Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The beginning of time

Why do the days change from one to the other at midnight? This has never made any sense to me. New days should begin at the beginning - when the sun comes up.

In spite of the fact that the sun rises at a different time each day I think we could agree that 6 a.m. is a pretty reasonable average time for the beginning of the day. This is when the day should begin. And, of-course, end at 5:59 a.m

This way when things happened at one, two, or three a.m. it would be considered late at night and not early in the morning - which seems so much more logical to me.

And just to make things interesting we could change the faces of all our clocks so that 6 would be at the top. (For the few clocks left that actually have faces.) Wouldn’t that be fun?


Just a thought

Monday, October 26, 2009

Grocery Shopping

One of the great things about our new neighborhood is that we're close to so many grocery stores. Where previously we only had three or four stores to choose from, here we have at least ten, and some of them are above average.

The Holiday Market in Royal Oak is a huge gourmet market. In addition to fabulous foods it's the kind of place that has copies of The New Yorker and Archetectual Digest in the check out racks instead of People and Us. VERY nice.


There's also a Trader Joes, a Whole Foods, and my favorite: Westborn Market. Westborn has the best produce imaginable, and many wonderful , tasty delights. I love it, but only shop there for some special things once in a while.

For most of my groceries I usually end up going to Farm Fresh in Oak Park This store is nearest to our house and features kosher foods, although 60 percent of the people who shop there are black. It has wonderful baked goods, still takes checks, and gives out savings stamps.

So with all these grocery options, including the ubiquitous Meijers and Krogers, I was surprised to find myself feeling glad to have discovered the Hollywood Market on the north side of Royal Oak a few days ago.
This is the kind of place where you'd certainly find someone buying a loaf of white bread and a Hungryman frozen dinner.

There is no goat cheese. No organic black currant jam. But I felt something like relief while pushing my cart with a bad wheel up a narrow aisle. It felt comfortable and familiar. Althought I'd hate this store if it was my only choice, as one of many I'm glad to know it's there.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The morning after

I could have danced all night at the Willow Manor Ball, but all good things come to an end. Today I'm back to much more mundane occupations: I puttered in the garden, did some errands, a little writing, sent some emails, etc...

And tomorrow I'll be working as an extra in an Al Pacino movie - you know, same old, same old.

HBO is filming a movie in my town with Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, and ME. I'm thrilled to report that I got called to work as an extra in this movie tomorrow! I don't know the details yet, just that I'm booked for the job and looking forward to it.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Willow Manor Ball

I've been busy the last few days preparing for the cyber event of the year: the second annual Willow Manor Ball. Although I didn't attend this event last year, I've heard that it's pretty fancy and I was delighted to be invited.

The ball takes place at the Willow Manor blog. You can visit Willow Manor at: http://www.willowmanor.blogspot.com/

Of-course I've been to the salon, the spa, the jewelry store, and had several fittings with a seamstress who did some minor alterations on my vintage gown, but I think I'm all set.


I can't wait to slip into my ball gown with the crushed velvet bodice and long sleeves. I love the color, and it seems just the right thing for a crisp October night.


I've also selected some lovely jewels: a diamond necklace and earrings, to add some shimmer.
My escort, BB, will be wearing a tuxedo, a la Marlene Dietrich, perfectly tailored just for her, and we'll be motoring down to the Manor from Detroit in our classic 1939 Cadillac Fleetwood.


Thursday, October 8, 2009

New couch!

Okay, so you know your blog is boring when the only thing you manage to write about all week is a new piece of furniture. But this was a pretty big deal in our household. Especially since we didn't even look around. It probably took less than an hour to settle on this couch - for which I promptly had second thoughts. I never would have guessed we'd buy a red couch!

So, what-a-ya think?

I'm not too fond of the big pillows with the dots, and the couch is not really wide enough to snooze on comfortably, but otherwise I think it was an okay choice. I'm just so glad to finally have a decent piece of furniture in this room. Now if only we could find some fabulous piece of artwork for the wall.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Friday Favorite: First Flickr photo

Today is the anniversary of my first Flickr. It's been three years since I posted this photo of some blue jars and their reflection on a windowsill.

I wouldn't necessarily call this photo one of my favorites now, but it's interesting to note that my first Flickr pic was blue and had an abstract quality to it.

The existence of Flickr has done a lot to help me grow as a photographer. And it's nice to be part of a creative community. I feel like I know many of my Flickr contacts even though we've never met.

Today is also the anniversary of my son's wedding - five years ago. I was going to post a photo of the wedding as a Friday Favorite today, but when I went to look for one I realized the wedding took place in my pre-digital days!

My son's wedding is one of the last events I shot on film. It was only five years ago, but already seems like the old days! It took me a long time to give up my film camera, but now I can't imagine life without digital, just like I can't imagine Justin without Maria.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Rabbit Rabbit

Since today is the first day of the month the first thing I said this morning was "rabbit-rabbit" in order to ensure I'll have good luck.

Kinda crazy, I know, but according to the research I've done (which means I looked it up on Wikipedia) this is a common superstition that's been around for centuries.

I've been doing this for a long, long time, but I have no idea when or why I began it. And, even though I don't believe anything as silly as saying rabbit-rabbit could possibly have any influence upon my fate, I feel a bit dreadful when I forget.

To help me remember, B.B. gave me these two rabbits as a gift a couple of years ago. On the last night of each month I put them on our bedside tables so they'll be the first thing we see in the morning. This helps remind BB not to talk to me or ask me a question. I really hate it when the first thing I say on rabbit-rabbit day is something like "Look in your sock drawer," or "I had the stangest dream..."