Your mission, if you choose to accept it.

Years ago, my aunt brought my sister back a present from Paris. My sister teaches French. My aunt is a retired teacher. She knows about kids and what interests them. She knows that teachers often have to come up with creative bulletin boards in their rooms. Her present to my sister was toilet paper from the bathroom in the Eiffel Tower. (My present was a bottle of overproofed rum from Jamaica).

My sister used that toilet paper on a bulletin board with great success. It turns out that middle school age kids *are* interested in exotic Eiffel Tower, Parisian toilet paper.

Anyways, over the summer, I told this toilet paper story to my friends who have since moved to France. I told the elder daughter that I think my sister could use some NEW Eiffel Tower toilet paper. I told her that if she happened to find herself in Paris, she should go to the Eiffel Tower, find the highest bathroom, and get me some more toilet paper.

My friends called me yesterday. They are going to Paris. That nine year old girl seems to be taking her mission very seriously. I think someone I know might get toilet paper again for Christmas. haha

Oh Yeah!

We got a pool table at work today.

Fire?

While I was out walking the dogs this evening, I noticed a whole mess of fire trucks on Prospect. There is this one house there that I walk by all the time. Every time I walk by it, I always think that it has a fabulous porch and sometimes I wonder if I could build up a little wall around my porch too but then I remember that I dont have enough money to do it and the historic district people would probably be against it anyways.

I think I walked by at the tail end of whatever excitement there was. I didnt see any fire, just a bunch of fireman crawling around the house. They had a ladder too and looked like they were paying close attention to the chimney. I am guessing that the people who lived at that house probably got lucky.

It is shame that we have to cut back on our fire protection. I really hope that something changes and cities like Ypsilanti can have money for such niceties again.

Aging

Sometimes I cant even keep promises to myself. I skipped blogging yesterday but I dont feel bad about it. Well...not too bad. I wasnt feeling well. I had a headache and pretty much spent the entire day in a dark room sleeping because anything that had to do with light hurt my eyes. I think it was either a brain tumor (very unlikely), a migraine (still pretty unikely) or else my vision is going bad and I might need glasses (much more likely). This headache came on after I worked all day on a computer and then came home and read for 6 hours or so.

Of course, I dont have a vision plan so if I do need glasses, I'll have to pay for them myself. I am going to wait and see if I get any more headaches though before I decide to spend any money. The funny thing is that I dont know how much of that is because I dont want to spend money and how much of that is because I dont want to admit that my eyes, or any other part of me, might be aging.

I am not entirely sure why I dislike seeing the signs of aging in myself. It isnt so much that I am worried about losing my looks because I never had conventional beauty in the first place and in the second place, I kind of think that older women *are* beautiful in their own way anyways. No...I think what bugs me is that aging is a reminder that life is finite and I figure that around half of my life is over. I just feel like I want MORE time. Half over already? It can't be!

Oh well. I hear that when people get really old, they sometimes feel done. I guess that is my wish: That no matter when or where I die, I'll feel done living.

Something's going on...

So, I went down to Riverside park today for a walk. It was difficult because the park has very little lighting these days which is kind of sad. I mean, it was only around 10 years ago when I first got Brooke that I would go there and find almost all of the lights lit. Over the years, they have been knocked down one by one with fewer lights until this year, they just havent turned them on at all.

But. There were some people from a construction company and it looks like some round cement things that seem likely to be foundations for new lights are being put in. Has the city found money for park lights after all? It would be awesome if they did.

Exchange Rates

I cannot remember a time when the Canadian dollar was worth more than a US dollar. But today, I was curious about the rate and was shocked to learn that the rate is $1.07 USD to $1 CAD. Wow. What will this mean?

My first thought was that I might need to learn to appreciate American beer since my favorite beer, Labatt Blue, is made in Canada. My second thought was that now probably isnt a good time to visit Toronto. My third thought was that this is probably good for Michigan and the rest of the country too.

You see, a weak dollar means a lot of things. Foreign vacations get more expensive. Flying in water from France gets even more decadent. Basically, imported things become more expensive relative to domestic versions. That will mean higher prices for anything imported. It also means that moving jobs offshore becomes more expensive which means jobs that would have otherwise been lost to foreign competition will remain the US.

Michigan, in particular, probably needs jobs more than it needs cheap crap from China or expensive French cheeses or nights out at the Windsor Ballet.

I Love Weekends

Yeah yeah, I know. who doesnt enjoy weekends? Seriously though, I have been having a relaxing one. I got Harry Potter from the library and have been sitting around, eating toast, drinking tea, and reading.