I wish I knew

Guest Post: NHL All-Star game not the place to amp up rivalries

20 Jan 2012

The following post was written by Chuck (@clkirch). It’s his debut on not only my blog but anywhere on the web. Read and comment, maybe he’ll make an appearance here more often.
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Let’s start off by saying I don’t dispute the fact that the NHL needs more rivalries but this article, NHL Misses Yet Another Chance to Amp Up Rivalries, rubbed me the wrong way. Simply put the All-Star game has always been and always will be a extremely high skilled pick-up game. Players and owners hold their breath the weekend of the All-Star game praying that no one gets hurt.

However, the NHL ‘higher-ups’ could have overruled the voting system in order to bring the fans a more heated battle – making the All-Star game just as passionate, if not more, than a regular season – or even post-season – game.

The NHL has dropped the ball here. The All-Star game is a perfect venue to fuel the fire beneath some quickly cooling rivalries.

If you want better rivalry, as far as an All-Star setting, it would be better created with a country against country game. For example the Canda Cup ’72.

The NHL didn’t drop the ~~ball~~ puck(?) on building rivalries, the All-Star game isn’t the opportunity to build them. They would have been quickly built with the realignment that the players voted down.

For the record, I would have liked to see the realignment take place to have home and home games because that really would have amped up rivalries.

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Tags: nhl, nhl all star game

Painting with a Twist – Ferndale

In: detroit|perfectly maria

20 Jan 2012

Last Saturday, Mallory decided to celebrate her birthday by booking a private party at Painting with a Twist. I was excited to go even though I can’t paint. No seriously, I am not skilled at drawing, painting or rotating shapes. I was a little bit nervous but the neat thing about this establishment is that it’s painting with a ‘twist’ and that twist is you can bring wine or another libation to soothe the nerves.

Booking a private party has some perks such as:

You get to choose from ANY of over 1000 paintings – some are 2 hour and some are 3 hour classes.
You get a private party room with your own artist.
No set up, no clean up – just show up!
It’s the same price as a regular class.

Mallory picked Autumn bouquet for the painting. Wendilynn walked us through it step by step and it was amazing to see how different each of our paintings turned out. They were very unique to each of us. See for yourself.

Painting with a twist - try it!

I can’t stress enough how much fun this was and it didn’t matter whatsoever that I wasn’t a painter. I want to go back for a class. You can check out their schedule to see if there is a painting project you may be interested in. What do you have to lose? If you hate it you don’t have to hang it. But keep in mind, their number one rule is “Be kind to yourself”.

I think I can add this to my list accomplishments that isn’t on my 30 before 30 list, don’t you?

Have you been to Painting with a Twist? Would you recommend it? If you go, let me know what you think!

*I was in no way asked to write about this establishment, I was just lucky enough to be invited to join in the fun and found it a really enjoyable place.*

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Tags: painting with a twist

Update: 30 before 30

In: perfectly maria|photography

14 Jan 2012

Today marks 5 months before my 30th birthday. 6 months probably would have been the ideal time to post an update, but that falls in the chaos before Christmas and New Year so it slipped through the cracks.

Things I’ve accomplished so far:

Buying a cottage in Oscoda
Taking photos to blow up and frame
Visit California
Blogger meet-up
Run a 5k
Gathering my recipes and making a cookbook
Girls getaway
French braiding my own hair
Hockey game in Chicago
Build/Refinish something
Freelance - I made money creating some PDF forms, does that count?

Considering there was a lot of travel on my list I think I’m doing pretty well.

I’m currently working on these:

Take classes related to work/career –
Currently in a Grad Cert Program
Visit Toronto & ride the train -
My cousin and her family lives in Toronto, we keep saying we are going to go.
Finish my office space –
This is a must do!
Finish the basement -
Currently putting up drywall
Get my pictures and music organized -
I’m working on it, should get a new external hard drive

Things that I’ve accomplished that weren’t on the list:

See the original list.

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Very Pinteresting Indeed

In: perfectly maria

7 Jan 2012

Like many others around the internet(z), I have become a big fan of Pinterest. It’s the best way to keep track of interesting things on the internet and keep them in one place. Here are a few things I can’t wait to try:

Yummy lunch ideas

Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Double Fudge Irish Cream Cookies

Chalkboard Mugs

Earring/Jewelry Holder

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Tags: DIY, pinterest, recipes

2012 – the year of good things

In: animal behavior|perfectly maria

2 Jan 2012

I don’t usually put a lot of thought into the “new year”. January 1st mostly feels like another day to me. I do enjoy all the time off around it though. This year was the first time in 10 years (!) I had to work the week between Christmas and New Year. It was actually quite bearable because I had vacations days to use and work was really quiet.

2012 feels like it’s going to be a different kind of year. It’s probably because there are a lot of things that are about to start, when usually at this time I’m dreading the long month of January.

Breakfast Club Hockey – Chuck and I are attending hockey skills classes on Wednesday mornings starting next week. I’m pretty pumped since I just bought myself new skates, Easton S-17. I’m hoping having skates baked just for me, instead of buying used equipment, will alleviate the problem I was having with my arches. (Thank you year end bonus! The first time I have ever received one because the University did not give those out)

Media Theory – I passed my statistics class with a B so I’m starting my second class in the graduate certificate. While Media Theory doesn’t sound all that sexy, the correspondence I’ve had with this professor so far leads me to believe that class will be conducted in a much better way than the last class I took. Thank God.

Dog Training – Chuck and I are taking both Stella (who is 11 months now!) and Scooby to obedience training. Scooby completed training when I got my dog training certificate in 2007 but since the loss of Nani he hasn’t been the same. We are hoping the mental stimulation and social interaction with other dogs will make him little bit happier. We choose a class through Judi, who I met through my externship with for Animal Behavior College and has since opened her own business.

In other little things that are contributing to this new year feeling different from others, I bought a white board and cork board for Chuck and I to keep track of expenses and try to get some things in order. It feels good to be this productive at the beginning of January, maybe I’ll try and make it a new year’s tradition.

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Short & sweet Wings v Lightning recap…

In: detroit|red wings|tampa bay lightning

23 Dec 2011

– better late than never -

About a month ago I was uber excited about the Red Wings versus the Tampa Bay Lightning game and then I never spoke about it again. Contrary to what you may be thinking, it’s not because the Lightning lost and I didn’t follow the plan to wear my Lightning shirt during warmups and change into my jersey for the game. Or because I might have gotten lip from co-workers who were at the game as well, or the flack I caught from my friends that we met up with at the game.

Simply, I have pictures all over the place and I couldn’t find the motivation to compile them to post here. Lazy, I know.

In a nutshell, I had hopes that the Lightning would beat the Wings but then I kind of didn’t want to give Steve Yzerman the joy of beating his alma mater the first time back. During a tv timeout they did a tribute to Yzerman for his first time back at the Joe.

It was nice and short and his new team made sure to stand up and pay respect to their amazing GM.

Can someone tell me when or if the Lightning have ever beaten the Wings? In my search it looks like in 2004 they tied, as this was before shootouts.

Regardless of the end score, because it was difficult for me to choose who to root for (I found myself cheering whenever anyone scored), Chuck and I had a great time and kept up with attending every Red Wing and Lightning game.

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Nook Simple Touch – don’t waste the money

In: perfectly maria|technology

9 Dec 2011

Remeber that time I said I loved my Nook Simple Touch? I guess I should have waited a couple days before I declared love to it. It shut down on me after just 5 days. Like a bad boyfriend it froze up on me. I wasn’t ready to give up on it so I googled ways to restart it. I got it to shut down but when it came back up the touch screen was completely unresponsive. I spent time chatting with Nook’s customer service. They referred me to the support line. All I kept thinking was “oh man, I have to talk to someone on the phone?!”. After 30 minutes of them telling me to do stuff and me repeating that it was unresponsive and I couldn’t even get it to shut down my phone decided it had had enough and lost the call. So I turned to social media, I tweeted.

I got a response from the customer service team with an email address. I was at a holiday party so I waited until late Saturday night to send an email. The next day I went into Barnes and Noble and the staff was super friendly and willing to help. They had to contact the Nook support line who requested I take the phone to verify information. She then informed me that their computers were down and if I CALLED BACK in an hour they would be able to issue me a replacement.

Um…NO. Luckily (well maybe not so lucky), when I informed the gentleman helping me he said he would get his manager’s consent to exchange it for me. I was just going to return everything then and there but I thought maybe I just had a defective one, because after all, it happens. They issued me an exchange and I took my brand new replacement home.

Thinking I would be a good consumer I plugged the Nook Simple Touch in to charge and went about my day. When I got home I was eager to get back to reading the book I was so rudely interrupted in reading. The Nook was completely unresponsive. It hadn’t charged, which means it wouldn’t turn on at all.

I called customer service and tweeted again (because you know most times, if you publicly call out a company they will respond). The customer service hotline assured me that it MUST be a bad USB cable and that I could go into the store. By the this time it was too late and the store was about to close.

Monday, I got a response back from the customer service email that had been tweeted to me. When I explained that it MUST be the USB cord he replied saying he would send me one in the mail. I got it today.

It didn’t work.

Sorry Barnes and Noble, but 2 defective devices in a row and I’m out. I returned it tonight with no problems. For the most part your customer service is great, your products? Not so much.

I’m going to buy a Kindle now. Hopefully I’ll have more luck.

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Tags: barnes and noble, nook simple touch

Thanksgiving QT – Simple Black Friday – TBL Wednesday!

In: perfectly maria|tampa bay lightning

26 Nov 2011

I like Thanksgiving, who doesn’t like a holiday that revolves around giving thanks and food? There really isn’t much not to like. After a long morning of cleaning and straightening up I spent some quiet time with the doggies.

This weather is pretty amazing. It’s been in the 50-60′s for the past week. Pretty unheard of for the mitten state. It’s been wonderful since we got a late start raking all the leaves and we needed to finish painting the basement with drylock before we put the drywall up. That in itself was a blessing we were thankful for. I’m also loving wearing sweaters or long sleeves with a scarf and being reasonably warm. It seems that this mild weather will be coming to an end the middle of next week though.

I’m not a big Black Friday shopper but yesterday I did brave going to Barnes and Noble to purchase a Nook Simple Touch. I wasn’t sure about the whole e-reader thing at first but when we go up north sometimes I don’t bring enough books or I forget them all together. A Nook would be perfect to bring on weekend trips and when I travel. You never have to worry about not having a book. I decided on the Simple Touch because all I wanted was something to read books on. Right now, I am not in the market for a tablet or an iPad. When I got home, I bought a $.99 book and I love it. It’s exactly like reading a book but I don’t have to hold the pages back which makes reading more comfortable. The next books I intend to buy are The Happiness Project and The Joy of Less. Any others you would suggest?

I’m excited for this next week. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be at the Joe on Wednesday. Our tickets are behind the visitor’s bench. I CAN NOT wait!

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Tags: barnes & noble, ereaders, nook, thanksgiving

Stagecrafters – The Crucible

In: detroit

12 Nov 2011

Last Friday my good friend Jenni and I had a night at the play. Before the play we walked around downtown Royal Oak window shopping and enjoying the relatively warm fall night in metro Detroit. Having heard good things we decided to try Sangria before we headed over to the Baldwin Theatre to see The Crucible. We enjoyed delicious tapas and white sangria which we highly recommend. If you’ve never been the Baldwin, go! Stagecrafters and the Baldwin Theatre have an interesting history starting back in 1956.

There really is nothing like live theater and definitely when it’s the night after opening night. The actor that played the judge was either an understudy or was having a bad night because more than a couple times he forgot a line or two. Though it spoiled a couple instances of suspense, the play was really incredible and the cast was amazing. It’s a long play, 3 hours, but I was so memorized by the acting and story I barely noticed. I had forgotten how intense the story of The Crucible is. If you’re not familiar with the play, it is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials, something I became interested in when I was a younger. After seeing the play last week, I have to assume that the book I read as a child left out parts or that I didn’t understand the initial cause of crying witch the first time I read it. (Or what was my mom thinking letting me read things like that, haha)

If you are from metro Detroit, have you been to the Baldwin? If so, what was the last production you saw there?

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A slow(er) weekend pace – disappointment in not being 30 yet

In: perfectly maria

1 Nov 2011

It’s November?!

I know I start a lot of posts like that. Time flies by and I have no idea where it has gone. This year we have less pictures to document how we spent our summer, hell most of fall too. Changing jobs at the beginning of summer may have had something to do with it.

Oh well, it’s November now and Halloween is behind us. The television is pissing me off showing commercials for Christmas movies when all I want to do is concentrate on Thanksgiving. I do like to eat, ya know. And the radio station 105.1 started playing Christmas music before Halloween. Yes, BEFORE October 31st. That is wrong. So wrong that Detroit’s “Christmas Station”, 100.3 polled their audience on whether or not they wanted to hear Christmas music now or later. Granted this was probably because 105.1 stole their Christmas thunder, as 100.3 in year’s past started playing holiday music on November 1st. Luckily, the D doesn’t have 2 stations playing Christmas music just yet. Wow, /endrant.

We spent the last weekend taking care not to hurry. As mentioned above, that ended in a crazy rant about Christmas, Chuck and I have felt a bit rushed the past few months. Always had somewhere to be or something that needed to be done. I’m sure every weekend wasn’t like that but we were starting to feel a bit worn out. Friday night we made an agreement that we wouldn’t be in a hurry for any reason on Saturday. The result? We ended up being productive and had fun.

Stella made new friends at the Parmenter’s Cider Mill in Northville, the pet store and 3 Dog Bakery in Plymouth. Speaking of the cider mill, I learned that Northville has a winery so I picked up some Pink Moon wine to try. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love the label. I’m also waiting for them to call and tell me that their cranberry apple wine is back in stock.

Sunday brought a slightly faster pace but wasn’t unbearable. My hockey team lost it’s third straight game but I had a pretty amazing skate. I was feeling pretty confident and had 2-3 shots on goal. Pretty good for my third game. My teammates even commented on it. I was really looking forward to playing in my first tournament this upcoming weekend but because I’m 7 months shy of 30, I’m not eligible. I bet this is the first and only time I’m disappointed at not being 30 yet.