Baby's FlatDerek

Baby's mom planned an excellent activity for her Bachelorette Bash.

She copied an idea from the local elementary schools and made a "FlatDerek"

(a foam cutout with the groom's face)

and we had to take FlatDerek around town using out party bus.

We had a book to guide us toward destinations

and we had to take a picture with FlatDerek at every destination

then the book was filled in with the pictures we took.

We definitely had a couple speedbumps...

like when we tried to to get a picture with a cat

and the cat hated us

or when the bus driver hit a pole and we had to get a new bus.

But - all in all - it was a wonderful time!

Flood Day 2014

In times of crisis, the connection&bond with a place can strengthen.

This past Monday, Metro Detroit found itself under water.

4 hours of rainfall flooded freeways&home.

I watched people standing at the edge of flooded areas helping people out of their submerged cars and directing traffic. My neighbors were out giving each other fans and shop-vacs and assisting in emptying flooded basements. Though the circumstances were dire - the reactions were beautiful.

I lucked out with only about 4" of standing water that drained quickly once the rain stopped. Other's got it much worse. Some cars were still under water on Wednesday afternoon and many portions of the highways were still blocked off.

It's felt like a bit of post-apocalyptic world this week - driving around on flooded&empty streets lined with home-goods-turned-garbage due to flooding.

Despite the disaster, Mr.U&I simply enjoyed a Tuesday off to catch up on sleep&cleaning and, obviously, snuggling&playing with Fiona. We couldn't find a route to get both of us to our offices anyway.

Closures due to flooding

GooGooDolls

views from our lawn seats with #scottandlindz

Daughtry played forever.
But the Goo Goo Dolls were amazing.
Obviously.

Corktown Home & Garden Tour

I saw the sign for the Corktown Home & Garden Tour hanging in Starbucks weeks ago, but I thought Joe&I would be gone for the weekend. When plans changed and we stuck around, I was excited to be able to attend the tour. The weather was absolutely beautiful for the 5 mile walking tour. The houses, I'll admit, were not what I expected. I thought they would be more historical&restored, but they were most modernly renovated, which was disappointing, but still enjoyable. We got to see inside the first warehouse that had been renovated into condos in Detroit - restored in the 1990's - and a pretty, old church. And on the field where old Tiger Stadium used to stand, a historical baseball game was going on, which was cute&cool. Once we'd finished our walk, we opted for lunch at Slows BBQ. Excellent as always.

mounted horseman who patrolled the event

corktown view from the middle of michigan ave

beautiful ivy covered building

love peace happiness fence

random old bus

St. Peters episcopal church

rusty old fire hydrant

row of buildings in corktown

Cool faded sign

cute little alley

corktown neighborhood sign

historical baseball players

woman in period costume at the game

SundayFunday

Skyline View from Our Seats

Scenes from Within the Park

Drinking Games with Friends

Birks, Couches, and CrossFire

We finally had the perfect opportunity for a SundayFunday yesterday with a home Tigers game, beautiful weather, and Monday off for the holiday, so Scott&Linds and Joe&I met downtown at Rub Pub before heading over to the game. Since the Tigers were playing horribly, though, we left in the 5th and headed home for backyard bbq&drinking. After a couple rounds of Power Hour and the assembly of a small charcoal grill, we made the afternoon into a complete success.

Last Wings Game

It was the Red Wings last regular season home game and Scott wanted to get a bunch of people together to attend, so he bought tickets for Joe&I, himself&Linds, his parents, his cousin&boyfriend, and another college friend and we all headed down last night after work. Linds met Joe&I at the MGM Parking Structure where the 3 of us had a few beers before walking toward Joe Louis. We stopped at Cobo Joe's for a tequila shot before heading through the Cobo center (with a quick stop in the men's bathroom - yep, all 3 of us) and onto the arena for a tour of the press box compliments of Joe's fellow track coach. Linds&I got to put on the official Fox Sports Detroit headphones and stand in the DJ booth. We got to talk to the guy who does play reviews and even listened to him call Toronto to check in. It was honestly very cool and really neat to see before the Red Wings officially move to the new arena and Joe Louis is no more. The game wasn't as good as the pre-game considering we lost, but the beer was good and the company even better and the walk through Detroit was excellent.