I learned about St. Baldrick’s through one of my networking meetings. Emily Macbeth began supporting the cause after losing her child to cancer. She is organizing a fundraising event to be held at the Uptown Grill on Maple Road in Commerce. (If you haven’t been to the Uptown Grill, you’re missing out! Everything is excellent and they have live music regularly.) You can visit the St. Baldrick’s Uptown Grill event page here. If you are a business or offer a service, please contact Emily by email (Emily.MacBeth@mac.com) or by phone at (248)926-1908, to donate items to the silent auction.

St Baldrick’s organization works to raise money for childhood cancer research. Their work culminates annually on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) all over the USA when volunteers get their heads shaved in support of kids fighting cancer. In the weeks and months leading up to the 17th, those same people work diligently to shed light on the organization by collecting donations. There are also many volunteers who organize and work at the events.

Todd List is one such volunteer. If you know Todd, you realize he was already bald prior to becoming involved with St. Baldrick’s. For the past couple of weeks, he’s been growing his head and facial hair so he can shave it off. To make the event more interesting, as soon as he raises $1000, he’s promising to shave HALF his face and head until the the job is completed on the 17th. If you’d like to add some comedic relief to this very serious cause, be sure to donate in Todd’s name here.

In searching for Todd, I came across another volunteer planning to get her head shaved at Uptown Grill. Kate Stroud is one of the few females who is stepping up and going bald for the cause. I haven’t met Kate, but her blog, The Bald Project, is a beautiful read about her feelings on getting shaved. The video interview of her kids opinion is priceless. You can donate in Kate’s name here.

“Ni heolas go haontios”
There is no knowledge without unity

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the $20 you donated was the amount that made the difference and resulted in the cure? Let’s all pitch in to help St. Baldrick’s find the pot of gold for these children and their families.

I am facing a serious case of spring fever this week. I suspect the rising temperatures and beautiful sun are stimulating the desire to see little green shoots pop from the ground.

A few years ago I was in Tennessee when spring hit there. This picture of magnolia blooms and the Bellsouth building against the blue sky was taken just outside Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman concert venue was home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974.

As you may know, I’m recently divorced and with the separation of assets I was left without a few household items. Since there’s many things to replace with limited funds, I’m trying to be frugal so I hit my local Walmart. One of the purchases was a brand new set of pots. I am not the most attentive cook and have been known to burn a pot or two so I didn’t want to “invest” in expensive cookware. I saw a reasonably priced set of Paula Deen pots. I don’t know a whole lot about Paula Deen since I’m not a television watcher, but my mom assures me she’s awesome. I assumed if they were good enough for Paula Deen to put her name on them, they’d be good enough for the simple cooking I do. I purchased the copper bottom set because they were pretty and had a price point of just over $110.

I read the instructions and soaked them in baking soda and water to remove the protective coating on the copper. I washed them and made an omelette. The instructions said not to cook with the pots on high heat so I kept it at medium high. Although, there was not any black on the eggs, they still tasted burnt so I threw the omelette down the disposal. I chocked the experience up to the copper being a better heat conductor and planned to try a lower heat next time.

Yesterday afternoon I walked into a house FULL of smoke and nasty smells. Assuming my children had cooked and burned something, I began calling for them as I walked to the kitchen.

What I saw took a moment to register.

My son had put the smallest pot on the stove at a high heat to boil noodles. He left a wooden spoon across the top and had obviously gone downstairs and forgotten about it. The fact the spoon had not burst into flames by this point was a miracle since I had seen one combust into flames when I left it in a pot of boiling water last year.

The noodles were black; but the most shocking part of the event, was the fact that the bottom of the pot had turned into molten metal on my glass top stove! I tried to pick it up and the liquid metal oozed downward to the lovely Paula Deen metal stamped disc that had partially melted onto my cooktop. I was stunned. How do I get this mass of molten metal off my stove without it dripping all over my wood floor or damaging my sink and corian counters?

I turned off the stove, picked up the pot, waited for another glob of metal to drip onto my stove and then ran the pot to my sliding door and tossed it into the snow on my deck. Thank God for the snow!

What was left of my pot looked nothing like copper. Instead it reminded me of that scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, when the new Terminator was in liquid metal form. If only my pot could consolidate itself back into one piece.

As the stove cooled, so did the metal. It cracked, groaned and mostly lifted off the glass. There’s still some metal residue. Today’s job is to determine whether that burner is now ruined or whether I’m able to remove what’s left of my Paula Deen pot.

I also need to understand why my hard-wired smoke alarm failed to sound. For the record, my son has learned his lesson!

Can anyone recommend a GOOD set of pots?

March 9, at 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Temple Israel’s Robert Sosnick Family Life Center, located at 5725 Walnut Lake Rd, West Bloomfield, MI.

You will leave with tools and techniques to immediately use to help your children and yourself learn more, in less time, long term. You’ll even learn to memorize 20 words forwards and backwards in two minutes! Bring your children ages 10 and older!

This presentation is free of charge and open to the entire community.

Please, call Elaine Bertsch in the Family Life Center to register 248-661-5700. If you have any questions, please call Kari K. Provizer, LMSW, ACSW Director, Family Life Center 248-661-5700.

She’ll also be at the Walled Lake Schools Parenting Fair on March 6th.

Here’s a video to give you an idea of how she motivates and excites people to learn:

Here’s an EmpowerMind homework tip, be sure to attend the seminar for more!

Read the questions before the chapter. When the teacher or professor assigns end of the chapter/section questions, make sure you or your child reads the questions before reading the material. This helps him know what to look for as he reads. Now he can become like a detective and look for all the clues that the author thinks are important BEFORE reading instead of reading it with no goal or direction in mind.

Take four community and social media active people from 9 locations across the USA. Give them a Chevy to drive from their home city to the South by Southwest Conference & Festival. Enroute they are required to complete 50 challenges, with the winner getting an epic Chevy sponsored tweetup in their hometown. (You can suggest a challenge here! I did!)

There’s no doubt in my mind that the winning team will be our Detroit contingent. I’ve met Brandon Chesnutt, Dave Murray and Henry Balanon several times over the last couple of years and all are determined and motivated young professionals. I have yet to meet their fourth, Audrey Walker but if she runs with this crowd, I’m positive she’s just as sharp and entertaining.

Be sure to support our hometown crew by checking out their site at http://detroitsxsw.com/ and following their adventures on Twitter. Don’t miss the send off party at Volt, tonight at 7:00!

The road trip commences March 8th!

As children get older, and more adept at reasoning (or arguing!), it only becomes more difficult to say no. Those boundaries you set from the time they were young can make the teenage years somewhat easier. I believe an important part of saying no, is communicating your consideration for their well being.

If you find yourself waffling when saying no, take the time to attend the 18th Annual Parenting Education Fair at Walled Lake Northern, Saturday, March 6th 8:30 to 2:30. Listen to David Walsh, Ph.D., discuss the subject of his book, ‘No, Why Kids of All Ages Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It.’

While you’re there, be sure to attend Kim Kassner’s break-out session afterwards. Kim is founder of EmpowerMind, a company intent on teaching students (and adults!) how to learn more effectively in less time. The benefit of her system is so much more than that. She teaches people how to understand their personal learning styles and believe in themselves, regardless of skill level. She empowers them to learn.

Visit the Walled Lake Northern website to learn more about the Parenting Education Fair, the keynote speaker and the break-out sessions: http://www.wlcsd.org

I was at The Henry Ford Museum because of a group called Photowalks Detroit. Take a look at the pictures and join if you’re so inclined! It’s a great group of people and a fun way to experience photography at all skill levels.

I began the day wandering through a road traveled by car, bike and foot within the refuge and ended it on a pontoon sunset cruise. Both excursions were ideal for birders but the sunset cruise was unbelievable. The cruise heads out over Tarpon Bay to the rookery islands which are essentially mangroves that have taken root in shallow waters. As the sun sets, egrets, herons, ibis, cormorants, and pelicans flock to the tiny islands to roost for the evening. It’s quite a site! Two sets of dolphins played in the water near the boat much to our viewing pleasure.

I had been on an airboat once before and wanted to do it again. This was a much shorter trip and alligators were scarce because the high winds had driven them under the mangroves…. or where ever alligators hide in bad weather. There were LOTS of birds to photograph which is the ongoing photographic theme of this trip. Three alligators were available for their photo ops and one even decided to swim out to the boat. The guide demonstrated the best way to grab a full size alligator but I don’t foresee putting the advice into practice any time soon.

After the tour, I wandered into Everglades City and caught the Seafood Festival 2 hours before it’s official start. It was probably the BEST time to eat the fresh seafood; judging by the extensive parking lots created in preparation of the throngs of expected visitors. I sampled seafood paella and Greek salad, wandered through the semi-set up vendor booths and then went back for skewered shrimp. One can never eat too much fresh seafood!

Photographs from the day:

Knowing the challenges I’ve been facing one friend stepped up and created a 6 day vacation getaway for me. Nearly a week of downtime, reading, photography and peace. It was exactly the prescription I needed to relieve all that ailed me.

I stayed at the Seaside Inn which is a quaint little collection of hotel rooms and cottages situated around the pool and overlooking the beach. The staff was very friendly and services included free use of the bicycles, plus a book and movie borrowing library. Every afternoon they’d drop a basket off with breakfast goodies for the next morning.

The first full day, I took advantage of the complimentary bicycle and rode to the south end of the island to view the lighthouse. Along the way I stopped at a real estate open house and picked up a wonderful corned beef on rye to eat on the beach.

I began to ride north, stopped for an hour long massage, a little window shopping, and then continued on my way. Silly me, I thought I would make the northern most tip of Sanibel Island before sunset. I ended up riding west and cutting through an empty rental property to catch the sun as it sunk below the ocean.

On the way back, I came across a busy restaurant with brightly painted Adirondack (Muskoka) chairs laid out front in a semi-circle. I submitted my name and settled back into one of the chairs until I was called.

Now one thing I absolutely LOVE is salads. Preferably with unusual combinations of ingredients that meld together to new and interesting taste sensations. This restaurant is currently the forerunner in my quest to send my taste buds into a frenzy! The Island Cow created a salad unlike any other I’ve had before. Grilled veggie and goat cheese salad topped with fried calamari. This salad fed me for days! It was delicious!

I rode home on pitch black bike trails hoping I wouldn’t connect with an alligator crawling onto the warm path from the canals below.

(To Be Continued)