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Movement 08

Moby tops list of acts at Movement '08 electronic fest

Adam Graham / Detroit News Pop Music Writer

Superstar DJs Moby and Girl Talk are among the acts confirmed for the electronic music festival Movement '08, May 24-26 at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit.

The acts are part of the more than two dozen artists that were announced Tuesday by Paxahau Promotions Group, which is heading up the fest for the third year in a row. More artists will be announced in early April, Paxahau president Jason Huvaere said Tuesday.

Also performing at this year's event -- the ninth annual Memorial Day weekend electronic music blowout -- are Grammy nominee Carl Craig, Italian house DJ Benny Benassi, Chicago/ Detroit rappers the Cool Kids, Detroit DJs Mike Grant and Buzz Goree and more. A lineup can be seen at the festival's official Web page, myspace.com/detroitmusicfest.

Sushi Saturday

Last Saturday, a group of us got together for Sushi Saturday!

Here's Jed the Sushi Chef in action.

mmmmm.....raw fish.

For me, we also made cucumber rolls and asparagus tempura rolls.

The colors in Sushi are just amazing

Look at all those pieces!

Now at a restaurant, you can pay easily $4 - $8 for six pieces

We pulled these two trays above together for $40 and easily could have made a few more rolls



After Sushi it was on to Jenga.

Dina carefully studies her next move.

Jed in action

Keith adds a block to the Jenga tower while Dina and Jed look on -

this was a very serious Jenga match

Ahhh! Look at the foundation! This was a world record game!

Towards the end, there were only 3 options left for blocks to remove.

After adding about 10 layers to the tower, it came crashing down!

A great time was had by all! Thanks to the Chef and the Baker (Stef made brownies - yum!)

Coffee

A good friend of mine sent me this story today. I thought you all might enjoy it...

Coffee

A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering... ''You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems.'

He continued...''Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups... Then you began eyeing each other's cups....''

''Now consider this: Life is coffee. Jobs, money, and position in society are merely cups. They are just tools to shape and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the Life we live. Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee that God has provided us... God brews the coffee, but He does not supply the cups. Enjoy your coffee!'' The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just
make the best of everything...

So please remember: Live Simply. Love Generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly. Leave the Rest to GOD. And remember - the richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

Stand Up For Kids

Fun Event coming up in RO to raise awareness for and to benefit a great cause.

Good times

Oh the memories...

St. Gallen Football Game

Craziness in St. Gallen

Touring Amsterdam

At IBM

It was all a dream, I used to read word up magazine.....salt'n' pepa and heavy d up in the limousine...

Mug Night

What have I been doing this summer? Well, I certainly haven't been doing a good job of keeping my blog up to date. The weather's been too nice!

Thursday nights are volleyball night with the CVL - Clawson Volleyball League. Is it a "real" volleyball league - not in the traditional sense. We're the management and the players, well Jeff's management and Dina and I are the weather girls, but every Thursday you'll find us at Clawson Park, "where it never rains," ready to play!

After volleyball, it's typically off to the bar to watch a sports game and enjoy a nice cold bar. Typically, we hit up a local bar in Clawson, but lately we've been venturing into Royal Oak for $1.99 bring your own mug night at O'Toole's. For those of you that know Jeff, or should I say Hober, yes, he does bring a 7-11 Super Big Gulp to the bar...see the red one on the table below, that's his, not mine - and what makes it even better.....he even has a WWF Super Big Gulp Cup.

Front to Back, Left to Right - Darren, Me, Jeff, Ramelle, Babu (?? I have no idea who this guy is), Martini (yes that's his real name), Lisa, Dina, Jed, Keith and Lisa's friend.

Welcome to the Family!!!

My new cousin, Anthony.....and probably one of the cutest babies I've ever seen!

Go Tigers

I can't think of a better way to spend an evening - great company, beautiful weather and a cold beer and peanuts at the Tigers game!

Rob, Nikole, D and Chad

Takin' a break from the game to rock out - you'd think this guy was in a band or something

Nikole, Jose, D and Chad

Down at the Copa, Copa Cabana

Who? Me?

Me, Julie and Elena

Stef and Elena

Jeff and Nicole



The guys' table at the bar afterwards - Kyle, Jed, Kevin, Besy and Brian

A Night Out

Me, Chantele, Danielle and Nikole

Hey wait, take a picture of us next to Ang so we can show off how tan we are.

Race Weekend

The weekend of June 16th and 17th was Race Weekend 2007 for me, starting off with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday and ending with the Nascar race at Michigan International Speedway.

On Saturday morning, I awoke at 7am to get ready for the race for the cure. Chantele, Danielle, Matt, Jose and I were all meeting at the Condo in Ferndale to carpool to the race in Downtown Detroit. I followed the other four in my car, as I was going to be leaving straight from downtown to head to Coldwater.

Following them on 696 and then onto 75, I was somewhat relieved that I wasn't in that car. Chantele, was headed onto 75 N when we very clearly needed to be on 75S. She was not paying one bit of attention to the road - I'm sure the people in her car were entertained, but I don't know who was watching the road. Add to that the numerous swerves on 75, accelerations and decelerations, followed by the, "oh we should be ok crossing from the left lane over 4 lanes of traffic on Jefferson to turn right onto Woodward." Anyways, we arrived safely and ready for the 5k.

Race for the Cure has to be one of my favorite events in Detroit. Between volunteers and runners, over 30,000 people were involved in the event. Being surrounded by so many people all filled with positive energy, out taking action to try and change the world, leave it in a little bit better shape than when we came in to it, is very uplifting.

The race begins and ends at Comerica Park. Every year, the Tiger is decorated differently - with a pink tshirt or pink ribbons, something pink definintely.

Our Crew of runners - Chantele, Jose, Danielle, Me and Matt. Getting dressed that morning for the run, I realized I need to update my workout wardrobe. Unfortunately when it comes to workout wear, I'm the girl that's dressing like it's still 1996. No more t-shirts with the sleeves ripped off for any events outside of the Clawson volleyball league.

During the race - a little blurry, but hey, I took it while I was running.

Band at the finish - all throughout the route, there were bands of all sorts playing - for me during a run, live music is a great motivator.

Race Weekend - Part Deux

After my Race for the Cure day, it was time to head to a very different kind of race - Nascar at the Michigan International Speedway. Let me tell you, it was all that I had hoped it would be and more. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against racing - it's great. I definitely understand why people watch it and I would recommend to anyone if you have the chance to see a race live - do it. In fact, I'd like to go back. But now, and not that everyone is the stereotypical race fan, let me just say, you defintely can still find the stereotypical race fan at these events.

Chantele picked me up for the race at 5:15 in the morning on Sunday. Yes, 5:15 - am. To clear things up, I wasn't going to the race as a spectator, this was sort of a 2 for 1 weekend for me.

Chantele's company has a car and this is a huge event for them so they needed some additional workers. I figured why not? I get paid $100, I'll get to see a little bit of Nascar which I've never done before, I'll spend the day with my friend, her coworkers sound like fun, and you never know what will happen with Chantele. (Last year, she got a pit pass and was hi-5'ing the drivers in victory lane and ran into Jeff Gordon. We didn't get lucky like that this year, but going into it, there was still that chance.....)

Anyways, work aside, I got to see the start of the race and watch a bit throughout. It was absolutely amazing. After seeing the start of the race, I came back to our work area and told Chantele, "man, I need a new car." Actually that is one thing that does sort of amaze me about racing - the participation. I'm a fan of basketball - partly because I used to play ball. Anyone can go out to the store and buy a basketball and play. They can participate in the sport and watch it, and many people do at some point, whether it's playing in college or just playing horse. Not everyone can buy a race car, yet there are sooooo many fans.

Look at all of these people....and the track is 2 miles long. I'll tell you, the fans are serious about the race too - barely anyone got up from their seats during the race. For the first half hour of the race, we sold nothing at our booth.

So, I'll be honest, my pics from the weekend aren't that great and here's why - it's a disposable camera. I didn't want to run with my camera, nor was I sure I would be able to have my eye on my camera all day at the race, so I bought a disposable. Here's a shot of the infield, which after seeing what life is like outside of the infield, I can only imagine what goes on in there....

If you look in the distance you can see the cars rounding the track and heading into to where I was standing. Honestly, that's about the only point you could see them - coming in and going out, when the cars were right in front of you, they were moving so fast, it was all a blur.

Again....look at all of these people! There is so much money in racing.

My Bro's New Office

Check it out....this is where my brother now works. I love DC, I think it'd be such a cool experience to have an office located right in the heart of everything.

As Mike says (taken from the family blog), "The work end of this new program has me going in every Thursday to their foundation for a year long training/development session. None of this is really all that interesting or blog-worthy, however, the building the foundation is located in is on the corner of G and 15th in Downtown DC. And, I think that is kind of neat because the block across the street which can also lay claim to being the corner of G and 15th is the White House block. Kind of neat to be "working" so near the White House. Here is an aerial shot of it. (I just completed an orientation week which was capped off with a nice little party on the building's rooftop and Erin got to come as well.)"

I am so tan

What a great weekend!

Please excuse me, but I'm going to do a little posting out of order - can't find the pics to Race Weekend 2007 (last weekend), but since I've got some great music going right now and need to wind down a bit after the long drive home, I'm going ahead with the post from this weekend.

Friday, the weekend started off just right as I got out of work a little bit early and cruised up to my parents house in Northern Michigan. The sun was shining, traffic was moving, I had just downloaded some new songs....life was great. Friday night, I mostly visited with my parents, read for a little bit, watched part of a movie (Mr. & Mrs. Smith - yes it was terrible) and that was about it.

Saturday, after making a stop by the resale shop in my hometown (Stef - the T-shirt war is on), I headed out to the cabin with my parents to check out the new boat and have a little bbq.

The Cabin - one of my favorite places and the stage for some of my favorite memories. My Grandpa, Dad and his brothers built this years ago.

The Lake in the fall - During the summer time, the scene changes quite a bit....add a dock, a boat lift, the boat and a raft and multiply that times every cottage on the lake. Oh and don't forget the 10 year old neighbor driving the jet ski so close to his bros/sisters/friends that he would spray them in the face with the wake from the jetski - this happened for about a half an hour, finally the mom's response, "honey why don't you stop playing with the jet ski, you've been doing that enough, why don't you come in and play with your legos." #1 if I was a kid, let's see...Legos?? Or Jet ski??? I'm no idiot. #2 If I was a parent....Legos??? or jet ski??? She was an idiot.

Anyways, once we got out to the lake, I headed out for a quick little run around the Lake and on a few trails. When I got back, it was out to the beach to enjoy the sun and a good read. I am such a slow reader....I am still working on a book a friend gave me a while back. It's a good book, I just keep getting distracted by too many other things to make time for reading. Saturday was a great day - I enjoyed being back out on the water. I still haven't been skiing yet, but that's on tap for next weekend.

This morning, after having a cup of coffee with the parents, my dad and I headed out to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls. Ok, it's been about two years since I've even swung a club, probably 3 years since I've played 18. I need some serious work. Honestly, right now, if I tried to play 9 holes, I would get kicked off the course. I connected pretty well on a few shots, but man, I need to get out to the range. My goal for the week is to hit a couple buckets of balls so that next week when Nikole is back in town we can go play 9.

The highlight for the weekend was probably kayaking the Jordan River in the afternoon on Sunday. I can not believe I had not done this in the past. The Jordan River is wonderful - very scenic, a much faster moving river than the Ausable or the Manistee so it has a few little rapids here and there, trees hanging over half to 3/4 of the river - you just feel more removed and out in nature on this river than others in the area.

This was the first pic I was able to take, the first 1/3 of the trip, the river moved much quicker, was much more narrow and there were many more fallen trees and little rapids.

If you look real close at the base of the big tree and to the left, you can see my little friend the muskrat. I saw a few muskrat, a beaver and some birds on the trip, but not much more than that.

Another shot looking down the river.

Hmmm.....Look at that little footbridge. I think I just found some more great hiking.

A little bit more narrow and covered, but still nothing like the rest of the river.

Oh and by the way, after the weekend of fun in the sun, the race weekend, the Rochester Walk in the Park for the Rainbow Connection, an afternoon by the pool and some running...I have a savage tan right now and it's still June!

Another sign in the D

Wrinkled with Burden?