The Lisa Life

The Bob!

In case you haven't been keeping up, if you live in Michigan, it's like an unwritten law that you are a Bob Segar fan.  Except of course for my husband, but he's a Brit so what can you expect?  The man still has a couple Gary Glitter cassette tapes around, I'm pretty sure.

Bob Segar hasn't toured in about ten years.  I know, because he did Pine Knob and The Palace and I went to both. 

He recently released a new album, also the first in a long time and damn, the man still sounds great and sings the songs of my life. 

He's touring, starting this winter.  My husband has no desire to go to this concert, so my friend Beth and I are going. Rumor has it that he's doing 8 shows in Detroit, which would make sense since I do believe he only lives like ten minutes from there.  Beth is a lot of fun and I know we are going to be dancing all night long.

As Bruce Springsteen to New Jersey, Bob Segar to Michigan.

Rock and roll never forgets, baby!

In Case You Were Wondering

We're moving this week-end so if you are local and have an uncontrollable urge to heft a box, shoot me an email and I'll put you to work. 

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Mia has two imaginary friends.  One is a tiny dog named Hubble (from the dog in Cats & Dogs) and Handy Manny, who a tiny person, from the TV show.

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Amidst all of the other medical issues I've had lately, I had scheduled an appointment with a podiatrist three months ago for last Thursday to finally deal with my bunion.  I had put it off for a long time, I had heard so many horror stories.  And my bunion was bad.  I am really limited in shoes and my foot aches often.

I'm scheduled for surgery December 8, a Friday.  I am promised a haze of pain killers for three days then a surgical boot that I may need to wear for quite a while.  I'm a fast healer for the most part, so hopefully I won't be sporting the surgical boot all winter.  That brings back bad memories of the time I broke my leg skiing when I was in college and lived in a third floor walk-up.

I'm getting two screws put into my foot.  This is sick and wrong, but I can't wait.  I want to wear all those cute heels stuffed into the back of my closet that I haven't been able to.  I want to be able to walk a mall without my feet aching after ten minutes.  I want to be able to kick hard if called upon to do so in a blanket party.

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We watched the first two seasons of Weeds courtesy of Netflix this week-end and I'm hooked.  We also watched Ripe.  Ripe was stupid.

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Martin and I were trying to figure out the last time we actually went to the theater and saw a movie and we couldn't pinpoint it.  Why bother, when they are out on DVD so quickly and you can sit in the comfort of your own family room in your yoga pants and hit pause when you need to get a snack/pee/get a beer/take a short nap?

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I haven't tanned in two months.  This is some kind of record for me.  I feel ghostly, although I still have tan lines and color.  My skin doesn't look so great, it always looks better when I tan.  I feel better when I tan.  Once we get moved, I will be back to my normal routine.

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I'm having Thanksgiving at our new place.  My father in law is hell bent on getting another honey baked ham and that's fine but I think I'm going to do a turkey breast as well.  Not because I'm so fond of turkey, because I'm really not, but because I will have two ovens and I want to use them.  I have this idea for a marinade for the turkey that is going to be great.  I'm also making stuffed acorn squash, which I could eat as a meal itself. 

I've also considered scrapping the whole turkey/ham thing and just making stuffed shells.  Because nothing says I'm Thankful To Live In America more than a good bolognese sauce and ricotta stuffed in macaroni of some sort.

Celebrity Adoption

This has been rambling around in my head for quite a while now.  Stacy also approached the topic and she shares many of  my thoughts about it.

The whole thing with Madonna kind of skeeves me out.   It sounds like she basically bought a child.  The thing that a lot of people who are only reading about it and have not been involved in adoption may not realize that many African countries are very difficult for anyone to adopt from.  Some take as long as three years. Throw in a controversial white woman and well.   So unless Madge had this in the works for a while, I suspect something not quite kosher. 

While in many ways I admire these celebrities for adopting trans racially and trans culturally, I also wonder how those children will come to view adoption and their native culture.  Especially Angelina Jolie's children.  While I don't doubt her sincerity, I do wonder about dragging toddlers all around the world and the exposure they get in the press. 

Like Tom Cruise's older children, I wonder what they will think as they grow up and if they will wonder if every soccer game was just another photo op.  (For the record, I think Suri Cruise was Artificial Insemination or Chris Klein's kid.  I just don't think Tom likes girls.)

I don't discuss details about Mia's adoption on my blog.  That is out of respect for Mia's birth family and Mia herself.  Anyone who knows me in real life knows the story, anyway.  It's something I choose not to send out into the blogosphere.  It's a personal thing.

As an adoptive parent and as an adult adoptee, I am a little wary of these celebrity adoptions and a bit sensitive about it.

I worry about those children.  Is this going to be a one way ticket into long term therapy for a lot of them? 

While there are many children in the world who need a family, there are many right here, in this country, who also need families.

The whole issue gives me lots of food for thought and I don't really know how I feel about it.

Tigers

I actually used to follow baseball.  I wish I would have paid more attention this year. 

So Wrong

Read this, then discuss.

http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061018/NEWS01/61018001/1002

So wrong.

This does not belong in a public school.  Period. 

On the other hand, I don't believe a Choice demonstration does either but since we're going to show the pro-Life stance, the Choice faction needs an equal voice,  as well.

This is some sort of joke, right?  We don't live in the Bible Belt, it was the Rust Belt the last I heard.

Why is this acceptable?

Happy Birthday, Mary

Today would have been my Mom's 80th birthday.  She was born in 1926 and died in 1999.

When I was teasing my mom, or trying to piss her off, I'd call her Mary.  My Mom was teeny tiny and feisty. She had that bright red hair you know.  She used to tell me when construction workers or cops or guys in general would yell, "Hey Red, what color is your hair?"  she would yell back, "Green, you color blind son of a bitch!"  You have to understand, she was 97 pounds soaking wet with heels on and a big purse at that point.  She used to call me Lisa B to piss me off or tease me.  And yeah, it does creep me the hell out that Patsy Ramsey used to call JonBenet JonnieB. 

Her favorite cocktail was a gin & tonic, so tonight Mary, I raise my glass and remember you. (Pine-Sol, anyone?)

I miss her, every single day.  I miss the goofy things we used to laugh over, trading books, our fights over my hair.  (According to my mother, I had approximately two good hair days in my life.)  I miss our movie dates and going shopping because she was a bit of a control freak with personal belongings and how the house looked and man, one ratty towel in my bathroom and the bathroom was getting new towels, shower curtain, etc. She used to take me to Meijer's for this because she told me I didn't take good enough care of my linens to deserve good ones.  I thought the Meijer's towels were just fine.  I miss her gasps when I was driving.  These gasps could range from her finding a stick of gum in her purse to seeing a girl wearing a tacky outfit or too short skirt to a UPS truck almost creaming me. 

Mostly, I miss getting to see Mary watch her grandchildren grow up.  She loved Dexter so much.  She would have been over the moon with Mia.  I miss her seeing my friends all grown up with children.  She always welcomed my friends and liked them. 

Mary did a good job with me.  I know it must have been hard, her own mother died when she was a young teen.  Mary had some really tough years and it could have hardened her or she could have chosen a path of destruction.  Instead she basically said, Fuck You, World.  The only person I can depend on is Me.  I'm going to make what I want happen.

She got a couple breaks because she worked her ass off to make her goals attainable and sometimes, there are good people in the world who reward that sort of thing.  Mary always told me, "If you have a strong back and can work hard, no matter what, you can survive."  My dad, alternatively, told me I should learn to play golf and cards, so I wasn't lonely when I got old.

Mary made me strong and tough without being bitter and taught me the right way to dress and set a table and be a good hostess and how important it is to have an education and job skills.

Happy 80th anniversary of my Mom's Natal Day.

I miss you and I love you, Mary and I know you loved me so much.

The Rumours Of My Impeding Death Have Been Exaggerated

Many of my friends and readers also read my husband's blog, and many of you have read that really long entry (The War And Peace Of Blog Entries, scroll past the My Little Pony/Vs Porn Star Name thing) that Martin wrote that details a bit of some physical things that may or may not have happened to me.   He even tells them in a somewhat accurate manner and then, being too lazy to separate posts, decides he can somehow tie Vespucci day into the whole deal.

I'm doing fine.  Really.  I had a neurological incident with that nerve from my spine to my arm and my thyroid is apparently very overactive and unlrelated and some stuff is still up in the air pending lab work.   Apparently not a stroke.

Think I haven't been pretty freaked out?

I still don't feel entirely like myself and my hand is still weak and limp and tingly, mostly useless even with the brace (eye make-up and hair styling has been challenging and interesting in it's outcome) but I'm okay.  I am able to sit up, take nourishment and have a glass of wine.  My typing with my left hand and one finger on my right is improving and hopefully will be back to normal in a bit.  My beautiful penmanship that I am so proud of, well, it has to deteriorated to the point that it looks like a messy third grader wrote it on damp paper.  I hope that goes back to normal as well.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and well wishes.  I feel very loved.  I had tears today, too.  My boss's wife came in late in the afternoon, after boss had gone out on his Friday rounds and brought me a beautiful floral arrangement.  Boss had told her what was going on with me and that I was feeling down and anxious about it.  I also got a very nice hug.  Such a sweet thing to do.  It made my whole week. 

The Michigan Gubernatorial Race

This isn't a political blog.  Occasionally, my political views are expressed here.  It is, after all, my blog.  Don't be an asshat, okay?

Michigan has what promises to be an exciting gubernatorial race.  If nothing else, it promises to be entertaining.

In one corner, we have Jenny From The Block, the incumbent.  She's the Dem.  While I admit it's kind of cool that such a blue collar state as Michigan actually elected a woman, Jenny is not very effective.  Jenny, in fact, is not really From The Block, you see.  She's a naturalized Canadian.  While I do love our Canadian neighbors to the south (Michigan is the only place in the U.S. where you can drive South and end up in Canada, via Detroit), I certainly wouldn't be heading over to Ontario and telling them how to run their show.

Amazingly, Jenny used to be a beauty queen.  I know, I know, hard to believe with that mole thing and those outfits, isn't it? Incurable Fug, I fear.  She's not as frumpy as Candace Miller but close.  Candace had an excuse, she was a tomboy.  Jenny is in good shape, she's not unattractive even with the Hilary type hairdos and that disturbing mole therefore she should be rocking some fashion.  Like she doesn't even go for Talbot's most conservative stuff.  Think Ann Richards.  Ann wore the hell out of some great suits that had color.  The color wasn't navy blue or a discrete glen plaid when you're feeling frisky, either.  And girlfriend, buy some shoes!  Be fierce, you are a governor!

Her husband is allegedly shady.  Something about construction of the new McNamara Building at Detroit Metro Airport.  I don't recall the entire story and I'm too lazy to research it, but there were some allegations made.

Jenny tries.  There is no growth in Michigan anymore.  Companies are closing, the Big Three is in terrible shape and the economy in Michigan is dismal.  This is not Jenny's fault, it goes back a while.  She was handed this elephant.  She does try to lure business to Michigan.  A Google outpost is coming to Ann Arbor.  That's a nice start.  She tries.  She's just not having such a great success rate.

Other than that, she's eh for a governor.  Harmless at best.

In the other corner, we have Dick DeVos. 

A bit of backstory here.  My last ex worked in Republican politics when we met and for quite a while after we married.  Some of the people he worked for were Spence Abraham, Candace Miller, Dick Chrysler, Jim Nicholson and John Engler.  Everything revolved around politics and the Spartans.  If I wanted a night out with my husband, it meant a Lincoln Day Dinner or a fund raiser. 

At the conclusion of some campaign, I don't remember which once since they all started to blend one into another, Betsy DeVos, Dick's wife, was I think the Chair for the Republican State Committee or whatever it is called.  The DeVos's hosted an afternoon for select campaign workers on their boat.  Except I think it was a yacht.  It was big enough for a couple dozen people and there was a guy there who was like the captain and a steward/waiter type guy as well.

The most important thing to remember about Dick DeVos, however, is that his family started Amway.  Whenever someone engages me in conversation and starts on Dick DeVos's virtues, apparently of which there are many, I have to interrupt them and say, "Dude, this guy's family started Amway!  AMWAY for the love of God.  AMWAY!"  I generally dissolve in laughter at about that point.

For some interesting reading on the world's most successful Multi Level Marketing scheme, read here:  http://www.cocs.com/jhoagland/

Jokers to the left of me/Clowns to the right/Here I am/Stuck in the middle with you

Instant Karma Takes A While

Martin and I have had a couple of rough years.  Our financial situation went from very good to desperate.  We're doing better now.  Not great, but better.  Since the housing market is so much a buyers market and if you have income, you can get a mortgage, we looked at houses to buy.  We looked at many many houses.  We even put in a couple bids.  What we liked versus what we could afford comfortably was a small gap, but one that that I didn't feel good about.

So, we were back to finding a place to live again.  I can NOT wait to get out of this Soviet House.  My friend Beth had a house she was willing to rent to us.  A nice house.  A large house.  A nice large house in downtown Brighton.  Which is exactly where I want to live.  I even get the special friend price.

I'm so excited.  Thanks, Beth.

Go Green! Go White!

It's that time of the year again.  The Game Of The Year in the Mitten.  Saturday at 4:30 marks the kickoff of the Michigan State vs. Michigan game.

For those of you, dear and gentle readers who do not reside in the Mitten, this is BIG.  I live in a town that is pretty much smack dab in the middle between East Lansing and Ann Arbor.  You can only imagine, big party day around here.

Everyone is either a State fan or a Michigan fan.  The funny thing is, many people who are Michigan fans a) did not attend U of M; 2) do not have any family member who attended U of M; 3) have never seen a game live; 4) aren't quite sure where Ann Arbor is and 5) if they do know where Ann Arbor is and indeed, have even visited it upon occasion, refer to it as "That Hippy Town".

Yes, dear and gentle readers, rednecks love the U.  I've never been able to figure this out.  State is the farm school, some of the best agriculture programs in the world.  Very well-regarded vet school as well.  Animal husbandry and all that.

Yet the rednecks love the U.  A lot of them, I think, view it as almost a professional team, like they were fans of Lions, if the Lions didn't suck so bad.

I'm allowed to be a Spartans fan.  I must admit that the last ex carried it too far.  Every Saturday during football season was planned around what time the Spartans were playing. If they were home, we were there.  It got real old, planning your week-end around NCAA events.

My in-laws have a neighbor who is a die hard Michigan fan.  He has a Michigan flag on his flagpole and lowers it to half mast when they lose.  Or when yet another scandal hits the papers.

In all the house shopping we've done, I've seen more than one bathroom decorated in either Spartan logos or blue and maize Ms.

My prediction:  State is playing like ass this year from the little bits I've watched.  They're gonna get their asses handed to them.  I hate U of M.  They're so damn smug.

Then there is NCAA basketball season.  I like me some NCAA hoops.  It's always a heart breaker somewhere.