Yate's Cider Mill...

I took off yesterday afternoon so Ashley and I could go play. We had planned a full day of adventures. My mental schedule was something like this...

1. Go have lunch with Ashley (to a place of Ashley's picking)
2. Head on over to the Cider Mill and get some hot apple cider and a donut (yum!)
3. Drive an hour North to a small Bavarian town filled with little shops and tasty treats
4. Find some place to have dinner
5. Return back to my place to carve up some pumpkins

This is was actually happened...

1. I went to pick up Ashley, only SURPRISE, Ashley had cooked me a great warm lunch. It was a pot-pie like dish except no crust but on top was a flaky pastry that had been baked separately. It was very good.
2. Ashley and I then talked and had just a good time that we ended up staying in the house for a few hours.
3. We made it to the cider mill and had a great time. We decided we would make it North with enough time to really enjoy it so instead we walked around the paths for a while.
4. We stopped and ate some Indian food (the kind from India). Including some rice that tasted as if you took all of Christmas (tree, presents, Santa, and even Rudolf) in a blender and liquefied it then cooked the resulting sauce with rice. It was a little odd. If you have a hard time imagining it then imagine eating rice that tasted like a bowl of potpourri. In any case here are some pictures.

Sweetest Day...

Michigan celebrates a holiday called Sweetest Day, which is much like Valentines Day only on the third Saturday of October rather than February. Yesterday, I woke up to a phone call from Ashley telling me good morning and to walk out to my car. Putting on some loafers and I opened the garage door to see a rolled up pink poster board. I walked over and picked it up and was surprised to find that it weighed, I think, a good 15 to 20 pounds. I carried it inside and unrolled it.


In case you can't read some of it here is what it says...

Hello Sugar Babie,
Happy Sweetest Day!
hony you have charmed me &
you are better than I
could ever wish. I know
we are ment to be together.
Baby yor a juicy slamin
hot hunk! You always
know plenty of ways to
bring me mounds of joy.
I have an extremely grand time
with you Mr. Hot pants.
Let's chews
to stick together now & later.
I love you to pieces!
Kisses, Ashley

Isn't it so amazing! Reading it with her still on the line I laughed so much at her choice of words. I love how she calls me "Mr. Hot Pants"! Hey, what can I say... if the pants fit...

Really, I'm very, very lucky to have Ashley in my life. She is absolutely amazing!!!

The Detroit Institute of Art...

I'm not very good about posting and I'm not going to try and catch up right now. I just wanted to post some pictures that I like. A couple weeks ago Ashley and I went to the Detroit Institute of Art. I had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day. I think my favorite thing was a table that had a projected image with audio of a three course meal from a century or two ago. I'm not sure why I liked it so much. It just made me hungry but I thought it was cool to image myself eating back then. Anyway, here are some pics from that day.

July in Review

Detroit Zoo and Metric...

Last weekend Ashley and I headed over to the Detroit Zoo to do some animal and people watching. We saw lots of stuff but I'm just going to highlight two things.

First, I love tigers. They have a very good stage presence. The tiger pictured was just pacing across the edge of his area. There was a large rift between his territory and the fence. He paced and looked like he really wanted to leap across the canyon and pummel a few of the onlookers.

Second, the elusive blue butterfly. Ashley and I spent near a half hour trying to capture a picture of on with it wings open. The color is just amazing. In one area of my mission that was near the Amazon I would see these butterflies from time to time. At a distance you just see what appears to be a flashing blue light in the middle of the day as their wings open and close. It really is very cool.

The following Monday we went to a Metric concert. There latest album "Fantasies" is super addictive and amazing. The concert was awesome and with the exception of one girl who danced too wildly and with her arms swinging about in front of us it was a great show. Below is a clip that I found from the concert we went to in Detroit (we were about the same distance from the stage). It's followed by a clip from an appearance on the Craig Ferguson show.

Hamtramck...

I haven't been very good at writing or posting anything lately. And I'm too tired now to write much but at least I'm posting pics and quite a few of them. Last Saturday Ashley and I went to Hamtramck which has a large polish community. The destination was a restaurant named The Polish Village Cafe. It's been here for a long time and has good reviews. Emeril even did a show from the restaurant. Before dinner we walked around and took pictures. Ashley chased some birds, we saw a granny launch a football, and we also took pictures of each other. The last picture is what Ashley ordered, a Hungarian Pancake. It looks strange but it when you get it into you mouth it starts rock'n. It's spicy slow cooked pork on top of a potato pancake. The meat tasted very familiar, but I never could place what it tasted like.