New Year's Rockin' Chair Eve

Jana called from DTW this morning - she stayed at a Days Inn last night with a voucher from NWA, and she was at the airport when she called. She was booked in first class on a 9 a.m. flight to D.C. We haven't heard anything else from her, so we're assuming that she's home.

We each did our own end-of-the-year errands - mine was grocery shopping. We are both tired for some reason - maybe a combo of having Jana for a week and staying up too late watching Michigan lose the Alamo Bowl.

We had champagne and hors d'oeuvres early, and went to bed early too. Happy New Year. Slow down my rocking chair.

Bye Bye Jana

Our wonderful week is drawing to a close - Jana leaves tonight. Dick worked at the Visitor Center this morning.

Right after Dick left, we got a call from Florida - talked to Laurie for a bit, and then we talked to Dylan for 2 hours! We did a tag team thing - Jana would talk while I showered, I would talk while Jana packed, etc. Dylan was especially interested in demonstrating his new keyboard to me. It's amazing, and he obviously is entranced by it. He and Jana talked a lot about the Spiderman game she gave him. Since Christmas, he has already completed Tak and Tak2, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Jana and I packed school supplies for the classroom in Iraq, and then she logged on to Pogo.com with a guest pass, and we played Qwerty together. How much fun is that? We loved it.

Dick was stranded at the VC - nobody came to relieve him. So he shut the place down, turned out the lights, and came home. I went to have the ultrasound of my neck. Now that's the kind of test I like - no pain, no strain, no undressing.

Jana's plane was supposed to leave at 7 p.m., and we were at the airport early. It was delayed until 7:30, and then 8:00 - which meant that she would miss her connecting flight to D.C. After a talk with the ticket agent she got a promise of a room in Detroit and a flight out of Detroit tomorrow morning. I think she finally boarded her plane at 9 p.m.

What a Team

Dick and Jana went out geo-caching and I stayed home to vegetate and rusticate. The team of Basswood Bend and Bassdaught found 4 caches and had a marvelous time.

Memoirs of a Grandma

Jana and I went to visit Mother today - we had a perfectly splendid visit. We were discussing the Geib Family Tree when Mother began to reminisce about her childhood. It was just charming.

My favorite was a story about the funeral of her Grandmother Cadet Perry Rice. All of the children in the family (cousins) were seated on the stairway during the funeral, and they got the giggles for some unknown reason. Mother still feels really sorry about the whole thing - I'll bet her mother was fit to be tied! Cadet died in 1922, so Mother would have been 13 or 14 at the time.

Another memory was of the privy at the Geib family farm in Gaines Township. The privy was out in back and down a little hill, and it was completely surrounded by lilac bushes. Mother remembers how nice it was in the springtime when the lilacs were blooming. She says that she remembers the floor plan of that farmhouse. I asked her how many bedrooms it had and she said, "Oh, there were a raft of bedrooms."
Evidently the whole upstairs was bedrooms, but I still don't know how many.

Well, it was Alamo Bowl night tonight. The best part of the whole evening was the homemade pea soup made with the Christmas hambone. The game wasn't so bad except for the last 8 minutes. Bah Humbug. This from mgoblue.com:

The Michigan football team saw its fourth-quarter lead slip away and lost a 32-28 decision to Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl on Wednesday, Dec. 28, in San Antonio. Quarterback Chad Henne was a factor in all four Wolverine scores, throwing touchdown passes to Tyler Ecker, Mike Massey and Mario Manningham, then scoring a rushing TD to put U-M up 28-17 with 11:40 left in the game. However, Nebraska scored on back-to-back possessions to lead 32-28 and withstood Michigan's lengthy series of laterals on the game's final play.

Memoirs of a Geisha

We've all read the book. It was one of the best books I've ever read. Laurie and Jana think so too. So of course Jana and I had to go see this movie. What a beautiful movie it was.

There were a couple of things we were disappointed in - for instance, in the book much was made of the kimonos - their value, beauty, and wonderful fabrics. The movie really never even came close to displaying or educating about the kimonos. Also, some of the most enjoyable parts of the book were the young girls at the geisha school learning movement, music, manners, etc. There was only one scene from the school days and it was fleeting. Another thing I didn't like was that it seemed always to be raining! This poor child was running around the city drenched to the bone most of the time. Also, the relationship between the child and the grandmotherly housekeeper person was non-existent. So now it sounds as though I didn't like the movie!

But I did! - It's a beautiful film - well cast, appealing, and interesting. I enjoyed the new "romantic" angle of the story. And I don't care if the lead actress is Chinese (Ziyi Zhang), I thought she was perfect for the role of Sayuri. She's very intense and beautiful, and simpatico. Ken Watanabe made a perfect Chairman - charismatic and yet remote.

This morning Jana and I went to the Munson Urgent Care at MCHC to have the lump on her neck evaluated. The advice was to see a surgeon in D.C. and have it removed. We had a great lunch at the Mall - China Wok.

Dr. Burke called to say that the MRI shows moderate arthritis in my cervical spine, which is pretty much what I expected. But then he added that the MRI shows nodules on the thyroid gland, and I'm scheduled to have an ultrasound on Friday. I did some research on the internet and it seems that everybody my age has nodules on the thyroid, so I'm not at all concerned. Thank you Dr. Burke.

Geo-Jana

Off to the Muncie Lakes area to find some geocaches. We only found three caches, but we had a lot of fun. My favorite was the one on the inside back of the outhouse door (no kidding). Dick found one by himself - the hill was too steep. And one of them we all searched and searched for, and couldn't find until Dick found it totally by accident. I love it when that happens!

In the afternoon we went to visit Uncle Fritz and Aunt Ruth to explain the Medicare Part D Drug Benefit thingy. Dick and Fritz decided which plans to sign up for, and Dick will enroll them via the computer. It's a relief for them to have that decided.

Christmas Day

Jana went to bed early last night, and so we were all up and ready for opening gifts before 9 a.m.
The most interesting (odd, unusual, unexpected) gift was a mannequin for Dick from all of the kids. This mannequin is taller than I am. It's soft and bendable, so it can sit. We bent it into a sitting position, dressed it in the clothes provided, put a hat on it, sat it in the recliner, gave it a book to hold, and named it Basswood Bessie. Last summer, Dick had casually mentioned that he thought it would be fun to put a mannequin on the swing at the riverside deck to startle passing canoers and kayakers. Be careful what you wish for! Now I'm startled everytime I go into the living room!

His other best gift was a new computer - a Dell with a flat screen monitor. After the holidays we're going to have a nice person come here and hook us all up so our two computers are still networked.

We got so many wonderful gifts that it's hard to pick just a few to mention. I especially loved the Gillespie family pictures in the beautiful case. I got a new digital camera and a printer dock that works! I feel like I'm back in business at last. It's a great feeling. Tom gave me a nano iPod - now I've entered the 21st century for sure - it is a marvel. Jana gave me stacks of great books, and there were so many other terrific things - warm socks, hand warmers and gloves from Dick - he knows how cold I get! It was a memorable Christmas.

In another non-traditional (for us) move, we had ham for dinner. It was an easy prep and an easy clean-up.

We talked to Florida - Dylan got a marvelous keyboard that makes hundreds of different noises besides being a piano. He's really been enjoying it. He also seems to like the nerf ball shooter game really well.

We all went to Mother's for a Christmas Day visit. She enjoyed hearing about the mannequin and our other gifts. She's still glowing from the shrimp and the champagne on Christmas Eve.

Jana and I went to see the Chronicles of Narnia. We enjoyed it so much. As always, my favorite is Lucy. I liked Mr. Tumnus too, but the Snow Queen was not a favorite of mine - until the battle scene - then she seemed to come alive and be a little more effective. Edmond was well cast - he could assume both the dark side and the good side easily - nice job. It's a beautiful movie, and it brought back such good memories of reading those books.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

Jana's plane was supposed to land at 10 a.m., but it was delayed for some weird alirline reason. She landed finally at around 1:30 p.m. Hooray!
We had a nice Christmas with Mother - took her gifts, some shrimp and champagne and did a non-traditional (for us) Christmas on Christmas Eve at Concord Place. It was a huge success!
Ho ho ho - Santa comes tonight.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Holy Moly - have you ever had an MRI? I did a little research on the internet beforehand so I would know what it involved. It mentioned that most patients comment on either the noise or the claustrophobia. Luckily, I don't have a problem with claustrophobia - buy hey! When they say noise, they mean NOISE !! Oh My God! You lay on your back for 25 minutes with your arms over your head, and it sounds like they're hitting the side of the thing with a bouncing wrecking ball...followed by a jackhammer...followed by other strange loudnesses. And then the whole series of sound effects is repeated four or five times. It was certainly a new experience -the technician said that the machine used to be even noisier. I simply cannot imagine how it could be any noisier. They put headphones on you and you get to pick the radio station - but it's useless, because you can't hear it 95% of the time anyway. The MRI was of the cervical spine to see if they can tell what's causing my continuous sore neck. I think it's probably arthritis of some sort, and I'm thinking I'll just have to live with a permanent sore neck. Should find out Monday or Tuesday.

Went to visit Mom - we had a nice visit.

Out to dinner tonight at Big Boy (WooWoo) - we met Mr. and Mrs. ABX Guy, Trashcan & CacheHound for dessert. Dick picked up the 2 beautiful new geocoins designed by ABX Guy and executed by Rusty in honor of the Traverse City Winter Convergence V. We're so happy to have them. Ray said that he's selling one on ebay and it's up to $51 with 22 people watching.

Barbie

First we went to Fifth/Third to straighten out the SS numbers on an account.

Then we slogged through Meijer, buying things for Jana's stocking and some extra grocery items. Meijer always seems to me to be an enormous undertaking. I think you should take walkie talkies, pack a lunch, and wear hiking boots to negotiate it. It's too huge, too crowded, and the parking lot is too full. OK, sure, it's Christmas time, but Meijer can manage to be unmanageable at any time of the year, day or night. Can you tell it's not my favorite place?

Off to Uncle Fritz's to deliver some Medicare Part D papers so Dick can recommend benefit plans for them. I hadn't been there before, and we couldn't figure out where to park. Dick waited by the front entrance in the car, and I went hiking down the corridor to find 206. It's amazing how far away it was from the front door. Maybe you're supposed to park in the rear or something.

Then we dropped in on Barb to see how she is faring. It was good to see her looking good, tired but still almost perky, and really willing to talk about her experiences, hopes, and dreams. She has a strong social network, which is a big aid to healing and recovery, so the experts say. We talked about all of it, and she has a great attitude. She's had some good results and seems upbeat. Adam dropped in while we were there - it's good to see him. There were 4 phone calls for Barb while we were there - it's that strong social network I was talking about! Go Barb.

Concord Christmas

This time, Dick wrote the blog for me - I can't do any better than this! We've been in stitches ever since we got home!
This is Dick's report:

Today was the eagerly awaited Concord Place Christmas Party scheduled
from 12:30 to 2:30. On the phone this morning, Marian told Nancy that
Julius (102 and counting) came from his room across the hall to
visit and vent. He told Marian that he was not planning on attending
because: they were going to have meatballs and he hates the meatballs;
the room is too crowded and he doesn't like crowds; the room is too
bright and the light hurts his eyes; and after visiting his wife in the
nursing home (on the "other side"), he was cold - her room is too cold.

Betsy, the director, insisted that he attend because there was to be a
special guest just for him. The guest turned out to be Ann -
an entertainer who knew him from the old days at the Traverse City Country Club.
She wanted to play the piano for him. We were the first folks down in the
community room and wound up at the table next to the piano. Joining us
at the table were Thelma and her niece (who was banging her head against
the wall of the elevator after the last party. She says that her aunt
drives her nuts.)

When Julius arrived, Ann went over and greeted him and he was very happy
to see her. She told him that she was going to play for him and came
back to the piano. As she began to play the Tennessee Waltz, she told us
that it was always his favorite and the one he always requested. As she
played, Julius seemed to be keeping time to the music. Everyone was
looking at him and asking his neighbor, "Can Julius hear OK?" to which
the response was "Oh sure, he's really enjoying it."
When she finished, everyone applauded and Julius was asked if he had a
request.
He said, "I'd like to hear The Tennessee Waltz."
Ann said, "What did he say?"
Julius said, "What did she say?"
Marian said, "What did he say?"
Nancy and I were close to dying.

When everyone had arrived (eight of the ten residents attended) the
luncheon was served buffet style. The menu was; Salad, rolls, cheesy
hashbrowns, baked beans, meatballs, (I sampled one, Julius is right, they
are bad) ham, cheese ball and ritz crackers, cake and assorted cookies.

After the meal, Ann played numerous Christmas carols and many oldies and
many of the folks sang along. When she played polkas, Julius got into a
groove and propelled his wheelchair around the room in an animated dance. He
was singing along to one of the tunes in what sounded like a foreign
tongue. One of the folks at his table asked, "What language is that?" He
stopped and replied, "I don't know."

This was the fifth or sixth Concord Place party that we have attended
including Marian's 97th birthday, and it is the first time that she has
been interested in staying more than 30 or 40 minutes. This time we
stayed for the full two hours and when we left there were only two other
residents still there. One of them was Julius.

Happy Birthday Dylan

Dylan called this morning at 8 a.m. to thank us for his birthday gifts. We gave him the Dread Pirate Game and some Christmas "crackers" that you pull and there are prizes inside. He especially enjoyed receiving the playstation games from Uncle Tom and Auntie Jana.
His party is going to be from 1-3 at the Hammock Creek Clubhouse, with special friends coming over afterwards for dinner (Kyle, Connor, Lainie et al). He sounded like he was prepared to have a great day.

Dear Old Dad

My father Tharel Thurman Kanitz was born on December 16, 1907 in Douglas County, Illinois. He died November 24, 1999 at the age of 91, just a couple of weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. Today would have been his 98th birthday, had he lived. Mother has outlived him by almost six years so far.

Tomorrow is Dylan's 8th birthday. Dylan was born on December 17th, 1997, the day after Dad turned 90 years old. If he had been born on Dad's birthday, Laurie would have named him Dylan Thurman in honor of Dad. Dylan was really smart to wait an extra day, and to become Dylan Patrick!

Family Day at Concord Place

The day begins with an appointment to see Dr. Burke (the world's best doctor). He listened agreeably to my list of complaints (he's such a good listener), and came up with two immediate solutions and one wait and see. I'm going for an MRI next Tuesday and I have one new temporary prescription. Thanks Dr. Burke. Even if I don't feel so well when I enter his office, I always feel a lot better when I leave.

Jim came up this morning to have lunch with Mother and to exchange Christmas gifts. We met at Mother's and exchanged the gifts. Ho Ho Ho! It was good to see him and we all had a good time talking about the grandchildren. He has me outnumbered two to one. Somehow, our family managed to get the cutest, most intelligent, and funniest grandchildren. We're so lucky! Mother seemed to be holding up well. Jim looks great.

O Tannenbaum

Time to decorate the Christmas tree. Thank goodness that last year we bought a new ornament storage system. It made it so much easier to select the ornaments - some ornaments come out year after year, and some only get selected occasionally. The tree is just the right size to hold all of my favorite ornaments without having to use a lot of "fillers". I'm happy with the way it looks, and so by lunch time, we are all decorated for Christmas. Dick was working at the Agency during the decorating. Luckily Jana called and so I had a family feeling talking to her and placing ornaments at the same time. What I really wanted was the whole family to be there, plus a glass of egg nog.

There's always a line at the Barlow Post Office. Even when it isn't the Christmas season, there's a line. Today I was only in line for 15 minutes, with my two packages and 10 DVD envelopes. People are pretty much in a holiday mood, so it wasn't an unpleasant line as it sometimes is. The amazing thing about the Post Office is how much the postage has gone up. One box for Florida was $12.00 and the other was $13.00. Shipping charges are actually cheaper on the internet, believe it or not!

Nice visit with Mother today - we gave out our little personalized angels to the staff, and everybody was happy to get them. Mother felt good about having something to give. The staff is getting smaller and smaller, but I hear that they are training a new person, so that will be a help. They never really run out of caretakers because of being attached to the nursing home - it's a 96 bed nursing home, so they have tons of staff. Mother and I had a good visit. She's adamant about not coming home for Christmas - she just wants to stay where she is. She also doesn't want us to bring her Christmas dinner. She's always afraid of being too much bother....as if.

GeoFriends

This has been a most enjoyable day. It all began at breakfast with Whitard and family at the Omelette Shoppe. The girls are as sweet as ever; polite, friendly, and fun. It was great to touch base with them all again, and next time it'll be our treat!

After breakfast, we were off to Luzerne for the NMG December Meet and Greet. We got there a little bit early so there was time to look for a cache, and wouldn't you know, ABX Guy and Trashcan were heading in the same direction. The wives waited in the car and the men went off to hunt the treasure. We heard great stories from Mrs. ABX Guy about her office Christmas party at Crystal Mountain the night before. Those people really know how to put on a party! I was totally in awe. While we were sitting there, Captain Bud and CachetoGo arrived and went on down the path.

The Meet and Greet was at Ma Deeter's (can you believe it?). Dick described it as a typical northern Michigan bar. Well....it was a far cry from Crystal Mountain! We had a nice lunch, interesting conversation, gift exchange, raffle, baby-admiring, new friends, and a good time.

We had an Afterglow at DinoDuo's cabin on the Manistee River. Debriefing and apple pie, plus so many Christmas items on display - I think that Susie should open a gift shop! As we left, it began to snow, but we had an uneventful ride home.

It was a day to remember.

Hagerty Center Redux

Errands to do in town this morning - Post Office to mail Christmas things, Alfie's to pick up the quilt squares, Tom's to get birthday cards for Dylan, and the drugstore. Then up to see Mother for a quick visit, and home to get ready for the best Holiday party.

Every year we look forward to the Visitor Center Christmas Party. This year it was at the Hagerty Center. (It seems that every event in Traverse City is held at the Hagerty Center! Where did we all go to celebrate before this beautiful building was here?)

We had delicious hors d'oeuvres, wine, soft drinks, desserts, coffee, and also live music by Laurie Sears. It was as tastefully done as it always is. It was great fun to talk to Nancy and Ann, Pam, Karen, and Kathee, Jim and Katie, and all. Thank you Kathee for another memorable party and for all of the kind words.

Double Your Pleasure

Dick was invited to do two presentations today. I was the lucky one, going along for the ride and just being a spectator. The Long Lakers Senior Citizens group was meeting at the Friends Church, and we didn't know it, but it was their Annual Christmas Dinner event. We knew we had been invited for "lunch" but we had no idea it would involve ham, and about eleven different home made casseroles. It was very yummy. There were approximately 30 people there, and Dick made his usual great presentation. This particular group seemed to have fewer questions than other groups, which means that either they are fully informed, or that they don't know enough about the subject to know what questions to ask. It was a delightful group. We sat with Rex, who was full of good stories and kept us entertained and amused.

The second presentation was at 6 p.m. at the Empire Methodist Church. We pulled up to the church, and it was totally dark, with an empty parking lot. At first we thought maybe that it had been called off, or that we had the wrong time - but eventually, people began to trickle in, unlock the building and turn on the lights. This time there were about 65 people there - some seemed quite knowledgeable already - but I'm sure that Dick was able to clear up lots of doubts and questions. They served cookies, brownies, and great coffee.

Simon the Scholar

Northwestern Michigan College every year offers a Genevieve Steiger Richardson Scholarship set up by Dick and Doug after Mother Gen's death. Today the College held its Annual Scholarship luncheon to honor donors and scholars alike. This year, our scholar is Simon, who is in pre-engineering. We always enjoy meeting the other donors, but especially meeting the students - who seem to be getting younger every year!

The luncheon was held at the Hagerty Center at the new Maritime Academy Building. It's always well done and this year was no exception. The best part is always the conversation.

Marian's Cards

Mother and I had a great time this morning addressing her Christmas cards and getting them ready for the mail. It was fun creating the list of people to whom she wants to send cards.

She's so amusing sometimes - there's one neighbor that she didn't want to send a card to because "She'll feel like she has to bake cookies and come to visit!" Well, to me, that would be a good reason to send a card! I never have understood my mother completely.

Anyway, it was a most enjoyable visit. Dick dropped me off and went to the barber shop. We mailed the cards on the way home. Merry Christmas to a select few from Marian.

Mall and St. Francis

I had a great time shopping at Target this morning - no kidding. I bought some more Christmas wrappings and decorations for the tree. I enjoy seeing all of the beautiful things that are available these days.

I was finished just in time to go catch Dick's presentation at St. Francis. We estimated 75 people were there. There were a lot of intelligent questions, which was refreshing. Many of the audience were quite assertive in their manner, which just shows how important these presentations are.

St. Francis has a parish nurse who arranged the meeting. She and her husband were very complimentary to Dick. When the meeting was over, Dick had a long line of folks with individual questions - I'm sure he was very helpful to them.

MIGO NL December M&G

OK - I'll translate: Michigan Geocaching Organization Northern Lower Meet and Greet. Whew! That's why they use initials. The Meet and Greet was at the Hillcrest Restaurant in Cadillac, and I think that over 35 people were there. We love the Hillcrest anyway, so we were especially happy to be there. We met some new friends - Frank and Peggy and the photobugs, and lightning striker - and enjoyed seeing the old friends - coychev, sandrich, sleepy weasel, abx guy and trashcan, etc. We guessed how many M&Ms were in the jar (we were way off), we won some jade in the raffle (really nice), exchanged travel bugs, and just generally smoozed.

During the day we did seven caches, including the event. My favorite was at Lake City - Dick's favorite was koda's ASCII puzzle cache because he spent all yesterday morning figuring it out at the Visitor Center.

It was our favorite kind of day.

Hard Workin' Guy

Dick's Day:

First he ran the snowblower and cleared out the driveway. Schools were cancelled today, and we had a ton of snow.

From 10 until 1:30 he was volunteering at the Visitor Center helping Kathee and figuring out some puzzle caches.

After that there were errands to run, including the library. At 3 p.m. he had an appointment to have snow tires put on the Subaru. It took forever. He got home at 5:30.

Meanwhile, I was doing all the housewifely things - laundry, vacuuming, wrapping Christmas presents, playing Pogo, and watching The Guiding Light (of course). I felt like I had accomplished a lot today until I realized all of the things that Dick did!