Lounge Act

Noah at Baldwin

Today Noah took his first trip to the Birmingham Library! And dad paid the largest library fine he has ever paid. Very embarrassing. Apparently we took out "The Happiest Baby on the Block" back in October 2004, and then Lauren had Noah, and we forgot to return it for several weeks months.


Note all of the books I am checking out. Now that Noah has a bed time, we have a little discretionary time in the evenings. I am really looking forward to digging into Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World and American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine.


I do hope that Noah likes to read. I get so much from it, and I read as much as I can. Looks like he is into it so far. He certainly likes chewing on books, which is like reading by osmosis.


Mmmm...words.

Look at this Space Pod!

This is the new CLS55 AMG, and we saw it at Babies 'R' Us, of all places. 469 Horsepower!! $87,000!!

Here is how I configured mine: Everest Green Metallic, High Gloss Laurel Woood trim, Cashmere Beige Napa Leather, winning big game lottery ticket.

More on TV

Here is one of Noah's best friends, Moose A. Moose. As I mentioned, I am not thrilled about babies watching a ton of TV, but;


this week is "Move to the Music Week" on Noggin, so Lauren and I will look forward to Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner and the theme from "64 Zoo Lane" in an endless loop. Noah will love it, he can recognize a lot of the songs already.

House Hunting

Lauren and I saw this on realtor.com and decided to drive over and take a lot. It is ok, but the street is not great and our property taxes would go way up. This was definitely a house that was more cute when you could just see the front view in the ad. We are starting to think a bit more space might be nice though. Hard to find reasonably in Detroit though.

Date Night

Last night Lauren and I went to Cafe Habana in Royal Oak for dinner.


Noah stayed with his Nana, and we got to go get dinner. We were going to see the Enron documentary, but Lauren wanted to go get sunglasses at Target instead.


Lauren's arepas. I had a very nice hanger steak with chimichurri sauce.


On closed circuit TV at Target.


New purses: I'm on the list, That's Hot, I Heart Bling, I Heart Me....

More on Matzoh Balls

You might recall that Sunday morning I wrote about what a strange food Matzoh Balls are, and how I had planned on making some that afternoon in the soup to take out a cold. Therefore it was with some delight that I read Emily Yoffe's article in Slate about the wonderful, but disturbing "Ruthie & Gussie's/Empire Kosher Matzo Ball-Eating Championship" held (where else) at the Friar's Club.

I say disturbing because I picture the contestants swelling up after the contest like Violet Beauregarde after she ate the blueberry gum, and being taken off to be juiced from the balcony of the Henny Youngman terrace (Note: If the Friar's Club does not have a Henny Youngman terrace, it should). My brother Daniel has attended the annual Fourth of July hot dog-eating contest at Nathan's Coney Island, and he says it is really quite a spectacle. I'll see if he can send some pictures. By the way, mutiple spellings of "matzoh" are correct, I happen to like the silent "H," I think it rounds out the word in print.

Aaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhh!

I am about to lose it. I was just reading the deal site Cheap Stingy Bastard and they posted a deal where you can get a "Weatherproof Silk Cotton Button Down Woven Long Sleeve Shirt" for 11 bucks.

I thought, "I want a Weatherproof Silk Cotton Button Down Woven Long Sleeve Shirt for 11 bucks."

So I clicked the link. And the smallest size? Medium.

And the accompanying "Weatherproof Men's Three Gauge Cotton Sweater"?

Medium.

Am I missing something here? Maybe I should have asked for growth hormones when I was in junior high.

Rant: American Haberdashery

Look at the link - if you want a Le Tigre shirt from bluefly.com, you had better be at least a medium. No smalls in stock. I'm a reasonable person, and I work for a retail products company, so I know that retailers can be out of stock occasionally. But no smalls? At all? I mean, I'm not medium, I'm small. American retailers do not care about men who wear smalls. They don't like to make shirts with a 14 1/2 neck, they don't like to sell suits in a 36 Short, they just have a lousy selection of clothes if you are not a stereotypical 5'9" male. Armani to Zegna, it is tough to find your size.

I have not been able to find a suit I really love since Napolean's Closet in Birmingham closed. That place was amazing - if you needed a Burberry suit in a 34S, they had it. If you were taller than 5'8", they couldn't help you. Awesome store. I went into Banana Republic last week and they told me if I wanted a 3-button refined linen blazer in "Tobacco," I would have to get it online, because they do not carry the 36S's in the stores. Well, I just looked, and they do not make the 36S, period.

I am frustrated to the point where I want to start having clothes custom made - the only problem being that I am not the kind of wealthy dude who can go get clothes custom made. There is no room in my life for $2800 Brioni suits and $120 dress shirts, minimum order 6. I also don't have the opportunity to get them made more inexpensively in Hong Kong or Buenos Aires. Frankly, I am bummed about this.

Mr. Ripe, or Mr. Ripe Now

I was reading the Detroit News yesterday, and there is just so much going on right now. If you had read the paper yesterday you would know that the Pistons are two games up on Philadelphia, auto suppliers are cutting benefits all over the place to try to stay competitive, and that He Drove, She Drove did not like the Infiniti FX35.

Most importantly, you would know that Kroger had some generic ice cream for $1 a half gallon, with plus card. No dummy, I got in Lauren's car and pointed those flower wheels up Woodward to check out the ice cream. Now, we're not talking Stroh's or Breyers - this is basically unbranded ice cream, and the only flavor that looked interesting was chocolate. I called Lauren and said, "Two grams of fat, one gram saturated fat, 5 grams of cholesterol," to which she replied, "Go see how much is in Starbucks bars." We ended up with the bars of course, which it turns out have exactly as much fat and cholesterol per serving as dollar ice cream. They're three times as expensive, which defeated the purpose of going, but I found a few other bargains that made the trip worthwhile.

Hass Avocados - 10 for $10! Word, this is a legitimate deal. They were ripe now, so I bought 5 and started making guacamole. It was great, but I had to salt it extra heavy to make it taste good with matzoh.

Strawberries - 2 pound box for $3! Oddly, two one-pound boxes were $4. Now I just need to figure out what to do with 2 pounds of strawberries. Worst case: I just eat them. Still fine.

Onions - I don't know what these cost but I bought 4, because the ones on our counter were starting to sprout giant green appendages. Time to go.

Once Upon a Time.....

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I had so much free time on my hands that I started trying out crafting projects in Martha Sterwart magazine. I saw this article about a woman who made a beautiful wedding bouquet out of flowers made from tiny seed beads. I decided to try it being that I didn't have any diapers to change or laundry loads full of tiny socks and burp clothes to do. Although I only got through three flowers rather than a full arrangment due to a lack of ritalin supply, my fine craft did not go to waste. After counting out percise rows of impossibly small beads for days and days on end,I mounted the gorgeous gems on a ribbon and presented it to my friend Caroline for her Birthday. My creation: a choker. Um yeah...I thought she could wear it out. Like to a bar or dinner or something. Yeah, the giant flower and the velvety leaves and the fake bird. All right there, all around her neck. Yeah, pretty seductive and cool huh? Sorry Caroline. I'll whip up something even more awesome next year!

A Run-in at Target

So as not to completely confuse you, this picture has nothing to do with the story. I thought I'd just add some visual interest with a cute picture of Noah when he was just a very wee boy.

So I was telling this story in an e-mail tonight and thought I'd share it with you too:

I was in Target the other day and this Mom just came up to me and said " Oh how old is your son"? I said "5 months" and she said ; "so is my daughter"! and then said "But she isn't as big as yours, more that size" where she pointed to my friend's more "slender" baby. Everyone makes fun of my baby's fabulous chub. Anyway though, so this complete stranger Mom in Target says ; "So, are you going to put your son in Birmingham schools"? I was like... "umm..uh..I guess I think so..um".(not knowing what to say) "Well you know" she said; "My daughter is the same age and I just had to put her on the waiting list for the preschool at Midvale and it's THE BEST you know"!

HELLO!!!!!!! My son is practically still a zygote and I don't know you!!!

I should have said something to really freak her out like; "Oh, I'm just planning to home school".

Jeez!

New Car Kit Test

Blogwise

Blogwise has been kind enough to link How Bourgeois to their site (see link), hence the new button on the sidebar. Blogwise is a site that makes it easier to find blogs and the information on them, and updates to this site will be reflected on Blogwise. Lots of great stuff there, with almost 50,000 sites already listed. Impressive effort and worth browsing.

Lauren and Noah at Leo's Coney Island

Honkers

I did not make matzoh ball soup yesterday.

Instead of waking up from his nap refreshed and ready to party with kosher chickens and the Times Review of Books, Noah crabbed it up to the point where we didn't do much of anything but try to keep him entertained. Turns out he likes to see old dad jump up and down and go "Ooh ooh ooh," literally, like a monkey.

Which is great, but I am still sniffling and we did finally get to go to Trader Joe's and get some grapefruit juice, after Noah took an astounding doze, his best nap ever - until today.




Noah is delightfully smart and engaging, but he has not to date been what one would call a great sleeper. The last couple of days though he has taken nice sound naps and been cheerful in the afternoon. I'm cautiously optimistic that it could be a trend.




Sometimes when we're up we watch some Noggin, which has no commercials and only educational programming - hence the Honkers. There are some great shows, but I am concerned because I read several studies today correlating television under age two with ADHD later in life. The major study could not show causality, but it does make one think that a little bit is plenty, even of the good stuff. Still, Noah smiles at Moose A. Moose whenever he comes on, and it is amazing to me that a five-month-old can recognize an animated moose from the television. To me there is some good stuff going on with Noggin regarding memory/repetition and song and learning, but at the same time, is the pace too fast for an infant? Lots of people really love their Baby Einstein videos, but is it because the baby is learning or because you can go throw in a load of laundry? If anyone with experience would like to comment, I'd be interested.

Floods

Swing

A tiny guy at five days old. 6 pounds.



A big boy at five months old! 19 pounds.

Our magnolia bloomed!

Granted, it has been snowing all weekend. We'll see how good it looks in a couple of days.

Noah Recap

Here are a couple of miscellaneous Noah photos.


Guess which one of us has teeth so far? By the way, Sarah traded Lauren this hat for an hour of babysitting. Guess whose baby behaved? (Hint: It probably wasn't Noah).


Sometimes Noah fights napping in his crib, but Saturday morning he hung out with us after he woke up (at 6), and ended up sleeping until 8 am!


Tummy time.

Our Morning

It's not quite 8:30 on Sunday morning, and I just put Noah down for his first nap of the day. Why this early? Because he has been up since about 6:15, and after he ate he played in his office (excersaucer), in the jumperoo, with that map with the dangly toys, and sat in the swing while we watched Sesame Street. We're both beat. So he's ready for bed, and when he wakes up we'll go get the New York Times and some Empire chickens.

Why chickens? Becuase Lauren and I both have colds that came on suddenly, so I'm going to make soup. With matzoh balls. While I was feeding Noah this morning I was thinking about matzoh balls and what a strange food they are, being, after all, a floating ball made from matzoh right in the middle of the soup. Texturally, they can either be as light as a balloon or as dense as a doorstop, and making them well is an art, complete with secrets. No, you can't have my secrets. For me, the matzoh ball is one of those great foods that I miss when I'm not eating them. They are a hassle to prepare and the commercial mixes are subpar, which means that most of the time I have them when someone else makes them. They are bland without the soup and they have a short shelf life. In short, like anything worth doing they are difficult, which is why I am so glad Noah woke me up so early, so I can have some ready for lunch.

HB Produce Thursday Presents: A Contest

The California Avocado Commission is giving away a year's supply (600) of Avocados. That is a lot of guacamole - and speaking of, click here for eight guacamole recipes, any one of which might be almost as good as mine.

Holy Crap, This is Nuts

In a nutshell, Shabot 6000 is a cartoon about an observant Jew and the robot he hired to work for him on on Shabbat, a time when observant Jews are not permitted to perform any labor. The robot decides he's Jewish too, so he could not perform any work either. The daily strips are annotated to explain all of the religious references therein, which would not be funny to people who do not know what a sheitel is. Or want to, especially.

Anyway, this morning I was forwarded this link to "SEDA' CLUB", "Shabot's Passover Animated Special." I have no intention of spoiling the surprise, just turn it up and watch.

Face

Birmingham Weekend Car Roundup

Saturday was extremely beautiful, so we spent most of the day in downtown Birmingham. As always, I was struck by the quality and variety of vehicles people were out preening in.


Here is a new Benz CLS 500. Have not seen one of these in traffic yet - and I am really struck by how small it is compared to the Dodge Intrepid i left in for reference! It still has amazing road presence, even if it does look like my Uncle Harry's Cadillac Seville from the early eighties melted.


Here is just a sweet T/A. Love these, right? They're getting better with age.


La-di-dah, I am just out for a little drive in my $300,000 convertible. Crazily, I have seen this parked at a meter before. Hate to get a door ding on this, but maybe you just don't care if you can afford to buy this.


This is one of those guys who likes to keep the motor revving at the light.


And finally, even though there is nothing special about this Buick, it is free if you but the house in Birmingham it is parked in front of. Not sure why someone buying a million dollar house in downtown Birmingham wants a white Buick (there was a Benz E55 parked in the drive across the street), but if this works for them then I will buy a Kia to incentivize whoever buys our place when we sell it.

Saleen Sighting

This is why I love living in Detroit - here is a brand-new Saleen Mustang, probably the new S281. I'm not sure if this is for sale yet, but living here you get to see everything first. Saleen Special Vehicles is on Maple Road, around the corner from foneGEAR's office, and so I snapped these in traffic while going to visit a customer.


This is the close-up. I apologize for the low resolution, but I took these with my phone.


The rear-view (the one my Jeep will see most often). I think this looks suitably aggressive, and it compares favorably to the stock body work, which I like (for more on that, go here and here).

Rolling on Things

This is car jewelry, and the look is currently, to my knowledge, one-of-a-few. My colleague V has them on her Hummer H2, and now Lauren's wagon is sporting a shiny new set of pink-chrome plastic floral valve caps with blue rhinestone centers. The best part is that when you roll up Woodward your rims spin a tiny shiny pink circle up the street. I brought some home because I thought they are uniquely suited to Lauren - plus they will last longer than cut flowers.

Test Post, Yo!

Behold, our first audio post ever. This must be how Alexander Graham Bell felt.

HB Presents: 2005 4Runner Mini-review

While I was in Indianapolis we rented a 2005 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4x4 from Hertz. I was definitely interested in how it would measure up against my 2005 Grand Cherokee, but you'll have to wait until the end to find out if I made the right decision.

On my last trip to Indy I drove a colleague's company 4Runner there and back instead of flying. I really enjoyed it, but it is the Limited model, far more posh than this rental and much more expensive. It is loaded up, with heated leather, sunroof, high-end sound system, etc. etc. indefinitely. I liked it a lot. It was powerful, comfortable and well appointed, and it made me seriously consider the 4Runner when I was looking for a new truck. It handled the trip down to Indiana with no drama or effort over several hours in intermittent blowing snow, and it returned decent fuel economy while we traveled down at a brisk pace for a noon meeting. All in all, a great SUV.





The SR5 is a different story. Ungainly-looking in silver and with a depressing charcoal interior, my first impression was that this is not a place I wanted to spend a week, let alone 100,000 miles. Even my old Corolla had a pleasant tweed burgundy interior (I'm not sure if I'm kidding either), so to see Toyota offer something so drab 18 years later is a dissappointment.

Look at this: Can you get more gray?




The uphostelry is mousy and felt-like. It is not nearly as pleasant as the tight-weave cloth in the Jeep. You can sit on it and live to tell, but it is unsatisying aesthetically. I fail to understand why Toyota chose to go with an unappealing two-tone approach, instead of just finding one tone people could live with. The driver and passenger seat adjustments are manual, no big deal in itself but the Jeep has a power driver's seat. The steering wheel is all plastic, nothing new there for Toyota, but for some reason it feels more synthetic than the plastics used in the '95 Camry and '98 RAV4 I have driven extensively. You sit low in this truck, or perhaps I'm just short. Whatever, the impression for me was sort of like driving my bathtub around. Cool in a '32 Ford, silly in a sport utility. Buy this if you're 6'5". Here's a shot of the wheel and gauges:




The controls have a substantial, quality feel to them that one comes to expect from Toyota products. The shift lever has positive actuation through the gears, the buttons for the climate control and stereo enagage with authority, and there is a smoothness to the action of turning on the windshield wipers or headlights. It feels as though you are investing in a quality product that would work every day for a decade. Jeep is making strides in this direction, but Chrysler products still have not caught up with Toyota in this regard. The dash knobs on the Jeep do not feel as though they would fall off in your hand, they are just about 90% as good as these.




The downside is that Toyota has made some questionable ergonomic choices here that detract from the experience. The overall climate/stereo effect here is both discordant and a distraction from driving, because Toyota has chosen to use some of the display components from the excellent Limited model interface, but when combined with the downmarket stereo the look is less than upscale. The climate control butttons themselves are tough to read on the move, non-intuitive for new users, and needlessly complicated. I mean, look at this:




The Jeep has a fan dial, a temperature dial and a position dial, just like cars have had for decades. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel here. It is not innovation, it just smacks of gimmickry. Camry: Dials. RAV4 and Corolla: Levers. All of those cars were substantially less expensive than this truck, and they were all easier to use by feel without having to take one's eyes off the road. Simple solutions are better.

The engine is another story.




This is a powerful motor, and it is stronger than the Jeep V6 by about 35 horsepower, while returning better fuel economy. When you boot it it sounds great and really hustles. The ride is a bit pillowy compared to the Grand Cherokee and I would rather have the Jeep in the curves, but in a straight line this thing is more fun.

It is also more expensive, both to lease and to buy (after Jeep incentives), which made the Jeep that much more compelling. On balance the two are similar in their approach but differ in the execution, but I think the Grand Cherokee is simultaneously more fun to drive and more affordable than the 4Runner. It is definitely more cheerful inside, at least with the tan interior. Styling is subjective and there is an argument for both, and certainly the Toyota has a reputation for immense reliability over time. For two years I am sure I made the right decision. If I had to keep the car for ten years? Tough call. The Jeep makes me feel cool, for what that is worth, but I have never viewed cars as mere A to B transportation so style carries some weight with me. On balance the Jeep gets the nod unless it is the 4Runner Limited, which is out of my league. Over and out.

MASSIVE UPDATE

If you have not read in a few days, don't go anywhere. The first half of the page is all new, and it has mad style. Here are a few things we covered:

Treasures from Lauren's youth that have migrated to our garage

Produce Thursday Presents: The Banana!

Steaks, Subs and Chocolate

Fuel Economy

We covered a lot of ground! Read down to be fascinated.

An Endless Mound of Treasures.........

This month my Mother and stepfather made three trips over to our house in a suburban full of boxes and bags and other containers holding junk from my childhood and college years, only to dump them in a gigantic mound in our garage. When I say gigantic, I mean GIGANTIC! This topographic anomaly is easily 12 feet long, 4 feet deep and 4 feet high. The garage that Jon once loved now holds only one car and about 2,000lbs. of crap from my parent's basement. It's a wonder that I'm still married.

My Mother has been on my case for a while now to come over and get my old stuff out of her house and to take it to my already "No Vacancy Available" basement. In the end though, when she brought my things to me, they also included an array of her useless knicknacks and Lord knows whats, like snowmen dolls,lunch boxes and a mini ironing board. Although a kind gesture on her part, the boxes of my Mother's donations easily added 500lbs. to my pile.

The truth is, I think that she brought everything over not just to get my junk out of her basement, but to get her junk out of it too!
It's a wonder we're both still married! Well, at least one of us will have a nice basement.

Here are some highlights of the treasures that abound:

This is a bank that my Mother painted for me when I was six years old. Never good with saving money, it quickly turned into and injured insect sanctuary. If you look closely you can still see grass, sticks and opps! injured insects from 1984 in it! At least I tried....



Yet another relic from 84', my "Murry High Flight". Between the groovy rainbow, butterflies and questionable name, it's a wonder that one of the high school stoners never pushed me off the sweet bannana seat and stole this bike.



At the age of 9, it was really odd the lengths I would go through to save the lives of inatimate objects. Ever since I watched our old MG be driven away by a new owner at 5, I feared that THINGS, not just people had feelings. How could my parents abandon their car? Wouldn't she miss us? That's why as I watched the garbage truck coming down our street crushing and destroying every trash bag in sight, I knew I had to do something to help. What I was helping was the small, plastic Cookie Monster chair that our across the street neighbors were so coldly throwing out. How could they throw out this innocent chair! It has feelings too! What a horrible end to be squashed to death in the jaws of that monster, that stinky sanitation truck of death! As quickly as I could, so as not to be seen in the midst of my robinhood justified crime. I ran across the street and stole Cookie right out of their trash. My Mother came home to find her 9 year old daughter sitting in a preschoolers chair in the garage. Needless to say, so far I have given that chair another 21 years of life. Go me!



I just decided to sprinkle in a little vignette of treasure in here, typical of one of my Mother's "bonus boxes"!
1.) An Ewok doll.
2.) An Enstein Bagels lunch box.
3.) Snowmen dolls.



Ok, so I'm only posting this picture because it is SO utterly dorky. I'm really putting my reputation on the line but come on, we were all dorks at 14.

Here are two gorgeous, painted works of art. My masterpieces. The one on the right is title solely "Jerry". Yes, that is Mr. Garcia, who at 14 was my God. It's amazing how cool one can feel in 9th grade with a pair of birkinstocks and socks, an alpaca sweater and a bottle of patchouli. I now get ill when I smell patchouli. Nasty.

The painting on the left is entitled: "Isolation". This was from my serious "Edvard Munch, painter of 'The Scream' phase". As you can see it is an exestensial representation of the isolation and demoralization that teens go through. Note the artist's signature in the lower right hand corner, "Stu". Yes, yet another 14 year old's delusion. I was convinced that I was Beatle's pal Stuart Suttcliffe reincarnated to come back and show the world good art.



Ok now that I've shared, not another word of this dorkiness to anyone!

* Well, I just got off the phone with my Mom and she reminded me of some very true things. Ok, so she HAS been asking me to clean my things out of her basement for 5 years and she's gone through two moves with it. She's been EXTREMELY patient with me. I give her that. It was nice of my Mom not to just throw all of my belongings out after such a long time. I guess the other thing is that at the possibility of sounding too nerdy,I didn't want to admit that I actually really like all of the "extras" she sent me. As my Mom reminded me this morning, it was I who stated "I want to start a snowman collection" last winter. Once again my dorkiness confirmed.

Weird Coincidence

On my way through the airport after getting back from Indianapolis yesterday, I ran into Nate and Sarah and Joshua on the moving walkway. They were coming back from Florida. I knew that they would be at the airport but still, pretty slim chance we would actually meet up. The odd part is that the reason we happened to be in the same place at the same time resulted from my sitting in row 5, but the only available space for my bag being at the back of the plane. That meant I had to wait for everyone behind me to get off so I could run back to 26 for my carry-on. Had I been able to put it above my own head, I would have missed these guys.

TROPICAL BANANA SPLITS

It is true that with coconut rum, strawberries, kiwi, mango, apricot and rasperry sorbets, and toasted coconut, the banana risks becoming a sideshow. But this is a BANANA SPLIT. Without the lengthwise banana, this would just be sorbet with a bunch of stuff in the bowl. The banana defines this dish and gives it substance. Plus it just sounds freaking fabulous. Do you need a reason? Eat this thing!

BANANA ORANGE CREPES

Oh man, crepes are good, bananas are good, oranges are good....clearly this is superior foodstuffs.

Bananas

Do movies get better than this?

Having Problems Protecting that Banana?

HB Produce Thursday Presents: The Banana

Thought I forgot? No way, Shlomo. It is Thursday, and that means today we are talking bananas. Self-contained, portable, nutritious, tropical, and delicious. Best served raw or cooked, over ice cream, cooked in brown sugar, sliced in cereal - you have to be truly mean not to dig the banana.

Click the link for much information on Musa x paridasiaca. There is a lot of great stuff here.

Over the Top

I like business dinners. You get to go out, fraternize, eat well, have a glass of wine, and it's work. When I was in Indianapolis this week we went with some customers to Eddie Merlot's, one of a chain of steak houses located primarily in the Midwest. lots of chains produce sub-par food (exceptions I love: In-N-Out, Baja Fresh, Jimmy John's, lately Potbelly sandwiches), but steak is the exception: the buying power of chain steakhouses often gets you better beef than individual restaurants can obtain, unless you are Peter Luger (http://peterluger.com/).




Eddie Merlot's seems to get pretty good meat, and this is the prime 22-ounce bone-in ribeye, cooked just short of medium. It was great. by my estimate, I got through 20 ounces and three stalks of asparagus, which is not bad considering I had a bowl of (also wonderful) seafood bisque before dinner. Looking at the picture I realize that this must be over-the-top gross to a lot of people, but so rarely do I eat steak that I try to focus on enormous, excellent ones.

2nd Street Sub Shop

Like I said, I'm behind. I had lunch at the 2nd Street Sub Shop in Royal Oak right after I had my hair cut last week, and it really is great. It is a small place with a window counter to eat at if you are not getting take-out, and the food is great. I really recommend getting a hot sub, but I ordered this cold because I needed to get back to the office.



The proprietor saved my tuchus by looking over my shoulder into the street and telling me that I was about to get a ticket for a meter violation. He even let me grab a quarter from the tip jar, which I replaced with a buck when I came back inside. I should have put in more, because those RO meter tickets are ten dollars, but I have big-time diaper expenses lately.


In any event, the food is good, the owner's nice, and you cannot beat 4 dollars for lunch. Sorry I did not put this up sooner.

Chocolat, Now Open

I was out of town this week, so I am just now catching up with the blog. Last Saturday Lauren, Paul, Noah and I decided to see if Chocolat in Birmigham was open yet. It is, and we were delighted to stop for a while and have a cup of hot chocolate. The place has a European, if somewhat spartan feel, and the yellow walls and beautiful dark wood bar make for an inviting place to sit and get chocolate-drunk.


This is the hot chocolate. It is the real stuff, very rich, intensely chocolat-y, with a nice lump of (real) whipped cream on top. Fabulous.


This is some sort of mousse, possibly chocolate, as rich as the hot chocolate but dense like cold magma. Although cold magma is igneous rock, and it wasn't that dense. Pretty thick though, and I recommended trying it. As an added bonus, for some reason it was complimentary, which really makes it my kind of dessert.


And the aftermath. Clearly we made the most of our time at Chocolat, and we'll be back. For more HB thoughts on chocolate, check out my post on DeBrand Chocolate in Fort Wayne from February 18.

On Mileage

This post should be boring for almost everybody, but this is worth noting: on our drive home from Toledo, the Grand Cherokee averaged 22.4 MPG! I know this because I reset the mileage computer right before I filled the tank to come home. In the city, it is getting about 16.5. Not as good as my 1988 Corolla, not as bad as an Econoline van with custom four-wheel drive and the tires replaced by tank treads. When you think about it, it is probably much closer to the Corolla than the tank van, making it something of an economy car. Go me!

Two Birds With One Stone

Most Moms would agree that time is a hot commodity. With not enough hours in the day when babies,husbands,dishes and the laundry call, most of us lose out on "me time". One of my personal favorites for "me time" is walking outside, although the "me" turns into "us time" as Noah is always there. Sarah and I have tried to walk every weekday that we can. It's been great. The only problem that I've been having is that after a while,Noah squirms, turns red and starts to wail, hoping to get out of his stroller. I've tried to put him in sitting up and looking forward. While interesting for a while, he always gets tired of sitting around. Next on Sarah's suggestion I Baby Bjorned Noah. That worked great for a while but after about 15 minutes of walking with nearly 20lbs. on your chest it's just a back breaker.

Introducing the "Snugli Crossroads Baby Backpack"! After reading some great reviews (and out of boredom while Jon was out of town), I decided to try it out. This newest baby gadget is great! It's much easier to carry his weight on my back rather than my chest and Noah loves sitting way up high.




The best part.... with so much to do in a day, I realized this backpack can help me get things done and have "me time" at the same time! Yep, Noah and I went grocery shopping with the backpack. Not only was I able to get everything on my list AND keep Noah entertained without a public crying fit, I also got a great 60 minute walking workout! Walking all around the store and carrying 20lbs on your back while pushing a cart really makes you huff and puff in no time! I'm guessing the same thing happens when you strap Noah on and do the vacuuming.

The only downside: while at the grocery store I did get slimed on the shoulder once with white, chunky spit up and then there was the back of my head full of drool and not to mention the fact that he tore huge chunks of hair out of my ponytail holder....

But hey! I'm a Mom now and I should just be thankful for any "me time" I can get....

OK, One More

Winding down a long week.

The end of a whirlwind week. Tired much?

Having a five-month old is work.

Pam

Here's Pam, one of my friends from high school.

New Hair, Plus Crazy P

Lauren's mom's friends wanted to see my new haircut from Trim, so here it is. As an added bonus, enjoy Phil.

Naturals

These guys are great with babies.

Who cuts an onion roll?

We went to Barry's for lunch, and they cut Jacob's onion roll in half? What's up with that?

Hop on Pop

Hop on Pop.


Pop, Stop!

These are all great

Sunday: Road Trip

We went down to Toledo. Here is my Bubby.


Bubby and Noah

Indian Snacks

Adrienne brought over these Chaat-flavored potato chips. They are fabulous and much hotter than any American chip I have tried.


Here are Lay's cilantro chips - they have an MSG warning! Yum.

Saturday: Adrienne comes to visit.

Noah sure has a lot of aunts. This is our friend Adrienne, just back from a month in India. Wait til you see what she brought back. We took her to Leo's in Birmingham for french fries, as apparently her diet on the subcontinent was mostly raw carrot and apple-based. Great for clearing the mind, but not so filling. Funny, Noah eats a lot of apples and carrots, and he seems pretty full. Go figure.

Trim

I got a great haircut today at lunch time. This new place, Trim, has been open in Royal Oak for about a month. I drove by last week, and when I called this morning to see if they cut men's hair, I was told it was their specialty. The pole in front should have been a tip-off, but the exterior is nice-looking to the point where you think, "salon."

I needn't have worried. The concept is sort of like an upscale, old-school barber shop, with a big Plasma, comfy barber chairs and a nice reception area. It is much better looking than this over-exposed picture I took with my phone. After it gets rolling Saturday mornings will probably be a big hang-out time in the lobby. The amenities are nice, but you are there for the haircut, and I have to say I was extremely pleased with my new 'do. My stylist was Shannon, a veteran of Palozzolo in Royal Oak, and I was very confident she would do a great job. As I mentioned I was not at all disappointed, and I am ready for some big appointments I have next week.

I spent another few minutes on the way out talking with Dan, Trim's owner, and he has a real vision for where he wanst to take his business. I'll definitely be back, and I am recommending that you try it. It is at 1213 Lincoln in Royal Oak. Write me at howbourgeois at gmail.com and I will give you one of the half dozen $5 off coupons Dan gave me.

HB Produce Thursday Presents: A Vacation

That's right, I'm taking a week off. Enjoy the link in the meantime.

Texas Bill Would Require Transponders in All Cars

How Bourgeois has not yet had a reason to discuss politics, but transponders in our cars are at best a threat to our right to move about as we please, and at worst an unconstitutional abridgement of our right to privacy. Where will this end? We are Americans, and we should be able to drive around where we want without being followed around by spies and revenue agents. I don't care what your political leaning is, if you care about being a free American person you know this is a bad idea. This isn't even well-inentioned enough to claim it is fighting terrorism but is about generating revenue and penalizing people by suspending licenses automatically without due process. Don't think it can only happen in Texas.

Here's the Slashdot discussion: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/02/2351243

So guess who learned to roll over?

We knew this was coming, but the last two mornings Noah has been on his stomach when we walked in in the morning. Last night I put him on his back at about 4 am, and by 6 he had flipped again. Yesterday he seemed mad about waking up on his stomach, but this morning he was having fun.

Is this sweet or what?

This is my new Jeep! It is "Light Khaki" with a Khaki interior. Driving it home Monday, I was somewhat chagrined that at 27, having grown up in Toledo, home of the Jeep, that this is my first one. I love that the GC is built right here on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, and so far it is just great.

Now look, it gets 2 miles per gallon and I have rolled it already, but that's OK because a friend of mine gave me their Chrysler employee discount. I ordered the V6 (I exercised some restraint) with four-wheel drive. The standard 3.7 Liter V6 has plenty of punch and actually I'm averaging about 17 MPG in the city, which is not bad on an unbroken-in engine, and I am expecting it to improve. I think the next upgrade, the 4.7 Liter V8, would have been fun overkill. At any rate it is no Toyota Prius, but I do think it offers a nice balance of size, power and economy. Perhaps I will feel differently if gas hits $3 a gallon, but for now I am having fun.

Hmmm.......

This is what Noah does when he is deep in thought. "Hmmm..cry or make a stinky diaper? Which will get their attention quicker? Hmmm...."

This is Cool.

Crafting Gone Wrong

Poor Noah deals with a lot of Mom's crafting. This time it was some kind of felt hat. It was a little weird, but at least it tasted good.

Noah's Saturday Morning

Conference call.











Eating


Some bananas

Look Out Next Year

This was kind of a downer. Great first half though.

From: wireless@wirelesscollegesports.com
Date: 4/3/05 12:10 am

Subject: Score Update from
CollegeSports.
MEN'S BASKETBALL: NORTH CAROLINA 87, MICHIGAN STATE 71 (F)

Quality Remedy

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Select quick and reliable handling service.

Check the super promo rebate and value from access.

Thank you for reviewing this concept. Please add this address to the browser for further reference. >> (link deleted - ed.)


I do think your store is a great choice of quality remedy access. With the top rebate and quick handling, I got quality goods and super convenience. --Cycle O. in OH

Craziest Guestbook Ever

I found this browsing, and the comments are just insane. It is unfortunately closed to new submissions, but the ones that are there will give you an interesting 10 minutes.