glad I'm home as usual

Last Sunday, I flew to Chicago for some training on the software we use to do the website. Here are the people I went with left to right: the two women from Seattle, Ryan who has my job in Flint and Kevin who has my job in Chicago. We were on our way to a teahouse where I had an earl grey with vanilla and cream. Delish.

We walked by this marquee



I had these scallops at the Park Grill.
Here is the park the grill is in.


Here is the inside of the Park Grill.



Here is the giant jellybean sculpture thing there.






Tuesday I had breakfast by myself in the Renaissance hotel dining room. I had a fruit granola yogurt compote in a martini glass and some toast and a latte while doing a crossword puzzle.

Today I went to get my mom out of the nursing home, thereby having to spend an entire beautiful day inside. Yesterday I had a radio show and then Amy and I killed a couple bottles of cheap wine.

This week is GNO at Deb's and Friday it's Norah Jones and Saturday is Cinco de Mayo and La Revancha is at Howard's and Sunday is Ana Popovic. Roll on.

back safe home again

My kids used to love that line from some Richard Scarry book. About a worm, I believe. I have some great pictures from Chicago but my camera turned on in my purse on the way home and the batteries are dead and the extra batteries are in my suitcase which American Airlines can't find. I roll into T-Town yesterday about 5 p.m. and alas mine is the only bag lost. Between Chicago and Toledo on a teeny tiny plane. Many calls today have not established the bag's whereabouts.

Also missing in the luggage: makeup, phone charger, clothes and worse, some credit card bills I was going to pay while gone, but didn't. IDENTITY THEFT FEAR!!!! And those three new CDs Sherry made for me.

So last night instead of driving to Flint and staying overnight in a hotel, I drove home from the airport. Finished reading Jim Harrison's new book Returning to Earth. It was great. He's the guy who wrote Legends of the Fall, made into a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.

Today I drove to Flint and back for some other training. Two hours door to door. Told me it couldn't be done.

Also the social work guy at my mom's nursing home called today to say Mom gets to go home Saturday. Only I have a radio show Saturday so I have a call into the guy to see if she can wait until Sunday. When it will be beautiful outside.

Happy Birthday, Bomeli

Tonight, I came home and did a tape and Connie came over for me to take pictures of jewelry she and Amy had made for the Humane Society benefit auction and then I make little fences around my bushes out back with chicken wire which they now call hardware cloth and I do the dishes and some laundry and Annie calls saying she has stuffed peppers in the oven and they're probably on burn so I go over there and the oven has shut off, as it has been doing lately inexplicably, so I go to the bar where Tony and Joe and Nate are playing al fresco. But alas, it is towards the end so I have two beers and a shot of some buttery stuff with Dave since it's his birthday and I come home.

But I did endure an entire night Monday with no drinking in my attempt to lose this flabby tire around my middle. I watched "The Three Burials of Malquiedes Estrada" with Tommy Lee Jones and Levon Helm and Dwight Yoakum which was fabulous.

Sunday night, we saw Lucinda Williams in Ann Arbor and she was GREAT. I'm sorry to say that Carrie Rodriguez was not great. I liked that perky little voice she sang with Chip Taylor with but now she seems too serious. Here's Lucinda taken with my cell phone from the balcony.



We saw Bucktown Kickback Saturday night after which we went to Ricky Ault's new bar 149 North and then went to Howard's to see Student Loan but we saw Indgrass instead who was opening for them and I drank a lot of Jack Daniel's and then Sunday I went to see my mom before going to Ann Arbor. Amazingly, this lead singer for the band looked a lot like Amy's son Evan, even down to the smallish stature. Once again, taken with the cell phone.



Another giant weekend coming up with Ronnie Baker Brooks and Rod's two nights and go to see mom on Sunday and fly to Chicago that night.

checking my calendar

I see I have done about nothing for two weeks. There was GNO and a radio meeting. And I visited my mom on Easter and got a visit from the Easter Bunny.


But stuff starts up any day. My Aunt Naomi died so I have to go to Delaware Friday for the funeral but it relieves me from going on the weekend when I intend to see BuckTown KickBack at GFT Saturday night and Lucinda Williams in Ann Arbor on Sunday.

Also, I got a new haircut today. It's very short. I took in pictures of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada as the idea. Now I need a whole new wardrobe and a Prada handbag.


And possibly a BMW convertible.


But not that bag with that car. Ucky.

give me a freaking break

Many of you have heard of my hectic schedule. Today I went to Delaware to visit my mom in the nursing home and got back to town just in time to do my radio show. Then I had a couple hours off before my play. Which Amy and Connie and Sherry and Ginger came to. Thank you. So we go to Beckett's after for a couple of drinks and I get home at midnight and.... my front door key won't unlock my front door. My back door is locked and no key is in the secret hiding place. The only window without a screen in it, the inside window is locked. I go around to the only inside window I know is unlocked, and in the process of getting the screen out, one of the storm windows falls down and breaks into a thousand pieces. I fling the detritus to the ground, get a porch chair and climb in the window. I guess I should be glad it wasn't a window on the side where Mrs. Eilert lives or she would have been out there in a NY minute at the sound of breaking glass.

Tomorrow is the last play performance after which we strike the set and go to Perrysburg for the cast party. On to April. Yay.

The Rodney Crowell show at the Ark got canceled because Rodney is sick. But soon enough it will be on to Lucinda and two nights of Rod's Collision and Norah Jones and Eddie Shaw and Ana Popovic and the Madison Folk Fest. And then it will be Memorial Day. Cripe, before you know it, it will be the Harvest Party.

continued swirling

So on top of my mom breaking her hip and me being in play practice, my ex-father-in-law died today. My daughter had already flown in from New York on Monday after calling me Sunday night, sobbing about her grandpa who was on the verge of buying the farm. I picked a bad time to quit smoking. Not.

I called Tom to see if he wanted me to book a flight but somebody had already got him one for $200. Apparently, I need some advice on this internet use. The cheapest one I had found was $383. So anyway, he's coming tomorrow until Monday (0 dark 30)and by the GIANT COINCIDENCE, both kids can come see my in the play on Friday night.

Tonight, at practice, I flubbed a couple lines STILL but I picked up some other people's dropped lines, so it all evens out.

And at work, which I never talk about, we are switching to a new front page next Thursday, so I am hustling to get a bunch of stuff ready for that, like a blog section and podcasts and other cool interweb content. You'll like it. Just click that link at the right that says Toledo news.

The Black Swamp lineup is coming together. Just missing the headliners for Friday and Saturday, the best part. Some interesting stuff: Alejandro Escovedo and Mose Allison.

I thought I had blogged about concerts but I don't see it. So it's April 11 Rodney Crowell at the Ark with Will Kimbrough. April 15, Lucinda Williams at the Michigan Theater. Then Rods's at Nate and Wally's April 21. Eddie Shaw at Hines Farm May 12. Norah Jones with Sal in Ann Arbor, May 4. Madison Folk Fest May 18-19.

PLUS, I have to go to Chicago for work April 22-24 and then I have to be in Flint early morning April 25 for some management training. And then later that week, I get the second half of that training at work on Friday. And Thursday, the only day I'm at work that week, is my busiest day of the week.

play practice play practice play practice

That's about all I do. And now that my mom has broken her hip and is in a nursing home, I'll be spending more time driving back and forth to Delaware, one of the world's most boring drives.

The Welders (or as some people have said, Doug Fiely and the Welders) played Saturday and it was a great time and lots of people were there and stayed late for old folks.

I have a radio show every Saturday the rest of March.

I am looking forward to April for many reasons: the weather, concerts, the play will be over. Don't get me wrong: being in a play during these months is a good way to pass the time.

There was a lot of hubbub about Kenny Wayne Shepherd with Hubert Sumlin and Pinetop Perkins at Gatorz in Toledo April 14 but I'm holding off. Eddie Shaw at Hines Farm May 12. Rod's Collision at Nate and Wally's April 21. Made reservations at the Hillside Inn in Madison for the folk fest May 18 and 19.

Sorry, no pictures. Maybe soon......

Fortunately, Deb sent me some pictures of cards at her house Sat. Feb. 17.

Who was tanky, having drank half of Dougie's scotch? I lost several dollars.

Then last Saturday, we had Lyle's 60th birthday party. Here is the birthday boy saying he didn't know if the band would let him sing with them his traditional songs. As if.

March next week

And we'll be done with my least favorite month, February. Being in the play is a good thing because it makes the time go by fast. And when the play is over, it'll be time to mow! The dates are March 23, 24, 30, 31 and April 1. It's at the FUM church out by Tim Horton's on E. Wooster.

Friday night, I stayed home and did laundry and got my affairs in order, as they say. Saturday, was a fun party at Ron and Deb's where Connie Donald and I lost immediately in the euchre tournament then I went on to lose several dollars playing poker while drinking a considerable portion of Doug's bottle of Scotch. A young, 8-year-old single malt. As Will Kimbrough says, "expensive liquors down the hatch." Man the food was fabulous, a smorgasbord of crockpots and snackies. Sunday, I felt rough. By Monday, I felt so rough, I decided I had the hit-by-a-truck flu and stayed home from work Monday, although it was President's Day and I would have had it off anyway but I wanted to save it for a later day. Alas.

I went to play practice Monday night anyway where a guy brought donuts and I had one. Then today, being Fat Tuesday, I had a paczki at work. And that guy brought paczki to play practice but I sensibly declined. I was still burping the one I'd had at work.

So this weekend, it's Lyle's birthday party and I hope nothing else.

busy busy

The week I got back from Mexico, I had play practice three nights and a radio meeting and then Saturday, it was off to New York for some ABC corporate training. Saturday, I hung out with Anne at her apartment and we went to a Goodwill and a Salvation Army which were just hodgepodges of goods in very cramped spaces. We ate that night at Patsy's Pizzeria on 116th and 1st Ave, just blocks from Anne's apartments. We had this tiramisu for dessert.

After having eaten this fabulous NY style pizza and some bruschetta. Apparently, Frank Sinatra used to have Patsy's pizza flown to him in LA. There was a big (bad) oil painting of Ol Blue Eyes in Patsy's. But then there are 6 or 7 Patsy's in the city.

The next morning, I walked over to the Savoy Bakery on 110th St. between 3rd and Lex and got all these pastries for $7.25. Look! Chocolate-filled croissant and cherry danish and cheese danish and filled things and a puff pastry with smoked chicken. We need a bakery like that here. If we wanted to gain 200 pounds, that is.

And here's Anne's apartment.

Her bedroom where I slept with her Saturday night. On the way home from the pizzeria, we stopped at a liquor store and got a little bottle of Absolut for the girls and a bottle of wine for me. A bottle of wine which refused to de-cork. One corkscrew broke off IN the cork and another pulled it out and then that piece of the first corkscrew dropped into the bottle. I hope those girls do not drink it out of the bottle. And we watched several episodes of The Office which is pretty hilarious for regular network TV.

A living room. A sweeper. View into the kitchen.
I told those girls that with all the gentrification taking place around them, someone would be buying their building soon and turning their apartment into a $500,000 2-bedroom condo. Mark my words. It's on E. 109 St. which is in Spanish Harlem but Anne likes to call the Upper Upper East Side.

Sunday, I checked into my hotel. This place has great bathrooms with stainless steel sinks and marble showers and the best bed linens, big fluffy duvet, flat-screen TV. I went shopping at Filene's Basement which is on 79th and Broadway, just 2 blocks from the hotel. I had dinner with Anne on her break from Urban Outfitters at 72nd and Broadway. We had sushi at Empire Sushi on 72nd. I went back to the hotel but around 8, I was hungry (sushi). So I went to this great little market right across Broadway and got some bowtie pasta with peas and carrots and mushrooms in olive oil and a grilled chicken in flat bread sandwich which we ate when she got back to the hotel later.

Monday, she worked and I went to the training which was OK, about the new Disney system for entering ads into our websites. That night Anne and I ate at La Bella Giardina on 72nd between Columbus and Central Park West.

The food was great and for dessert we had tortufo. We asked the non-English speaking busboy what it was and all he could say was chocolata and crema and we said Yeah, we'll have that. So it turns out that it is a pear-shaped thing, chocolate gelato on the top and vanilla on the bottom, encased in a dark chocolate shell, with a center of raspberry preserve. OMG it was so delicious and only $5 which is practically FREE in NY.

The next day, Anne worked again and I went to training. I met her for lunch at Taco Grill on 72nd and said our goodbyes. She's headed for Europe for 2 weeks in May with three other girls. The training was at ABC headquarters on 77th and Columbus. We got out early and I walked back to the hotel where I had arranged for a car to the aiport. On the way I stopped at the Westside Brewing Co. at 76th and Amsterdam and had three vodka tonics and called people on the phone. As I was leaving, some 70-year-old guy at the bar told me it was a mistake to fly into Detroit. Or to leave the city. Or something.

So I get to the hotel and I am tanky so the bellboy gets my bags and loads them into my waiting black Lincoln Continental with black leather interior and I am whisked to the airport where the driver hands my bags to some bell captain who takes my driver's license and the next thing I know, I have a boarding pass and my bag is checked and I'm headed for the airport bar.

I had thought about changing my flight to Weds. since the weather in Ohio was so bad but instead, I opted for work getting me a room at the Detroit Airport Westin. I am so bushed by the time I get there, I just fall into their Heavenly Bed to sleep. The next morning, I drove to work, got there about 11:30, worked my ass off. It's a good thing I didn't change my flight because by Weds. the storm had moved into NY and no planes were going nowhere that day.

So tonight I had play practice and then I'll have a weekend at home. Where there is a lot of dirty laundry and no food. Radio show Saturday. Cards at Ron and Deb's Saturday night. Play practice again Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.

Plus I have tickets for Lucinda Williams April 15 and Norah Jones May 4, both at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater. Maybe it will be warm by then.

Friday night, (cripe, tomorrow) Calvin Cooke is at Grounds for Thought.

Looking forward to cooking school on Sunday.

colder than.....

Here are some vacation pix:
The view from the porch at Mamita's Beach Club. We had some little gnosh before resuming drinking.
A billboard alongside a construction site on the way to the beach.

Miss Jenks, showing us 26th St., where our hotel was.

Someplace along Fifth Avenue, or La Quinta, where it's shop-o-rama.

Another lovely street scene, taken from our breakfast table at La Vagabunda, on 5th and 26th.

Our room for the first three nights. After this, we had to move to a smaller room. But this, #7 at Luna Blue in Playa del Carmen (I describe it this way so it will come up in Google searches), was slamming.

The balcony outside room #7.

Mariachis playing in a restaurant where we had great steaks and baked potatoes, and grilled vegetables and a Caesar salad make tableside. And some wine. The garden area of our hotel.

The outside of our hotel

Yeah, that blue sky and white sand and hot weather was hard to take.

So, I'm in a play, You Can't Take it With You, which runs the last two weekends of March. I play the gushing goofy mother of a wacky family. At least, I don't get killed off.

This Saturday, Feb. 10, I'm flying to NY for two days of work meetings on the 12th and 13th and back home that night.

paradise lost

It´s home tomorrow where I bet it is not 83 degrees and sunny. I will post my photos ASAp but for now you will have to take my word for it that the water is turquoise, the cerveza is fria and I am brown as a nut. I may have to drink heavily.

Ola gente

I know last year I blogged way more from down here but this year, I have about no interest in anything but the total relaxation regime. Eat, read, drink, beach, drink, eat, drink, sleep. Our hotel is very nice in the Mexican way. The night before last there was a giant fracas outside our door in the next room with some drunken guy yelling F*** you that we later find out is the groom from some wedding party and he was yelling at his sister who has a really bad cough that we can hear through the wall of our room.

Today it is raining and looks like it will all day so there will be a lot reading and no doubt a lot of drinking later on. I have hardly taken any photos.

Oooooohhhh Mexico

So I am in a play. "You Can't Take it with You". Runs March 23-April 1 at the First United Methodist Church. I play Penny Sycamore, the ditzy mother of a family that includes Melissa in the foreground as my daughter Essie and those 2 other people who are the servants, Rheba and Donald. They're supposed to be black people as you could do that politically incorrect stuff when this play was writtin 1936. So now they're just crackers. We had our first read-through today and there are still 5 men's parts that are unfilled. Anybody feeling thespian-ish?


Saturday night, we went to see the Danger Brothers out at Olscamp Hall as the entertainment after the Realtors annual dinner. Everyone was really drunk but didn't have the manners to clap when the band finished a song. Here are Paul Yon and Ann Bowers dancing.



Friday night, I had some wimmen over for pasta and salad and bread and wine. A lot of wine. Then I called Dan and Luci who showed up and we drank more wine. Sheesh.

Tuesday, Mexico. I will post to the blog but no pictures until I return. Mmmm, 85 degrees every day. I will have a drink for each and every one of you.