Yes/No Detroit

This has been a busy week and will be a busy weekend—yesterday I went to Ann Arbor for Sonic Lunch, a noontime concert series, to meet up with some friends while Baby K was in daycare, and today my MIL and I are going to the Tigers game tonight courtesy of a candy brand I write about. Madtown Grilled Cheese at HopCat, Ann Arbor What I've been up to this week: Fourth of July get-together . Two of our friends have held a get-together for a few years now, but this year they have a three-month-old baby and we also brought Baby K. The food is always super tasty (and there's usually brisket), plus it's fun to hang out with friends. Their neighbors pool funds together to put on a fireworks show, too—this was Baby K's second fireworks show and she reacted better than the first time, but her reactions swung between interested and disinterested, LOL.  Visiting with my sister-in-law. My SIL lives in Indiana, and came up to visit Friday to Monday of 4th of July weekend, to hang wit...

This week went by pretty fast and I have zero plans this weekend—hoping to maybe sleep a bit, because I haven't gotten a lot of sleep this week, with Baby K waking up a bit. Walled Lake fireworks What I've been up to this week: Walled Lake fireworks . My husband, parents, and I go to this every year, because it basically takes place outside my parents' condo. With a 10-month-old, I wasn't entirely sure if she'd be okay with it, or start sobbing, and it was kind of a mix of both ... we got her headphones (ear protection) but she was crying when the first few fireworks went off, because it was rather loud and they were basically right after another. After we moved back a bit further, back to the condo, she saw the lights and seemed to enjoy that, it seemed ... we will try again on July 4th weekend, as some friends have invited us to their neighborhood display.  Getting tasty foods. Yesterday, I worked in the office and I had a sandwich from La Pecora Nera, its pesto o...

Overall this has been a good week, and Baby K has a doctor's appointment (10-month well visit) today so I was able to sleep until 8am or so, which was also very nice. Crumbl delivery (work samples) What I've been up to this week: Buying a new car, and more car issues. My husband's 2014 Hyundai had about 140,000 miles on it and was nearing end of life, so we got him a 2026 Explorer. It's a super nice car, but was a "courtesy car" for the dealership, meaning it had 1,000 miles on it already. There were a few quirks that needed fixing, so we had it for about two days and then they gave HIM a courtesy car (also an Explorer, not as nice as ours tough) so he's had that this week. In terms of MY car (also a 2014, a Honda Accord), I went to go do errands during my lunch on Wednesday and it went from like 1/4 tank of gas to showing zero by the time I had driven one street away. I immediately turned around and went home ... I had never seen that before. :(  We lucki...

*Disclosure: I have an ongoing media relationship with Broadway in Detroit. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own. The Notebook is coming to the Fisher Theatre this September and October, and I'm super excited about this one because I like the book, and also the movie is one of my all-time favorite movies (and I haven't seen the musical yet!). Read on to learn more about it, and also win a pair of tickets to the Sept. 23 show date! All photos by Roger Mastroianni About the show: Producers Kevin McCollum and Kurt Deutsch, along with ATG Detroit are thrilled to announce that THE NOTEBOOK, a new musical based on the best-selling novel that inspired the iconic film, will play the Fisher Theatre September 22 – October 4.  As part of the 2026-27 ATG Broadway In Detroit Series, audiences are about to fall in love all over again with this beloved story. Individual tickets for THE NOTEBOOK go on sale Friday, June 26 at 10:00 a.m., tickets will be available online at us.ATGTi...

This has been one hell of a week ... hoping that the next week and weekend are better. Bodysuit I got for Baby K while in Vegas for work What I've been up to this week: Insane car troubles. On Saturday, I had my Crohn's infusion, and then was driving to get us takeout ... and my car engine STOPPED working. Like I could tell I was just coasting. I was super lucky and was almost at Telegraph, so I pulled into the Jeep dealership and was able to park, and I also walked inside to explain the situation to make sure THEY didn't tow me. The tow truck took about two hours to show up, so I walked over to CFA and had lunch (and enjoyed the air conditioning), and then I had him take me to Belle Tire ... the driver was also super nice and gave me a drive home, too, otherwise my husband and the baby were going to have to come get me. Fast-forward to Tuesday night, when I was driving my husband's car, and experiencing some of the same issues. On Wednesday AM, he got in his car to dri...

I unfortunately didn't have time to do a Friday Five yesterday, but I have a tiny bit of time before my Crohn's infusion this morning, so let's try a Saturday Six! New gifted book for Baby K What I've been up to this week: STILL still being sick, kinda. My cough is mostly gone—or was, until today, when some remnants popped up—but my ear still feels funky, I think the ear infection didn't completely heal. I booked an appt. with my doctor for Monday afternoon, so hopefully she can check it out then. Going to the movie theater!  My work now has Summer Half-Day Fridays, so I try to log off at 1pm or so, although yesterday was more like 2pm. On T-Mobile Tuesdays this week, there was a deal for $5 to see Masters of the Universe , which I was already thinking of seeing in regular format, so I went to see it in PREMIUM format aka Super Emax ($15 regularly). I did unfortunately fall asleep during it, so no *official* rating from me, but unofficially, I'd give it 4/5 star...

I've still been pretty sick over the last week and now my husband is sick too, so, weirdly enough, the only non-sick one in the family is Baby K (unusual for her, she brings home daycare germs).  Surprise-ish delivery from Crumbl What I've been up to this week: Still being sick. This weekend was not fun, and it was nice to have a day off work for Memorial Day on Monday, but I went back to the doctor on Wednesday because my ears were still driving me crazy—they felt like someone put water in them and then stuffed them with cotton. Turns out I still have an ear infection, so I'm on a different antibiotic for that, now, and hopefully it's helping.  Surprise-ish Crumbl delivery . We write about Crumbl for work—this time it was about their new/revamped chocolate chip cookie recipe—and sometimes they ask me if I want samples (um, yes, lol) and they deliver to me, which is great, but don't always tell me when they will be delivered ... Tuesday I took the day off work and w...

This past week had a LOT of stuff going on—I got back from my Vegas work trip last night, and I lost my voice on Tuesday somehow, so I am going to see the doctor today and probably only working a half day (and then Monday is Memorial Day, thankfully). World of Beer festival, Frankenmuth, MI What I've been up to this week: World of Beer festival, in Frankenmuth. My mother-in-law came to town last Friday, because of my work trip on Monday, but we asked her to come in a little early so we could go to the beer festival in Frankenmuth—we had gone in 2022 and 2023, and it was a good time. Your admission fee ($30-ish) gets you this tiny souvenir mug, pictured above, plus six pours, and you can buy three more tickets for $5 on site. They had a lot more vendors, including artisans, this year, and I bought a funny plaque that says "Welcome to the bathroom - a cat will be with you shortly" (we have two cats), which is now hung in our bathroom, haha. The festival also has food trucks...

I am pretty sure Baby K is in a 9-month sleep regression, so this week has been pretty rough ... either that or her teething has kept her awake. We have been lucky to get 5-6 hours of sleep each night, and it has not been consecutive, LOL ...  Ice cream from Treat Dreams, Ferndale What I've been up to this week: Colonoscopy prep . Always the most FUN weekend of the year (right ....) and the fact that it happened to coincide with my first Mother's Day was the cherry on top—to be fair, I did schedule it myself, but I think I scheduled it in May or summer 2025 when I was pregnant, as I usually book it about a year beforehand. On Saturday, I had only liquids; on Sunday, I had liquids plus four liters of prep drinks total, at 8am and 5pm; and on Monday, I had 8am prep drinks. Did learn something this time though: you can have liquids (just not soup or Jello) up to two hours before you leave for the procedure ... in the past I always thought you couldn't even have water, etc. on ...

It's been a long two weeks—last weekend was supposed to be the "fun" weekend where we went to Indiana (my husband for a bachelor party day, for a friend who is getting married, and then us both celebrating birthdays with my in-laws), but unfortunately Baby K had a fever that Friday, so we ended up staying put. This weekend is the "not fun" weekend, as I have colonoscopy prep ...  Green Lantern deep dish round pizza with pepperoni, from Southfield What I've been up to this week: Eating good food. Definitely eating whatever I want this week because I can't eat hardly anything Saturday, Sunday, and Monday due to prep ... we had Great Greek takeout a few days ago, I think maybe last weekend, and also Noori via Doordash. Last night we had Thai Fresh (in Northville) via Doordash as well, so I'll have some of those leftovers for lunch today, and on Wednesday night, we had Green Lantern, from the Southfield location—they sometimes send me free pizza or chees...

The past week was pretty busy, because my husband and Baby K and I went to Indiana on Thursday, and then he and I were in Louisville from Friday through Monday with my sister-in-law (Baby K stayed with my in-laws).  Boudin balls at North of Bourbon, Louisville What I've been up to this week: Having good food . We kicked off the trip with dinner at North of Bourbon, one of my favorites—this is my third trip to Louisville (Nov. 2024 and Dec. 2025 were the others) and it's a very tasty restaurant. We always get the boudin balls (with pork, see pic above) and this time I split the chicken gumbo and a mushroom risotto-type dish with my SIL.  On Saturday, we ended up going to a food hall close to Rabbit Hole distillery (more on that below), and had some tapas-type items, like empanadas, which was good, and we also had really good charcuterie at the Garden and Gun Club, at Stitzel-Weller (see below) plus had good Italian food at Volare, which we had been to last December. On Sunday, ...

This week seemed to go by really slow, compared to last week—unfortunately, I have not kicked the cough I mentioned last week, but yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and got some meds for it, at least.  Possible Huggies or Sam's model? What I've been up to this week: Seeing a movie at the theater. I was debating whether I wanted to take Good Friday off or Easter Monday or neither—I ended up taking Easter Monday off, and since I hadn't seen a movie since my birthday in January, I wanted to go to the theater. I saw The Super Mario Galaxy Movie since I'm a big Mario fan and overall I enjoyed it, although I'll admit I fell asleep for about a half-hour during it since I was super tired that day. It was fun to be back at the theater again though and hopefully I'll make it back there soon—I basically can only go during the week if Baby K is in daycare.  Getting delivery and takeout . We got delivery from La Saj, in Troy, via Doordash, and I used to really love ...

This week went by super fast for some reason, and I'm glad it's Friday because I've had a cough all week, so I'm hoping I can get more rest this weekend to kick it.  & Juliet, Fisher Theatre, Detroit What I've been up to this week: Seeing & Juliet at the Fisher Theatre. I had been looking forward to this one but wasn't entirely familiar with its plot, other than it was a twist on Romeo & Juliet . A friend mentioned it's a jukebox musical, and I was like, what's that? Turns out it used pop songs from the last 20-25 years or so and it was a TON of fun—it probably ranks up there with my top musicals now (in case you're wondering: Waitress and Phantom of the Opera ). It's at the Fisher until April 12, and you can find more info about it here . Going to Sam's Club . Not the most exciting thing in the world, but we left Baby K with my parents last Saturday and had a quick lunch at Culver's by ourselves and went to Sam's, because...