Der Kommisar

Well we went to Birmingham, Michigan this past weekend. A suburb just outside of Detroit.

It's funny, once we crossed the border into Michigan, the conditions of the roads were evident. BAD! As always we were headed for an outlet. This time Birch Run, just north of Flint - the movie location for Michael Moore's - Mike and Me movie about the downfall of Flint and the politicians attempts to attract tourists there. We saw the Frankenmurth sign and I was hoping we might go and check it out. If it was on the way. But it was getting dark by the time we left Birch Run and headed down to Birmingham where Tresa's cousin Martin lives.

He's heading back to Germany at the end of this month so we wanted to see him before he left.


Birch Run

For those Shop-a-holics reading this for a review on the outlet.
It's okay. Not really worth the drive. But it's only 4 hours away.
There's a Gap outlet and Gap clearance. The Gap clearance had stuff from GAP, Banana Republic and Old Navy. Pant sizes were usually 36 and UP, or XXXL and that isn't a roman numeral date or superbowl number either. But if you found something in your size it was pretty cheap. Some mark downs to 9.99 and 14.99. Whoo hoo!

There is a Pottery Barn outlet that was pretty large there. Big store, had stuff from Williams-Sonoma as well as Pottery Barn. It was pretty quiet but the store clerk said that it picks up in March. Jan-Feb are very slow. So this was nice, lots of parking. No long line ups. I guess people are paying off their credit cards.

There is a newer outlet south of Birch Run on I-75 called Great Lakes Crossing. It's way nicer. It also has a Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Sports Authority and a lot of other stores and it might be worthwhile to go there instead. But Birch Run has it's Nike Outlet, Harry and David, Coach, Adidas, Reebok, etc. Pretty standard.
This mall is on both sides of I-75 (exit 83/84).


Martin' Pad

Anyways we got to Martin's, he and his girlfriend were patiently waiting for us. Everyone seems to be always waiting for us. We arrived there at 9pm. Like every good Euro he had prepared food and offered us alcohol first, then water. There was sausages, liverwurst, deli-meats, proscuitto. Only thing missing was the bread! Guess he wasn't used to guests. But it was good enough for us. We were starving and a little tired.


Martin & Andrea

With a little bit of a break, we then left to go to a party. A lot of the ex-pats from Germany were preparing to leave the USA and heading back to the motherland. So it was party TIME! I'd have more pictures of this but I had left my charger at home thinking that I had enough charge on my battery and the spare. But both were almost empty. DAMIT.


breakfast at Eastern Market

This is like Toronto's St Lawrence. But not quite. Not even a good attempt at one. Although the food was really good here!

Mama hungry

This is downtown Birmingham. You won't find any burnt out houses like on 8 Mile, near where Mike lives. It's really nice there. 1 and 2 million dollar homes. People ticket you if you don't shovel your walkway. Lots of expensive cars. Almost like downtown Palo Alto, except with snow.

Don't look now the guy who owns this car is coming

It's kind of too bad Martin's leaving so soon. We would have visited him more often.
Martin, good thing you only live 4 hours from Toronto. Although I would've liked to have gotten more rest, the drive was pretty easy.

The Gift...card.

Sometimes it just pays to complain. But I think the trick is to complain nicely. My mom was the best at, not really, complaining about the price of things. But she would do it in such a way that people kinda felt sorry for her. So they'd lower their price or give her something for free.

I remember her bringing home 4 or 5 truck tire inner tubes from Goodyear. The guy just gave them to her, or sold it for next to nothing. Thing is. I wish my mom hadn't had them inflated when she put them into the car. We had to jam them in.

The reason I'm talking about complaining is that I had lined up for a door crasher at Future Shop. Out in Whitby. I saw in the flyer when I was at my in-laws that the Canon G5 was on sale for 499.00 BUT limit of 8 per store! Figuring that the people in the Durham region wouldn't be as nutz as the Torontonians about their electronics. And on top of that there was a lower concentration of Asians in the area, so I thought I'd take the opportunity and line up at 6:00am for the 7:00am opening on boxing day. For you americans reading this - that's Dec 26. There's a whole story behind the meaning of boxing day. But most Canadians think of it as the biggest sale day of the year. Sort of like the US Thanksgiving sales.

Anyways. I lined up. I was right. I think I was the only Asian in line. Didn't see too many tricked out hondas or integras in the parking lot. Plus I was about 50-80ft from the front door. And when the people with the lawn chairs put their stuff away I got even closer.

I was in the store in the first wave of shoppers. Awesome! Headed straight to the camera section and some guy had asked for the G5. Okay I thought, line up behind this dude for the item. We were told the cameras were on a truck and hadn't arrived. So they were taking names and people were getting cards guaranteeing them the camera and they would be contacted as soon as they came in. So I was second on the list to request the G5. Hoooray! Or so I thought.

To make a long story short. I didn't receive the camera until two weeks and many phone calls LATER and many emails to Future Shop regarding the status. Just remember that whomever you speak to. Write their names down. What happened was every person I spoke to gave me a different story. The camera is on a truck, there are no cameras - the flyer was a mistake. We called everyone on the list. No one called anyone, how do you know I asked. Cuz I'm the one calling. I called every day for 2 weeks...well almost. And got the names of every single person I spoke to. Then I called on the 14th day. It was a Monday. They told me that they had received shipment of 5 of the 8 cameras on Saturday evening. NO ONE CALLED ME! They told me to come that evening otherwise they may not be able to hold it. WHAT!

So I spoke to the manager that evening. Looked at his name tag. Remembered his name. Told him the whole story. He said, well you have your camera now, enjoy it. That was it. Not even an apology for inconveniencing me.

I wrote another email to Future Shop head office. Not totally complaining. But indicating that the boxing day sale was very orderly and over all really well handled. Then citing every person that I spoke to and indicating that everyone gave me a different story. Even when it came down to the extended warranty. I had said that I didn't buy the warranty because I didn't know who to believe. What was true or not. (I wasn't going to buy it anyways, but I just wanted to hear what they'd say) Here's what one person said. The extended warranty wouldn't apply because it was a door crasher and it was really cheap. Another person said, no that's not true.

I indicated in the email, that what was consistent, was the inconsistent stories. Everyone told me something different. I told the head office that they have to straighten this store out. And get their act together and get their stories together so they can lie together.

I didn't even get a formal apology for the runaround until way late in the back and forth email correspondence.

Soon after the Operations Manager of the store called me, asking what she can do to make it up to me. I asked for some things. Got rejected. Then she offered a gift card. I said sure. So I got a gift card about 4 weeks later. That's because the first one never arrived. I waited 2 weeks and nothing so I contacted her. Well at first she was in a meeting and I left a message with my work number to return my call. Never returned my call. So I called her back. Apologized for bothering her, and told her I never got it. She said she would send it again. This time she put more money on it. I thought...I should go buy a lottery ticket.

So I recently got the card. Haven't used it yet. But I also wrote a letter thanking her and will mail it off today.

I think if you complain. Complain nice and constructively. I gave them positive feedback, but I pointed out what they could do better. Like calling their customers back. And write them a thank you letter. People are more apt to bend over backwards when you complain this way rather than foaming at the mouth and firing off threats or foul language.

It's sort of the difference between a Mercedes and a Hyundai.
You can either do it smart and classy or tasteless and tacky.

Your choice.

Be Mine, Valentine.

I think that the whole marketing scheme for Valentines Day was the brainchild of a woman. I don’t really see women stressing over this day. Mostly it’s men, fearing for their lives if they don’t bring home at least flowers and chocolates. And women selling men what they think their wives or girlfriends will want. And lots of it. Break out the gold card, guys.

A friend asked me what she should get her boyfriend. I said to her that if you asked a guy what his girlfriend, or wife got him the next day, odds are he won’t remember to save his life. BUT if she ROCKED his world, he’d remember and rack his brain trying to figure out what he did to deserve it. So that he can get the same thing, not only next year, but tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that and so on.

Personally, I don’t really think that you need a special day like Valentines to tell her you love her. You have 364 other days to show you care. But most guys wait till the last hours to wine and dine. Valentines is a crazy day. More guys propose on this day than any other. When I was at the flower shop it was the most crowded I’d ever seen it. Thought I was at a leaf game trying to get to my seat. That’s cause I don’t normally buy flowers on Valentines but usually the one or two days before. And it was packed full of men. All buying flowers, asking for roses, one guy even asked for blue roses. Either he wanted to be original or he was in deep crap with his girlfriend for something.

Guys you don’t have to buy roses, you know. I think that they are overrated and because guys are not the most knowledgeable when it comes to flowers they gouge you for the roses. There are so many other flowers in the store. Not only cheaper but more fragrant and more colourful. So you don’t have to scour the city for those blue roses. A single rose can cost as much as a bouquet of some other flowers. You guys are NUTS. But, hey, it’s your money. If you really need to have roses, you should have bought them last week, they would have been so much cheaper.

But seriously, flowers are so inexpensive and give women so much joy as well as make the house smell nice. Buy them for her, more than once or twice a year. It’s worth it.



We had dinner together and wine (well I had the wine, Tresa can’t have wine). And she made some heart shaped croutons. She always does this for special occasions. Those little ones are little hearts, sort of like offspring of the larger hearts. Kind of symbolic eh?



I got her a teddy bear from the Gap where 100% of the proceeds go to buy coats for underprivileged kids in the winter. And some stuff from Khiel’s to pamper her and make her feel special. And of course some pink tulips. I get her flowers about once a month and I got her lilies once. You see she taught me how to choose flowers and you get the ones that are still closed. They last longer. The ones that are opened have an expiry date that’s like “best before tomorrow”. So the lilies and the tulips look really similar when they’re shut. I asked her, “hey these tulips look different from the last ones I got”, she laughed and said “that’s because they’re lilies”. I never said I was a flower-ologist, or whatever you call a flower expert. It’s the thought that counts. And that thought is often.

See you don’t have to go out and spend a wad of cash on dinner at some pretentious restaurant. At least not on Valentines, do it some other evening when it’s not so stressful and there isn’t some sort of expectation because it’s Valentines Day.

It’s the little things that add up. The big things are good too, but the little things add up and she’ll remember that, more than the flowers and dinner at a high end restaurant cliché.

So once you have your credit card paid off from this years Valentines, buy some flowers every few weeks or once or twice a month. Write her a note. Make dinner. Something. Just make an effort. Practice makes perfect. Or at least better than before. Trust me.

Promised Land

I meant to post this up sooner. This is Woodbury Common. I wanted to take more pics for my sister, but I didn't want to look like a tourist. But then I saw all the japanese tourists and realized no one would have noticed. I should have taken Tresa's picture when we saw this outlet, but I was driving. You should have seen her face. It was lit up like a kid on Christmas morning and seeing all the presents.

When we arrived here on the Thursday night, it was dark, plus we got a little side tracked. But this time she had more time to see the stores and on top of it there was no tax this weekend. It was like the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae for this expecting mother. And then they said you get the sprinkles for free!

This place is fairly big. But not exactly cheap. The smaller outlets in NJ were actually better in my opinion. It's because this place has so many visitors, well shoppers. And so the stores get picked over. But it has some stores that you wouldn't find at the smaller outlets. Like the high end designer stores.

So venture there if you want. They have a website and a store listing. It's two hours from my cousins place and they have a shuttle from NY city and it's 7-1/2 hours from Big Smoke (Toronto).

I know that some of our friends have asked me if it's worth it. All of them were women. With more shoes than Imelda.