Caught Red Handed

On our way to The Henry Ford Museum, Paul was caught by a Dearborn cop going 64 (m.p.h.) in a 45.....a wee bit too fast. Because of his stellar driving record, Paul was issued a citation for 'impeding traffic' rather than speeding. The result....$125 less in our bank account. When asked if he'd like to comment on his ticket, Paul replied,

I didn't do it...the speed limit is obsurdly low for a three lane highway.

It could have been worse. If he were cited for speeding, it would have been $160 plus 4 points on his record. Ouch! Looks like I'll be the designated driver for the remainder of our time in Michigan (and for the record, I've never been caught speeding and have never been issued a citation).

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Since we're still in Detroit and had a quiet weekend at home, we decide to take Elise to The Henry Ford Museum on Saturday. While I'd like to show you pictures, I can't because we forgot our camera. Bummer! Elise was thrilled to run around and exercise her vocabulary (Train! Car! Motorcycle! Airplane!) She also ran up and down the steps and played with the Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs in the kids area. It was surprisingly very kid friendly, although it's tough to hold a 2-year old's attention span while trying to walk through a museum. Nonetheless, we ended our tour by looking at the Weinermobile and treated Elise to a $2 wax mold as a momento. She wasn't as impressed as we were. Funny how things that seem cool as kids really aren't that cool afterall.

Weird

Paul was playing with Elise while watching an episode of Smallville. At one point during the show, things started to get a little scary (something about Lex Luther) and as Paul was searching for the remote to change the station, Elise's response was:

Weird.

Perfectly appropriate response. Enough said.

Turkey Day 2006

With my parents out of town for the week and Beth, Jon and Libby in from Memphis, we decided to join the Kurt family for Thanksgiving dinner. We had such a great time! Here are the highlights:

• There are probably very few places we could go where we would immediately feel like part of the family.
• The food was fantastic, especially the turkey. I also thoroughly enjoyed the mashed potatoes and the cranberry fluff (jello). There was enough food to feed an army (of which I made none) and enough dishes to prove it!
• It was so nice out that the kids took a long walk outside with Papa Kurt while the ladies cleaned up the kitchen.
• Elise was very excited to play with her 'cousins' and had a blast running around Papa Kurt's house. She immediately claimed all the toys as 'mine' and was reluctant to leave them behind for next time.
• The Kurt family loves to dance. Who would have thought?! We brought along our PS2 and Dance, Dance, Revolution Game and Dance Pad. They immediately claimed it has 'theirs' and wouldn't let us take it home with us. :>)
• Soon after leaving for the evening, Elise fell soundly asleep and we had a very relaxing and quiet ride home. A perfect ending to a perfect day!

O Christmas Tree

Last Sunday, we decided to bring up our Christmas tree from the basement and begin the arduous process of putting the three pieces together and 'fluffing' the branches. Paul was kind enough to carry it up and build the tree, while I fluffed. After three hours of assembly, we finished with a beautifully fake tree (sans garland and ornaments).

Little did we know that we'd receive a call from our realtor on Tuesday with a new proposed close date for the sale of our home....December 7th! We're pushing for a week later, but if we would have known that putting our Christmas tree up would sell the house, we would have done it about 4 months prior. Christmas in July, right?!

Elise's New Do

Elise had her hair cut today and did great. She sat still and was very patient. As a reward, Lisa (the stylist) gave her a sucker. She was thrilled.


On a side note, she was sitting on the floor playing just now with her zoo animals. As I was working on the computer, I heard her talking to the zebras and lions and other animals and I heard her say, "I'm a big sister." We have a book that we've been reading to her that she really loves that talks about how there'll be a new baby in the house. It's been really cute to see how she incorporates what she's learning into her playtime. Now, if only I could get her interested in babydolls.

Judicial Process at Work

I've been summoned to serve as a juror for the Third Judicial Circuit Court on December 4th. Normally, I wouldn't have a problem serving as a juror. What stinks is that it's downtown Detroit (a 45+ minute drive). While I'll earn $25/day for the first day of service and $40 for each subsequent day, they do not compensate for parking. The timing is also unfortunate. If only we had moved when we were supposed to.....bummer!

Believe it or not, I've served on a jury (personal injury lawsuit) once before in Cook County, Chicago. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Unfortunately, it was declared a mistrial so I didn't get to see it through to the end. This time, I'll remember to bring lots of reading materials and food...there's a lot of waiting around and courthouse food is nothing to get excited about!

Coo-coo for Clementines

It's been a long couple of months but thankfully, my appetite is beginning to come back. My latest craving is clementines. Yum! I just bought a box yesterday at Meijer and have eaten 5 or 6 already....the box will probably be gone by next week.

Brown-eyed Girl

This weekend we were shopping at the mall and a woman looked at Elise and said, "You have the prettiest brown eyes." Elise looked up at the woman in response and batted her eyes. So modest!

New Toy

Here she is....my first computer that I can call my own. She's an HP Pavilion Slimline and so far, she's a very nice addition to our family. The best part about her is that the CPU is so small (9.75" (H) x 4.375" (W) x 13.125" (D)). Oh, and she also has a ton of harddrive space, which means all the pictures we've taken of Elise will actually fit on one computer, rather than partially on an external drive. Happy day!

By the way, I have no idea who the strange looking man is on the monitor. As far as I know, we are not related....