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The Friday Five, 2/22/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

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This week has been fairly busy and tonight I am headed to Ann Arbor—I usually go about once a month but I think the last time I was there was in October, and that was only to see Death of a Salesman starring Alec Baldwin (who was actually seen in Flint this week!). I will be staying overnight and then tomorrow doing brunch with some friends, too.


What I've been up to this week:
Girl Scout cookies and wine pairing event. Four friends and I went to the Michigan by the Bottle tasting room in Auburn Hills for this event, which was a lot of fun. $20 got you five Girl Scout cookies and five 2 oz. pours of wine. I'm not usually a big red wine person but I found a sweet one that I liked, and since we also received a $5 off credit for attending the event, I bought a bottle to take home, too. Seeing lots of movies. Last Friday, I saw Alita: Battle Angel in IMAX 3D at the AMC Forum; originally we were going to see it in regular 3D at AMC John R, but we were running late so opted for the Fo…
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The Friday Five, 2/15/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

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Apologies for skipping the Friday Five on 2/8—I completely forgot about it, as I was in Nashville for work and would have had to write and set up the post on Tuesday of that week. Oops ...

As for this week, it's been playing catch-up at work from my work trip, seeing a few shows (including movies), and eating lots of good food, per usual.


What I've been up to this week:
Seeing plays and musicals. Last Saturday night, two friends and I went to see Legally Blonde: the Musical at the Fox Theatre. Legally Blonde is one of my favorite movies, and although the show was definitely "fluffy," it didn't disappoint, especially the sexy UPS guy! Ha. On Wednesday, a friend and I saw The Play That Goes Wrong, at the Fisher Theatre; she loved it, I thought it was okay, but still worth seeing—I'd give it like 3.5/5 stars. The set design was awesome, though, as it keeps falling down during the play (literally everything that can go "wrong" during this play does...).Se…
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Choosing the right meal delivery service for you: Home Chef, Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, and more

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Last March, I wrote a post comparing Hello Fresh to Home Chef, which you can read here. At that point, I was kind of a newbie to the "meal delivery service" game; those were the only two I had tried, and I started after a friend gave me a free Hello Fresh code to try back in January.

Fast-forward to almost a year later, and I'm definitely hooked. I love not having to go grocery shopping, and having gourmet meals for both dinners and then work lunches the next day, when I keep both portions for myself.

However, there are a ton of choices out there for meal services. I am now going to share what I've learned with you over the past year, and tell you which services are my favorites and least favorites.

My favorites:

1) Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh continues to impress me. They are the most generous of the services—I routinely get emails for $20 off my boxes, which definitely helps because I don't like to pay more than $30-40 for the week for the boxes (they generally run …
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Dunkin' Valentine's Day doughnuts {and $25 giveaway!}

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*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

 Valentine's Day is coming up this week, and Dunkin' has released some seasonal doughnuts to celebrate!

About the doughnuts:
Valentine’s Day is all about love, but why stay trapped in the clichés of the holiday to express it? To help guests say it with donuts, and ease some of the holiday’s stress and high expectations, this year Dunkin’ is offering new choices as rich, diverse and dynamic as love itself. Dunkin’ today unveiled its Valentine’s Day lineup, including new Bling Sprinkles Donuts, the return of heart-shaped donuts and its first ever donut that features a perfect pairing of two delicious fillings.

A beloved symbol of the season, heart-shaped donuts are back in several varieties, including Boston Kreme and Jelly, for a limited time at participating Dunkin’ locations nationwide. Additionally, this year classic frosted donut varieties are getting dressed up for the season of love wit…
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Exclusive interview: Q&A with James Rodriguez, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief musical

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Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thiefwill be playing at the Fisher Theater this month, from February 26 through March 9. I recently was able to ask James Rodriguez, who plays Luke as well as Fight Captain, some questions about the musical.


Liz Parker: Which adaptation of Percy Jackson is the musical based on? (book or movie?)
James Rodriguez: Our musical is based off of the first book in the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series, The Lightning Thief.

LP: Did you either read the book or see the movie to prep for your role in the show?
JR: I've read the entire book series but all of my preparation for this role came from the first book
and my own personal experience.

LP: How long have you been acting, and what is your dream role?
JR: I started acting in high school. I think I was 14 or 15, but I have been singing since I could talk.
My dream role has always been to play Simba in The Lion King on Broadway. I grew up
watching the movie every single day so I need to cross that one off my …
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The Friday Five, 2/1/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

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This has been a super busy week and I'm hoping to squeeze in a nap tonight before Birmingham Restaurant Week dinner with Yelpers. The Polar Vortex hasn't helped—yesterday it was -13 REAL TEMP when I woke up ("feels like -32") and eventually went up to a balmy 0 degrees.


What I've been up to this week:
Seeing Phantom of the Opera, at the Detroit Opera House. Phantom is one of my favorite shows, so I was pretty excited about this. I first saw it in January 2017, also at the Detroit Opera House. We also had fantastic seats, as Broadway in Detroit is very generous—we were row C, on the right-hand side of the theaters. Great show!Hanging out with friends. On Saturday night, a friend hosted a fancy wine and cheese party—I say "fancy" because the dress was formal, so we all wore nice dresses and everyone brought wine and some cheese. I've also been eating out a lot this week with friends, which leads me to ... Eating out ... probably a bit too much. On Frida…
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Upcoming and GIVEAWAY: Tap Dogs at the Fox Theatre, March 14th {ends 2/8}

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*Disclosure: I have an ongoing media relationship with 313 Presents. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

Tap Dogs will be performing at the Fox Theatre on Thursday, March 14th, and one of my lucky readers will win a 4-pack of tickets to the show!

About the show:
Australia’s most successful theatrical export, Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs, will make its debut performance at the Fox Theatre on Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. For one night only, the award-winning show will dazzle with its performers energy and unique imagination for an experience that has been described as "Part theatre, part dance, part rock concert and part construction site!” BBC UK. The global dance sensation’s performance is the latest addition to the 2018-19 Fox Theatre Series.

Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs features high-energy dance, theatrical performance and live music performed by a cast of six dancers and two musicians who bring the steel works to life in a fast paced, unstoppable spectacular that is the p…
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The Friday Five, 1/25/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

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I don't want to jinx myself, but my cough is slowly going away. I'm on prednisone until Sunday, though, so after that we'll see if that's the glue that's been holding me together or not.


What I've been up to this week:
Seeing movies. On Sunday, I saw A Dog's Way Home, which was kind of dumb, although the dog in it was really cute—I'd give it 2.5/5 stars. On Wednesday, my boyfriend and I saw Glass, which I had been looking forward to despite the subpar reviews. I'd give that one 3.5/5 stars—it's not as good as its predecessors (Unbreakable and Split) but still worth seeing. I'm hoping to see On the Basis of Sex on Sunday but we'll see if I have time.Eating out and cooking. Last Saturday I was supposed to go to a friend's Korean BBQ birthday get-together, but wasn't feeling great, so we did takeout pizza instead. On Sunday, my boyfriend took me to Osaka, in Clawson, for a belated birthday celebration, since I was out of town on my ac…
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Trending this season: minimalist conversational pieces by JORD {and $100 giveaway!}

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*Disclosure: This is a sponsored blog post. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

Even in this day and age, when most people forego a watch in favor of their smartphone, I have always been a "watch person." My parents bought me a very nice Fossil watch when I was a teenager, and since then, I have always worn one.

So when I received an email asking if I'd like to do a post on JORD watches (pronounced "Yode"), I definitely accepted - I had read about JORD watches previously, too, since a few blogger friends had reviewed them, and their designs are very pretty.


JORD is based in St. Louis, and the watches are a mix of natural and "reclaimed" materials. Most of their watches are wood watches, which was intriguing to me; I've never owned a wood watch before, only metal watches.

Lately I had been wanting to buy a more expensive watch for myself, as well. I looked into a certain Detroit brand that shall remain nameless, but their watches are …
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The Friday Five, 1/18/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

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I'm sick, AGAIN, because my body hates me ... before I went to NYC on Friday, I had a cold and a cough, and now the cough is worse. I finished a 30-day round of pills on Wednesday, too, and on Thursday my body rebelled against me ... at one point I had a 103.8 fever. Fun stuff.

However, my NYC trip was fun, at least.


What I've been up to this week:
NYC trip. I was in NYC from Friday through Monday, and previously I hadn't visited for about 6.5 years. I met up with a friend (in the pic above) who used to live there, and whom now lives in upstate New York, so she took the train in to meet me. We saw 3 different shows—King Kong, a Golden Girls drag show, and Waitress—ate a lot of good foods, went shopping, and met up with friends. Seeing friends. On the NYC trip, we met up with two of my Birthright friends for dinner on night 1—one lives in Queens and works in the city, and one lives in New Jersey. On Saturday, for lunch and dessert we met up with a middle school and high schoo…
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Hamilton tickets coming soon to Detroit! March 12-April 21 at the Fisher Theatre

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HAMILTON is coming soon to Detroit, and I'm excited to hopefully see it! I've heard so much about it from people who have seen it in NYC, Chicago, and other markets.

About the show:
Producer Jeffrey Seller and Broadway in Detroit announced today that tickets for the Detroit engagement of HAMILTON will be available online through Ticketmaster Verified Fan®, on Friday, January 25 at 10:00 AM ET. Verified Fan is a new fan-facing technology from Ticketmaster that allows pre-registered fans to unlock access to tickets without competing against scalpers and bots.

Jeffrey Seller states, "Verified Fan is the newest program to make tickets available to theatre-goers at regular prices. I am confident that it will be a valuable service to our fans. We know how challenging it is to buy tickets and this new Ticketmaster program will make the process a whole lot easier."

Ticketmaster Verified Fan® registration begins now and will close Wednesday, January 23 at 10:00 PM ET. Visi…
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The Friday Five, 1/11/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

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By the time you read this, I will either be on a plane to New York or in New York, most likely—I'm going there this weekend for my birthday weekend. I haven't been back in about 6.5 years, so it should be a fun time, but unfortunately I'm sick (again....) with a cold, so I'm hoping the weather won't be brutal there this weekend ... it should be about 20-30 degrees out, so about the same as Michigan's weather.


What I've been up to this week:
Hanging out with friends. A friend who moved to Germany last year was back in the U.S. for the holidays, and on Saturday night she hosted a game night at another friend's place, in Ferndale. On Sunday morning, that same group met up for brunch at Bobcat Bonnie's in Ferndale, which was tasty. Seeing RENT, in Detroit. On Tuesday, a friend and I checked out Detroit Shipping Company for dinner, which was fabulous (see the chicken pad thai pic above), and then went to the Fisher Theatre to see RENT, which was also very …
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Upcoming and GIVEAWAY: Phantom of the Opera at Detroit Opera House {ends 1/16}

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Phantom of the Opera will be returning to the Detroit Opera House from January 24th through February 3rd, and I'm super excited about it. One of my lucky readers will win a pair of tickets for the Thursday, January 24th show, 8pm at the Detroit Opera House!

 To purchase tickets for the show, click here.

You can read more about the show at my initial blog post here, or click here to visit the Broadway in Detroit website.



GIVEAWAY:

Enter via the widget below. One of my lucky readers will win a pair of tickets to the Thursday, January 24th show, 8pm at the Detroit Opera House.

 Giveaway will end on Wednesday, January 16th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be contacted the next day via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Tickets will be available for Will Call pickup at the Opera House on the day of the show.

Must live in the Detroit/Metro Detroit area to enter this giveaway.

 Good luck!

2 tickets for Phantom of the Opera, 1/24 at the Detroit Opera Hou…
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