usually over by some cheap stations). Here’s something to keep in mind, 6 cents more a gallon (if it’s around $3) is only a 2% difference (12 cents more a gallon is only 4%).

Normally, when I eat at McDonald’s I get a number 3 meal (Quarter Pounder – no pickle, no mustard which includes a 20 oz soda and medium fry). At the McDonald’s by work (Plymouth/Beech, Redford, MI) it’s $4.77 (tax included); at the McD’s by my house (Michigan/Greenfield in Dearborn) it’s $5.36 (tax included). That’s a 59 cent difference! That’s 12% more at the more expensive McDonald’s. FYI, both the McD’s I’m referring to have been renovated in the last few years and the cheaper one has a playland.

So keep in mind if your $3 gallon of gas was 12% more at a nearby location it would 36 cents more per gallon! Now it’s not cost effective for me to take the time (and gas) to drive home to save 60 cents, but maybe I should check out the other two nearby McDonald’s to see what they charge. Plus Kelly always refers to the Redoford one as an expensive one (that’s the one I say is cheap).

When they talk about fuel price gouging, maybe we should consider all types of fuel…

It’s beautiful and it gets sure me in the holiday spirit! And I live on the third floor so it gives me a nice view! But, I’m going to hate it when I have to go out in it. ..

Lots of people parked in the street last night (the Snow Emergency alarms went off so they shouldn’t have; it’s an expensive ticket $50+, I think), and while I’d like to mock them (but they probably got tickets), it’s now screwed (as parking goes) since the trucks didn’t get to plow in there. And even when the cars get out it won’t be plowed properly for a while since they’ll be some new cars in there.

Hopefully they’ll plow my lot soon, I’m not sure if I can get out. But it’s still coming down, so I don’t think they’ll be back for a while.

I’m definitely going to do something Christmassy tonight. Like look at the lights or something (unfortunately, I think that Greenfield VIllage Holiday Nights are sold out)…

I forgot to mention that it was snowing a little on the way home from the airport. It’s nice and white out there today!!

I made it home, I was up at 4:30 am and I’ve been traveling (car, boat, car, plane, plane, car) since 5:30 am. I’m just getting home at 1:00 am Detroit time (but it’s just Midnight Costa Rica time.

I’ve got a 5th set of Costra Rica photos up, mostly of the area where I drove around the Southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula (a few have labels). That’s assuming all 19 photos upload properly, I’m not staying up to see….

My awesome musically talented niece, Courtney Robb, is on the charts at Fox Space Live. Just go to the Fox Space Live page and use your browser to search for “Courtney Robb” and click to listen, that’s it! The more you listen, the higher she gets and the more exposure she gets, I’m assuming at some point they pick the music to play on the station…

If you want to listen first check out the Courtney Robb MySpace page for some other songs and Detroit-area dates. She’s plays her own songs that are along the lines of Michelle Branch, Anna Nalick, Jewel, Tegan and Sara, Colbie Caillat, Avril Lavigne, KT Tunstall, etc.

So last Saturday I got a ticket from a Wayne County Sheriff on Hines Drive (for passing a Road Closed sign). I knew they were wrong and of course they didn’t want to listen to me.

On the way to the Helms Haven park area, I drove around a gate that says “Road Closed” but also says “Entrance Only Helms Haven area”, but he just didn’t care to listen about that park. Hines Drive is a huge long road that has a bunch of parks, when they close it on Satudays in the summer (so you can bike ride / walk with no traffic) or for flooding (etc.), they block off the main access road and you’re supposed to drive around it to get to the closest park and then the road is really closed (big barricade).

But he didn’t want to listen to me (I said it politely twice and pointed towards the sign in the distance but he didn’t care) so I went to the courthouse. I printed something from the County Parks site that said that you could go around it for certain events, and sent an e-mail to verify it (which they confirmed) and took that with me along with a few pictures I took (the sign and road layout) and I got it waived. It’s just an annoyance since it was more than a few hours of time to beat a ticket that never should have been written.

I do have to give him a little break, he was probably distracted by the decapitated head they just found….

Tori Amos is at the Fox Theater in Detroit, Michigan tonight! Row H, a little to the right, just perfect since she generally faces the right more!

There are still decent tickets left…

So I just got a bite to eat at the new Dearborn Kerby’s Coney Island at Ford and Mercury (next to the Best Buy). I gotta tell you this is the most boring Chile-Cheese Omelet I’ve every had in my life. The eggs are boring, the chili sauce is boring and the toast seemed boring. I even tried the hash browns, which I generally find boring, to also be boring. Fortunately, the strawberry jam tastes normal so I know it’s not me; and the water actually tastes pretty good!

There is another (non-chain?) restaurant, Parthenon II (Coney Island), where I usually get a Chile-Cheese Omelet, a little farther into this strip mall area that I’ve been to a million times and I’ll be sure to go back there next time. Unfortunately, they’ll probably lose business since Kerby’s does have a much better location.

I’ve also got to try the new Seahorse Grill which just opened at the same mall.

UPDATE – I just drove by the Parthenon II and it looks like they are out of business

So my friend who was in the Train Crash last year tends to have more problems on the train than most people I know. Delays at the start of the trip and at the end so we tease him about it. Today I called him after he left for his parents and the train left about 20 minutes late, no crisis. But, he calls me about an hour later, they’re stopped west of Ann Arbor and they hit someone on the tracks. He didn’t have much in the way of details.

So I just called him for a status and it turns out it was a guy on a bicycle (I’m assuming on the tracks); I guess the conductor said he saw him before they hit him (I’m surprised they gave them that much info). The train was stopped for a while (I’m guess less than 2 hours) while things were checked out; he could see flashlights and cameras going off. The odd thing is they never found the guy, but they found the bicycle.

Update – This mLive Ann Arbor Article says no one was hurt and contradicts a bit of what my friend says that he heard the conductor say. It’s the only article I can find and it was from early last night, so I have no other way to verify info. (This is the right link, their whole site just seems to be having problems right now)

This is really more about health costs, not my problems. As far as I know I’m fine, but they’ve been trying to diagnose a minor problem (although I guess I’m not qualified to say it’s “minor”) so don’t worry…

This is the story – I’m finally getting copies of the insurance bills for a big test (had to be unconscious for the test, I think that’s the only reason it was in the hospital) and so far they total up to about $3,300! and I haven’t paid a penny. Please note that this doesn’t even include my initial visit to my doctor and the two visits to the specialist (which all included tests) and each of the visits each included a prescription or two (I’ve probably paid less than $75 for all that). That’s a lot of money, and if I didn’t have insurance I’d be happy to spend money on getting better but so far I don’t think anything has helped (maybe I’m a little better since this started in late April but I might just be getting used to it or maybe I’d just be getting better anyways) and I don’t think the tests dound anything. I’m sure the costs would be a bit less if I were paying for it out my own pocket, but still…I can’t imagine not having great insurance let alone not having insurance at all. We’ve got great unions in Michigan and probably even more so in the Detroit area so that’s always benefitted me (medical and dental benefits). I just can’t imagine not having it. I’ve always been very fortunate with having great health insurance and they very few times I haven’t, I’ve not had to really use it.

I don’t know the solution for health in this country but I think we need to concentrate more of the USofA resources on health. People should be able to count on good health, education and food; I think these items qualify for the whole “life, liberty and happiness” thing (I’ll clarify these points if I ever run for office).

Speaking of insurance for everyone, in Michigan we’ve got a pretty decent Children’s Health Insurance program called MiChild for only $10 a month for your child. You have to be a low income family and I’m not sure what the requirement/formula is but I thought I’d mention it since I was mentioning insurance (I guess it’s only good if you actually qualify). If you have kids and no insurance in Michigan please check out this program and apply for your kids. They have a dental program that can be signed up for too.

I guess I really don’t have much else to say other than I’m very fortunate in this case and very thankful for great insurance (and thankful it’s not a bigger problem). It’s not that I want them to find something wrong, it’s just that if there is something wrong I want them to find it sooner.

I haven’t had the follow-up yet (in a few weeks), so I don’t have a diagnosis yet, but I’m thinking if they found something from the tests or the biopsy they’d have gotten me in sooner (or called me). So I’m assuming they’ll be no diagnosis, I’m guessing they’ll try more drugs and if that doesn’t help, maybe another similar test (yuk!) later…

Disclaimer: I’m sure at some point in the future insurance companies will be googling for pre-existing conditions on the ‘net. So I almost didn’t write this post. For the future googlers, to set the record straight, I confess that my problem is there is a banana growing out of my forehead, so if you are looking to insure me in the future and there is no banana that means I’m cured(!) and there is nothing preexisting…

So I spent some time on Drummond Island (in Michigan just off the east side of the upper peninsula) a few weeks ago. You can see a better perspective of where this is by checking out this map. Note the solid line that zig-zags around it, that’s the Canadian international border. You have to take a ferry (from DeTour on the Michigan Upper Peninsula side) to get over to the island, it was great both times, didn’t have to wait for the next ferry (only once and hour) although we just made the ferry and I had to part at a 45 degree angle to fit! But at least I didn’t have to wait an extra hour. Since there is only one ferry you only have to pay to go there, there ride back is free.

I’ve been there before but only when it was very cold. It was beautiful weather the whole time, it was great to bicycle around. The stars were so clear and I had an excellent view of the Perseids Meteor shower.

The internet access was lacking though. They offer hi-speed free wireless at the chamber of commerce but the DSL was down for the whole weekend, , I was starting to get the shakes!!! FYI, the Chamber of Commerce is kind of the Visitor’s Center and is located at “The Four Corners”, everyone knows that’s the intersection with both the blinking red-light and a stop sign Plus, while I was there I got to hang out at the Northwood which is where everyone hangs out in all the Jill Traynor Mystery books. Which I had actually started re-reding New America (Book 4) while I was on the island.

So it’s a very relaxed atmosphere there, which is good as long as you want to relax. That’s all that I wanted to do so it was perfect, well, except for the internet being broken that was a problem for me (they did fix it sometime the morning I left) but not so much for most people….

So I only ask y’all for a favor about once a year (maybe twice). This one is to take a listen to the wonderful Courtney Robb sing and then vote for her. (Thank you!)

Listen here – http://www.myspace.com/courtneyr
And vote here – http://www.myspace.com/local_long_distance VOTING IS OVER
You do not need a MySpace account to vote.

Actually, it’s just the second step that’s the favor. The first step is if only you want to make an informed decision, but I’m telling you she’s great! It’s the first voting poll on the left, it’s about one screen/page down (just below “the fold”) and I had a little problem hitting the “vote” button with “Safari” so you might need to try Firefox.

Courtney was on their radio show and having people return to be on a “listener’s choice” show and if she gets enough votes, she gets to come back.

She writes her own stuff and has a sound kinda like Anna Nalick, Jewel, Avril Lavigne, Aimee Mann and all that kind of acoustic/earthy music that I love.

And once you decide you like her, go see a show if you’re in the Detroit area (all around the Detroit, Royal Oak, Mt. Clemens, Allen Park, Redford area), she’s great!

* Full disclosure – She’s my niece, but that’s not why I’m helping to get get votes, it’s because she’s excellent is why I’m encouraging you to vote.

Update – VOTING IS CLOSED and Courtney was way ahead the last few times I looked so if you listened and voted, Thanks!!

Brandi Carlile is headlining the VH1 You Ought to Know Tour. She’ll be at St. Andrews Hall on October 14th. Yeah, I know I just saw her, but she;s going to be about a 10 minute ride from my place, how can I not go?

If anyone is going let me know and we can say HI at the concert.

Pre-sale tickets were supposed to be at VH1 today, but I can’t find them. TicketMaster wasn’t supposed to have them until Saturday, please note the operative worlds “supposed to” they appear to be available for some cities.

And Ticketmaster give me 10 free iTunes songs (their choosing) so be sure to pay attention at the end of your order to not miss the button for that…

So right now I’m on the S.S. Badger heading over to Wisconsin so that tomorrow I can go to Lincoln Park, IL to see that Brandi Carlile / Indigo Girls concert I mentioned a few weeks ago.

I’ve been bouncing around up north for the last few days and now I’m taking the ferry from Ludington to Manitowok. The ship is huge, they were unloading semi-trucks and busses in addition to all the cars. It was very impressive watching it come into the dock. Please note from this photo the the square shape on the left side of the cargo hold is a huge bus.

I got a good seat on the deck, I’m sure it’ll get cold later, but it’s awesome for now! It’s a little pricey to take but I’ve always wanted to do it and this seemed like a good time…

As we’ve discussed before, I’ve got a new Best Buy Opening nearby in the north end of Allen Park (Fairlane Green). We’ll I just saw a billboard and the Grand Opening is June 29th 2007. There is another BB in Dearborn just 4-5 (7?) miles away so I wonder if that one might be closing soon…

Today is Free Comic Book Day so head on up to your local participating store and get some free comics.

Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book store.
From Wikipedia

My local store is Green Brain in Dearborm (MI) and they’ve always got lots of freebies and this year they have guest Scott McCloud signing autographs.

It’s all sorts of comics, don’t just think Archie and Spiderman, scroll down the Green Brain page to see everything they have going on (and how to get more free comics) so stop by and get a few…

I’m on my way right now…

It’s a great sunny day out!!! I’ve got to run around to all the buildings in the school district for work today and it’s just perfect for those kinds of errands. I’m not sure what the rest of the weekend will be like but today is awesome! I wish I had solar panels on my head to store up the sunshine for the cloudy days…

Can anyone tell me what this new store is going to be? At first I thought it was going to be a Best Buy but now I’m not so sure. (Click it for a larger image). If you’re local this is over by the new outside mall in Allen Park (off Southfield between Oakwwod and Outer Drive) it’ll be next to the Meijer’s.

Any thoughts on what this is going to be?

So I have this killer headache (all day) and don’t feel like cooking so I head up to the bar around the corner (it seems like I eat there a lot on Mondays, but without the headache). Actually, I was on my way home, so I didn’t actually go “around” the corner. I popped in to the restroom first thing and when I come out the bartender/waitress has a menu and accessories (napkins, silverware and drink serviette) all set up at my favorite table (one of the 2 spots I pick as a first preference) and I like that. Plus, they had what I wanted for dinner, a philly beef and swiss sandwich (with a LIIT), actually I would have preferred the prime rib dip sandwich but this was a close second (they’re both huge sandwiches).

This is my regular place but I’m not a regular, I’m only semi-regular. This means when Jane left (6pm shift change) I wasn’t one of the people she said “see you tomorrow” to. And I have to say some of these people are here every time I stop in…

Now I’m off to Circuit City to see if they really have 24 minute pickup for my Buffalo WHR-G54S router. Yes I need two, now that I’ve discovered how cool it is, I want to play with another one. Then to the library (a book is in) and a quick trip to the grocery store. Then home to relax with a snack and last night’s Battlestar Galactica!

I’m heading on over to the Magic Bag in Ferndale (Michigan) to see Silent Violet tonight. It’s a CD release party and Ben Cyllus and Daniel Zott are also playing this evening too (I don’t think I’ve ever heard them before).

So I figure I’ll see a few new bands and buy a new CD and get it autographed!

So I stopped by the Midnight Espresso Cafe in Dearborn. I really like it there but it’s generally pretty smokey (lots of smokers hang out and smoke cigarettes or a hooka) but they didn’t look too busy so I stopped by. WOW! They just renovated and made it much bigger and it seems brighter too!

They’ve got a wide variety on the menu, I’m guessing much of it is Arabic in origin. Whenever I bring people here they generally find something interesting that they like. I generally get the BBQ Chicken Quesadillas and that’s what I’m getting today.

Bonus, I pulled out the laptop hook up my phone as a modem and realized I connected to a network! So they’ve got WiFi now too (or else the business next door does), with their new larger non-smoking section and WiFi I think I’ll be here a bit more often now.

Actually since I mentioned the local shelter in the last post I thought I’d mention their next fundraiser at Ikea. It’s $25 to get it and you get 15% off your purchase at Ikea (only on December 10th). Plus in the evening they’ll have entertainment, food, desserts and other drawings (at least they usually do at these types of events). Check out the website and flyer for more information. Oh and Santa will be there too!

If you donate $100 you get a bag with goodies and a Swedish food basket from Ikea (and your name mentioned in the newsletter). More than that ($250-$5000) and you get more tickets, more stuff in the gift baskets, signage at the event, and larger mentions in the newsletter (up to a full page). Be sure to click on the link to the PDF flyer to get all the details….

So it’s been a musical week for me. This is my third outing for music in the last four days.

So I’m eating at the new Olga’s in Allen Park (Michigan) and I just went to plug my laptop into my cell phone to check my e-mail and the WiFi network “Olgas” popped up! And voila, free WiFi! And to think I thought I was afraid I going to get a crappy signal in the not-near-the-window spot where they put me.

FYI, it’s totally dead here and I got a great parking spot. Is there a football game or something on?!?

“If you want a better world…
…you’re going to have have to be better people”

Found on the chalkboard at Trixie’s coffeehouse in Roseville, MI.

So Michigan is doing a special lottery. Only 500,000 tickets will be sold! Five $1,000,000 winners will be drawn, Ten $100,000 winners and Seven-hundred-fifty $1,000 winners will be drawn. You have 1 in 100,000 of being a millionaire and 1 in 645 of winning at least $1,000. Half the tickets are sold already!

“The odds of being hit by a car on the way to buy your lottery ticket are higher than that of actually winning”

I think I heard Robin WIlliams say that, but I can’t be sure.

What I don’t like is the tickets are $20. That’s a lot of money for some families. I really wish they’d retool the lottery to have more winners. If the lottery prize is over some huge amount, let’s say 25 million, if the big prize doesn’t win they should keep drawing until they hit a $1,000,000. How cool would that be? A million dollar winner each drawing instead of no winner for weeks and it gets up to some outrageous amount. They should also draw a few more winning numbers and give away a few $50,000 and several hundred $1,000 winners, that would be awesome. It would barely affect the huge prizes and think of all the happy winners.

I was looking for something for the gift exchange at work, usually it’s goofy gifts or a gift certificate, this is something a little different…

Of course I’ll get one for me too!

Unfortunately the Detroit Tigers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals tonight. Well, unfortunate for Detroit, the St. Louis Fans are probably pretty happy. It’s gotta feel great to win when you’re in your hometown. So that’s a bonus for the fans down there.

I was a little more in the spirit for this (even though I’m not a sports person), changed the blog look and even watched a few innings last night…

As we all know, I’m not a huge fan of sports, normally I’d be hard pressed to know who’s in the World Series. But being from the Detroit area I was curious as to how they were doing tonight. Unfortunately they’ve got rain, much too much rain to play so the game has been delayed. I’m not sure if they might still play tonight or not. Very sad for the sports geeks who had their whole night planned out…

I know how I feel when Apple has a press conference and Steve Jobs doesn’t announce the product I was expecting…

You can tell I’m not into sports that much when I’m wondering how “they are doing” and not how “we are doing”.

I know I’ve mentioned Audra Kubat before. Every other Sunday Audra and Blair have been playing at the Buzz bar in Detroit doing a thing they call the Bittersweet Cafe.

It’s pretty quiet this week with the World Series on, pretty much I was the first person here for the music. But since there really isn’t anyone else here she was working on this extended tune up / warm up and it was really nice to listen to and watch as a few other people have walked in. Nice and easy and casual and relaxing.

So they do this show every few weeks and have a different guest play in the middle every time. They then “pass the hat” and chip in money for the guest and all the money collected goes to the guest (there is no cover to get in).

(A FEW MINUTES LATER: What’s funny is she just stopped and said how much she likes to have time to play before she actually has to play.)

The Detroit Tigers made it to the World Series!!!! It’s totally weird that no one knew who it was that we were going to play until less than two days ago. Game one is tonight.

All I really remember about the last time we made it (in ‘84) was watching the news as the fans went nuts (they flipped/burned some cars and other stuff) and the newscasters were talking all very excitedly about the celebration. And I’m thinking that “this isn’t good” and then the national news came on and used the same footage with “Riots” in all the captions and descriptions that they used…

So I thought it was going to happen when prices were dropping a few weeks ago but it didn’t happen. Today when I was driving I saw it or $2.05 but it was really windy and I was kind of in a hurry. But later, I had just pulled into the house and the cell rang and Kelly said, “It’s a $1.99 over by your house”. I was really surprised since I had just drove by the station she mentioned and didn’t notice any thing. So I hopped back into the car and saw the slightly closer gas station was also $1.99, they was a little bit busy but I got a pump right away!

By the way the stations in question are in Dearborn (Michigan) at Schaefer + Maple (just south of Michigan) and another at Schlaff + Michigan (just west of Schaefer).

In the last two months, gas has dropped about one dollar in our area (and most of that was in the range from 9 weeks to 3 weeks ago) it’s only just started dropping again the last few weeks.

I know I talk about gasoline prices a bit but it’s one of those recurring costs that you notice. Electric and natural gas, you know when the bill is high but you don’t really know what you’re paying “per gallon”. Plus I get excited when I get a deal

Every October is Domestic Violence month. That’s why you’re seeing the purple ribbons this month. They say one in four of us are affected some way by it. Every 15 seconds a woman is battered (it’ll probably take you twice that time to read this blog post). October is kind of an everything month (there are only 12 months to share) and breast cancer seems to get a lot of the attention and sometimes DV gets overlooked. (Related news.)

First Step is a local shelter in Wayne County. Over 14,000 crisis calls, 7,000 nights of shelter and 20,000 hours of counseling are provided almost every year. I’ve volunteered with them, generally I’d be on call a few times a month and get called to hospitals (police stations, etc.) and talk to people and their families after they’ve been assaulted, I’ve also done stuff with the kids (but not much lately) such as day care, field trips, etc. I’ve been neglecting it lately and need to get back over there (but I’m still wearing my ribbon).

They are always having fund raising events so keep your eyes out for those, it’s a way to donate and have fun at the same time (sometimes it’s a movie night with auctions, shopping at Parisian [you get a discount and they get a cut]). Shelters are always looking for donations, please don’t just think of them around the holidays, they need donations all year round. They always need volunteers to help.

So it was a great day outside today. I’m up visiting relatives in Lake Leelanau and the weather has been mediocre but today it was just great! I went bike riding with my uncle on some path and then I ran around and went to a winery (Leelanau Cellars) I like.

Then I drove around a bit and got some lunch and ice cream. And then I just drove around and enjoyed the scenery with the top down. It’s been semi-rainy and mostly cloudy since Friday. So it’s been a pleasure today!

Actually, I don’t know any thing about wine (or wineries) and never go but when I find a wine I like I write it down. On my last visit here we stopped by a Leelanau Cellars winery and when we got there I looked at my list it turns out oen of the few names I had written down was actually from that winery. So I liked the bottles from last year so I went back. Unfortunately the one I liked I forgot to write the name down

So I had some of the best Coca-Cola* yesterday at Pangea’s Pizza in Traverse City. It was just extra tasty, I’m not sure why. And not only was it served in fancy old Coca-Cola glasses it was served by the charming Rachel** who attended to all my cuisine related needs. That, a slice of pepperoni pizza, some on-line access and I was all set. I was hoping for more dead animals on my pizza but I would have had to order a whole pizza.

I mentioned WiFi availability earlier today: I could see a few local access points from inside the restaurant (none of which I think were Pangea’s) but eventually I’d lose the signal, the same if I hooked up with my cell phone. Not sure why. Probably something with all the pleasantness radiating from Rachel was interfering with my digital*** reception.

* – In case you were wondering the best Coca-Cola I ever had was at the Chicago Aquarium in February of 2002. This is fountain Coca-Cola, in the bottles it’s generally the same, unless it’s in the glass bottles where it’s extra delicious.

** – I’m thinking Rachel was spelled slightly differently (sorry).

*** – Pleasantness is a full spectrum analog signal in case you didn’t know. It’s supposed to overwhelm everything.