Yesterday was the car show. Time for me to eat some crow re: Dodge's Challenger. It looks much better, much edgier, much tougher in person. I think Hemi Orange blurs the pictures. It also dwarfs, size-wise, the Camaro. Different cars, I guess. Other observations: it seems like 2005 was a year for new models, 2006 is a year for freshened models or "Hey this year you can sit in the car that was on the turntable last year!" There was a preponderance of suicide doors that seemed a little odd to me. Interiors got better and worse, which seems odd. Odd, too, were heated and cooled glove boxes. Liquor bottles shown in the console of a luxury concept seemed odd and opportunity for a lawsuit. Big cars get bigger, small cars get bigger, but everybody slams the General for making the biggest autos, which, by the way, looked great. Best interior in the show? Judgement call. The 'Like Lutherans to Jell-o Award' goes to Buick Lucerne and the myriad oldsters measuring, sitting in, and fidgeting the four (four of one model? ouch...) Lucernes on the Cobo floor. One notable missed display was the aforediscussed Geely CK - we looked for the dynamo from Chinamo but couldn't find it, so now I'm not sure if the Koreans and their leather clad, moon and tunes equipped, all-around fully-loaded luxury midsize for $29k should be running scared or not.

After NAIAS (where we spent a few hours with Scott and Rayna, btw) it was up to Lansing for a final event with Robin and Aimee before Robin's agenda cranks up and she ultimately jets west once more. We had a great dinner at The Parlour on Campus and a round at Harpers. Aimee shared zoo stories, Robin shared ice-making stories, Jenelle and I shared a junior banana split, and all was good.