most of you have probably seen that lame t-shirt around town, i’m sure…but i really did it,and i live here! now, here’s my story: i work a lot of hours, usually between sixty five and seventy five hours each week. i have never called in sick and i haven’t taken any non-work related trips in well over a decade but i decided that enough was enough and recently took a long weekend off. since it’s been so long since i’ve been out around town during business hours i took my vacation and didn’t leave the area.

since it was November 10th, the anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (which is easily the best folk song ever about a maritime disaster) i decided to start the day at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. nice place, interesting stuff but i expected something special to be happening because of the historic date. oh well. next up the road was Pewabic Pottery. it’s been forever since i was there last. always cool stuff for sale ( a great place for Christmas shopping) and with a little shmoozing i leeched myself onto a birthday party full of ten year olds. it was a real tense trip since all the little Trevors, Connors,Katilyns & Madisons (every kid under twelve is named one of those) were wizzing around like tiny little bulls in a,well, ceramic shop. after finishing the tour i headed out to the legendary Hunter house for lunch. not the fancy-shmancy one in Harmony park, i was off to the real (greasy) deal at Woodward and Maple in Birmingham. a couple sliders later i decided to stop and look at what the local Range Rover dealer had to offer. it’s not like i am in the market for one but i was a little put off by the “facilitys” at the Diner and figured there’s would be a bit more sterile. not wanting to be one of those “just stopped by to use the john” people i shopped for a bit, kicked some tires and asked a few questions, “so, this thing come in Light blue?…how about a nav system, can i get it with a nav system?” the old-ish fellow helping me told me i looked familiar and asked where he might know me from and for some reason i launched into a complete fabrication that had me informing him that he may have seen me on MTV where i go by the name of DJ Poopindapantz. he asked if i knew Eminem and the next thing i know he’s handing me the keys to an eighty-thousand dollar SUV so i can “take her for a spin”. those things drive a lot nicer than my ol’ Chevette, that’s for sure. now, being a bit of a Mid Centruy furniture nerd i’m a sucker for re-sale shops and having heard good things about Fred’s Unique Antiques on 8 Mile Rd i headed that way (i had given back the Land Rover by then) and i gotta be honest, Fred’s idea of “antique” must be a little different than mine because it seemed to be just a big thrift store full of stuff most of which looked like it hadn’t seen daylight since the Carter administration. there were a few odditys, yes, but mostly a sifted through yards and yards of broken, dusty, not-unique brik-a-brak. a lot of stuff, yes…”unique antiques” is open to interpetation. what a day, i may just take another day off before the end of the millenium to finish off all the places i had on my list that i never got to…Cranbrook, the Henry Ford, the DIA..but at least i squeezed in all the important places, huh?