I woke up just a little bit ago. It is pretty early for me right now, especially being in the Eastern Time Zone. I am not sure what woke me up, perhaps a mix of last night wearing off and the windy weather knocking at my window. I can say this though; one of the grossest feelings is waking up to the smell of cigarette smoke in your hair and on your body.

Yesterday I did a lot of Christmas shopping. I went to all the major chain stores you can name, and then more. I noticed a few things when I was out. First, people are kind of rude in general. They do not hold doors for you, will not move their giant cart for you, and rarely use recycled/reusable bags (even had one case where the woman working the register said it was harder for her because the reusable bags do not fit in the bag holder). Second, there are a lot of needless gadgets, utensils, and just junk that stores push as “great last minute gift ideas”. They especially have these items at the register so you can quickly add it on to your order. Do I really need a spoon that is just the right size for chocolate chip cookies? Or what about a all in one tool with a flash light?

After spending the day (literally about 6 hours) shopping, I met up with my friend Dave and his wife and their new baby at BW3. My mom and Bill went, too. I think my mom was a little excited to see the baby, too.

Oh, how I miss BWs. I have mentioned before that it is my favorite chain restaurant and I cannot explain why. They had Bells Winter White on tap, which kind of tastes like my favorite Bells Beer, Oberon. I cannot explain why I love this beer so much?

After stuffing ourselves with boneless wings and Winter White, my mom and Bill drove me home (hey, I had been drinking and I am car-less in Michigan) but first we made a grocery store stop. That is when Stacy called me and said she wanted to go out, but had to go to the grocery store first. Well, low and behold we were both at the same store. So, I just got in her car and we went to Novi to meet Hillary at Rojo, this new restaurant that recently opened.

So, from what I hear, Rojo is owned by the same group that owns Andiamo Novi, Dirty Martini and whatever else they own. Honestly, I was not impressed. I would rate the food at 2.5 or 3 stars out of 5. I would say, however, they margaritas get a 4 out of 5.

The food was overpriced Mexican food that was comparable to like... Del Taco. They must have just opened as about (not kidding) 5 or 6 different managers came to our table to ask us how everything was going. We sent back one dish because it came out with some sauce on it that it did not show on the menu, and they brought it back with basically the same sauce. When we complained again, they offered to make us another, but not take it off our bill?

Anyway, don't eat here. Just drink Margaritas.

So, McCain gave a shout out to my hometown:

"I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills."

OK, first... "Team Nebe", as they are called on their website, are Keller Williams (also the name of one of my favorite musicians) agents. Yes, real estate agents.

Second, I would have liked to hear something like... People from the upper middle class of Farmington Hills, Michigan who pays their bills on time, pay off their credit cards, even maybe save some money in 401K, IRAs, money markets, stocks, etc... are getting screwed because their house which was worth 400K a few years back is next door to a house that is foreclosing and selling for 200K and now they cannot sell their house.

Sadly, that is the reality for my mother, my father, my friends back home... and my hometown in general, as well as so many other hometowns everywhere. Fight for those people, not the real estate agents of these people... and their investment properties.

Oh, I wonder how much $$$ Team Nebe donated to the McCain camp in addition for a massive amount of hits on their website tonight. Nice advertising strategy.

Last night we had Ashley's Graduation Party at my mom's house. It was great. My friend Mike provided his kegarator, we had wines, beer, champagne, every liquor you could want, even an ice liquor luge. It was nice to see a lot of my family members and people I have not seen in years upon years. People enjoyed themselves, old friends got to hang out, you know how it is.

And of course, everyone ended up in the pool...

Instead of telling more about the night.... I will just post the pictures and videos.

Wednesday night Jeff met me at the mall after I got my haircut. Then we went to Fountain Walk to BW3's. OK, I know it is superficial chain food, and I live in one of the best food towns in the USA, but I missed BW's. I missed the Spicy Garlic dipping sauce, and the Grilled Chicken Buffalitos, not to mention Bell's Oberon Beer!

We ate so much food and then went over to Lucky Strike to play a few games. I had not bowled in a very long while, and Jeff was way better than me. We did play a dollar a frame though, and it just so happened that I ended up only owing Jeff a dollar at the end.

From Blog Pics

From Blog Pics

I went home early, I actually slept, which was amazing. I think Wednesday was the first night I was able to sleep a bit, but I did have to be up at 5:50am EST the next morning because I had to be at a meeting in Lansing, Michigan (about 1.5 hours from my house) by 8am. I struggled!

I went to this meeting for the Michigan Minority Business Development Council. It was interesting. Basically, a bunch of companies tell you how to bid on their jobs, and they need a certain amount of minority bids. You do network with other businesses, which was nice, and you get to meet purchasing agents from the large companies and hopefully that will pan out. There is not a lot of money in Michigan right now, sadly (the malls were EMPTY), so I do not know how much our company will focus on Michigan. So far we seem to be doing better in the west and south, as they are building more and more for all the people moving in, where as in Michigan, everyone is moving out.

My mom was telling me that in her subdivision, which has your typical Farmington Hills Middle to Upper Middle class houses, that there were 5 or 6 foreclosures that she was aware of. There may be more. That is very sad that people are losing their houses, in addition, it makes my mom's and neighbor's houses lose so much value. Detroit needs help!

Thursday night, I went home and took a nap! After that Jeff picked me up and we met up with Joel and Carl at 5th Ave Novi. The Killer Flamingos, this local Detroit band that has been playing the same set list since.... I don't know, 2000 when they used to tour with Gordon Bennett Band... Well, they were not there for whatever reason, and The Spirit of '76 was playing instead. Basically they are a bunch of older dudes that play songs from the 70's and wear really weird clothes. Here is a video:



We didn't stay for too long. We took off about 12:15 and I was home by 12:30am EST.

I am leaving for a dentist appt soon. I love freshly cleaned teeth!