two fell swoops

A few months ago, we noticed a new restaurant going in where a short-lived Indian restaurant was on North Main.  I can’t remember what it was before then, but it’s one of those locations where nothing seems to stick.
The first thing we noticed was the name on the signage out front: “Seajoy’s”.  We thought maybe […]

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A year ago right now (during our Alkalai School project, I should mention) Andrea and I were lying on the side of the highway leading to Mt. Rushmore, where all the locals who don’t want to pay admission fees go to watch the fireworks display. Radios blared the standard fireworks “Proud-To-Be-An-American” mix and cars […]

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Andrea and I had gotten used to seeing this cute old man shuffle by our house at a snail’s pace pretty regularly. You know, one of those people who’s lived in their old house for years and has probably taken the same walk thousands of times. There’s a cute old woman down by […]

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I was still a little hungry after we came home from dinner tonight, so I went to the kitchen and fixed myself a little bread with peanut butter. Andrea followed me in there and started inspecting the contents of the containers of leftovers in the fridge until she settled on a bowl of cantaloupe. […]

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Last Sunday Andrea and I pulled an all-nighter in order to finish some very time-sensitive house renovations.  At about 4 a.m. we had lights on all over the place as Andrea nailed in shoe molding and I painted window trim. We had the radio blaring so we could hear it throughout the house. […]

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Last weekend, Andrea and I went shopping around for refrigerators. I say “shopping around” because at this early stage in our potential refrigerator consumption, we went to a big appliance mart intending more to see what was available than to actually purchase anything.
The young man who guided us around the showroom kept suggesting large […]

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Why is it that people turn store names into possessives?
Here in southeast Michigan, it happens with a lot of grocery stores names. Meijer becomes “Meijer’s.” Kroger becomes “Kroger’s.” Farmer Jack becomes “Farmer Jack’s.” Even Kerrytown’s little Sparrow becomes “Sparrow’s,” (after owner Bob Sparrow). And it’s common to hear people say that they or someone they […]

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Yesterday on my way home from work I drove past this:

In a busy Midwestern college town, this has to happen to everyone at least once.  The poor guy was clearing snow away from his car using only his hands. I felt kind of bad about taking the picture, and then I remembered that I’d thrown […]

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The other day my job led me to a place I’d never been before - the alley right next to the State Theater entrance. Some graffiti on the wall there announced a free concert at another alley in Ann Arbor, an alley with a name: Tripper’s Alley.
Tripper’s Alley is supposedly named for the longtime […]

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Whenever I go by, these two houses and their respective detached garages appear solitary and stately, set back from the road on a large empty lot just east of Platt on the north side of Packard. They’ve been abandoned for years - their exteriors unmaintained - to the point that the paint and siding has […]

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