Some french flies and a diet croak!

(apologies to Cubby)

My Detroit homey Karen just sent me a link to these remarkable photos from inside an abandoned textbook warehouse in Southwest Detroit. I went to middle school across the street at St. Vincent de Paul, and you can imagine the commotion when that thing set on fire in the middle of the day (::coughcoughtwentyyearsagocoughcough::). All these years later, the building still hasn't been touched, just like Michigan Central Depot across the street. Among enthusiasts, it's aptly named the grandaddy of all urban ruins.

These things are standing right smack dab in the middle of a major city! With my mom five blocks away at that! I love Detroit, but it'll never cease to amaze me.

Can you stand the cuteness?

So I just got back from a really lovely trip to Buenos Aires. Shopping, napping, eating, napping, drinking, napping, drag shows...what more could you really want? And in an amazing coincidence, the apartment I rented (I highly recommend apartmentsba.com should you ever go) was right next door to the friend I was visiting. Not the next building. Next DOOR, like across the hall. That was a hi-larious reveal, and probably contributed to us spending an entire day watching the DVDs of The Golden Girls' finest season (three -- duh).

It was a very lazy trip, and I took almost no pictures (ridic, right?). Instead, I'd like to share a quick story from my unplanned layover in Sao Paulo on the way down (I'm about to take my Premier Executive business down the street, United! I've had it!).

While waiting for my flight to Buenos Aires, a wonderful older man struck up a conversation with me. This 76-year-old surgeon was with his equally lovely wife and daughter; they were going from their home in the north of Brazil to Argentina for vacation. He was clearly quite proud of his family, going over the accomplishments of his many, many children and grandchildren. This man was delightful, and really did seem to have a beautiful life and family. It was inspiring to hear him speak with such passion.

At one point, he was going over the names of all his children, and what those names were inspired by. At the end of the list, he points at his daughter and says, "And yes, Ana Lucia. She is named that because that was the name of my grandmother and my wife's grandmother."

"Wow, what a coincidence that both of your grandmothers had the same name," I said.

"No," he said, pulling his wife closer. "Her mother and my mother were sisters!"

[pause]

"But, you know, our kids, they are fine," he said, with a dismissive wave of the hand.

I really had nothing to say to that. Nor do I now. But I thought I'd share...