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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Merry Christmas!! (in September)



Wait - what, it’s not Christmas? No?

It’s September.  I agree – it is September. 

Not October, November or December – you know December, when Christmas actually is….

Hmmm, we still have two more major holidays – decorating holidays to go, Halloween, which is the very LAST day of NEXT month (October) and Thanksgiving, which is the third week of the month AFTER that (November).

But not at this store, nope at this store it is apparently Christmas time – in giant twenty foot fashion.  

This does not make me happy on a warm 75 degree day (24 Celsius for my European friends).   

I don’t understand why we rush things so – the leaves are still on the trees, there is no hint of snow (of course this is Michigan – that could change in an instant).  The time hasn’t changed yet and it is barely Fall, by means of the Equinox.  

Yet here is a jolly nut cracker or tin soldier or sentry or something Christmasy-esque standing guard at the door of a big box hardware store.  One that I will be visiting again today, painting the living room and hall ways (made a pretty but poor color choice – therefore I will be painting them again tonight, funny how daylight changes things).

So Merry Christmas – three months early!! Care to come celebrate with me tonight and lift a paint roller in festive cheer?  

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Friday, September 12, 2014

You Are What You Eat

Yummy, yummy in my tummy.

But what the hell did I put in my tummy?  And what does that make me if I ate it?

The other day I was at the grocery store and I was hungry (well, pretty much in general I’m always hungry) and they say if you shop while you are hungry than you buy stuff that is not on your list (again, pretty common for me).

I grab these totally yummy looking baby danishes and inhale two as soon as I get in the car (did I mention I was hungry)?

Then, then I looked at the label that I just tore open to get in to the container and there are two hundred ingredients on there.  I’m serious – TWO HUNDRED – there are about seven items on a line and thirty one (and a half) lines of ingredients. 

It’s a danish for goodness sake.  Butter, flour, sugar salt, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, some fruit topping and powdered sugar and water for icing.  That’s ten – ten things – not 200!!!

So we ate – ate 190 extra ingredients – oh my.  

Funny thing is that I am usually pretty conscious about what we eat and what I feed my family.  I’m an anti-GMO freak, so I check everything (corn or soy - almost never) and how something with a six inch ingredient label on the FRONT of the box got by me is stupefying.

You see normally we buy our danishes and bread etc. at a local bakery.  We are spoiled for choice here in Detroit from multiple bakeries that have been around 80 plus years.  Fresh daily, no transport, no ingredients we can’t pronounce to sustain fake freshness.  Just baked new – every single day.  
  
So we’re not dead –we didn’t gain ten strange puffy pounds around the waist and they were quite tasty, but 200 ingredients for a baby danish?  Wow, what a bad choice and how come this is ok?  This should so not be ok….

Monday, September 8, 2014

Wrong Career Path?



I’m guessing when the professional Brick Layer/Mason chose his trade and then did his apprenticeship in the skilled area, he never thought that he could make all this money.

I mean look – you can make $1200 to $2.00 a week.  That’s right – Two whole dollars a week!!

What do you need to do to make that?  Show up and drop off the coffee – once?  
Even then, you’d certainly be there longer than two dollars worth.

So, bring those tools, let them make use of your truck to pick up the boys and transport them to the job site, then at the end of a hard week – outside in the elements, bent over, with cement dried to every bit of yourself – collect that big ol’ two dollar check.  

Hey, right now McDonalds has 99 cent beverages.  On Saturday night you could take your date there and each get a coke or a coffee or something – of course, I am thinking before taxes.   Once Uncle Sam takes his share – let’s just go with the most common range of 28%, you’d be down to $1.44.  Um, you better get an extra large Coke to share, because with sales tax that 99 cents will become $1.05 and you won’t have enough for two.  

Oh and might I suggest you ride your bike – all that gas you are using to drive the boys to work and back won’t be covered either – so your truck is probably out of gas.  No worries, I’m sure she knows how to balance on the handle bars.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Does It Come In Grape?



Brrrr – that’s cold!  Look – a frozen fountain – of sorts.   

Never mind that it is 90 degrees outside and muggier than muggy (ahem, I mean Humuggity – look it up – it’s on this blog… June 30, 2013) 

 
This isn’t the first frozen fountain looky thing I have spotted.  They seem to be very prevalent at hospitals.  

Now, should we be concerned?  I mean it’s hot as blazes outside, it’s been raining torrents all month (not a common occurrence for August – now September) and here is this giant frozen tower – outside, in the heat, rain and humuggity – standing tall and well – very frozen.

What are they – why are they at hospitals?  Should we be concerned about whatever is leaking that doesn’t melt even when the temperature reaches 32 Celsius?  And what is leaking?  I am assuming refrigerant of sorts – ah, are we all environmentally compliant yet in the world of refrigerants and what looks to be like pretty massive leakage into the world?  Or should I say frozen world – doesn’t really look like it’s going anywhere.

How many feet thick do you think it is?  Do you think the men from Deadliest Catch could break it with their sledge hammers?  It could be a summer job for them – travel to hospitals nationwide and make whatever is underneath possibly run more efficiently?  Or not.  

But if it’s supposed to be in a cold area why not enclose it?   Every time I pass one, it stops me in my tracks – something is not quite normal about a giant frozen white Popsicle, outside in the middle of summer.  Just sayin’.