Grazie Party

My team threw an "over the top" retirement party for one of the Gods of Crainville yesterday. Tony Merpi is by far the coolest boss I've ever had. He was the ad director when I was the marketing director at Automotive News. Last month, he announced his retirement because he wanted to spend more time with his family. He'd been with the company 31 years.

Most retirement parties are kinda boring. Not this one. We had 180 people at the Roostertail for a Rustic Italian feast. We had fun dance music from a fantastic one-man Italian band, an overflowing antipasto station, a full Italian meal and even canollis served from a gondola. Every table had a big jug of wine with Tony's picture on it. We gave out WWTD (What would Tony do) bracelets, pens that featured a different Merpi saying every time you clicked them and a memory book filled with 60+ letters to the guy. We had a tear-jerking slide show set to Bocelli music of photos of Tony through the years. People sang songs, danced to the band and told stories from the microphone. It was a fab evening of Tony's work family, friends, clients and kids.


It was great to do something like this for a guy like Tony. He will be missed.

Reading, Riting and Rithmetic

After church today, Hannah and I are going to help out at the St. Clare of Montefalco Open House. Every Catholic School in the area is hosting an Open House today from 1-3 so I'm not sure how many people we'll have going through. St. Clare was a great choice for Hannah and Jackson so I'm happy to talk about it to others. However, I always feel guilty at the Open House. The school tries to maintain somewhere around a 60/40 Catholic/Non-Catholic ratio. Most of the people going through the Open House are not Catholic so their odds are slim. The diversity of black/white, Grosse Pointe/Detroit and Catholic/Non-Catholic is also what makes St. Clare great since the kids are challenged daily to think about the differences in people and to appreciate them.

It is a weird situation since St. Clare also desperately needs enrollment to stay open. The School Commission is working really hard to reach out to Catholics but it is difficult in this economy and since the school is located in Grosse Pointe where the public schools are pretty good. In any case, Hannah will put on that plaid skirt uniform one more time today and do her part. (The parents don't have to wear the uniform, thank God!)

We're spending a lot of time these days thinking about high schools. Hannah took the test yesterday at Liggett. They have 10 scholarships available so we're crossing our fingers. It is a fabulous school but it is tres expensive. We could probably buckle down and do it but should we? We've also thought vaguely about moving to a good school district but that doesn't seem fair to Jackson who loves Cass Tech. (And who would buy our house in this economy??) I always thought what we did for one child we should do for another. Jackson chose Cass over U of D and is so, so happy there. But is he being pushed hard enough??? Should we have sent him to the tougher school? Is it fair to send Hannah to an expensive private school while Jackson is at Detroit Public Schools?

Hannah got her acceptance letters yesterday from Mercy HS and Bishop Foley HS. We expected the Mercy letter but we got a laugh out of the Bishop Foley packet. She didn't even apply there!

80 and Still Partying!

When I turn 80, I want to have spicy food and be surrounded by my family. Last night, we helped Dan's Dad, Wayne, mark eight decades. We all met up at Mongolian BBQ and had a really nice time. Wayne is so cool. He can hardly hear anymore (and always leaves his hearing aids at home) but just when you think he's not paying attention, he lobs some zinger of a joke in. I especially love when he makes a great joke and then starts laughing. He has this twinkle in his eye when he cracks up that is hilarious.

Goodbye Sue and George

I'm leaving in about an hour for a funeral at St. Charles. Sue Wenrick, a neighbor and fellow St. Charles parishioner, died last Sunday after a fight with cancer. Such a cool lady. Ro used to rent studio space from her when she owned the St. Charles School Building. She almost singlehandedly saved St. Charles when it was on the "Archdiocese hit list" to close in the late '80s/early '90s by buying the school building and giving St. Charles a little income. She rented the space to starving artists who sometimes paid rent...but always had a lot of fun. She was a realtor and most importantly, was a great single Mom to her son Clayton. He is now an amazing young man. She pinched and saved and got him through Waldorf, Cass Tech and then art school. Sue always had a "cause," whether it was a teen at church who needed tuition, the Dearing Dance Company, a gay man who couldn't pay his mortgage because his partner didn't leave him the house in the will when he died, a stray dog, something. Even as she was struggling with chemo, she would call me and want to help with this or that. She will be missed.

I learned last night that we'll have another funeral at St. Charles next week. George Taylor died yesterday during his dialysis treatment. Another amazing man. He was a Detroit cop who dealt with the riots in the '60s during his first week on the job. I'm really grateful that a few months back Jackson spent some time chatting with George for a paper he was writing on the riots. They had a great conversation about a ton of issues, especially the tensions between black and white cops. George was an amazing role model. In his younger days, he organized tons of basketball leagues for the Detroit Police Athletic League to keep teens busy. George and Glenda had five kids of their own but there are always tons of people at the Taylors house because of the incredible love the Taylors show everyone. The first few years I attended St. Charles I had the wrong number written down in my phone book for the church. I always called the Taylors house instead. It never crossed my mind that they didn't answer "St. Charles Church." Instead, when I would call to ask what time this or that was, they always answered my question and never let on that I had the wrong number.

Here's my favorite George story. During the last few years, his diabetes left him blind. I went to his house and picked him up for a Parish Council meeting. While driving from his house to the rectory, we chatted about this and that. Then he turned to me and said, "Colleen don't go down this street. There are a bunch of drug houses here. Turn left and go down Lafayette instead." Somehow, this blind man knew what road I was on. He said he could tell by the bumps in the road that he remembered from his years on the force. I was taking directions from a guy who couldn't see!

I'm sure Sue and George are enjoying each other's company today in heaven.

Terror on Wheels

OK, Ro decided he wanted to go the Design Forum for an event at the Auto Show sponsored by Crain, my boss. I had the dry cleaning in my car. Met him at 4:15 in Eastern Market and gave him the shirt he wanted. Picked up Hannah at 4:30 at St. Clare. Took her home to get a shower and to make her dinner (grilled cheese). Picked up Jackson at Cass at 5:30 from baseball and took him home and got Hannah to guitar at 6:00. Went to the restaurant next door to the guitar store and had a chicken sandwich while she played. Got to the Forensics tournament with Hannah by 7:00. She and her classmates performed until 8:45. Took them all to Coldstone for ice cream until they shut the doors at 9:30. Home finally. Thank God.

I'm tired just typing it. I was so proud of Hannah and her 15 or so classmates tonight. They really are amazing. The kids all perform 6-8 minute memorized selections. Some are funny and some are dramatic but man, they were all good. Hannah did a piece from the children's book Eloise. She was great. They were all great. Not a clinker in the bunch. It is amazing to see how much these 8th graders have grown. Forensics is a fabulous self-esteem booster.

Lots of Warp/Weft

My camera is still at Lori's house but I took a few shots tonight with my phone of my recent weaving projects. I bought a red coat just before Christmas, so of course, I needed a new scarf to go with it. This is made with a silk/wool yarn and is about five inches wide.
















Yesterday I took a vacation day and finished my CCS piece in the afternoon. This piece is huge. (It is on our queen size bed in the first photo.) It is 18 inches wide and 90 inches long. I am going to wear it as a shawl (I think). It is the softest thing I've ever made. The blue yarn is a silk/alpaca mix. I really like this one. It was a great way to use a lot of yarn colors. I still have to tie it up and wash it so I'm curious to see how it will look all done but so far, so good. Lots of knots in my future.


On my loom at home is a new project that I just finished setting up tonight. I've never woven anything this wide. The baby blanket will be 34" wide. It is made from a really nice Inca cotton that should wash up easily for Baby Z's Mom. The baby shower is March 9 so I have lots of time.

Going, going....gone!

Poor Ro. His company car, a 2007 Tahoe, was pushed away from the house on Sunday afternoon by three thugs in a Dodge Caravan. Thanks to OnStar, it was found a few hours later in Hamtramck with lots of damage, no tires and a missing radio. Ro and Jackson saw them pushing the car down the street but they couldn't catch them. Our fabulous neighbor, the cop, tried to help but he couldn't get them either.

GM was cool about it and Ro was given a new car to drive but it was the sheer nerve of it that irritated us. The truck was in front of the house because I moved it there to go to church! They took it at 2:00 in the afternoon.

So we spent a few hours thinking about where we wanted to move (a nice waterfront house on Grosse Ile won) and then we came back to reality.

I took tomorrow off so I'm going to finally clean my Robar PR office once and for all and then go over to CCS and finish my piece. Seems strange but I can't get the New Year officially going until I complete all my unfinished business from the year past.

Twisted and Warped

Over the holiday, I managed to snag the computer away from Hannah for a few minutes and I found some really cool weaving sites from around the world. One of the sites listed other sites she'd found and it got me looking around. What fun...two hours later, I still had nothing done. Check 'em out if you have the time (or the inclination). I love the blog name, Twisted and Warped, and the clasped weft weaving from the girl in Australia boggles my mind. She has yarn on the ground and somehow does tapestry from the top. Got to try that sometime (or maybe not!)

weavingspirit.blogspot.com
ammit.exblog.jp
callybooker.wordpress.com
mylittlekitchen.blogspot.com
narablog.com
curiousweaver.id.au
megweaves.blogspot.com
twistedandwarped.wordpress.com
saralamb.blogspot.com
leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Happy New Year

OK, I am a goof. I took a whole bunch of great photos at the New Years Eve run on Belle Isle and then at Rick and Lori's for the actual midnight events....and of course, I left my camera in Milford. Hopefully, I'll connect with Lori soon so I can get it back.

What a great start to the New Year. Jackson, Hannah and I joined 1,000 other people (including our friends Lisa, Patrice, Thomas and Taylor) on Belle Isle for the four miles of festivities. Hannah only tackled the one mile run this year but it was a good healthy start to the New Year. It also made it so I could eat and drink a little at the party later without feeling too guilty.

Our New Year's Eve party tradition continued in 2008. We've been with the same group of friends somewhere in Michigan every NYE since 1980. The kids are getting older now (Kurtis is in college) but everyone still hangs. All of the teens had an amazing snowball fight/football game at 1:30 a.m. (we got 14 inches of snow in Milford overnight). Karin and Paul had sick kids and Sheri and Joe wimped out for another party but we had a great time with about 10 adults and eight teens. Karl organized ping pong and Foosball tournaments that kept the night moving. Can you believe that our NLU theme song by Meatloaf "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" played on the radio just as Lori and I started our game against one another?? Talk about karma.

I'm glad to see the New Year begin. Always seems like a good way to assess how lucky I am to have such a cool family and great friends.

Cheers!