It's St. Paddy! Slainte!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Today is not a federal holiday of any sort but I believe most people will be taking a mental vacation from school and/or work, so watch out for the drunk drivers out there. I estimate the Ypsi/Ann Arbor area will register about 400-500 alcohol-related hospital visits today alone. This is a rough and dirty estimate but I think the number is pretty accurate since there are at least 65,000 students covering this 20 square mile corridor in southeast metro Detroit.

The weather was excellent yesterday (very high 50s) and today (mid 60s), with plenty of sunblock-worthy UVA/B rays, and I went walking around to see the jovial embrace of spring in Ann Arbor; depicted below:

Nice weather brought the kids out in full force. I was being kind so I did not snap pictures of the fashion mishaps. It is the start of spring after all, so some folks need time to get the wardrobe thing together.

The campus activists took advantage of the sunshine ...

... as well as the protesters. They protest almost every day, even in winter. But Jesus was throwing them a bone this week.

This spiffy thing is, in plain English, a garbage can that self-compacts. The top domed part of the box is made of glass and houses a large solar panel. Yes, these Ann Arbor liberals thrash their trash very seriously.

This is the Denali loft condo block on Liberty Street, quite possibly the most misplaced and uncannily cool albeit ridiculously expensive piece of real estate in Ann Arbor. I am not exaggerating when I say that the loft condos in this building sell (not for rent, like most of the places in Ann Arbor) for $650,000 to $800,000. The biggest unit is probably only 1,300 square feet by my estimates. Not a worthy investment by any standards but since real estate prices have never fallen in Ann Arbor, even in today's recession and real estate bust, grab these if you see them for sale and you like loft living.

This picture is self-explanatory.