Yeah, I played a little with the page, on top of all the rest of the miscellanious crap I've been trying to get handled lately. If you look at my full profile, I have an audio track on there for your entertainment. I first heard about K'naan on an NPR segment, and was impressed initially with this man's skills as a poet; I doubt if Shakespeare could have come up with a word or phrase to rhyme with "Kandahar" (Yes, we're talking about the city in Afghanistan here,) but K'naan does. Actually, K'naan is from Somalia, and the tracks I've heard just straight-up ROCK. I also like the line in "Dreamer" about the perfect woman being an "intellectual, sexual, who still can cook." Amen ta dat. Speaking of fine women, Martha had a birthday this week, and despite whatever else may not be going the way it should this week, I seem to at least have managed to get her a birthday gift she likes. Phew. Believe me, ladies, it really is that kinda moment for a guy to do something like that. As for what it was, exactly....Martha like ceramics, among other things, and on my trip to Greenfield Village, I came across a tile with a design inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. It really is cool. Is it the sensitive, artsy, creative-guy gift that some women would probably kill to get? Perhaps. And that view of it, as opposed to portraying me as a wussy, effeminate, Pina-Colada-sucking piece of God-knows-what is worthy of reverence if you're married and 44, as opposed to being single and 22. Make no mistake, it is no sign, in and of itself, that I necessarily do everything right, but I managed to score on this one.

And as the other assorted foibles go, it's time for Martha's "routine maintenance" that I've come to get used to by this point in our relationship; pacemaker replacement. Interesting that every time it needs to happen, it will coincide with 5 years (or five more years,) we have been together. La chaim. And I admit there are days when it's like, "somebody throw me a rope, dammit, the ground is sinking!" Detroit is no place to want to be in this economy, at least not to me, and.....I don't know, just the specter of everything I have to be, for the benefit of all the people in my life that matter, is daunting, to say the least. I can't, I won't, I shouldn't give up, but that's not to say it isn't an uphill battle, either. The strangest piece of news from here in the Motor City, is that in the wake of Chrysler's ownership shake-up, (they're now owned by Italian carmaker Fiat, the United Auto workers, and the United States government,) most of the company's plants are still idle at this point, save for one; the Dodge Viper plant. That's right, you may be going to Hell in a bucket, as the Grateful Dead would say, but at least you can enjoy the (very fast,) ride. It actually says less about the demand for 10-cylinder, 600-horsepower sports cars than it does for the fact that "Team Viper," as they're known, has the smallest production staff in the whole company, amounting to 48 assembly workers, plus assorted engineers and ancillary staff. From that standpoint, it's a no-brainer, and probably more about igniting hope that more is possible. Pass some o' that over here, while you're at it.........