New Year's Eve

Dick went in to the Visitor Center so that Kathee wouldn't have to be there alone this morning. He wore a lot of his new Christmas things and he looked very sharp. He always looks so good!

Hooray for the Sears repairman! He came in a timely fashion and fixed our dryer - it had a broken ignition thingy. It feels good to be back in the laundry business. Sort of.

Jana and I went shopping around 4:30p.m. First stop was Bass shoes in the Horizon Outlet Mall. When we entered the store, they said "we're closing in 15 minutes". But that was enough time for Jana to buy a pair of shoes and 14,000 socks! Thern we went to Best Buy and she got DVDs and a couple of games.

Our New Year's celebration was at 9 p.m. Appetizers and champagne - and then Dick went to bed. Jana and I watched the extended disk of The Lord of the Rings until about 11:45, and then we switched to live TV to watch the ball drop.

Happy New Year!

Bye Bye Boxes

Dick and I went recycling today. We had so many boxes that even flattened, they took up the whole back of the Explorer. We had other recycling also, so off we went, even though there was an unseasonal downpour going on. After dumping all of that, we went to Staples to get an ink thingy for our printer. Then we were off to Glen's to shop for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day (go blue). It was a totally miserable day, weatherwise.

Dick had scraped the snow off the asphalt apron to our access road, so we didn't have to deal with slush, etc.

After putting away the groceries, and trying to put the ink thingy in the printer, we discovered that we bought the wrong kind. So it was back out in the rain and back to Staples to get the right thing. Sometimes life is very complex.

Jana has renewed her interest in Everquest and she has played quite a bit today - she's so glad to have the vacation time.

Tom, Todd, and Steve are going to the Rose Bowl game together again this year. It will be the same as last year, only without Jana and Tim.

Off To Houghton Lake

Since we weren't able to see Sniders on Sunday, Dick, Jana and I decided this would be a good day to go visit. First we went and had brunch at Rico's since we had to go to Chum's Corners anyway. It was a good day for a drive - the roads were fine. We were only there for about an hour and a half - long enough to exchange presents and learn all the new gossi... um news from Belleville. We had a really good time - got home around 6:30.

Tsunami

We watched in horror the reports of the earthquake/tsunami which occurred Sunday in Asia - Sri Lanka, Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia, and India. Now they are saying that the death toll is 72,000 and may reach 100,000. It is unfathomable. We've seen videos taken by tourists from high rise hotels which show people just being swept away like leaves in the river.

Jana got an email from her friend Chris Stowers (Chris the Brit) in New Delhi on Sunday, before it all happened. These stricken areas are his old stomping grounds. She emailed him about it but hasn't heard back yet. She also called Americorps and made a contribution for relief. We saw appeals from Oxfam and Save the Children - we'll decide in a bit which to donate to - I'm sure the need will be long lasting.

Jana and I went to see Oceans 12 this afternoon - it was only OK. As Dylan would say, it should be rated C for Complicated. The Julia Roberts/Bruce Willis thing was entertaining, but I can't say it's going to be one of my faves overall. Most of the time I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom.

Our dryer is definitely broken, and the repairman is supposed to come Friday. I hope he doesn't decide to celebrate New Year's Eve early and call off his visit. After watching tsunami reports, I'm not going to whine about one broken appliance.

Return of the King & National Treasure

This morning Jana and I watched disk 2 of Return of the King. We made Dick watch 3 scenes: Eowyn's "I am no man"; Legolas defeating the Oliphant; and Aragorn's motivational speech to his troops - "This is not that day."

This afternoon we went to see National Treasure at the Horizon Cinema. I really enjoyed it - it was fun, action-packed, intellectual, and funny all at the same time. Jana liked Riley the wise-cracking sidekick the best. Nicolas Cage did a great job I thought.

The cable company called and said the internet connection was fixed and voila, it really was. So now we're back in business...as far as the computer goes - now I think the dryer is broken. It's always something.

Laurie called to find out how to put coordinates in her GPSr because she forgot how. Luckily Dick got home from the Agency while we were still on the phone, because he's the GPS expert. We found out later that the Sharkie Crew found 2 geocaches in Port St. Lucie with the help of Uncle Tom. Dylan took a pop gun that shoots ping pong balls from the first one and a dollar bill from the other one.

We all went out to dinner at the Mongolian Barbecue - it was super-great as always!

We all worked on getting our new Epson printer hooked up and installed on my NEW LAPTOP. This printer can print letter size pages and also 4x6 pictures. Should be a great addition to our high tech arsenal (hehehe).

Day After Christmas

The Day After
We hade planned to go to Manistee this morning to see Kim, Mike, Adam, Jacob, Eric, Tammy, Bill and Jan. But when Jana got up she had a headache and wasn’t feeling at all well. So we called and cancelled, and Jana went back to bed. Dick and I were kind of at loose ends, but we managed to had a very relaxing morning reading our new books and I enjoyed also playing with MY NEW LAPTOP. We still have no internet connection, but I had fun looking at all of the features, including the World Book.
In the afternoon Jana and I watched Disc 1 of Return of the King - what a marvelous production. After that, Dick and I went to see Mother. We took her some good turkey leftovers. Dick did a little shoveling, and changed the furnace filter. I set up the new jar opener, and it looks nice on the counter top. I really think that after Mother has a chance to get used to it she’ll find it’s very helpful.
We drove around town a bit - it’s a pretty day - sunnier than yesterday.
We all watched a littlle football - Brian Griese was not doing that well.
Jana was still feeling ill. We all went to bed early.
I’m reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. It’s a really fascinating book. I’m enjoying it immensely. It’s the kind of book that you don’t want to finish.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day 2004

Santa came! Santa came! AND HE BROUGHT ME A LAPTOP! Oh yes, and he brought Dick a reciprocating saw, but he brought me a LAPTOP!

The most ironic thing is that last Wednesday, our cable modem went out, and although Charter has tried a couple of things to get it up and going again, nothing has worked. And so here I am with a new LAPTOP and no internet connection. The strongest definition of irony available...

So I’m getting acquainted with other features of my LAPTOP including World Book and Apple works. When I came into the living room, the laptop was sitting on the table, and Beaches was playing on the screen. Yes, oh yes, my new laptop has a DVD player too.

I had planned to have the turkey in the oven by 8 a.m., and I had to tear myself away from my NEW LAPTOP to go make the dressing and stuff the bird. The turkey went into the oven at 8:01.

Jim called around 9:30, and they were all finished with Christmas. I spoke with Austen, and she was totally thrilled with her new American Girl doll Nelly, and all of the accoutrements. She was on cloud 9.

Jana got up around 10 a.m., and Dick went to get Mother around 11.

We had a lot of fun opening presents as usual. Mother got “too much” as usual. I was especially happy with my new wallet and the high tech pedometer! But we all got many wonderful things - lots of great DVD sets and CDs. (Which I can play on my new laptop.)

Dick got a great CQ pullover windbreaker that is fantastic looking on him. He got quite a lot of clothes, included a Hammock Creek sweatshirt which he put right on. Everything seems to fit him just right.

Mother got books, and fruit, and powder and pens, and a Great Grandma sweatshirt. Jana gave her an electric jar opener, and I think it’s going to be a good thing for Mother to have.

Jana got lots of DVDs and CDs and books, and a swimsuit, and a bag, and CDs, and a picture to hang - but she seemed to like her Roomba the best!

I had planned for the dinner to be ready at 2 p.m., but the turkey bird was not quite done, so we stuck it back in the oven and had dinner around 2:45.

Laurie, Jana and I all got Nomination bracelets - we had so much fun with those. Mine has NJKS and hearts, and yellow roses, a cup of coffee, a snowman, and a stegosaurus (Steigersaurus). Jana’s has JLS@CQ, hearts, and kitties. Laurie’s has LJSG, a little boy, an airplane, hearts, and double hearts. They are so much fun to put together, and pretty to wear.

Everybody in the family got U of M Rose Bowl 2005 T-shirts. Dylan’s says Water Boy, Hydration Coordinator. Fun.
After dinner we talked to Florida - everybody there was having a great time- Dylan got 3 great new playstation games, and the RoboSapiens, and many board games. He was a happy boy. Tom was busy being a good Uncle, and Laurie and Chip seemed very mellow. I was a little disappointed because I guess the interactive globe thing was not an immediate success, but I’m sure its day will come.

Took Mom home around 3:45, and got her all settled in. Dick and I took a drive around town - 2 lady walkers were out and about, and that was about it.

The rest of the day passed in kind of a blur - we all went to bed early.

I HAVE A LAPTOP!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Jana Comes Today - Christmas Eve Day

Jana Comes Today-Christmas Eve Day

We still have no internet connection. We really rely on it to have a normal day now. It feels weird not to be able to log on.

Time to start Christmas dinner prep - cooked the giblets and made salad this morning. Dick chopped onions and giblets for the stuffing. He also had a lot of snow-blowing to do. Thank goodness that Tom McLenithan is here with his big tractor blower to clear out our access road. Clearing our driveway is a big enough job! McLenithan will be here all winter this year, with the exception of 2 weeks in February. Last year, Dick had to do everything all by himself.

Charter Communication called and said that other people on River Road had no internet etiher, and that they would send a man out and call us back in a couple of hours to see if we had a connection. They never called back, and we don’t have a connection.

We couldn’t track Jana’s flight, so we went to the airport not quite knowing what to expect. There had been weather delays all over the country. We got to the new terminal around 7:30. Her flight had originally been scheduled to arrive at around 7:45 p.m., and she finally arrived at around 9.

And then it was oyster stew time. Oyster stew is our traditional Christmas Eve supper. It’s the only time all year that Dick has a prayer of getting oysters for supper.

Jana spent the rest of the evening opening the boxes she had shipped and wrapping the contents for Christmas morning.

Santa Claus comes tonight.
Happy Christmas Eve.

We Have Bags!

Dick suggested going to the airtport first thing this morning to see if we could get our bags. The American desk was vacant, and other employees said that the American folks were all out working on the departure of a flight and would be right back. We sat and sat and sat and saw nobody. The first employee who walked past didn't know anything about baggage. But the second was a man who actually seemed to have an idea about how to help us. He didn't have the right key or something, so he had to go get a United person to come and open the door for him. And our bags were in there! Whoopee!

We celebrated by going out to breakfast at Sue's J&S, and then we went home and did laundry.

Pixie Dust

After consulting with our private travel agent Laurie in Florida, we determined that we would most likely not get on any Eagle flight to Traverse City today. The morning flight was oversold by one, and the evening flight was full.

Our fallback position is always to go in and out of Grand Rapids if all else fails. In fact at the beginning of the trip, Dick thought we should just drive down to GR and fly out of there in the first place. He called Budget Rent-a-Car from the Hotel and arranged for a car one-way from GR to TC.

Anyway, there were 2 early morning flights to Grand Rapids - we thought we would try for the 9 a.m. flight because the theory was that by then the roads would be better driving home. Totally by chance, when we arrived at O'Hare this morning, we checked the departure monitor, and noticed that the early flight to GR had been delayed and was going to leave in about a half hour. The gate was just around the corner from the monitor, so we said what the heck, we might as well go check it out - if we can get on it it'll be gravy. We went up to the desk at gate H3A and the agent gave us boarding passes! Boarding passes! As Tom once said, getting a boarding pass is Nirvana for stand-by passengers. We can count on one hand the number of times that has happened to us. After a slight gate change to H2, we were actually on our way to Grand Rapids and out of O'Hare. No offense, Illinois.

I called Laurie to tell her that we got boarding passes, and she said, "Oh thank God you did that!" Evidently she had been checking the loads on the 2 flights to GR and on the nine o'clock one that we had planned to take, there were 10 open seats, and a family of 6 who were D1 non-rev passengers had just checked in. So that would have been at least 6 people ahead of us, and who knows how many more. So we really got on the right flight. It's because we're such Savvy Travelers, you know (snort). Laurie has always said that we have pixie dust. We've always said that she is the Voice of Doom.

The drive home was pleasant and quick. The roads were just wet, and traffic was light. We were in TC before 2 p.m. We stopped by the airport to return the rental car and to see about our luggage. The American desk was closed and there was nobody around to ask about our suitcases. So we picked up our mail, and headed home.

We went back up to the airport in the late afternoon, thinking that someone would be at the desk because flights were expected - but our timing must have been off because again there was nobody there. So we thought if we just wasted an hour or so we would try it again. We drove around town looking at Christmas lights, went out to dinner at La Senorita, and then figured it was time for the desk to be open. Back to the airport, but no luck. So we went to Walgreen's, and diddled around for a while longer and went back to the airport. Bottom line is that our bags are still at the airport, and there's no one there to get them for us. We'll do it tomorrow.

It's nice to be home - and now it's all downhill to Christmas. Jana will be here Christmas Eve.

First Class

This is the day that Dylan and I finished the gingerbread house - and what a spectacular gingerbread house it is, too! Dylan especially liked adding the gumdrops, skittles, and sprinkles - and he did a great job. He's going to save it til Wednesday, so Chip and Tom can see it - and then they can eat it up.
We left the house around 10:30, and headed to see Santa at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall. The Santa set-up there was absolutely gorgeous - very festive and decorative. They even had a couple of snow machines to blow "snow" over the shoppers. It was some kind of small bits of foam which melted on contact. Dylan's picture with Santa turned out really well, and he had quite a chat with Santa, but he wouldn't tell us what they talked about.
Then on to West Palm Beach to the airport to catch the flight home. Security isn't as bad as it's been made out to be - we just walked right through every time. You do have to remove your shoes and jackets, but that's certainly no big deal.
We waited for them to call our names after everyone had boarded, and when they did, we got boarding passes for first class! Sometimes I really love stand-by. The flight attendant's name was Katashina and she was from Poland. She was very difficult to understand, but friendly and attentive. A couple with a seventeen month old baby daughter sat across the aisle - she gave her parents a tough time the whole way. They never got a chance to relax. But they did drink a lot of wine! Katashina kept refilling those glasses.
The plan was to land at O'Hare, and get on the American Eagle flight to Traverse City. But it seems that due to windy and cold conditions, the flight was weight restricted. They blocked off 10 seats so they could add more fuel. Sometimes I really hate stand-by. Fortunately, I have a husband who plans ahead, and we had a reservation at the Ramada Plaza Hotel at O'Hare in case we couldn't make it home today.
I was boo-zausted when we got to the Hotel, and once we got to the room I really didn't want to go back out again for dinner. So we called room service and stayed put. The Ramada Plaza has been "completely renovated" and it's very attractive and spacious. The furnishings are all new - it was a nice place to be stranded.

Big Slice vs. Mancino's

Laurie picked up some kind of a bug and was quite ill overnight Friday night.
Everybody else is fine. Dick and I slept well, and Dylan is still 7 this morning! I helped him do another homework page - I think he has 2 more to do before Monday.
When Laurie perked up a little, we went geo-caching while Chip stayed home to watch the Steelers.
Driving to the cache site we were looking for storm damage - and you can see some if you look really hard. Trees have been blown over, and there are piles of branches around. but it's not overwhelmingly noticeable. We could also see roof damage. Most of the house have the red tile roofs, and it's easy to see where tiles are missing, or where tiles have been replaced. Some of the big box stores still have parts of their signs missing. You can see storm evidence if you know where to look.
Dick and Dylan found 2 caches, one by Abacoa. We got home in time to watch the Steelers win, and to order pizza from Big Slice Pizza. It was a taste test between Big Slice and Mancino's. It was really good pizza, but both Dick and I like the Mancino's crust better.
We spent a very quiet rest-of-of-the-day - everybody took a nap except Dylan and Chip.
We watched Dylan play his new Sly Cooper game on PlayStation2.

Happy Birthday Dylan

Chip was originally scheduled to get home from work this morning, but he had an equipment delay in Dallas so he got home a little later than we planned.
Dylan was allowed to stay home from school and play with Grandma and Grandpa which was great.
Dylan and Grandma did some homework, and played a PlayStation game. Dylan and Grandpa played catch in the backyard, and then went tromping around in the Preserve searching for who knows what.
Laurie, on the other hand, went in to school to help Mrs. Pittman with the holiday centers from 11:30 to 1:30. When she got home, we went over to the Treasure Coast Mall to see "Lemony Snickett, a Series of Unfortunate Events". It was a very enjoyable movie, and the theater wasn't very crowded. All in all it was a very nice experience.
After the movie we went to Duffy's, where Chip met us for dinner. I had a great Asian Chicken salad with sesame dressing. Yum.
Back at home we opened birthday presents and had cake and ice cream. What a nice birthday for Dylan Patrick Gillespie, age 7.

Fly Away to Palm City

The first sign of a good travel day was that while we couldn't sit together on American Eagle, at least we each sat on the side with one seat, so we didn't have to sit with anyone. When the Eagle landed at O'Hare, we only had 45 minutes to make it to the next flight to Palm Beach. The second sign of a good travel day was that we made it with time to spare, which is no small feat! I had been worried about walking through the airport, but I needn't have worried. I think I stopped for 2 short rests in all. The best thing of all was that we sat in row 31, three seats in a row, and no one came to sit in the other seat, so we had the whole row to ourselves.
We got to Laurie's house around 2 p.m. and Laurie went to pick up Dylan. We were his big birthday surprise! And he was really surprised to see us. He had a golf lesson at 3:30, so we all went over to the Hammock Creek Golf Club and watched him swing at the ball for an hour. At the end of the lesson, they had a little contest, and Dylan won $3.00!
We went out to dinner at Flannigan's. Good burger - very friendly service - Laurie ran into Dana, who remembered us from the flight down here last spring. Dana was our flight attendant. It was fun talking to her and her daughter, Morgan. Dylan and I worked on his homework - it was work left over from staying home sick earlier in the week.
Driving back home at night was so beautiful! The Hammock Creek neighborhood is very highly decorated for Christmas! I don't think I've ever seen so many beautiful houses so nicely decorated
December 16th was my Dad's birthday, and tomorrow is Dylan's birthday. I remember before he was born, Laurie said that if he was born on Dad's birthday, she would name him Dylan Thurman Gillespie in honor of Tharel Thurman Kanitz. I think Dylan lucked out!

Tying up Loose Ends

Today we finalized getting ready to go to Florida. You know, stopping the mail, stopping the newspaper, etc.
We mailed our financial changes to Vanguard after stopping at the bank for signature confirmation.
We got books for Mother, and picked up some stamps for her. She seems in good spirits. Jim and Emilie are on call in Saginaw in case anything should happen.
Packing and unpacking are always the worst parts of a trip. Today was packing. I have lists of my lists.
Yesterday we bought all the items for our Christmas dinner so we don't have to rush around when we get back from Florida.

Jim's Visit

We went in to see Jim around 3 p.m. He brought lots of goodies from Saginaw for Mother, and two beautiful packages for us. We had a nice time visiting and hearing all the latest news from the Kanitz side of the family. He did lots of things for Mother - cleaned out the coffee pot, cleaned the top of the refrigerator, etc. etc. It's always great to have Jim stay at Mom's for a while!

NMG Christmas Bash

The Northern Michigan Geocaching Christmas Bash was today in Gaylord at B.C.'s Pizza. There were around 30 people there in spite of horrible traveling conditions. On the way over on M-72, Dick and I actually turned around at one point and headed back home. But the sky cleared a little, and the snow lightened, and so we turned around again and headed for Gaylord.

On the big hill just west of Kalkaska there was a terrible accident. We saw two vehicles which had been heavily damaged, more vehicles off on the side of the road, people running around the damaged cars. There was one police car there when we went past. As we went on toward Kalkaska, we saw 3 more police cars, 2 ambulances, and 2 fire department trucks heading for the accident. It was a little unnerving, but Dick remained unswerving. (Pun intended.)

The Bash was really a good time. It was fun to talk to other geo-cachers, and to meet old friends and lots of new ones. The pizza was great, and there was a nice salad bar. Everyone got gifts, exchanged signature items, took pictures, bought raffle tickets, and we all got souvenir mugs etched with the date of the party and the geo-caching logo. It reminded me of the type of favor you might get at a fraternity party.

The ride home was uneventful, though treacherous at times. We passed through rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain and I don't know what all. It took us about an hour and a half to get home, so the roads were better - because this morning it took us 2 and a half hours to get to Gaylord, counting turn around time.

Jim has arrived safely at Mother's from Saginaw, and we'll see him tomorrow.

This is Dick's version of our day:

We enjoyed much of the day, all except the driving. The National Weather Service in Grayling broadcast a Winter Storm Warning for the northwest lower peninsula ending with the following statement, "A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS." We waited until 10 AM to leave the house figuring that that would give the plows and traffic a chance to clear the roads. It took us an hour to travel 25 miles. We were in the blizzard that I said would foil our trip. When we saw that we were last in a line of 15 cars slipping and sliding along at 20 MPH we decided the GeoGods did not want us to attend event caches. We missed the last one because to damage to our cache mobile. Deciding we didn't want to mess up our new Forester, we turned back. As we headed for home with our tails between our legs, in less than 5 miles, the snow turned to rain and the roads were just wet and slushy and a plow was heading east. We discussed the situation and Geocaching won out over good sense. Turning around once more we pushed on past wrecks, 4 police cars, 2 ambulances, a rescue vehicle and a fire truck. It took us just under 3 hours to get to Gaylord and we both agree it was worth it. The food was good, the presents are neat and the mugs are fabulous. The companionship was the best of all. It was fun meeting folks from across the state and we are looking forward to seeing them and more at the Convergence in January. The drive home was a piece of cake. We saw nothing unusual. Of course one of us (the driver) had their eyes squeezed shut and the other was focused on the center of the lane we were in. Since the road was a two track in each direction, it was just like driving through the woods at 55. Once home, Nancy pried my hands from the wheel, led me into the house, put a drink in my hand and pointed me toward the computer. Thanks eb-ii and all the rest for a great day.

Outside Lights

Dick put up the outside lights today - it looks really nice. Christmas is such a pretty time of the year. The day was dark and gloomy but the lights make a big difference.

I made bean soup, sorted out pills, and put together the new ornament keeper.

We went to visit Mother - balanced the checkbook and answered some questions she had about Social Security, etc. She seems worried about everything when really it's hard for me to see what she has to worry about. But I tried to validate her feelings, and I think she felt better when we left. Jim is coming tomorrow to stay for a couple of days - his Christmas visit is always enjoyable.

Came home to nice, hot bean soup with lots of ham.

Up Goes the Tree

This morning we set up our first ever faux tree (pre-lighted). It went up fairly easily, it looks fine, and I'm sure it will be less of a mess than a real tree.

Then we went to Meijer to get ornament hooks, shelving, a can of soup, and a couple of other things. We ended up spending a pocketful of cash for all kinds of items, including three absolutely precious toys for Toys for Tots. I also found a great plastic box for storing ornaments. It was really a fun expedition.

Back home to decorate the tree. It took about 2 hours in all to get it just right. I also sorted out a lot of old, old things and threw them out. The boxes that some of those things were packed in were 30 years old. The tree looks good.

Shipping to Florida

Dick worked at the Agency this morning. Nothing too spectacular happened.

At home it was time to finish wrapping gifts for Florida, and time to begin writing Christmas cards.
I only got up to "K" in the Christmas cards.

I did get all of the Florida things finished, and when Dick got home he taped the boxes and we got them ready to mail. We also had to turn in some loan papers at Wares Brothers for the new car. So Dick loaded in all of the boxes, and off we went to town. Turning in the papers was easy. Standing in line at the Post Office was not quite so easy, but even though the line was very long, it did seem to move quickly, and everyone was in good spirits. We got everything shipped off to Florida, and I bought Christmas stamps, and now I feel like everything is downhill from here on until Christmas.

I think we'll work on putting up our new fake Christmas tree next weekend. I'm looking forward to it. It's all pre-lighted and everything. Another first.

We are planning a trip to Florida weekend after next - just a short visit - Thursday to Sunday maybe. Jana will be coming home Christmas Eve and staying until New Year's. I'm looking forward to a very mellow holiday.

I'm starting week 7 of my exercise program, and although it's moving along very slowly, I am making progress. Not great progress - just Nancy-type progress. Thank you Eric.

Here's Sharon!

As soon as I was up and dressed, I went to Glen's and did grocery shopping for the next few days. Dick was outside stacking firewood. When I got home, I put everything away and began preparing veggies for beef stew in the crockpot. I was almost finished when Dick came in the back door and said Look who I found!

And it was Sharon! We were really excited to see her. This was their annual cookie baking weekend - Barb, Sharon, Melissa and Shelly all got together and baked all day Saturday. Sharon said her car was loaded with cookies! We had about a 3 hour visit, and it was great to catch up on all the news from Lansing. I'm so glad she stopped in.

We went in to return the rental car and to have a visit with Mother and take out her trash. Mother seems very well, and very alert these days. We had a good visit. She's reading a good book and likes to talk about it. I think she's amazing.

Cookies!

Every Christmas the Trinity Lutheran Church has this terrific cookie sale. Usually we hit all of the cookies sales in town and really stock up for the holidays. But this year we're trying to cut back on the calories a little bit, so we only went to the Trinity sale, and only bought cookies for Mother. Well...Dick did pick out some yummies, and I got a sample of cookies baked with Splenda, but basically we went to get cookies for Mother. It was a dreary, dismal, rainy, cold day outside, but inside it was very bright and festive and full of beautiful cookies.

We delivered the cookies to Mother, and I think she was really thrilled to get them. I said now you will have something to offer visitors - and Mother said she would probably eat them all herself!

We went Christmas shopping in downtown TC - it was a little rainy and windy, but we had really good luck. We went to the Cherry Stop, a couple of T shirt stores, DeYoung's and Horizon Books. Traverse City really has a nice downtown these days. I haven't shopped at the mall yet this year - I've really done most of my shopping on the internet.

We have a new car

In the morning Dick worked at the Visitor Center - there were less than a dozen visitors! But luckily he took along a good book, and he also helped Kathee put up her winter display.

I was at home wrapping presents and anxiously waiting for Dick to get home so we could go pick up our new car!

The Credit Union cooperated fully, as usual. They have changed their name from Wayne Out County Teachers Credit Union to Michigan Education Credit Union. So it's not WOCTCU anymore - it's MECU. I'd say that's an improvement. We picked up the 2002 Subaru at Wares Brothers, and our salesman Jeff put on the plates from Dad's car and sent us on our way. Actually, Dick took the Subaru home, and I went to do some errands.

Thirlby Clinic has finally received some flu vaccine, and Dr. Burke had me on his magic list, so I went right over to the clinic and got my flu shot. Dick can't get one there because he is not a patient of the clinic. We'll have to keep checking with the Health Department. Dr. Burke will be spending Christmas in New York with his parents. He and his family are driving to Detroit and then flying to New York. That sounds like quite a production. He's really looking forward to it.

The next business was to take Mother's SS check to the bank. She seems fine.

Mary Barker called and wanted to go out to lunch, but there was really too much other stuff going on. The Barkers are leaving for the winter next week. Not sure yet what McLenithans are doing this year.

Holiday Party

Hooray Hooray! It's the Visitor Center Christmas Party for Volunteers Day! We always look forward to this splendid holiday event. It was at Reflections at the Waterfront, with a spectacular view of East Bay. The food was excellent as always - all kinds of hors d'oeuvres , live entertainment, great ambience, and good company. I mostly enjoyed the meatballs and the veggies - Dick mostly enjoyed the shrimp. We sat with Chuck and Carol - always good conversation there - I enjoyed everything very much. Dick got a chance to speak to the Deans, and we all got a hug from Kathee.

Sue Subaru

This has been an eventful day. We attended the scholarship luncheon at NMC's new Maritime Academy. It was fine - the food was only OK, but the dessert was great!

Then Dick did a little Christmas shopping and I wasn't allowed to go with him. He dropped me off at Horizon, and I had tea and read the paper.

Then we went to Wares Brothers and test drove a silver Subaru Forester, and we really loved it.
Tomorrow we're contacting the WOCTCU to work out the details, and we can pick it up sometime this week. It will replace Dad's Pontiac. It has a moon roof, a 6 disc CD player, heated seats, 4 doors, compass, thermometer, etc. It will be our #1 car, reserving Marco for pulling the boat and trailers. The Subaru should get much better gas mileage - it's only a 4 cylinder engine. So we have to give it a name...maybe Sue....maybe Scout (get it? Hiyo Silver! Get'em up Scout!)

Then we went Christmas shopping, and drove home in our trusty rental car.

Enterprise

Today we took poor sick Marco to The Collision Center on S. Airport Road. The nice man looked it over, the papers were faxed from the insurance company, and the verdict is that it will take 2 weeks. He noticed some damage that we hadn't noticed, and also that the car seemed out of alignment. There was some wheel damage that could have deflated the driver's side front tire. We were lucky to have made it home Friday. We drove over 50 miles with it like that.

We continued on the airport (the new terminal is spectacular) to rent a car. So now we have this little 4 door Dodge Neon, in a graphite color. It's fine. It rides well, it has good pick-up, but it has no bells and whistles. Not even power windows or door locks. The gear shifter is on the floor, so we keep washing the windshield with what should be the gear shifter.

Insurance does not cover the rental car, but we only have a $250 deductible for the body work, so that's not so bad.

I did the library thing for Mother, so she has a new stack of books to read. One of them is a memoir by Barbara Bush about the years following the White House years. I think Mother will really enjoy it. She said the spaghetti dinner from Meijer wasn't that good. We keep trying!
Her neighbor Donna across 10th street is getting a new roof.

Dick worked at the Agency this morning. The main thing was trying to get an Emergency Epic Application for this very needy couple in Lake City. The discouraging thing is that they're younger than we are!

Sally

Sally Sue Kurtz Lagerman has died. She owned the Cut and Curl Beauty Salon on Front Street. She was a very petite, lively 72 year old woman, friendly and hard-working. She has been Mother's hairdresser for about 30 years. Sally always treated Mother like a queen, and they liked to reminisce about the old days at Milliken's, and people that Mother worked with at the store. Mother is 24 years older than Sally was! I can't imagine what "sudden illness" she died of. She always seemed so full of life. Mother is distressed (no pun intended) and I know she will miss Sally very much. We last saw Sally on September 29th when Mother got a perm. In fact the post for Sept. 29th is called Cut and Curl.

We picked up a sympathy card for her to send to Cliff, Sally's husband. When Dad was sick, Cliff would sometimes pick Mother up and take her to the shop and then bring her back home. We also got a spaghetti meal from Meijer so she wouldn't have to worry about supper. Kind of a sad day.

Most Exciting Day After

No, we didn't go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. We went caching. We started out to do some maintenance on our cache at Sharon. It turned out to be dry and didn't really need maintenance, but we did unload some geo-junk and reload it.
While we were there, we tried some nearby caches and had great success. We were really surprised at how much snow was on the ground in Kalkaska County.
While traveling slowly down a gravel section of Blue Lake Road, we hit an icy patch and spun off the road. So next week we'll be renting a car while ours is in the body shop. Thank goodness for insurance.
The damage is not too severe, and we were able to drive it home, but Dick had to crawl through my side to get out.

Happy Thanksgiving

It was a very quiet Thanksgiving here in Lake Woebegone. (Apologies to Garrison Keillor)
The turkey roasted really, really fast in the electric roaster - it was actually done in half the time. I was shocked. But it was yummy, and all 3 of us (count 'em, 3) enjoyed it.

Next to the River and in the woods,
To Mom and Dad's we won't go.
It's too far away, it would be a short stay,
And besides, there is no snow.

Next to the River and in the woods,
It's Grandmother, Dick and I.
Hooray for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hooray for the low-carb pie!

Next to the River and in the woods,
Just we three with creaky knees,
A ho-hum day, no games to play,
And no one to pass the peas.
http://www.walkthroughlife.com/midis/christmas/overriver.htm

Marasco Ranch

Laurie and Chip found a great place to have Dylan's birthday party. The Marasco Ranch has farm animals and ponies to ride. They specialize in children's parties. Sounds much better than a jungle party at home! We shipped off our remaining bandanas from GenFest so everyone at Dylan's party can look like a farmer. These days, it's not just kids - the parents go and party too!

Dylaninvitation2004.jpg (0.03 MB)

Treadmill Tuesday, or The World's Longest Post

Although not a great achievement in the overall sphere of athletic endeavor, today was a great achievement for me! At 5:30 a.m., I walked for 15 uninterrupted minutes on the treadmill downstairs! WooWoo! I was supposed to do it yesterday, but I was afraid to try it, so today I just went down and did it and I didn't even have to rest. The key is to get up and do it right away before coffee or anything. This afternoon I'm to ride the stationary bike for 15 minutes - and that's easier for me.


Last Saturday, all of our kids were in California. Tom is always there, of course. Laurie was working with a 10 hour layover in L.A., and Jana was at a Media Conference at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel from Thursday to Sunday. CQ was nominated for 3 awards, and didn't win any - Jana thinks it's because they won last year!


Dylan has decided that for his birthday this year they'll have a party at home (instead of taking all of his friends to Disney World!) The theme will be jungle or rain forest or some such. When our kids were little, the theme was always cake and ice cream.


Dick has thought up an idea for a new cache. It's a mystery cache based on team animal mascots of Michigan High Schools. In order to figure our the coordinates of the cache, you have to figure out various mascots. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Sunday we went for a drive and found a good hiding spot for it, but it's not finished yet. This is Dick's rough draft:


This cache is dedicated to those nutty fans (Fan comes from Fanatic) who zealously follow Michigan High School sports. These are folks who attend the football playoff and basketball tournament games no matter who is playing. You will see them at regional and state meets for all sports from wrestling to softball and track. They are people who grab the paper or get online each Saturday morning to find the Friday night scores. For you who don’t know one, they are fonts of trivia about Michigan High School sports. They know the mascot of each school or town.

Who else could tell you that Kingsford are the Flivvers or Mt. Clemens the Battling Bathers? That Colon are the Magi, or Ishpeming the Hematites? They know about the Goodrich Martians, the Gwin Modeltowners and the Bessemer Speedboys. Some of them are coaches, some write about sports for the local paper and some are just obsessed with High School sports. For them this cache will be a piece of cake. For normal people you will have to find one and pick their brains, make some phone calls, send some emails or do some on-line research.

The listed coordinates are for the Traverse City District Library. The reference desk and computers are on the second floor.

The cache is an ammo can in the woods a short walk up the hill from a parking area that is alongside the road about 15 miles away. Once you’ve done the research this is a 1/2.5 (Because of the hill) stop and grab. The cache is winter friendly up to about 2 feet of snow cover.

Many of us went to schools whose team mascot represented the ferocity and courage of heroes of the past such as Spartans, Trojans, Titans, Gladiators, Warriors and the like. Others attended schools that chose to be represented by valiant, courageous and often dangerous creatures of the animal kingdom such as Tigers or Stags or Wolverines. These talismans that are used in Michigan by schools large and small can be divided into the following categories:

1)Birds; 2) Insects; 3) Rodents; 4) Cats; 5) Sheep; 6) Horses; 7) Dogs; 8) Bears; 9) Deer; 0) Fish.
To find the cache coordinates, determine the school mascot and assign it to one of the categories above. In the following lines, determine the school mascot and substitute the numbers matching the categories above to determine the minutes. For example, if Belleville or Houghton Lake are the Eagles, the first digit of the minutes would be 1.

N44 Degrees (Belleville, Houghton Lake) (Holly, North Branch) point (Reed City, Genesee) (Southfield, Bellaire) (Saline, Bridgeman) Minutes

W085 Degrees (Ludington, Engadine) (Mesick, Litchfield) point (Ashley, Highland Park) (Pickford, Alpena) (Algonac, Ann Arbor Huron) Minutes



Saturday was a great day for University of Michigan football. We beat Northwestern 42-20, again mostly in the second half. For some reason, our kids don't get warmed up until half time. This from mgoblue.com:

The No. 9-ranked Michigan football team broke open a close game with touchdowns on its first five possessions of the second half and defeated Northwestern 42-20 on Saturday, Nov. 13, in Michigan Stadium. After U-M led 7-6 at halftime on Michael Hart's 34-yard TD run, Hart added a pair of scoring runs and Chad Henne threw TD passes to Jason Avant and Steve Breaston, who completed the Wolverines scoring with a 64-yard punt return for a touchdown. U-M (9-1, 7-0 Big Ten) is assured of at least a share of the Big Ten title.


And then, for the icing on the cake, State clobbered Wisconsin 49-14. Wisconsin had been previously undefeated. This from msuspartans.com:

The Spartans (5-5, 4-3 Big Ten) handed the Badgers their first loss and knocked Wisconsin (9-1, 6-1) into a second-place tie with Iowa in the Big Ten behind Michigan. The win keeps Michigan State's bowl hopes alive.

We were happy campers Saturday!



Dick worked at the Agency on Monday. He had two face to face appointments, and several phone calls. Wednesday he's making a presentation in Fife Lake about the Medicare Prescription Drug Cards. Busy week for MMAP.

P.S.
The day after I posted Basswood Bend Breakdown, the battery died on our Ford Explorer. What will be next?

Basswood Bend Breakdown

This has been a week of breakdowns. The dishwasher was first, then the wheelbarrow, then the Yardman tractor. Mr. Dishwasher Man came on Thursday, checked it out, and said it was his fault - he made a loose connection the last time he was here. So there was no charge - they should pay me for treating my dishpan hands!

The wheel from the wheelbarrow is at Junior's tire place, and Dick can put that back together. In the meantime, we went to the Tractor Store (ex-Farm and Fleet) and bought a new wheelbarrow with 2 pneumatic tires. It should hold tons and tons of firewood.

The tractor has been delivered to Lark Lawn, and hopefully we'll get it back some day. Our John Deere is still at Classic Motor Sports - they've had it since last June. When we break a tractor, it stays broken.


Laurie reports that for his birthday party, Dylan wants to take his friends to Disney World. That boy has big dreams!

Thursday was Veteran's Day and Dylan had no school. When I was teaching we always had school on Veteran's Day. And when I was a student, we called it Armistice Day. The world keeps changing.

DinoDuo

Today we met DinoDuo (Tim and Sue) for brunch at the Big Boy in Kalkaska. Then we all went caching - did 3 together and then went our separate ways. It was very much fun. Dick and I wound up going to Petoskey - ate an early dinner at J W Filmore's, and got home around 6 p.m. It was a very full day, and most enjoyable. Cool, chilly, damp, penetrating day (temp 38). Time to get out the winter jackets.

Yesterday (Monday) Dick had his annual physical, and he's as healthy as a horse :) Then he worked at the Agency, came home and moved a cartful of firewood. After that, from the living room he spotted a bobcat down on the riverside deck. It was very exciting - we've lived many many years and have never seen a bobcat in the wild. I hope we see him/her again.
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461517331_761568386_-1_1/Bobcat.html

I began the third week of my personal exercise program Monday. In the morning I walked on the treadmill for 10 uninterrupted minutes. It was the first time in a long, long time. Lately, I've been needing to sit and rest after 5 or 6 minutes. It doesn't sound like much, but I have to be encouraged because for me it was a big improvement. This week I walk in the morning, bike (stationary bike) in the afternoon, and walk again in the evening. MWF. Now I'm expecting even more improvement as time goes by. This condition has been in remission since around October 1, and now I am beginning to feel very near normal. Wouldn't it be great if it was permanent? WooWoo!

Also on Monday, our wonderful new Bosch dishwasher broke down AGAIN. I'm expecting the guy from Max's Service to come out on Wednesday to fix it. He last came out on October 15. Really now, are we really going to need service every month from now on? Harrumph.

Sunday we took Mom veggie beef soup, three kinds of apples by way of Tom McLenithan, and fresh library books - she's fine - better than ever! Tom B. came over with a nice print of historic U of M buildings that he found on EBay. Very nice, and very thoughtful!

McLenithan has a trapper setting out traps for beaver - we've lost several trees right next to the perennial garden. Mary B. reports that by their house the beaver is building a bridge for Dylan! Tom B. also set out some traps. I'm not a big fan of traps, but I do like our trees...

Quiet Saturday

Started out at Glen's Market mailing letters and donating bottle receipts to a Unit that has just been re-deployed to Iraq. They're collecting bottle slips in honor of the 3rd boy from the left in the poster picture who lost his life in the first deployment. The money will be used to buy treats and necessities for the Unit.
Chef Ricardo made a huge kettle of veggie beef soup.
A bye week for Michigan. We were really pulling for State, but alas, it was not to be. This from msuspartans.collegefootball.com:

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Ted Ginn had three touchdowns and Ohio State rallied by scoring the last 15 points in a 32-19 victory over Michigan State on Saturday.

We wanted State to win and Wisconsin to lose, and neither one of those things happened.

Retrospective

Well, let's see...it's been a while...Oh yes- the election. Dick walked again Last Sunday distributing literature. Then on Election Day we spent the day at the UAW Hall - we were runners delivering food to the Democratic challenger at Precinct 1, East Bay Twp. Then from 4:30 on, Dick was making calls from the challenger lists reminding people who hadn't voted yet to get to the polls. The atmosphere in the afternoon of Election Day was very positive - we were getting feedback about exit polls across the country and it sounded so good. But as we now know, the exit polls were totally wrong, and Kerry lost.
Wednesday, we really didn't want to watch TV or read any newspapers or listen to the radio, so we loaded the car with CDs and drove over to Houghton Lake to take some pictures, leave a travel bug, and find some caches. It would have driven our kids crazy - John Denver, Mamas and Papas, Kingston Trio, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon - we loved it.
Thursday - Dr. appointment - results from Ann Arbor. Added tenormin 25mg, increased amaryl from 1/day to 2/day. Feeling good - no bleeding.
Saw mother on Wed. and Thurs. - doing just fine.

Football Fan Stress Test

The day started off with Dick walking around town distributing Kerry literature for about 2 1/2 hours. He got some great exercise, and his walking partner was interesting. He's planning on doing it again Sunday and Monday.

We took delivery of a beautiful plant - big yellow mums with a huge blue bow - from Sue and John. Go Blue!

Somewhere around 10 a.m. our power went out. Tom Barker said that all of River Road was out. I worked on catalogs for a while, read my book, and thought about my wet clothes in the dryer. It got very dark and windy outside, and so to see my book better, I tried turning on the light - still no power. It finally came back on around 1 or 1:30. If it hadn't come on, we would have gone to a bar to watch the game.

At 3:30 we settled down to watch the Michigan - Michigan State football game. I wasn't worried too much because we are ranked, and the line was Michigan by 11. Well then the roller coaster ride started. State took complete control of the game. They controlled it for the first 3 quarters. The Michigan team was beaten at every turn. We here at home were beginning to feel like whipped puppies. I watched part of the third quarter with a bag over my head.

In the 4th quarter, with 8 minutes to go, I perked up. It was encouraging, but I still didn't expect to win. However... (this from mgoblue.com):

Braylon Edwards caught three touchdown passes, including the game-winner in the third overtime period, as the No. 12-ranked Michigan football team completed a remarkable comeback and defeated Michigan State 45-37 on Saturday, Oct. 30, in Michigan Stadium. Trailing 27-10 with 8:43 left in regulation, Michigan scored 17 points, with the help of two Edwards TD receptions, to send the game to overtime. The teams traded field goals in the first OT and touchdowns in the second before U-M stopped the Spartans in the third.

Yes that's right - 17 points in the last 8 minutes to tie it up. Overtime? How about 3 overtimes. Yes that's right - Three Overtimes. And MICHIGAN WON!! They actually won. Braylon said later it wasn't so much winning, it was more refusing to lose. We were too exhausted to really celebrate.

Poor Tom out in San Diego called us with 2:28 to go in the 4th quarter - his ABC had switched to the USC-Washington State game, and he wasn't able to see The Game. We talked him through to the end, and what an end it was!

The State quarterback had to leave with a shoulder injury, and that's always sad. But then again, Dowdell is not exactly a back-up quarterback. It reminded me of the game where State broke Jim Harbaugh's arm and went on to win. It's always heart-breaking.

State most likely really deserved to win this game. They played the best they could possibly play for as long as they possibly could. We really didn't play until half way through the 4th quarter. But MICHIGAN WON!! Thank you Braylon. Thank you Chad. This game is one for the books.

Sharon, John, Sue and John really had quite the football experience in our end zone seats! Spartan green and white Sharon sent this great letter. You almost feel like you were there:

Actually, I think we certainly got "your money's worth"! What a game! Although I wish the outcome would have been different (can we have those 5 minutes back in the 4th quarter?). It was an outstanding game to experience. What emotional highs and lows, and certainly from the Spartans side, so many "if only's." I think I am still a little heart broken this morning...but pleased with the way we hung in there even after Stanton went down...at least until 6 minutes to go. Then of course it became the Braylon Edwards show. I happen to be one of those that thinks that, especially after the 2nd overtime, you just say it is a tie because neither team deserved to lose that game. I thought the officiating was very bad (but equally bad to both sides). Both teams certainly left everything on the field. We missed you! It was fun visiting with Susan and John (but not the same without you). Susan's John is trying really hard to make Michigan his 3rd favorite team (but it is still a struggle)! Your friends in the stands were great even to John and I although when the score was 27-10 I think they were ready to blame it on you! I don't think I have ever seen The Big House so quiet for most of the game. The real explosion of noise finally came after the on side kick and then didn't let up until the end. Your friends in the stands encouraged us to "Beat Wisconsin" for them. I hope we can! I hope the Spartans can regroup since we have Ohio State next weekend and Stanton is expected to be out 2 to 3 weeks at least. I think Michigan is glad they have a bye week to recover. John and Susan parked by Molly's dorm and I think they were fine getting back to their car. Because I remembered when we went to the games with you how crazy the traffic patterns are after the games (one way streets, etc), and not being too familiar with the streets in Ann Arbor, John and I parked at Briarwood (Kensington Hotel) and took the bus shuttle in. It was great for us. Especially since (except for the few people that left when the score got the 27-10) everyone stayed for the whole game. What a mob scene leaving the stadium! We didn't have to wait more that 5 minutes for a bus and then we got right on 94 west at State Street. The line on State Street going to 94 east was very long. Susan and I thought a lot about you both during the game. We kept saying "D & N aren't happy right now" then Susan would say "her Mom and Dad must be very anxious now", etc. You certainly were missed, but your Go Blue vibes came through in the end. I think people will remember this game for a long time. Thanks so much for letting us experience it first hand!

My Dell is Back!

This morning we ran errands in town - mailed a birthday card, took shirts to Progress, went to drug store, etc., etc., and PICKED UP MY COMPUTER from the Computer Doctor. Then we had to go to Circuit City to get a USB port replicator and a Norton Anti-Virus 2005 upgrade. Now I'm ready to start shopping on the internet!! WooWoo!

This evening we went out to dinner at The Harbor Watch (buy one get one free) and had great salads. Then we went over to the UAW Hall for a meeting of Democratic Party volunteers for Election Day. I think we'll be runners (in the car) and Dick signed up to make phone calls. I must say that the Grand Traverse County Democratic Party is perhaps not the most highly organized you could find. In fact - well - it was a Chinese fire drill. Let's hope Election Day runs more smoothly. See you at the polls :)

MMAP Training

Dick had the quarterly all-day training today at the Agency. This is the fist time I didn't go with him. I haven't been working at the Agency for some time now, mainly for health reasons. Now that I'm feeling better, I've found that I'm in no hurry to return to the office. I gave him talking points for today, because I didn't want him going into any great detail of what we've been dealing with. So I asked him to just say that I'm a MMAP drop-out. I enjoyed it for 5 years, but now I'm moving on to other things. So I guess that worked, mostly.

I stayed home, read books, played computer games, went grocery shopping at Meijer, and just generally enjoyed myself.

Old Stomping Grounds

When you're a senior citizen, you keep winding up at a doctor's office or at Munson for tests. This time it was Dick. He had an esophogram this morning and it showed that he has no tumor or ulcer in his throat. Whew! So now it's up to the good doctor to figure out what the problem is.

Whenever we have a procedure at Munson, we end up going out to breakfast. I chose the Green House Cafe - I love that place! We're trying to stick to an Atkins type diet for several reasons, and it was hard not ordering the English muffin toast! But it was a fantastic breakfast.

Spent the afternoon looking through catalogs getting ideas for Christmas. I love ordering on the internet. I'll be getting my computer back from the Computer Doctor on Thursday morning, and then stand back!

Today is Tom's birthday! Happy Birthday Tom!

Soup of the Evening

For some reason, having soup for supper reminded me of Alice in Wonderland and the mock-turtle soup song. For the lyrics, go to:

http://ingeb.org/songs/beautifs.html

Thanks to Lewis Carroll. " Soo-oop of the evening, beautiful beautiful soup."

For an "exquisite rendering" of the song, go to:

http://www.soupsong.com/mocksong.html

In this case it was bean soup made with a hambone from Heavenly Ham. It was made by Chef Ricardo, and it was heavenly.


The Lions actually won today. It was a little flukey, but it was a W. (No, not that W)

We visited mother, balanced her check book, took out the trash, and did her recycling. And we took her some soooooop of the evening.

Sharon Vescio, one of our seatmates at the stadium, called to see how things went at the doctor in Ann Arbor. So she got the full story.

Interesting Week and Go Blue

It's been a whole week - seems like just a couple of days!
On Tuesday we drove down to Ann Arbor to consult with Dr. Grace Elta about gastro-enterological issues (my insides). She is renowned in her field, and she's also a Professor at U of M Med School. Dr. Elta was full of praise for the treatment I've been receiving in T.C. and she was very complimentary regarding Dr. Burke's report to her. It was all good. We liked her, and she liked us.

She feels that based on some low platelet counts in previous tests, the culprit could be my liver (NASH - non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis) which can cause bleeding in the intestines. (Go figure). So she suggests changing my blood pressure medication - prinivil (zestril) to tenormin (atenolol) because tenormin might be more helpful for the liver.

She also suggests a mild estrogen (birth control pill) which inhibits bleeding. It's interesting because this bleeding never showed up until after I stopped taking estrogen because of the national scare about it causing heart problems. So I stopped the estrogen and started bleeding. It's probably not that simple, but it's interesting.

So after talking to Dr. Burke we'll probably try the prescription changes for several months and see if there's improvement. If not, then we'll get more aggressive in checking out the liver.

It was a successful and worthwhile visit. I had some blood tests to check on liver function and current CBC (complete blood count). U of M Hospital is huge, but luckily there is a parking structure right next to the place we had to go (Pod A- Level 3 -Taubman Center)

We ate dinner Tuesday night at the Olive Garden (blast from the past). Spent the night at the Fairfield Inn. Wednesday morning we started a leisurely drive back to T.C. with geo-caching along the way. In all we did 7 caches on the way home. We came by an unusual route - brunch in Elsie (not kidding) at Tyler's Diner and dinner in Big Rapids at Bennigan's (a great place if you ever get the chance).

Eric sent me an exercise program specifically tailored for me - I'm so happy. I'm starting it on Monday.

Our new porch roof is finished and I think we'll be very happy with it. Dick will build a floor in the spring.

Well, Michigan has to play Purdue today in West Lafayette - it should be a battle of the titans. Go Blue.
State has a bye to prepare to play Michigan next week.

Somehow Michigan pulled this one out and won by a very narrow margin, 16-14. This from mgoblue.com:

Garrett Rivas booted a 35-yard field goal with 2:45 left in the game to lift the No. 13-ranked Michigan football team to a 16-14 victory over No. 12 Purdue on Saturday, Oct. 23, in West Lafayette, Ind. The U-M defense clinched the victory when, with Purdue driving, Ernest Shazor forced a fumble that was recovered by Leon Hall at the U-M 43-yard line. Michael Hart rushed 33 times for 206 yards, becoming the first Wolverine since 1990 to run for 200 yards in consecutive games, and caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Chad Henne.

I'm hoping that our luck will hold for 3 more games!! Wouldn't it be fun to play Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl?

Rain, Rain, and Then Some Rain

Our day was brightened by the Michigan game, which Michigan finally decided to win after a dismal first half. This from mgoblue.com:

The No. 14-ranked Michigan football team scored 20 unanswered points to rebound from a seven-point halftime deficit and defeat Illinois 30-19 on Saturday, Oct. 16, in Champaign, Ill. Michael Hart turned in another workhorse effort, carrying the ball 40 times for 234 yards and U-M's final touchdown, while Chad Henne connected with Tyler Ecker for a touchdown through the air and scored the go-ahead TD on a two-yard quarterback draw. Scott McClintock had a pair of interceptions, including one that clinched the win.

Meanwhile, State was scalding Minnesota 51-17.

But it's still raining, it's windy, and all of the leaves are falling down like snow.


Dark and a little bit dreary.

We have to make our own sunshine today.

VisionInGTC

Dick spent the day at the visioning meeting (9-3).
http://www.visioningtc.com/

He'll have to write about what went on there.
I stayed home with the construction crew and the dishwasher repairman. We had a party. Well, maybe not. At least now we can use the dishwasher. A wire had burned out somehow.

We got a great picture in the mail - thank you Dylan. He drew a picture of our property with all the paths and everything. It's a masterpiece.

Oak Wood

Six cords of oak wood were delivered today by Lake Ann Hardwood (Mark Gabrick). It's all cut and split! Hooray!
Barkers came over so I could proof read some labels.

A-Kayaking We Will Go

Dick ran errands all morning - got his haircut, went shopping, etc, etc. I was at home doing laundry and washing all of the dishes that were in the dishwasher when it quit working. Yes, that's right - our fancy new Bosch dishwasher that we've had for just a little over a year, quit working. Max's Service said they would come out on Friday. So meanwhile we're hand-washing everything. It's like camping out in the kitchen !

The construction crew didn't show up until almost 11 a.m. - I was surprised. But they have a good start on our new porch roof, and I think we will love it when it's finished.

When Dick got home, he loaded up the kayak and we drove over to Torch River to get a cache that's out in the middle of the river. I kid you not. It's called the Torch River Paddle In. I think it took Dick about 5 minutes to go out there and back from the boat launch. It was another absolutely gorgeous fall day.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ec4c79d9-d5db-419e-ac38-ba61997e59cd

We decided to drive home by way of Elk Rapids. At the corner of Aarwood and Crystal Beach, Dick spotted the most spectacular wooden carved gatepost! It has a porcupine on top and a raccoon peeking out of a hole on the upright. It's almost hidden because it blends in so well with the background. We visited a couple of boat launches on Elk Lake to check them out for possible cache hiding purposes. Found at least one really good one.

We were too tired for debate watching. I watched Lost on TiVo, went to bed early and listened to the debate on the radio. Didn't learn anything new.

Back to Old Mission

There was a new cache placed North of the village of Old Mission, so after Dick talked to the crew chief on our construction project, off we went to find it. It was a gorgeous day - cool temps and warm sunshine. We hiked on a trail in a new park, and it was beautiful. The cache had 3 stages, and it was an interesting and enjoyable hide. We were the First Finders.

This is what Dick posted on the geocaching website:

October 12
What fun! You could drive back here when we were kids, haven't been back in many years. We loved the various methods of conveying the coordinates to the next stage. We found the cache with no trouble (After rereading the instructions and then following them.) and started a first finders dance but decided that it would be best if we dispensed with our arthritic efforts and replaced them with a simple "high five". We took the Blue Jays energizers, (Thanks, we needed that.) and left one of our Michigan quarters, (In a pinch, call for help.) the Lone Ranger, Tonto, and Scout, (In dire straits, they'll ride to the rescue) and Thumb Buddies Dream. (Give a man a fish ... ) Next we checked a TB in and out for some miles. We then signed and stamped the log and headed to the Grill for lunch. Thanks Blue Jays for a fun adventure.

Finished Blowout by Catherine Coulter, my new favorite author.

What a Squeaker!

Michigan was finally victorious but it wasn't easy. 27-24 (by the skin of our teeth)

This from mgoblue.com:
It didn't take freshmen Michael Hart and Chad Henne long to make a mark in the Little Brown Jug series. Hart rushed 35 times for 160 yards, a U-M freshman record, and one touchdown, and Henne was 33 of 49 passing for 328 yards and two TDs as the No. 14 Michigan football team earned a 27-24 comeback victory over No. 13 Minnesota on Saturday, Oct. 9, at Michigan Stadium. Henne completed 5 of 6 passes to march Michigan 87 yards for the deciding score with 1:57 to play, hitting Tyler Ecker for the 31-yard game-winning TD.

87 yards in less than 2 minutes - it was amazing. I almost couldn't watch because I was so afraid they would make a mistake! We love Tyler Ecker. Whew! State won big over Illinois, so it was a good football Saturday. Go Lions.

To celebrate, we went into town to mail some bills, and get coffee and iced tea.

Driving into town along US 31 North, we noticed that all of the motels had no vacancy signs - and even the smaller motels closer to town had no vacancies - is it the fall color, do you think?
Downtown Traverse City looked like the middle of July because of all the people out walking around. I don't know exactly what was going on, but people were swarming all up and down Front St. A lot of them were carrying shopping bags too - hooray.

At the Division St./Parkway intersection there were three police cars lined up behind a car that was being searched by an officer - we couldn't tell what was going on. Strange happenings.

We drove out to Old Mission Point because the cache that was out there has changed ownership and been moved, so naturally we had to go find it. It was easy. We couldn't believe how many people were out at Lighthouse Park - it was really a busy spot. It was a gorgeous day to be on the peninsula - the water was bluer than blue.

Tom called while we were on the way home. He was at a Porsche auto event - hoping to come in third. He's going out to dinner tonight with Kevin Washington - they'll have a great time. Tomorrow he and Todd are playing Fantasy Football with the Koss brothers. What a good old Belleville group is that!

Rain Followed by Rain, Brightened by Jana

Dick saw Dr. Nelson this morning to check his scratchy throat. He got a good report. The doctor said he couldn't see anything wrong, but just to doublecheck, Dick is scheduled for a procedure on Oct. 26 (Tom's birthday).


We went out to breakfast at The Harbor Watch, a new place out on West Bay Shore Drive. It's a nice looking new restaurant - it looks like a lighthouse. The food was excellent.

This was a good day to make veggie soup, read a good book, and play on the computer. It rained all day, and then at night we had a thunder storm.



Talked to Jana in the evening. CQ has won two prestigious awards, and she will be attending the awards ceremony in Hollywood. Jana's site was nominated for General Excellence. This is her award-winning site:
http://www.cq.com/corp/login.do;jsessionid=3FDB86CA91EF95C800CACB9E0148FADD.monhegan?jumpto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cq.com%2Fhome.do

Excerpt from announcement article:

LOS ANGELES -- The finalists for the fifth annual Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) were announced Thursday by the Online News Association (ONA) and the USC Annenberg School for Communication. The contest, which honors excellence in digital journalism, was judged by a team of distinguished journalists during a two-day event on the USC campus on Oct. 1 and 2.

The winners will be announced at the OJA Awards Banquet during the fifth national conference of the Online News Association, which will be held Nov. 12-13 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.

"The finalists for this year's Online Journalism Awards represent the finest work being done in online news today," said Doug Feaver, President of the Online News Association and executive editor of Washingtonpost.com. "The finalists show us that online journalism is maturing. Sites large and small are learning how to tell compelling stories, cover the news, give advice and investigate wrongdoing through the use of text, audio, video and graphics brought together with increasingly creative designs."

Jana brightened up our rainy day!

Tear Off the Siding

The workers have arrived to re-insulate the house and build a porch roof. Today all they really did was to remove the siding, so the house looks like a tar paper shack. It may rain tomorrow, but the weather looks good for the next several days, so they should be able to make steady progress. The crew chief is a talker, very friendly. One of the crew is interested in buying Dad's old Pontiac.

During the summer, we left our John Deere at Classic Motor Sports to have the transmission repaired. We haven't heard anything from them, so Dick called - and they don't know where it is and they can't find a work order. This could get interesting! It's a good thing that we have the second tractor.

Finally got around to cutting back the flowers in the perennial garden. There's a lot more work to do out there. Some of the weeds are very healthy looking! And I need to rake out the leaves, too.

We drove into town for a look-see and to fill up the tank after yesterday's trip. There was another cruise ship in the bay - it's getting to be a regular occurrence. We saw it starting its way north on its way out. Driving home on River Road, it's apparent that fall is here. This weekend would be a good weekend for the dinner train to do a color tour.



Dick has been having a scratchy throat lately, and tomorrow morning he's going to see Dr. Nelson (ENT) to check it out.

Road Trip

Walters and Hemming showed up and declared there was nothing wrong with the furnace. He did clean up a few things, but didn't have to repair anything.

When he left, we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted, so we went on a remarkable road trip, lasting from 11 a.m. until 8:30 p.m.! Of course we were out geo-caching. The adventure began at the Bottle House in Kaleva, and ended in the Manistee National Forest with six caches in all.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d1c4c48e-a34e-4e60-84f6-c6cfb11b1dd1

We found two caches on High Bridge Road. It was an enjoyable drive through the National Forest. The North Country Trail winds around through that area, and one of the caches we found in the forest was right on the trail.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4fd7da5c-78d7-4422-b51d-7a95be0019da

We ate lunch in Manistee at Four Forty West. It's a challenge driving through Manistee these days because the U.S.31 bridge is under construction and traffic is detoured through the town. The town is not designed for highway traffic, and the lines were horrendous.


So once we got through that, we decided to keep going and not try to return on 31. We found some great caches southwest of Manistee, and while we were there, we went down Sugar Grove Rd. to check out Bill and Jan's old cottage on Round Lake near Fountain. It brought back lots of good memories, and it looks great.
Ate dinner at the Hofbrau House in Interlochen - very nice as usual.

Off To See The Wizard

This morning Dick noticed that the furnace was coming on erratically. He researched the problem and decided to call for service. Walters and Hemming are coming tomorrow. In the meantime, the wood stove is doing a great job of keeping us cozy.

Mother and I went blithely off to see Dr. Auer, forgetting that it was an appointment for her annual physical. Oh well - she refused almost all of the exams except for stethoscope for heart and lungs.

We told the Doctor about her bad reaction to the neurontin 300 mg., so he gave us a new prescription for neurontin 100 mg. She didn't want to get it filled today, so it's filed away in her purse.

Mother is extremely short of breath and has lots of spells of dizziness. Dr. Auer's nurse (Brandi) put an oxygen test device on Mother's finger and took her for a short walk, and it revealed that her blood oxygen was very low. Brandi did an EKG, which showed little change from last year's results, so her heart is not the problem. Dr. Auer thinks it may be that Mom's lungs are not working properly. He said she needed a chest x-ray, and a test at Munson to determine lung function (using a peak flow meter). He recommended home oxygen to ease her shortness of breath. Mother's responses: chest x-ray - No; test at Munson - No; home oxygen - I don't want to do that. Dr. Auer put each recommendation on her computerized chart, followed by "politely declined".

Mother did agree to go to the lab for blood tests. He's testing for thyroid function, because of her sleepiness and for anemia because of her low oxygen level. She also got her flu shot.
She's a real trooper at the Doctor's office. I know it's hard for her to get around, but she won't hear of a wheelchair or a walker. She just leans on my arm and holds her head up. She weighed 105 and was 62 inches tall (both while wearing shoes).

So I guess things will go on as they are now indefinitely - she's happy just being at home. Dr. Auer told her to take it very easy, and don't bend over or do anything that might make her light-headed. We were there for 2 hours, and most of that time, Dr. Auer was with her. He is very considerate of her and talks about Dutch and I think she almost enjoys it!

In the evening we watched the Vice-Presidential debate. It was very absorbing and we watched every word for the full 90 minutes. We feel it was most likely a draw. We would have liked to hear Cheney explain Halliburton a bit more, and answer some of the charges Edwards made. For instance Cheney voted against Headstart and the Department of Education among other domestic issues when he was in Congress. This is shocking to me and I would have like to hear the explanation. I also thought it was alarming that he would back the President on the Constitutional amendment against gay marriage, even though he disagrees with it. Sometimes loyalty can be carried too far, especially if it goes against your personal beliefs.

Fall is Definitely Here At Last

Yesterday Dick built a fire in the wood stove and it felt so good. This morning he did it again, and I think our wood-burning season is definitely here. That wood fire feels terrific!
Dick spent the day at the Agency - had 2 appointments and a walk-in together with all the phone messages - he had a very busy day.
I went to the Let's Go Blue Shop to pick up the money from the Iowa tickets, and left the Minnesota and Northwestern tickets for them to sell. Dick has decided he's going to stay home with me and watch the rest of Michigan's season on TV.

I'm really sorry that we have to miss all the fun of the stadium, but I'm happy to have him stay home with me. Yesterday we sent State tickets to the Washingtons and the Lichtenbergs.
I drove down to the marina, intending to walk a bit on the TART, but it was so cold and windy that I changed my mind. The wind was out of the north, and the waves were crashing - a really chilly day.

TCL&P, NFL, and Mother

Life on River Road was extremely frustrating this morning: Dick was trying to use his computer; I was trying to watch something on TiVo (the end of Apprentice). Between 7:30 and 8:30, the power clicked off 8 times. It would come back on within 2 minutes or so, but the thing is - the computer has to reboot each time and go through all of the security features, etc., so it would just get back up and running, and the power would click off again. And as for the TiVo, it takes several minutes to power up also. So over and over again, we kept thinking - there - it's all fixed now...but no! I tried calling L&P to see if they were aware of what was happening, but the line was busy, so I guess they were aware. Finally it quit altogether for a while, and when it came back it was a brown-out situation, so Dick flicked the master switch to protect our motors.


Eventually we got back into total power and it's been OK since. Cheesh. Later in the day we went into town via Keystone Road, and there was a lot of equipment sitting around those new poles along the railroad track. Dick thinks that they switched off the power each time they connected a new line. He's probably right.

There was a lot of soccer-doccering going on at the TBAYS fields - they were only using the new end.

We watched some football - Tom Brady and the New England Patriots for a while and later, Denver and Tampa Bay. Football is fun. Tom Brady beat the Buffalo Bills 31-17. Brady hasn't lost in 53 weeks.



We went into see Mother - I took in some chili for her supper, and some cans of beef stew for later. She was in her drowsy mode - very weak, couldn't keep her eyes open, slurred speech- for most of the visit. She took a Neurontin last night, and I think that drug just wipes her out for hours and hours. It must be way too strong for her. Luckily we have a doctor appointment for her on Tuesday so I can check with her doctor to see if there's a smaller dosage, or if she could take just half a pill. I'm convinced that it's not her, it's the drug that causes this reaction. Dick removed the air conditioner, put away the hoses, turned off the outside water, changed the furnace filter, took out the trash and the recycling, and removed the plants from the dining room. Mother didn't want them any more. After we got home, I called her, and she seemed much better - more alert and more like her old self.