Antonio's

There is Old-School Italian food which is served steaming hot and covered with cheese. There is a time and a place for this. There are also tremendous high-end Italian restaurants with excellent food in a more adventurous mode. And then there's Antonio's. We discovered Antonio's when we were living in Farmington and there was a new Antonio's opening in Farmington Hills at 12 and Drake. The bread was a thing of beauty. The salad was wonderful. The pesto divine. The pine nuts plentiful. And the bill under 30 dollars if you didn't drink anything stronger than coffee. When we moved to Canton 7 years ago, we started frequenting the Dearborn Heights location, which while possessing a little less of the "white table cloth" feel of the Farmington Hills location definitely had all of the attention to detail with the food and service and is worth the trip down Ford Road. My Perennial Dining Companion swears by the spaghetti carbonara. I feel the pesto is exceptional. If you get it with Italian Sausage, it's enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Visit Antonio's! http://www.antoniosrestaurants.com/

Football! - Baseball :-(

Like a salve for my baseball-savaged heart, football has returned! Yes, I know Michigan lost to Utah. Yes, I know that we would need to splice the two quarterbacks together to get one solid quarterback. But the special teams were neat, the defense made adjustments at halftime that WORKED (when was the last time that happened, Wolverine fans?) and as long as we can get the opposite team to commit something like 15 penalties in a game, we can hang in on offense. Just don't make them go the length of the field. And a special "way to go" to Morgan Trent on defense with a few great hits! There is something magic about fall and football and marching bands and I need something to distract me from the chaos that has become my beloved Tigers (Detroit, that is).

The Detroit Tigers. My Sean Casey-less team. The team that took my favorite player (Brandon Inge) who was an athletic genius at third base out of the day-to-day line up until they put him in at catcher (where he certainly has the game smarts to play but is not necessarily optimally used) after trading away Pudge. The team that paid top dollar for a roster full of hitters who weren't hitting, then took the best defensive player on the team off the starting line up. The team that let my second favorite player sign with Boston. Captain Single, aka Sean Casey, The Mayor. But last year at Comerica Park, I got to see Sean Casey hit a triple with the whole bench going nuts for his effort. I've seen nothing like that this season. Oh well. Maybe next year. Just goes to prove you can't buy chemistry. But keep Cabrera (I've turned into a fan - as long as he doesn't play third base). Polanco. Galarraga. Granderson. Inge if you can (and if you can't, the team he lands on will become one of my favorites similar to Brad Ausmus and the Astros). Just fix the team and give us something to cheer about in August and September next year.