Pretty Girls

Happily, we have been spending a lot of time downtown this season. Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to the ice rink with Aunt Cindy and Uncle Greg. We didn't skate, but there was a little festival going on with arts and crafts, rides, carnival foods and gift shops. It was sooo lovely

Loving the Fur on Aunt Cindy and Mimi

Lafayette Coney Island

The glamorous Aunt Cindy

Mimi and Uncle Greg watching the skaters

We then took our regular trip to Lafayette for coney islands.

I'm Your Puppet

Friday morning we went to the glorious Detroit Institute of Arts. The museum had Holiday events for the whole family.

A scene from Pinocchio

 Sleeping Beauty

Peter Pan

Sleeping Beauty

We went to a puppet making workshop and then on to an amazing marionette performance of Pinocchio.

Peter Pan

Happy Days

Getting Elijah to let go of the wall

Mike enthralled with Terry's puppet making

The puppet called Sugar Plum, best friend to  Terry's puppet Ginger Bread

Mike wondering when it will all end?

I have to admit, I have a strange preoccupation with puppetry(I think from when I was little and I saw "The Lonely Goatherd in the Sound Of Music") and this show was spell binding. The children were entranced by the story. The puppets were so intricate and expressive. The story was presented by the amazing National Marionette Company and they gave a lecture on the art and the puppets after the show.

I was so thrilled with the performance that when Pinocchio was turned into a real boy by the glorious Blue Fairy, I started to cry.
The audience gave them huge applause and loud cheers.
The puppeteers live in Vermont and have a family business of crafting wooden marionettes,  and scenery and then performing with these beautiful pieces across the U.S.

After the gorgeous puppet show, we went on to Campus Martius for a little ice skating. It was Elijah's first  time on skates so Mimi was giving him some pointers. We got him to take a few steps. The afternoon was the best.

I Can't Give You Anything But Love

We are in the midst of our Thanksgiving whirlwind weekend. The past few days have been hectic,joyful and strange. Fortunately, today I have some time alone to recharge and refuel.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Bobby and Michael arrived with their duffles and backpacks. They settled in and began their ritual of reconnecting with everyone they have ever met in their life.

Paulina, Michael and Bobby participate in the biggest bar night of the year, and it is amazing watching the process they go through to get ready for the evening.
I don't think I have seen such a fuss since their proms.

There is much preening and texting making sure that they are at the exact location where they will get the most exposure. We live a stones throw from Royal Oak so they can safely walk, or if they are lucky they have a loyal friend who will be the designated driver.
I really don't sleep on this night because I worry about flat tires, lost wallets and I guess...jail. This year I was wandering about  the house and I had heard the boys voices,chatting and catching up on the past months events.


This year  Terry Mimi and I were up at 5:00 to prepare for the Turkey Trot. It is now an annual tradition for us and we all love it.As much as we see Detroit get knocked around in the media, being downtown for the race is something to see. There were over 21,000 runners this year and the city was beautifully lit.
Our neighbors usually meet us downtown to join in the festive beginnings of the Holiday season.
We ran the mashed potato mile this year and Mimi was like a little rabbit scurrying past everyone. Terry did his best to keep up, I altered between walking and a slow trot.

Mimi received a gold medal, ate some cookies and candy and ice cream(a true runners diet). As we left the city to get home for further holiday happenings, we watched all of the Macy's parade goers wander into the city to wait for Santa to receive his key to Detroit.
We then stopped at New York Bagel, where Mimi received praise and admiration by lines of people waiting for their bagels.

Then we went home for a bagel buffet with Bloody Marys and champagne, it was really delightful.

I'd Like You For Christmas

Sing Sing Sing

A lot has been said about Woody Allen. I  choose to seperate the artist from the art.
If you were to glance into Jiejie and my movie collections they both are heavily weighed with Woody's work. I had the extreme pleasure of touching toes with Woody Allen's cashmere sock clad loafer while he played the clarinet at "Michaels Pub". (partied with his band too but that is for another blog).
When Jiej was six weeks old(she was an amazing baby), I took her to see "Crimes and Misdemeanors".
Last week she came to Sipes Manor with a bad cold, "What Can I Do To Help Boo?" I asked.
Her needs were few, snuggling in bed, chicken noodle soup and a dose of "Manhattan".
Tomorrow night and Monday night PBS is siring American Masters "Woody Allen". Can't wait.

Cool

About a week ago, I told Mimi the story of how Terry and JieJie first met.
Terry came over for dinner, and at the dinner table he and Jiejie began conversing using oven mitts as puppets. This was their bonding point and I was definitely left out of the conversation. Terry was the first and reigning member of the Cool Club.

I was so thrilled that they got along so well that being humiliated by oven mitts was ok with me.

Mimi still talks about this story and took it to a new and more exclusive level.
We have recently made the basement a little more habitable so Mimi has decided to start the Cool Kids Club.
The club involves Terry, Mimi and Zelda, who all got immediate unquestioned membership.
I had to fill out an application, explaining my skills in cooking,singing and the ultimate question"Am I Cool enough?"
With much deliberation, it was decided that I would be allowed into the Cool Club and I was awarded a membership card with all of its perks.
At first I was a little taken aback, then I took the Groucho Marx opinion of not wanting to be a member of a club that had me as a member.  I quickly came to my senses and took my card, descended the stairs to the basement and embraced being a Cool Kid.

Be Yourself

At the beginning of the school year Mimi was asked to do a self portrait. I absolutely loved her illustration.
Since then, she has started doing more illustrations based on this original idea. The characters have different hair colors and the jewelry changes, but they all have a very beestung mouth and the eyes all have a wonderful almond shape.

Now she has requests from her classmates to draw these characters for them to take home!

I am encouraging her to write a little story and incorporate these wonderful ladies. I have a teeny Picasso on my hands. Her style is so unique.

The More I See You

Over the past weeks Mimi has been convinced that she needs glasses.
She has even taken to wearing my cheaters and JieJie's new swanky gigs. We took a little trip to our groovy optometrist at Optik and found out she has the healthiest eyes in town.
Although he did say that that could change at any moment.

Good sales technique Doc.

Shall We Dance?

It is a long running joke in my home that Terry hates going to the movie theater. I keep a pair of ticket stubs on the refrigerator that were from our last movie out together,High Fidelity.
Terry hates the whole movie theater thing. He hates the munching and crunching, the talking and answering phone calls, he simply despises it.

Well , he has to put his movie watching pants on,  because we are going to see "The Artist".

Blackbird

The other day a possum met his untimely death on Lincoln Drive.

Now not only do we have George and Ringo, but they have been joined by fellow turkey vultures John and Paul.

I received an urgent text from a friend warning me to keep baby Zelda in the house. These guys would find her rather tasty.

Episode Of Blonde

I. being the TCM nerd is posting the November promo.
I own a lot of these movies, with the exception of Marlena and Mae.

The Carnivale of Animals

How much can I say about The Detroit Zoo?
When I was little, my mom and dad would take us to see shows, with monkeys wearing smocked "Polly Flinders" dresses riding bicycles.

There was a great elephant Paulina, who is now buried in Pontiac.
When I was little, our school was often taken to the zoo as a springtime field trip. I would ride on the zoo train and see houses over the fences surrounding the gardens and I would think to myself how lucky those people were, living so close to the zoo.

Many years later, much to my joy and some others disappointment  it was decided this Detroit climate was not a good environment for elephants(they had developed severe arthritis), so they sent our pet elephants Wanda and Winky to an elephant preserve. Just before Mimi came home,I would take my routine walk  on the path behind their enclosure and watch a group of animal specialists practice walking Wanda and Winky onto a giant semi truck in preparation for their long journey to California.(It took a few months).

When we first brought Mimi home, I would take her a few times a week. In the deep snow, the docents would give us details on everything we wanted to know of the animals.

On one particular occasion, Mimi noticed that one particular polar bear was stepping to and fro. The docent told us that she had been held captive in a cage for a Puerto Rican circus. The steps forward and backward were a pattern she had established in the tiny cage she was in. She has gotten better since she now has a pseudo frozen tundra to wander on.

We have spent birthdays, anniversaries and holidays at our precious place.

Last weekend, Terry and I took Mimi and it was as magical as ever.
The butterflies sat on our shoulders, and the new lion enclosure (two of the lions were rescued from basements in the city) has heated rocks so we see them loll and recline right in front of us.

We are very lucky

Precious Boo

Zoo Boo

Just home from China

Berhle taking a dip

In front of the butterfly house

The requisite climbing on the hippo out front

I'm Always True To You In My Fashion

As it has been well documented. Mimi and I have different thoughts when it comes to what she wears.

As the days go by it gets more and more frustrating. I hold my tongue as she throws on JieJie's old concert t shirts and a pair of leggings. She has a list of fashion don'ts a mile long(no long sleeves, no knits, nothing that makes her beautiful or cute,no socks etc etc.) and I struggle to find a happy medium between her old "baby" look and that of the Huntington Woods bag lady.

I have stumbled across some independent retailers online with some groovy looks. Then there is the old standby of American apparel. I found a really cool retailer but they don't have prices on their website. What could this mean?

Dancing Machine