weekend log

I spent much of the holiday either relaxing at our house with my wife and kids, or doing homework. My grandfather turned 80 on Saturday, so we drove out to the sprawling metropolis of Grelton for that party.

One of the days, Friday I think, I noticed a bunch of birds hanging around. Here's a shot I snapped from our dining room...three blue jays and a mourning dove. Later I saw a woodpecker, numerous cardinals, and the typical sparrows/finches. This feeder has lasted longer than any other we've had.



Megan purchased it for me from Wild Birds Unlimited. It is truly squirrel proof too, the best they can do is scavenge around the ground. I've seen them hanging off it upside down, but the spring loaded base shuts when anyone too heavy attempts getting food from the holes.

Today I finally watched Master & Commander...it was good but I was a little let down. I'll give it 3.5 stars. The prior movie I saw, about a month ago, was Raising Victor Vargas. I'll give that one 2 stars. It was moderately interesting and subtly smart and funny, but nothing I'd watch again.

I'm dreaming of a white...Thanksgiving?

My new Tilley hat arrived yesterday. Just in time for today's lunchtime walk!

This lady was dressed quite inappropriately.



With the snow you couldn't even see the new I280 bridge construction from Promenade park.

Downtown Toledo pics

Hopefully Carty can keep One Seagate (former OI headquarters)



from turning into the completely abandoned 200 N. St Clair (former OC headquarters)



Notice the boarded windows going up the side. The ground level doors actually have ugly plywood boards covering the entrances as well.

weekend log

...did homework almost all weekend long, that was a downer. Unless Samkon Gado and Bubba Franks pull off a miracle for the Packers tonight, my fantasy football team will lose, another downer. The one bright spot on Saturday, Megan's oven baked pancake!

Downtown Toledo, the good and the bad...

I often walk around downtown on my lunch hour. Predictably, I find things I like, and things that could use improvement. So I'm going to start posting some of these things to my blog. Today I saw two noteworthy things on Monroe street.

Bad first:



A rather large hole in the ground, exposing some ugly building backsides. This is from the warehouse fire last month. I expect they will continue backfilling and turn into another boring parking lot.

Now the good:



The new Paula Brown shop has opened. It is a terrific store, but sadly most of the stuff is out of my humble price range. If you are looking for fine linens, table settings, kitchen wears, stationary, artwork, jewelry, etc, this is the place downtown. Also, they had some great Japanese art prints. They've done a nice job renovating this interesting old building. I think formerly it was Port Lawrence Antiques.

It was really cold and starting to snow, so it was a short walk today.

voting for grass roots candidates...

In Hillsdale Michigan, an 18 year old write in candidate (too young to be an official candidate at registration time) won the mayoral election over the 51 year old incumbent. That is really something encouraging! It reminds me of my old friend Travis Sheafer who was elected for Napoleon city council right after high school.

Congratulations Michael Sessions on a true grass roots effort, job well done, and what sounds like an excellent approach to taking on the new responsibilities.