11 posts tagged “detroit”
Yo! Haven't been at my blog for a few days. Did ya miss me? ;) Jez checkin.
Where did I leave off? .... oh yea, was working on some images and got side tracked with some other images and some more Flickr art challenges like this one.
And this one...
Otherwise, life is as usual except the recent ice storm added some beauty to the day regardless of the havoc it's wreaking on community power lines and more. Beautiful 50 degree weather over the weekend and a sudden plunge yesterday created ice rain and still no snow to speak of. But I'm perfectly ok with that in case you were wondering. I do, however, worry about those oranges in L.A. 20 degree temps and ice like this...
covering the fruit will be a big concern to our grocery budget. The photo is from a tree in front of my house, taken this morning.
Had to take a break from digital art to help the husband. He can't see the back of his neck you know, when he's trimming up his hair line. (doh, can anyone?) I noticed a spot on the back of his head (he uses man shears to shave is hair short), that looked like he took a wee bit too much. He said, "I can't take too much because I'm using a blade that only trims so far from the head." "Ok honey, then maybe it's a bald spot?" Like that went over well. So he switched blades so I could trim up along his neck. Was busy thinking and talking and not paying attention when "Oh Shit!" came out of my mouth. Thank God the hub has a good sense of humor. He will be wearing a cap with ear flaps for the next 3 weeks. "I said the BACK OF MY NECK, NOT MY SIDEBURNS!" "Damn honey! What was I thinking?" We laughed so hard, my eyes got blurry and I couldn't see for shit. When the tears of laughter cleared, he was absent one side burn. oops. I finished up the back of his neck and handed him the shears. He said, "Are you done?" "Yep, I didn't think you'd want me to even up those side burns."
I haven't made an oops like that in a long time. There is one time that I will never forget and it took place a long time ago. Mom had made roast beef for dinner and I hate the stringy type of roast, but I had to choke it down. Today, it doesn't gross me out as much but it has to be really really lean before I'll indulge. Anyhow, I was busy talking while clearing the table and somewhere in my mind, I heard my mother say to put the leftovers away for Dad's lunch the next day. Maybe it got buried quickly in the deep recesses of my mind when another command was made to feed the dog. Ok, so multi-tasking was new to me back then and I messed up somewhere along the line. Clear the table, do the dishes, put away the leftovers and feed the dog. Life was simple then and I still managed to screw it up. :)))
Dad walked into the kitchen for a drink when he noticed the dog mulling over a huge chunk of roast beef. "Uhhh, is that suppose to be my lunch for tomorrow?"
'Nuff said? At the time it was hilarious. You had to be there I suppose. ;)
Have you ever heard of See's? How about Sanders? LeGrand?
Just before Christmas, a client of the company that my husband works for, brought him some See's chocolate pops. My husband, the thoughtful one that he is, remembered me talking about my love for See's and saved the pops for me. I joked with him and said, "Next time I'd like a 1 lb box of See's chocolates, or better yet, some of their chocolate covered toffee candies."
Nah nah, guess what I got today! A 1 lb box of See's with a nice selection of toffees. But wait! It wasn't brought in to town just for me. Apparently, the client brought a box for everyone at the office and forgot that my husband is a diabetic. So yes, I benefit where my husband cannot. YES! See's CHOCOLATE! Yum.
When I lived in Sacramento, I loved See's but would still crave for my hometown Sanders chocolates and their fudge / chocolate ice cream toppings. Didn't matter what the flavor, I love them all. So mom would ship me mongo sized boxes of Sanders chocolate candies and a couple of jars of ice cream sauces, during Christmas, in what she called my annual survival box of goodies. (Hint hint: Their chocolate sauce is awesome swirled over a spoonful of chunky peanut butter). For my birthday this year, she gave me a huge can of their chocolate sauce and unfortunately I had to share it with my boys. LOL ;) Although, I only had to fight one of them for the peanut butter. And they have to race to beat me to the ice cream.
The LeGrand review: I've tried many a chocolate truffle in my day and I still give LeGrand Confectionary 2 thumbs up!
Other Detroit goodies that were missed while I lived out of state were:
Faygo Red Pop
Vernor's Ginger Ale (and no, Canadian Club ginger ale is NO MATCH).
Chinese food. It took me awhile for my taste buds to acquire a taste for west coast Chinese food. But I found 2 places that tasted like home. One is a restaurant in downtown Old Sac. I don't recall the name but it's popular in Old Sac. "Fat something" I think or "...something... Fat."
The other was in Fremont. A little hole in the wall but I remember looking at the menu and actually recognizing the names of the dishes. When we were served, one taste of an egg roll and chicken subgum chop suey and I had to ask the waitress where the cook was from. Lo and behold.... the east coast... Windsor to be exact but learned in Detroit. Aha!
On a vacation trip to Michigan (while I still lived in Sac), the owner of a Chinese restaurant that our family frequented for years, told me that what I was tasting in California was more authentic (in flavor) than what we have in Michigan. She said "our food in Michigan is what we call Eastern-ized." Regardless, I told her that there was no egg roll like her egg rolls and no plum sauce like her plum sauce. On my way out the door, she said, "Here, a dozen egg rolls and a pint of plum sauce on the house. Freeze it so it survives your plane ride home." Pat is good people with good food and you can know that I froze the egg rolls and carried them on the plane with me along with the plum sauce in a thermal bag, close to my heart.
Thai anyone? Didn't even try it until I moved back to Michigan and I love it.
"Soda" or "Pop?"
Is performing a holiday spectacular and charity CD release concert. Wish I could go! Tickets go on sale 11/4/06 at 10 am (Ticketmaster.com). The concert is December 2, 2006 at Masonic Temple in Detroit.
Enjoy your win Cardinals!
I hear no fireworks in the Detroit area. I hear no horns. Just freekin' dead silence. But we suspected we were goin' down.
Today just seemed appropriate with the world series games beginning today in Detroit. Although, I won't be attending any of the games, I wanted to share some enthusiasm for the Detroit Tigers and what better way.... with a little bit of John Fogerty...
Show us some concert photos.
Submitted by Abigail Road.
I don't know who these people are. I was just clicking away at some of the sights and people diggin on the sounds. The smell of spring and "schtuff" in the air. ;)
The Famous Detroit 'Hummer'
Ingredients
1 ounce light rum
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce coffee liqueur
1 quart very good vanilla ice cream
Put liqueurs in a blender and add ice cream by large spoonfuls, blending occasionally until it's a consistency that is about as thick as a milk shake. It shouldn't be as thick as a McDonald's shake however. You really want to be able to suck this baby down! ;)
Serves: 6
Alternative: As you can see, this doesn't call for a lot of liqueur really. Even if you had a scoop or two of ice cream and added some coffee liqueur to it, you could still have a "Poor (Wo)Man's Hummer."
Cheers!
Had to be creative with tonight's dinner so I decided to use some quick methods and remnants.
Ingredients
- The last frozen boneless skinless chicken breast
- 4 cups of water
- Some cracked black pepper
- About 4 shakes of Lemon-Pepper
- 2 boxes of Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle Soup
- Multi-grain bread
- Butter
Getting the picture here? No? Ok then, here's the rest of it.
Place your last frozen boneless skinless chicken breast with 4 cups of water into a pot.
Add some cracked black pepper which will add a nice mellow pepper flavor and helps warm up the tummy.
Sprinkle or shake the lemon-pepper seasoning into the pot too. Not too much. You don't want to totally change the flavor of chicken soup. I find that the addition of this seasoning brings out more of the flavors in the broth.
Cover pot and let the chicken cook. After about 30 mins, pull the chicken out and slice, dice or shred it and add it back to the pot.
Add the seasoning packs from both boxes of Mrs. Grass's soup. Follow the rest of the directions on the box and don't forget to add the noodles.
Butter your multi-grain bread; serve your soup and enjoy.
You can find this and many of my other poor (wo)man recipes in my upcoming book called "Recipes For The Unemployed." <joking but maybe that's not such a bad idea>
What do you collect?
What a wild question because today I feel like I am collecting dust. And I know there are a few bunnies under my bed that need to be tended to.However, most of my "odd" collections are are all tucked away.
Shot glasses with any one of the 50 states, the Detroit Red Wings and a couple of others.
I use to travel quite a bit so I collected ash trays. Not your normal run of the mill hotel ash trays from Reno, Tahoe and Las Vegas (which I admit having). Rather, I prefer ash trays that are in odd designs and I have some from places that don't exist anymore. Ok, like I have one from Gillies in Texas - which I paid for. I have an (oldie) ash tray from the Chin Tiki restaurant on Cass Ave. in Detroit, back in the days when it was a hot place to hang and eat - which I "took." One that has a nude man pushing a wheel barrel with his penis which someone made for me. I have another one shaped like a lobster; it's red-orange in color and I bought it in Virginia Beach. And a couple of others purchased in states that I visited. You know, from the typical tourist gift shop.
All in all, the ash trays, shot glasses, drinking glasses and a few other collectibles are just wrapped and stored away to afford room to display my more desired art collections.
By the way, anyone still have 45's? 78's? I remember tossing 8 tracks out the car window that the player ate.
He's up at 4:30 am and she can hear him, from the bedroom, rustling up his lunch for the day at work. She drifts in and out of sleep and tells herself that she has to talk to him before he leaves the house. She drifts back into sleep.
His daily routine consists of eating breakfast, showering, making lunch and getting dressed for work before he leans over his sleeping wife and gently leaves his kiss on her cheek.
He walked into the bedroom following his shower and turned on the lamp in the bedroom. Trying not to make noise that would wake her up, he opened the closet to decide from his wardrobe what colors will be good today. He walked back to his dresser to pull socks from the drawer that will match his slacks, and then walked back to the bed to lift his foot on the mattress for balance while he dressed his feet.
The motion of his balancing act, woke her. She opened her eyes and said to him, "Maybe you should take the truck today." "Why?" She paused as she gathered her thoughts to recall what she wanted to talk to him about. He looked at her and said, "Honey, I think you're talking in your sleep again." She said, "No. Please take your truck today." He asked, "What is your reasoning? You know it takes more gas." She replied, "The weather. It's not good and you'll be safer in the truck than in the car." He turned to the closet to take his shirt off the hanger and while buttoning it up he replied, "I'll be ok in the car. I've driven it in the heavy rains before and it handles quite well." She was fighting to stay awake because she needed to know that he had heard what she was saying. He softly tells her, "go back to sleep." Her final words before drifting out were, "Why do you doubt what I tell you that could have implications on your life?" He said, "I'm not and thank you." He leaned over the bed where she lay and gently kissed her cheek. "Be safe" she thinks.
3:00 pm
Frustrated with the lack of job offers in her email, she turned on the television. The sound of thunder all around her suddenly caught her attention. Looking out the window, she observes the color of the sky while noticing a light sprinkling of rain and approaching storm. Skies were gray in the north and the south with a bit coming in from the west. Satisfied they aren't too dark for her comfort zone, she walked back towards the television just in time to hear that familiar shift in sound from normal programming that signals a "Breaking News Story." "This just in: a major highway crash with at least 2 dozen vehicles scattered about... our reporter is on the scene.... tells us what is happening..."
The exact location of the accident was not immediately stated. She listened intently, waiting for the location as the camera spans across the highway field of wrecked vehicles. A red banner with the name of the city that the helicopter reporter and his cameraman are flying over, now appears along the bottom of the television's screen. "Oh my god! I hope he's at work and didn't leave early. He'll never be able to get on the highway there."
She picked up her cell phone and began to send a text message to her husband. "Do not travel the highway on your way home. Many accidents. Highway in gridlock." No answer. Maybe he is busy with a customer or in a meeting. She decided to call him directly to make sure he is safe and to let him know the news in the event the text message didn't make it through. "Voicemail! Darn it!" Trying not to panic, she silently prays, "please tell me that he didn't leave work early and he's safe."
With her water glass in hand and half full, she walked downstairs for a refill. She turned on the water at the kitchen sink and placed her glass under the faucet; her mind absent of all thought and feeling somewhat powerless, watched the clear liquid flow into her glass. "Beep." "Where did that came from?" Familiar sound but unable to quickly place it, she looked at the coffeemaker. The coffeemaker had been off for a couple of hours so there should not be a beep, warning of an impending shut off. Her cell phone at her side, she looked to see if it was a reply message from her husband. No new messages. "Beep." Following the sound, she was led to her husband's cell phone on the end table next to the sofa. "How did he forget this? No wonder I haven't heard from him."
Walking back upstairs to her computer to continue her online job search, she heard "You have mail!"
"I heard about a pile up on the highway. Leaving work now and will be home soon. Love you."
