Big Food in Detroit

I've been travelling for work the past 2 weeks. I was in Nashville for a few days last week and now I'm in Detroit until the end of this week. Over the weekend, I went with some coworkers to the Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. Eastern Market is a big farmer's market and garden market. I think the Michaganders (as they are called here) must have been expectionally excited for the nice spring wheather because the market was packed. Everyone was buying flowers and plants to spruce up their yards that were just waking up from winter.


It was fun to walk around the huge market. We stopped for lunch in front of the Motown Cafe. Check out the huge burger I got. It was pretty tasty, but really big.



By the way...the people watching was amazing!

Big Food : Part 2.....

Last night I went to a work dinner at a trendy little restaraunt in Birmingham, MI called Toast. As we were waiting for our food to come to the table someone said, "Just be glad you didn't order the salad." We looked over at the table next to us and a woman was eating a salad out of a huge wooden serving bowl. I replied with, "That's what I ordered!" The Bistro Salad was good, but it was embarassingly huge. HUGE! Sorry I don't have a picture of me eating this gigantic salad to share with you, but it kind of looked like this......

The Big Reveal

You saw the sneak peak. Now, here is the big reveal of the dining table and bench. Tadaaaa!

I am so very proud of Mark's work on this project. He has built every part of this room including the bench and this table.....and walls and floors and ceiling and lights.

Can we eat yet?!

The table top was leftover from when the previous owner rennovated the kitchen. When Mark first saw it he said it would make a great table for that corner. We used automotive fabric from my work for the bench cushion. And the table legs are Grandpa Fender's legs. What? Grandpa Fender is Mark's maternal grandfather and he turned these wooden legs a long time ago for his house in Anaheim. They are perfect for our table and Mark said he really felt a sense of pride and connection to his grandpa as he sanded the legs and attached them.

It is so nice to finally be able to eat dinner at a real table (not the couch or a folding table). I seriously almost cried the day I came home and the table was finished. I quickly made some spaghetti and salad, set the table for two and served up dinner. I'm looking forward to many more meals together at this table through the years. So, when are you coming over for dinner??

Let's eat before I fall asleep

Happy Humpday

I don't really like birds, but this one is pretty cool.  Love the gray with that bright tail.

Shrimp

I have pets at work!  I've been their caretakers ever since my coworker left last year.  There are 4 little shrimp (is that redundant?) in a bio-sphere/eco-dome/aqua-world thingy on my desk.  Its actually pretty cool.  The following is info from the website about it....

The residents of your AquaWorld are Red Shrimps.  The shrimp do not eat the algae itself, but rather groom it, eating the microalgae and bacteria that grow on the algae mats. They are literally the gardeners of their environment. They maintain the balance within the places where they live and keep them clean so the large algae can thrive. 

       Unlike in their natural environment, there are no predators in the AquaWorld, so the life span of the shrimps can be very long, up to around 10 years.

     There is also a sprig of algae in your AquaWorld. This is to help keep the water clean and provides oxygen for the Red shrimp. The shrimp groom the algae and keep it healthy.

And if you're curious as to whether there will be baby shrimp anytime soon, the answer is no.  Read below.

The shrimp usually do not produce offspring in the AquaWorld as they like dark, secluded places in which to breed.  <--ha ha :)

They require no feeding or changing of the water.  I'm all for that!  Its not that I'm not capable of taking care of animals (and hopefully humans someday), but its nice to have a responsibility free pet.  (Although, I did have to put them in the closet for a week once because they were getting too much sunlight)

And without further ado, I present you my shrimp!

For size reference.........just slightly bigger than a can of Diet Coke

Blue

This is just for fun, because its almost the end of the week.  I am working on a "blue study" for an upcoming set of meetings at work.  Each one of us is in charge of presenting history, sales info, inspiration and new developments for an assigned color....blah, blah, blah.  I got blue.  I like blue.  But now I'm very tired of blue.

So to make this assignment more interesting, I've added this picture as my cover page.  Those are some crazy eyes!

Easter Update

I think I am getting lazy. I'd much rather link to Gwen's blog about Easter than to pen my own account of the day. :)

Sneak Peak

Here's a little sneak peak into what's been going on at our house lately.  Hopefully you'll be able to see the finished product very soon!