January 8, 2016 by Pointes of View

The December List – 2016

IMG_3666 (768x1024) Yikes! So late with the list. Here’s what happened in December…

1) I’ve always been a stickler for waiting until the day after Thanksgiving to put Christmas decorations up. I stuck by the rule this year, but barely (I started pulling out boxes before Thanksgiving was over). I’m beginning to understand the strong desire to decorate early. It’s dreary. The flowers are gone, the sun is gone. Let’s get some holiday up in here.

2) I did break my “no artificial greenery” rule this year and bought three faux garlands. Two for the stairs and one for the living room mantle. Just didn’t want to deal with all the needles and clean-up.

After lots of online research (reviews) and one bad purchase (Home Depot), I settled on garlands from Ballard Designs. magnolia for the stairs (top photo) and angel pine for the mantle (bottom pic). They were pricey, but worth it in the long run. I went back to their website after Christmas to buy another one because I was so impressed with how great they looked, but alas they are sold out of both.

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3) This photo doesn’t do it justice, but the “crazy house” (girls’ term, not mine) on Lakeshore was ultra decked out for Christmas this year. Whoa.

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4) I am single-handedly keeping Trader Joe’s pot sticker business alive. Here’s my stash. The TJ’s brand pork ones are the best, followed by the chicken soup dumplings in close second (the Filipino guy who works there – and the only other Filipino I’ve met here – told me to use them in their ginger-miso soup. SO good).

The butternut squash dumplings sound good in theory but they are a disaster. Skip them. You’re welcome.

5) Speaking of Asian food, I asked my dry cleaning lady if there was anywhere I could get good Korean food. Turns out there is. Her house. Whaaaat? Yes, you guys. She offered to teach me how to cook all my favorite dishes. Date to be decided, and you know I’ll be posting about it.

6) On the same day Japan’s supreme court ruled to uphold the law that married women must take their husband’s surname, our six-year-old asked me, “why are girls Miss if they aren’t married and Mrs. if they are and boys only have Mister.” Good. Question. And a reminder that we have a long way to go.

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7) Have you seen Pantone’s color of the year!? My favorite shade of pink!!! (They actually chose two colors this year. The other one is Serenity, a soft blue.)

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8) My husband and I attended a Krug champagne tasting dinner at the Yacht Club with two other couples. We found out at the last minute that it was a black tie affair, so I scrambled to buy a dress (and discovered Halston Heritage in the process. Oh my gosh).

The champagne was of course divine, but the food was….just okay. Well, the lobster was amazing, but I ate it in one bite. Same with the trout (although…three bites for that one). There were healthy portions of duck and venison, but they were too gamey for some of us, and after dinner we drove to a local spot and shared a pizza.

9) Made blueberry scones (with the last of our summer blueberries from New York) for Christmas Day and two sweet potato pies for Christmas Eve. I had a mishap with the grater while making scones (P fetched a bandaid for me).

10) We only ate one of the pies on Christmas Eve, so I was able to take the other one to Shirley’s (our neighbor and my gardening friend) house the next day. When we got there, she presented the girls with their very own mini fairy garden. Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

In the spring we’ll put it outside, but right now it’s on our kitchen table. Our littlest plays with it every day.

Just outside Will’s. Pantone color of the year?

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10) My husband’s nephew works downtown at the new Will Leather Goods store and we finally made it down there to check it out. It’s a beautiful retail space, with most of the products on the main floor and a second floor loft houses their hats. There’s also a cafe inside the shop, which I didn’t try, but the treats looked yummy.

11) Our book this month for book group was The Turner House, which I was interested to read because the story follows a family from Detroit throughout history. I couldn’t get more than halfway through. It was kind of blah.

Instead, I re-read the first Harry Potter book, which was just as fun the second time around. I spotted the new illustrated version later, and wished I’d read that version instead.

12) This cheese. Whenever I see the Cypress Grove label, I get excited. One, because not many places carry it and two, their cheeses are fabulous. The company is located several hours north of San Francisco. I always wanted to visit, but never had the chance.

The Farms Market in town carries Purple Haze, which is a goat cheese (they’re all goat) with fennel pollen and lavender. I tried it for the first time this month (I usually get Humbolt Fog, which is divine with figs and pistachios) and it was equally great. So smooth. Just the right amount of lavender. (Also, can you tell I’m starving right now!?! )

December was a great month, but I did get pretty homesick this month for San Francisco, for friends, for family. Tis the season. I’m so looking forward to this New Year and all its possibilities. Wishing you a wonderful January and 2016!

April 9, 2015 by Pointes of View

The Detroit Institute of Arts – a Spring Break Visit

In front of a Diego Rivera mural.

We finally made it to the Detroit Institute of Arts (aka the DIA), the museum that was in the news the last couple of years in regards to Detroit’s bankruptcy filing. In the summer of 2013 it was thought that creditors might force the DIA to sell some of its collection (appraised up to $867 million). Luckily, the DIA made a deal with the city, committing to raise $100 million over the course of 20 years, saving them from having to break up its collection.

But on with our story. One snowy Spring Break morning (ahhh!), we bundled up and headed downtown.

We were there during the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo special exhibit, which was pretty cool. We zipped through it pretty quickly, though, because our littlest was having a snack meltdown (I want to ride the elevator! Can we go now?! When can we ride the elevator? Etc).

I am actually not a huge fan of their work (except for Diego’s murals), but seeing the exhibit was inspiring, nonetheless, and it made me want to draw again (as a kid and young adult I used to enjoy sketching and painting. Once I hit my 30s I kind of stopped).

Here are some of the pieces we saw…

Can’t remember if this was there, specifically. But there were child portraits.

The preparatory drawings for the murals were my favorite.

After a small snack, we rode on the elevator, played some I-Spy in the European decorative arts gallery (there are several I-Spy questions and clues scattered throughout the museum), walked through the Dutch gallery, rode on the elevator again (surprise) and had lunch in the Kresge Court (a cool cafe that sits under a glass roof).

The cafe. We sat in the wiry white chairs. Image from Curbed Detroit

That afternoon the girls and I worked on drawings inspired by the Diego/Frida exhibit.

The girls seemed genuinely excited about the project (and it kept them busy!) and it was really fun for me, too.

September 4, 2014 by Pointes of View

The August List

Our vacation rental on Walloon Lake.

1) Northern Michigan (aka Up North) is to Detroiters, as Tahoe is to San Franciscans. I blame Northern Michigan for my blog lull, by the way. We’ve been back over a week and I still can’t get out of vacation mode.

2) Most gnats inhaled on an evening run: four.

3) Nevermind gnats. Whatup spiders? Unless you spray (which we don’t), they are everywhere. I walk through at least one web per day, usually in the morning before I’ve had coffee (letting the dog out). Creeps me out every time, even though I’m expecting it.

4) The guy at Trader Joe’s asked me if I just moved here (they always check my ID, which still says California). He’s from Santa Rosa. He said, “You know what you won’t be able to find out here….good Chinese food.” Yep.

American Spoon

5) Speaking of food, the best meal I’ve had since I moved was in Petoskey (Up North territory) at a great spot called American Spoon. As I was enjoying my not-greasy whitefish sandwich and potato salad with snap peas and mint (I miss you, San Francisco!), I fell in love with the paint color. Which miraculously they had on file. Which unfortunately is either a mistake or no longer exists, because I cannot find it anywhere, at least not under the brand name they gave me. Waaaahhhh!

6) Yes, you did just see my kid sitting on a pink potty. In the back of my SUV. In the library parking lot.

7) When school starts in Grosse Pointe, summer is officially o-VER. Pools close, restaurants shorten hours, traffic laws change (no right turn on red). In San Francisco, there is no official end of summer. In fact, summer is just getting started (September and October are two of its most gorgeous months).

8) Finding the perfect paint color for the foyer suddenly seems ridiculous and embarrassing when you are waiting for your Italian sub at Which-Wich and start reading the headlines of the newspaper tacked to the walls. Ugh.

9) A lawn sign you will never find in San Francisco (above). For one thing, no one has a lawn in San Francisco, but that’s not really the point. Lawn signs are big here. There’s one in front of our new house right now, actually, that the painters put up.

10) Need to get back on your feet, Detroit? Start charging for stuff! It’s free to park anywhere on Belle Isle and admission to the aquarium and conservatory are free (in SF, prices are $35 and $5, respectively). Residents also get a free ride to the DIA museum (at the SF MOMA, it’s $18). A couple weeks ago I parked at St. John’s for a doctor’s appointment. It’s a huge Detroit hospital, as big as San Francisco General. Free parking. (In SF, you’d pay $6.00 – $12.00 easy for the shortest doctor visit).

11) When the guys at Benjamin Moore say, “Bye, see you soon!” as you’re leaving, it’s time to decide on a paint color already.

12) When you start giving other Benjamin Moore patrons color advice, it’s time to pack it up and go home. (Although she did say the creamy white I suggested was exactly what she was looking for. Boo-yeah.)

August 10, 2014 by Pointes of View

In Search of Coffee, Part III: Astro Coffee

Looking towards downtown Detroit.

A couple Fridays ago when the girls were with a sitter, I drove to Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood (though, as Wikipedia points out, the actual city of Detroit is much older) located on the west side of the city. Originally occupied by Irish immigrants in the mid 1800s (most from County Cork, hence the name). At the end of the decade, Maltese immigrants came through, and in the early 1900s, Mexicans.

Central Station, Corktown.

This up-and-coming neighborhood (according to various news articles I’ve read, most recently in The New York Magazine’s “Post-Post Apocalyptic Detroit”) is a hot spot for cool restaurants (including the always-crowded Slows Bar BQ), clubs, retail stores and yes, a coffee shop in the form of Astro Coffee, which opened three summers ago. Astro Coffee lies at the edge of Corktown, kitty-corner from the abandoned Michign Central Station.

The 2100 block of Michigan Avenue (Astro Coffee is housed in the green building).

I was really excited to finally visit Astro Coffee. We tried as a family to pop in one Saturday, but a sign on the door told us they were closed for a week-long holiday. This particular stretch of Michigan Avenue was quite busy with business lunchers and some families at Slows and Mercury Bar across the street. As I walked by the front window, I noticed the Ritual Coffee (from San Francisco) sign, which made me both happy and unsure (I have mixed feelings about Ritual. It’s a long story).

Inside, there were some pastry and cookie selections up front, with daily sandwiches (which the flies seemed to enjoy, even with the mesh domes meant to keep them out) along the side counter. I ordered a cappuccino and a sage shortbread cookie.

The clientele was what one would expect. There was the usual one or two people on laptops at the back communal table, a couple regulars at the bar area, a few business folks ordering cups to go. I sat at the counter facing the street. The guy behind me was talking to a friend about such and such picking up his new TV show (yawn) and the older couple next to them were tourists (I’m guessing. They were speaking French).

So what about the coffee? you ask. Delicious! It was full-bodied, and bitter the right way. The crema was thick and creamy and I can’t remember, but I don’t think I needed sugar. The cookie was served on a pretty little vintage plate. It was quite sweet and the sage tasted suspiciously like rosemary, but hey. I was there for the coffee.

July 26, 2014 by Pointes of View

Grosse Pointe Residents Request Ban On Metro Times

Image: Grosse Pointe Patch

I woke up at 5:30am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. So here I am, balancing my checking account, researching contractors (for the new house) and reading about Grosse Pointe. I came upon a news story published in the Detroit Free Press last month about Grosse Pointe residents wanting to ban the Metro Times, a free alternative weekly, in libraries and throughout the city.

Flashback to the late 90s. I started working at SF Weekly (San Francisco’s equivalent to the Metro Times) as advertising coordinator for the retail department. Best job ever, by the way. We had the same kinds of ads in the back of the magazine and sure, a handful of people complained but generally they left us alone. It being San Francisco and all.

When I got promoted to marketing director, my office was moved to the classifieds department, which handled all the adult ads. For sure there was never a dull moment. I remember overhearing phone conversations about the definition of a hooker versus that of a prostitute (a serious conversation between a Classified employee and potential ad placer). And “back of the book” customers who came to the office with payments or in-person questions, were led to a separate, more discreet window (not paraded through the lobby). We obviously took steps to keep that section of the paper a bit….sheltered, for lack of a better word (and do you see how I used “we” there? I still feel like I’m part of that company in some way). But it paid the bills. Which meant that the editorial department could keep writing phenomenal journalism.

Back to present day. The argument that some Grosse Pointe residents (who wanted a complete ban of the weekly) made, was that in addition to advertisements for topless bars, phone sex and other promiscuous services, the tabloid promoted human trafficking. The editor in chief of the Metro Times countered by saying that the ads were “no more sexually explicit than many of the books on public library shelves.” And though the Library Board was “quick to praise” the editorial content of the Metro Times,” they voted unanimously to move the magazine behind the counter, meaning that only those 18 and over could request copies.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about this, but ultimately I side with free speech. And as one Grosse Pointer put it, “I hope the library has a big back room to handle all the potentially off-putting materials one might be aghast by in the place.”

July 20, 2014 by Pointes of View

Tile Obsessed – The Belle Isle Aquarium

We took the girls to Belle Isle this weekend. It’s a small island in the Detroit river that used to be owned by the city and is now a State of Michigan park.

I’m not sure if it’s because I have kitchen remodel on the brain, but I was obsessed with the gorgeous tile work inside the aquarium. Brilliant greens flanked by shiny black subway tiles and more green tile patterns on the floor. I wish I had taken more photos, but here are the few that I did get.

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