You Know The Economy's Bad When...

You know the economy's bad when a plastic surgery office in Novi, Star Plastic Surgery has commercials offering a wonderful deal -- Buy one surgery, get one free.  I wish I were joking.  I guess even those who are able to afford plastic surgery are suffering.  It isn't clear if both surgeries have to be performed on one person, or if it can be boob jobs for two friends, but either way, it's pretty strange, in my opinion.

Also in this tough time, Compuware is laying off 250 of its 6,000 person workforce, and Kwame Kilpatrick, our esteemed ex-Thug, er, Mayor of Detroit just got a sweet job working for one of Compuware's subsitidaries.  Hmm, think they were in bed together?  I wonder how many of those people got laid off so they could pay Kwame his salary.

Taste of Spring

Or is it a tease?

I couldn't get over the good weather we had today.  Over 50 degrees before Valentine's Day?  Occasional blue skies?  Unheard of!  Kelly and I had our door wall open, and the kitties loved it.  Just the fact that there was fresh air in the apartment for the first time in a long time made a huge difference in the feel of the apartment.

I had the evening off, so Kelly and I went over to her dad's to help him out a little bit.  We saw Tina, when she was heading off to work.  In order to spend some time outdoors (and to make Kelly feel better) we took down the Christmas lights that were still on the trees, bushes, porch, and front of the house.  Then we took the fat dog Dixie for a long walk, after which she collapsed.  I went and got the converter box for Grandma Rembisz, so hopefully she will be able to get more than two channels, and then Kelly and I waited for her dad to get home to go to dinner.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for the best deal -- Free Wing Tuesday.  It was a very good night.  I just am very lucky to have Kelly to share these days with.

Elusive Rest

Why is it that everyone seems to be sleeping so poorly lately?

At work, people are having more of those work fever-dreams.  None of us can leave the evenings behind us.  I had one where I was pretty much paralyzed with my one table and had four other tables sat around me.  It was not pleasant, and I woke up feeling as if I had just closed my eyes.

That happened again last night.  I fell asleep on the couch, and I got in to bed at 3:30am, and woke up at 7am for church.  It was pretty bad, and it felt like every time I blinked or closed my eyes, that they were lined with sand.

If it were not for the little nap we got between the church and the birthday parties, I would not have been much use to anybody.

Did I mention birthday parties?  There were two birthday parties for one-year-olds today.  First was Hannah, Amanda's little one, and the other was Jack, Audra's little man.  Throughout the day/evening, we were surrounded by little kids and babies.  At the second party, I had a 7 week old Sophie in my arms, sleeping, and stealing my energy.  Finally when we got home, we zoned out on the couch watching the Grammys.

Quick note about the Grammys -- I never expected Robert Plant to win Album of the Year.  Well done!  Radiohead performed their 15 Steps with the USC Trojans marching band, and the little shout out to Bo Diddley by Keith Urban, John Mayer, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy were the highlights of the show to me.  Also, M.I.A. looked like she was ready to pop.

Coolest Little Bro Ever

Above pic links to Kevin's blog.

So, recently I found out that my little brother Kevo was artistic.  I never really knew this before.  In fact, when he started putting up some of his artwork on a Blogspot blog, I decided to migrate over from LiveJournal.  He has this crazy Jackson Pollock style that I really get in to.  His hip-hop series (Notorious B.I.G. and Method Man so far) were really cool and gritty, done in black and white with a removed tape/negative space technique.

I asked him to do a piece for me, the iconic Jethro Tull picture -- Ian Anderson standing on one leg with his flute -- which has been used for many years.  I left the rest to him, and lo and behold, this is the result.  Great use of many colors, reminiscent of tie-dye effects that make sense with the colorful past of Jethro Tull's music.

Thank you, Kevo.  You really are talented!

Superbowl Party Goodness

First off, the pic above is a link to my Picasa Web Album for the party.

Kelly and I had a couple people over to our place to watch a football game yesterday.  It was nothing special, unless you count the fact that 14 people fit into our living room to watch the Superbowl.  It was a good time, and accordingly, there are a few pictures.  Nothing too exciting.  Not much action on the living room floor as we all sat, talked, and absently watched the game and the commercials.

We had a good amount of junk food and drinks available, and I think the party was a success.  Definitely a fun time, one that we would like to repeat.

SlapChop - Friend or Foe?

I was alerted to this abomination, the SlapChop by Susie last night.  I saw the website in my IM window, and I had no idea what it might be.  Now granted, it looks helpful enough, being essentially a "Magic Bullet" chopper or "Vidalia King" or something like that. 

But with a name like the SlapChop, I thought that it might be the special move of a particularly effeminate ninja.  "Don't make the Pink Ninja angry or he will SlapChop the shit out of you."

Did I mention that this product is being hawked not by the ever-shouting, bearded Billy Mayes,  but by the trash-talking, headset-wearing Shamwow guy.  Yeah, he is annoying enough to avoid any of the commercials all together.