Good Friends...Spicy Food!

Last night, Ro showed off his Thai cooking abilities for our friends Nandita, Prateek, Thana, Silva, Leslie and Richard. Ro has not been able to find good, spicy Thai food in Sao Paulo anywhere...and it has frustrated him. So this month, while I was away at the Auto Show, he took it upon himself to learn how to make Thai food. He watched YouTube videos, researched Internet recipes and then began combing the Asian markets in Liberdade to find the right ingredients and cooking utensils. Success!!

Ro put me in charge of the bar, appetizers and dessert. Everything else was his domain. He was sweating up a storm over the wok but he did an amazing job. He made matsaman, pad see ew and pad king. They were all great.

I really missed our big Detroit dining room and its 14-person table last night. Don't you love how the guys and girls just naturally separate when given the opportunity?? We are so lucky to have found such amazing friends here in Sao Paulo.

Cover Boy

Jackson's mug is on the Graded Web site again. This shot is from the school's mid-January Habitat for Humanity building effort. Jackson worked really, really hard for a week helping to build houses in a very poor area a few hours from Recife. It was a great experience for the 25 kids who took part in the effort. They raise money all year long to fund the build.

10K in Sao Paulo

I have done tons of runs in Detroit but one of the things I really want to do before I leave Sao Paulo is a race here. I signed up today for a 10K on March 21 in and around the Pacaembu area. We start at the stadium where the Corinthians soccer team plays. I always like a goal and this will help me focus my training. Besides the shirt is kinda cute! I like the runner on the back.

Even if my time is crummy, I feel pretty good that my Portuguese dictionary and I were able to pay the fee online!

With the three hour time difference between Detroit and SP, I've been doing the death march through the trails here pretty faithfully every morning with my pals Leslie, Nandita and Thana and then hitting the treadmill in the gym. All I'll need to do is step up my treadmill time and then do a good bit of distance in Burle Marx Park on the weekends.

I'd love company. Any one want to join me?

New Weaving Project

These 10 beautiful balls of silk/cashmere are going to be my next weaving project. I'm using a shadow weave pattern out of my Handwoven magazine for a 15" wide piece. In theory, the pattern is supposed to look like water lilies. We'll see. Ro reminded me today that we have to ship my loom back in five months and it would be good if I finished the piece before then. He knows me too well!

It is so nice to be home. Like always, Dan and the kids seem to do just fine without me but I sure feel best when I'm here. It was a traumatic trip back to Sao Paulo with canceled flights, comped hotel rooms and lost luggage. I left on Monday and finally got back here on Wednesday. But I'm past all that and just pleased to be home.

The kids finally go back to school from their summer break next Tuesday. (Monday is a Brazilian holiday.) This sure has been a long holiday for them but they are still scrambling to get their homework done. Whatcha' guys been doing all this time??

Crazy Days in the D

When I'm home in Detroit, I usually don't write on my blog. After all, it is called "Departing the D" not "Visiting the D." I've had a very pleasant, hardworking trip but I'm anxious to return to Sao Paulo on Monday/Tuesday.

In addition to making sure my key card still works at Crain, the main reason I'm home this time is to help out with our biggest event of the year, the Automotive News World Congress. I was so proud of the entire marketing/events team. They did an amazing job pulling this together. The event attracted 1,000 people over the three days. We had 18 sponsors, 20 major speakers from the auto companies and a million details. You know it is a big deal when you have protesters! Sergio Marchionne's speech was interrupted three times by some very irate individuals. Security is definitely going to be beefed up next year. (Note to self--the protesters all bought very expensive registrations. Maybe this is a new niche for us!)

I renewed my membership in the downtown YMCA while I was home. I've been going over there every morning before work. So pleasant! It amazes me how many people are working out really hard at 6 a.m. I think the Y is going to be a big help to me when I'm back here for good beginning in mid-June.

I am blessed with some amazing friends. It has been great to catch up with them while I'm here. I'm really going to need them next year. GM has approved our "split family" status. Dan and Hannah are going to stay in Sao Paulo for two more years. Hannah's school in Brazil, Graded, is wonderful in so many ways and she is very fortunate to be able to graduate from there.

Jackson, Java (our dog) and I are returning to the US and will move back into our house in Indian Village. Jackson will be going to college somewhere (either Savannah, Wayne State or CCS) so that means I am going to be alone a lot of the time. It will be really, really hard but they give us a few more trips back and forth so we can stay connected...and somewhat sane. Hannah will be coming back to Detroit for her two six-week breaks in the summer and winter. Somehow we'll make it...and be stronger from the experience.

Another Acceptance!

Jackson found out yesterday that he got accepted to Wayne State University. He would follow their industrial design curriculum. The only one left to hear from now is College for Creative Studies. (He got accepted to SCAD--Savannah College of Art & Design--a few weeks back.) The advantage of Wayne is that he could get a lot of his early credits done much more efficiently...cough, cough...and way cheaper...than at an art school. It is exciting (and a little sad) watching him grow into the whole thought of independence and college. I'm not sure where he'll end up but the decision-making is an interesting process. This is one of the drawings Jackson recently completed.

I leave tomorrow night for Detroit. It is Auto Show/World Congress season so I'll be mighty busy this trip to the D.

Feliz Ano Novo

Happy 2010. For the past 30 years, we have celebrated New Year's Eve with a great bunch of friends from high school. There is a core group of about 12 people that are always there and the party moves from house to house each New Year's. No matter what, the celebration involves a lot of eating, shots and college football games and leftovers the next day. The guys always play this dumb drinking card game after midnight called "Horse Thief." Somebody usually throws up.

We started first at a parent's house, then had wild trashcan parties at our college apartments, moved to restaurants and discovered they were too expensive, journeyed through the "new Mommy years" where someone was always pregnant and staying awake was no problem because a baby was always up. During recent celebrations, the kids played poker and neighbors joined in the fun and the parties had gotten pretty wild again.

Our friend Karl is a wine salesman. He has a life size Dick Clark New Year's poster from one of his suppliers and every year we take photos in front of it. Those photos are a great way to chronicle how much we've all changed.

Since we are 5,000 miles away, we missed the party last night and were feeling a little blue. We felt like we were really missing something. I think the only other time we missed it was when we were in Japan. While the fireworks were going off in Sao Paulo and it was still three hours before New Years in Michigan, we called Rick and Lori's house to wish them all a Happy New Year. There were only six people there. All the babies are now in high school or college and wanted to do their own thing. A few of our friends had to stay back to make sure the kids got home safe. Heavy sigh.

We'll be be back for next year's party. I guess it will be time to transition to another kind of celebration again. Hannah suggested that now the kids will have the wild parties and we can go out for a quiet dinner and stop by the wild party for the midnight celebration. NO WAY!! We're not giving up the ship that easy.