I’m growing mushrooms in my bedroom

For Christmas, my fabulous brother Dave gave me a mushroom farm.

This was the first harvest:

(some of the mushrooms were literally 3 inches across).

The instructions say the farm can continue to produce for 3-5 weeks under ideal growing conditions. Sadly, I watched my farm for several days after harvesting the first crop, and there were no signs of growth. Until 3 days ago. And now there are 7 or so mushrooms in various stages of growth, with more little babies starting to grow!

p.s. in case you're wondering, the mushrooms are edible. and quite good.

Chloe came to visit!

And all we took pictures of was our visit to the World of Coca-Cola. I was expecting it to be one big cheesy advertisement, but it was actually quite well done and we had a great time. And we even got to take home a bottle of Coke. And taste many different flavors of POP that Coke makes. As much as people might tell you they are all "coke", don't believe them. It's POP. (The great pop vs. soda vs. coke controversy)


more pictures

Detroit’s sad claim to fame

Sometimes people in Atlanta ask me what "big cities" there are in MI. And I tell them, "Well, there's Detroit, but no one really wants to live there..." And sometimes people seem surprised - a big city is a big city, right? Not true. The first paragraph of America's Most Miserable Cities:

Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro.

Unfortunately, this nightmare is a reality for the residents of Detroit.

And now you know why no one moves to Detroit when they want to move to a big city. Or for any reason at all.

A new home

At the end of January, a mere 6 months after moving to Atlanta, I packed up all my stuff (again) and schlepped it across town to a lovely new (rental) home that I'm sharing with two great girls from church, Julie and Kate. Any time someone asks me how the new house is, I say "Fantastic!" because it truly is.

click to see pictures of my new house