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!

East Jordan

Dick had a Medicare presentation at East Jordan High School at 6 p.m. We left around 4 p.m. and the driving was a little slow because of some freezing precipitation - it wasn't too bad, but it did slow us down a bit. We had planned to eat out before the presentation, but we didn't have enough time, so we decided to just grab a bite on the way home.

East Jordan High School is a beautiful new facility. We were impressed with the architecture, and cleanliness, the displays, and the spaciousness. The meeting was in the auditorium, and there were about 60 people there. Dick did his usual terrific job of presenting very difficult material. He is so relaxed and natural and full of common sense. He has a great delivery - his projection is great, and his personality is perfect for putting people at ease. I know that when people left, they understood a lot more about the Medicare Part D Drug Benefit. I know from overhearing some folks on the way out that they have a plan now, a strategy about what to do and how to accomplish it.

We ended up eating at Schelde's in Traverse City - had great Reuben sandwiches.

Mac and Chee

Today we went to the Old Mission Peninsula Wineries' Annual Macaroni and Cheese Bake-Off and Wine Tasting. Whew - that's a mouthful! (So to speak.) We stopped first at Chateau Chantal,probably because it's our favorite. We tasted the Late Harvest Reisling and the Nice Red, and then headed to the "breakfast room" for the Mac and chee. The restaurants represented were Trillium, and two others that I'll remember in a minute! The one in the middle had the best Mac and chee. We left with a case of wine, half Reisling and half Nice Red.

Next was a new winery called Brys Cellars. They have a lovely setting and a beautiful new facility. The wine-tasting counter was full, so we headed right to the Mac and chee and great news for us, the wine-maker himself was serving at a table along the line. We tasted Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay. The restaurants were Peninsula Grill and the NMC Culinary Institute. The Grill served fantastic Mac and chee - it was now #1 in my book. The Institute was very creative and served Reuben Mac and Chee complete with Russian dressing. I discovered that I'm a traditionalist.

Off to Bowers Harbor Winery, where they had already run out of Mac and chee. But we got a good spot at the tasting counter, and I asked for something sweet and white. I got something called Cooper and it was really good - a lot like Reisling, but with a bit of a bite. Dick went for more gewurtztraminer. We left with 2 bottles of Cooper and 2 bottles of champagne for the holidays.

Last we stopped in at Chateau Grand Traverse, another of our favorites. It was very crowded, so we went directly to the Mac and chee. The restaurants were Stella and Windows. Stella won, hands down. They had a goat cheese Mac and chee with crushed biscotti mixed in - wow, it was good. It had a pleasant spicy tang it was really good. The two I liked best at the end of the day were the Peninsula Grill and Stella, and one had fine bread crumbs and the other had the crushed biscotti - so the next time I make macaroni and cheese, guess what I'm going to try.

Turkey Blizzard

Yes, it was a blizzard, not a gizzard (feeble attempt at humor). We've seen worse, but the roads were bad - very slippery. We spent a nice day with Mother - brought her a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, and she gobbled it up. (sorry) She enjoys watching football as long as she can stay awake.

Today she was interested in recent happenings among the Concord Place staff - 2 people have quit and the Director is on vacation until Monday. Ann was offered the full time position, and Marla was offended. These gals are all great with the residents, but they seem to be having troubles amongst themselves. As long as Mother is well cared for.....

Shop Til You Drop

I had such fun shopping today - even though most of it was at Walmart. I know, I know, we're supposed to be boycotting Walmart because of their treatment of immigrant employees, and their general overall treatment of their "associates" - lack of benefit packages, etc. I know.

But they had everything I wanted all in one place, and the prices really are good. Among other things, I bought three seasonal tops for Mother so that she can be celebratory in assisted living. I bought some more envelopes for sending Kanitz Family Tree Books, because the requests keep rolling in. And then I went across the street to Catherine's and bought a new casual coat - just what I wanted.

Mother and I had a nice visit, and she appreciated having the new tops.

Frederick Todd Geib was born Nov. 20, 2005 - 7lbs 9oz, 20 inches long. He was born at 10:40 p.m. and he'll be called Fritz. His lucky parents are Todd and Stacey. The baby is my first cousin twice removed, and Mother's great-grandnephew. Got that?

Home Again

We went out to breakfast with Sniders - it was enjoyable, as always. We've decided not to exchange Christmas gifts anymore because they now have 4 grandchildren and one more on the way. I'm sure they would rather buy gifts for the kids! I know I would!

It was an uneventful drive home. This time we just headed up I-75 and went directly home - no geocaching or major stops. I must admit that I slept most of the way. During one of my naps Dick reported seeing 25+ deer strapped onto the southbound cars and trucks.

Took the turkey out of the freezer.

Oops!

We had a rather hazardous drive downstate yesterday - the weather was snowy and blowy all the way to Mt. Pleasant. There was bumper to bumper traffic for some reason, and we were alongside when someone in the outside lane rear-ended the car in front of him. Dick pulled over to the shoulder, and it's a good thing, too, because the car behind the rear-ender pulled over into our lane. We just sat there for a few seconds, and then re-entered the bumper to bumper traffic. It was not our best travel day.

Bill made us a big breakfast this morning and we were off to the "Greatest Rivalry in College Football". Actually, it seems that there are 4 or 5 other "Greatest Rivalries", but this one is ours. During the game I was confident that we would win. Everything seemed to be going our way - fumble recoveries, turnovers, questionable calls, etc. And our team seemed to be scoring and defending in the best possible way. But then with 53 seconds left on the clock, everything went south, and OSU pulled it out to tie for the Big Ten Championship with Penn State. We were so disappointed - being a Michigan fan is a little bit like riding an out-of-control roller coaster.

Saw Rick before the game, and he gave me the pages of family history that he had sent me by email, but were too large to be workable. It was fun to see him - and I think it's a minor miracle to run into him amidst the swarming 111,599 others who were there!

When we got back to Canton, we all watched State lose to Penn State. Heavy Sigh.

We're Off to Beat Ohio

As we prepare to leave for the Ohio State game, I leave you with this:


Oh, how we hate Ohio State

Maize & Blue aim to make blasted Buckeyes red with embarrassment

By Bob Wojnowski / The Detroit News

The Big Game

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Saturday, Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor

ANN ARBOR -- Uh-oh, here they come again, loaded for beer, spittin' passion. According to my sources in law enforcement, Buckeyes began streaming across the border at midweek, clogging rest areas and hourly rate motels. At this very moment, local convenience stores are calling for emergency supplies of Slim Jims and pickled eggs.

Perhaps you've seen them around town, their eyes as glazed as their doughnuts. If so, approach with caution, because these are not the beaten-down folks of a few years ago, back when Michigan regularly drummed Ohio State in a rivalry we truly love, and occasionally fear.

The Buckeyes are back. That's a statement, and also a warning. They've beaten the Wolverines three of the past four years and are favored to do it again Saturday at Michigan Stadium.

Listen. Nothing in the sports world matches Ohio State-Michigan for high stakes, unfiltered intensity and pure pageantry. I mean, there's no greater spectacle than when the Ohio State marching band clambers onto that field and desperately tries to spell out script O-H-O-I.

But let me be honest with you, just this once. I'm concerned some people take the rivalry a bit too far. (Not me!)

For the purposes of this column, I loosely define "some people" as "drunken Buckeyes."

You might recall Ohio State once had a fine coach by the name of John Cooper who won lots and lots of games. But astute Buckeyes fans noticed he was 2-10-1 against the Wolverines and demanded he be fired.

Cooper was replaced by Jim Tressel, who somehow is 3-1 against Michigan's Lloyd Carr despite wearing the geekiest sweater vest you've ever seen. We're never sure if Tressel is coaching football or teaching fifth-grade math. Put a sweatshirt on, man.

Almost immediately, Tressel swiped some of Michigan's trademark arrogance without even asking. When he arrived, he began counting down the days to Ohio State's first visit to Ann Arbor. Then he had the audacity to win that game. Later, he hired, er, signed a running back by the name of Maurice Clarett and won a national title.

Quickly, the Buckeyes' obsession returned, and things really got nasty last year in Columbus (city slogan: "$#@& Michigan"). Before the game, in an incident I'm not making up, bomb-sniffing dogs were set loose on Michigan's equipment truck. Michigan coaches and players were searched before security let them in, confident they weren't hiding a creative game plan.

It was stupid and patently disrespectful, and Ohio State officials knew it, once it was explained to them what "patently" meant. I have no idea what retaliation Michigan is planning, although I've heard rumors of rubber gloves and needle-nosed pliers.

Maybe it's time for the Wolverines to crank up the gamesmanship before Carr gets turned into Cooper before our eyes. The Buckeyes long have treated this rivalry more rabidly than the Wolverines, going back to the days when Woody Hayes refused to mention Michigan by name, calling it, according to my memory, "that far superior school up north."

I'm not sure why this passion deficit exists, but it does. Maybe Michigan fans simply have other distractions in their lives, like dealing with Michigan State fans or running major corporations.

Now don't get me wrong. The Wolverines relish the rivalry and are hardly blameless in fostering ill will. While Buckeyes take pride in making Ohio Stadium the noisiest, most profane place imaginable, Michigan fans have been known to violently shush people. Michigan officials even introduced this week something called "Values for the Victors," a sportsmanship initiative designed to squelch bad behavior, on the field and in the stands.

(Note to our Buckeyes friends: This has nothing to do with your visit this week. Noooo. Nothing at all. Please drop the broken beer bottle and step away.)

(Note to everyone else: When they're riled, it's best to Taser them in the buttocks.)

I know, I know. I sound like a biased whiner. Hey, it's my job. But for more evidence of poor behavior, I found numerous stories of Texas fans complaining about mistreatment in Columbus, after the Longhorns beat the Buckeyes this season. Ohio State's president (yes, they have one) even apologized. One of Ohio State's own, tight end Ryan Hamby, said he received hate e-mails after dropping a potential touchdown pass in the game.

Speaking of that, to stem the deluge of perky messages from Buckeyes fans, the address at the end of this column will accept e-mails only from those who affix 37-cent stamps. So don't even try to send one without the postage! Also, before you ask, I'm not nearly limber enough to put my head where you think it belongs.

I'm here to study the Buckeyes, not denigrate them. Remember, this whole Michigan-Ohio battle started way back in 1835 when the states actually fought over Toledo, true story. Ohio won but took Toledo anyhow. In exchange, Michigan got the Upper Peninsula, Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard and four free passes to Cedar Point.

It's really not surprising that so many Ohio youngsters, such as Heisman Trophy winners Woodson and Howard, dream of coming to Michigan. This year's Michigan roster lists 11 kids who escaped Ohio, while Ohio State has one from Michigan. We won't mention his name in case his family doesn't know.

To be fair, when the Buckeyes got sick of losing, they did turn to quarterback Craig Krenzel, from Michigan's Utica Ford High, to lead them to that completely untainted national title. See, we can help each other, once we understand each other. That's why I'm here, to educate.

For instance, in case Ohioans didn't know, these are the three biggest industries in Michigan:

• Making automobiles.

• Pretending to fix the roads.

• Repossessing automobiles.

In case Michiganians didn't know, these are the three biggest industries in Ohio:

• Giving out speeding tickets to Michigan drivers.

• Recycling tobacco tins.

• Fixin' their trucks.

There. Doesn't it feel like we're getting along better already?

As for the game itself, well, it's still huge, even though Michigan spent the first half of the season playing patty-cake with opponents. Now, if Michigan wins and Michigan State does its big brother a favor and somehow doesn't lose by nine touchdowns to Penn State (ha, good one!), the Wolverines (7-3) become Big Ten champs.

After years of Wolverine dominance, we do find the Buckeyes (8-2) and their newly frothing passion fascinating, if a bit startling. But historically, this rivalry is more about the underdog than the bomb-sniffing dog. For the sake of neighborly peace, it'd be best if Michigan restored order.

Pick: Michigan 23-20.

You can reach Bob Wojnowski, if you're nice, at bob.wojnowski@ detnews.com.

Copyright © 2005
The Detroit News.
Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 12/19/2002).

A Little Bit Dreary

We left Canton early, and did 7 caches on the way home. Dick had to do them by himself because a) I wasn't feeling well, b) some involved a lot of walking, and
c) the weather was miserable - dark, dreary, overcast and misty. But he did find seven caches, so he did well in spite of everything.

We ate lunch at Bennigan's in Big Rapids, one of our new favorite places...and while we were there, there was a power failure! What is it with us and restaurants losing their power? Shades of the Blackout at Hillcrest last week! Luckily, we were just finishing up when the power failed. We had wanted to fill the gas tank before we got back on the freeway, but with no power, the gas stations couldn't pump gas. So we drove off on the freeway keeping watch for signs of power - and Reed City had electricity, so we filled up and headed for home.

Traverse City had also experienced a wind storm and power failure. We had electricity by the time we got home, but no phone service. Our TV with TiVo was not working, so we felt lucky to have our computers up and running for logging caches and reading e-mail. Our neighbors suffered some tree damage, but nothing really serious. We haven't noticed any downed branches on our property.

Michigan vs. Indiana - the Creamed and Crimson

The final score was 41-14 - it was a most pleasant afternoon.

We enjoyed visiting with our stadium neighbors today. This season we are usually too busy biting our fingernails to carry on a conversation with anybody, so this was an enjoyable respite from football stress.

The only downside was that somehow our row was extremely overcrowded, and for most of the game we were practically immobilized by the crowding. You couldn't possibly even get a kleenex out of your pocket! I was poking my self with my own elbows! I'm sure that some of those folks were sitting in the wrong row.

This from mgoblue:

After Indiana scored a touchdown on its opening drive, No. 21 Michigan scored 41 unanswered points in the first half, including 27 in the second quarter, and breezed to a 41-14 victory on Saturday, Nov. 12, in Michigan Stadium. Kevin Grady rushed 14 times for 94 yards and two scores, Steve Breaston caught a touchdown pass and racked up 125 yards in return yardage, and Chad Henne was 17 for 24 passing for 174 yards and three TDs. The Wolverines (7-3, 5-2 Big Ten) host Ohio State next week in the regular-season finale.

Back at Snider's, Jan fixed dinner for us, and then she tried to teach me how to play Stellar Sweeper on Pogo. I had a hard time with it - my head just couldn't wrap around the concept!

Driving to A squared

On the road again today heading south for the Michigan vs. Indiana game tomorrow.

It's Veteran's Day - thank you for your service veterans one and all. When we were kids it was still called Armistice Day, named in honor of the end of WW I, the war to end all wars.

From Reed City to Big Rapids we did some geocaching - 8 caches to be exact! My personal favorite was "Feed the Fish" where I scraped my hand raw trying to get the cache container out of the hole in the concrete. We finally had to resort to using the pincers on the Leatherman to get at it, but we did achieve success! The cache was at the Paris Fish Hatchery, now defunct, which we used to visit all of the time when we were kids.

The light pole caches in the Walmart parking lot were quick and easy and not our favorite sort of cache - but we did three of them anyway!

We ate lunch at a place called The Bungalow which was right next door to the Wild Kingdom cache. It's a very nice restaurant - we would go there again.

It's always fun to drive through Big Rapids because it's my home town. Even though we moved away when I was five years old, I still have many happy memories of living there, and I can identify many landmarks and buildings that were important to our family sixty years ago! There is the Hanchett factory where Dad worked in the summertime - it's still there and it's still "Hanchett's". The old Big Rapids High School building where Dad taught and coached is now some sort of an academy, and his old football field is a parking lot. You can still see the small white church with a cross way up high on top of the steeple - it was responsible for my saying "turch" instead of church - it was "turch" because it had a T on top of it.

There was quite a bit of heavy northbound traffic, but we were relatively unaffected by it and we got to Snider's in good time. Eric and Ethan were there too, and Tammy came soon after, and we all had dinner together! Ethan is so cute and bouncy - we really enjoy him. We had a great time.

Pictures of Ethan are at the link above - Enjoy!

Geocaching Song Recorded by Team Pearce

Blackout at Hillcrest

First I had to visit Dr. Kevin for some dental repair. Dick had made a date with Tim and Susie for us to meet them for a late lunch in Cadillac followed by group geo-caching.

By the time I left the dentist, I was still totally numbed on one side, and you know how that is - you don't dare eat anything until it wears off or else you wind up eating your tongue and cheek.

We got to The Hillcrest a little early, so we just had coffee and read the paper for a while. All of a sudden, the power failed. It was a real surprise because it was a sunny day with no wind or storm. The restaurant got very quiet - I threatened to hum to replace the background music. The people at adjacent tables called home to see if they had also lost power, and that's how we found out that the power was out in McBain and Lake City as well.

There was still a blackout when Tim and Susie arrived. Luckily, the waitress said that the buffet items were still hot, so they all had the buffet. I had a large tomato juice. (See Paragraph 2!)

Then we were off to find some caches. By the time it was dark, we had found 6. I didn't find any, Dick found 2, and so DinoDuo were the most successful. They also did 5 before they met us, and 2 after we left - so they had a big, big day. Six is really a good number for us on the average day.

We just grabbed a burger at McDonald's on the way home - my tomato juice lunch wasn't holding up.

It was a good day.

Deluge

Well, OK, it was only 2 inches - but that's very unusual for us. The rain gauge didn't know what hit it, and the river kept rising all day until it was full.

Watched the first half of the Lions' losing effort. Bad weekend for sports in Michigan. The Vikings won 27-14. Or, as Dick says, too much to not enough.

Got library books for Mother, and did the Subaru Cruise downtown. We were surprised to see people out walking on Front St. with children and strollers, etc. It really wasn't a good day for it!

We had a nice visit with Mother - she seemed especially sharp today. Ann came in bemoaning the fact that she had brought in shrimp for supper, and there was no sauce! It was a crisis indeed, so Dick dashed out to Tom's and got the shrimp sauce and a lemon for the Concord Place shrimp supper. Our hero!

Fishers Run

Took a drive over to Westwood Elementary to take pictures of the school and a subdivision for Laurie. They still have an interest in moving north, depending on how American Airlines does. It's definitely still at the talking stage. It gave us a good excuse to take a little ride - we clocked how far it was to the airport, drove around Bertha Vos Elementary, and then over to Mill Creek Elementary, which it turns out is in the Elk Rapids School District.

It was a dark and dismal day - the leaves are mostly gone; most trees are bare. The tamaracks have turned golden - and that was a pleasant color in the landscape on such a dull day.

We were all revved up to cheer on MSU in their game with Purdue. Dick even wore his green shirt. We flunked as effective team motivators! State didn't play so well, and Purdue was able to experience their first Big Ten victory. Holy Hannah, who would have guessed?

This from msuspartans.collegesports.com:

11/5/05
Spartans Fall To Boilermakers
Jerod Void ran for 134 yards and three touchdowns to help Purdue beat Michigan State 28-21 Saturday, snapping a six-game losing streak. Curtis Painter, making his third straight start in place of Brandon Kirsch, passed for a career-high 226 yards and one TD as the Boilermakers (3-6, 1-5 Big Ten) rallied for the win.

TGIF

Enjoyed talking to Dylan this morning - he hadn't known about TGIF, and he laughed heartily - obviously those are his feelings which he hadn't known how to express previously!

Dick worked at the Visitor Center - he had 37 visitors this morning - including a tiny baby who had just discovered her fingers and was totally mesmerized by them. Another visitor was an Iowa Hawkeye fan who still hasn't gotten over their loss to Michigan. Our hearts bleed for him....not.

I had a really nice visit with Mother - some days are diamonds, some days are stone. (John Denver)

The Hardy Boys

Jim's brother Mike died this week, and his funeral was today. Mike was a big man with a great family, but he died too soon. He was only 61. He had a lovely wife, three sons, and beautiful grandchildren. I know he'll be missed immensely.

We were so sorry that we were unable to attend his funeral, but our thoughts were with his family.

We had a big, big treat when Peter and Melissa dropped in this evening! We were thrilled to see them, and really enjoyed their visit. They are the most fun of anyone - well - near to the top!

Here is Mike's obituary from the Record-Eagle:

Michael Court "Mike" Hardy

Died October 30, 2005

TRAVERSE CITY - Michael Court "Mike" Hardy, 61, of Traverse City, died Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005, at Munson Medical Center. He was born on Nov. 29, 1943, in Alpena, the son of Court Ellis and Rhea Angela (LaCross) Hardy.

Mike grew up in Alpena, where he attended Alpena Catholic Central before graduating with honors from the University of Michigan's School of Social Work.

Mike worked 35 years in the field of social work with the State of Michigan, Community Family and Children's Services, and in private practice prior to his retirement.

Surviving Mike are his wife, Evelyn "Evie" Clare (Schrems), whom he wed on April 22, 1967; and their three sons, John, Tom (Betsy) and Joe (Sarah), all of Traverse City. He was also blessed with five, soon to be 6, surviving and beautiful grandchildren, Olivia, Julia, Thomas, Andrew, Paige, and joining us in January, Sophia. Also surviving are his siblings, Jim (Barb) Hardy of Traverse City, David Hardy of Alpena, Suzanne Hardy of Alpena, Mary Lou (Warner) Glass of Alpena and JoAnn (David) Misel of Alpena; and many nieces and nephews.

A life-long angler, Mike has "gone fishin" on the ultimate fishing trip. Greeting him at heaven's boat dock with a fresh bucket of worms and hot coffee are his parents, Court and Rhea; and brother, Patrick, ready for another mess of perch.

Visitation will be held today, Nov. 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m., at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, with a Wake service and a time of sharing at 7:30 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005, at 11 a.m. The Rev. Father Gerald Micketti will serve as the celebrant. Mike will be laid to rest at Grand Traverse Memorial Gardens in Traverse City.

In remembrance of Mike, memorials may be directed to Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools-Scholarship Fund or to the school's counseling department.

Kindly share your memories with the family at their on-line guest book at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com.

Published in the Record-Eagle on 11/2/2005.




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Presentation

Today's MMAP presentation was up near Suttons Bay at the Connie Binsfeld Center - except that the Center didn't have a large enough room, so it was held at the adjacent VFW Hall. There were 120 people there. Dick did a marvelous job - he was informative, organized, knowledgeable, accurate, helpful, light-hearted, and effective. His projection is such that the entire room could hear him well with no mike. He did a great job, answered many questions, assuaged many fears, and in general was very successful. As he says, my opinion is totally unbiased! We were there for approximately 2 hours.

Boat, Barn, and Beyond

Dick pulled the boat into the driveway, and he ran the gas out of the motor by running the motor in a big blue bin full of water. It worked like a charm. Cleaned out the barn and winterized the boat. He worked hard all day long.

Tom called, and we hooked up the iSight camera on the Apple laptop and we had a visual and audio talk with Tom and Conni. They both look happy and healthy and bursting with love.

Tom told us about an interesting play they went to - A Scottish Play - based on MacBeth. It took place in the U.P. of Michigan and had references to Sudbury so he felt right at home watching it. It wasn't that the play was actually good, but it was enjoyable from the Michigan connection.

He also told us about Jeff Daniels' appearance on the new Colbert Report. They were talking about Chelsea - locating it on the Michigan "mitten" and all other kinds of cute Chelsea references. We want to look for that one.

He finally has his new washer and dryer hooked up, so they were busy doing 2 weeks worth of laundry. Because of the iSight, he was able to show us his roadburns on torso and legs from his most recent fall off the bike. (!)

Barb called to tell us that Jim's brother Mike has died. He has had heart problems in the past, but recently found out that he also had lung cancer, and it all happened relatively quickly. She wanted us to know before we read it in the paper. It was a very thoughtful thing to do. We have such sympathy for Evie and the whole Hardy family.

Party Hearty and Go Blue!

Concord Place had an enjoyable Halloween Party downstairs in the community room. Jim and Emilie came and we all had a really nice time.

The staff worked hard on the food and decorations, and it was all very pleasant. Most of the residents participated, wearing hats and wigs - some looked quite scary!

Dick wore his Halloween tee shirt - it says COSTUME - perfect for this event.

Mother held up quite well - she said later that it was very tiring, but she ate a full meal, and waved at several of her new friends. We were downstairs for about an hour and a half. We left just before the games began.

The Michigan vs. Northwestern game didn't start until 7 p.m. We settled in to watch the offensive struggle that we had been led to believe would occur. The bottom line is that it really turned out to be more of a defensive struggle - and Michigan came out on top 33-17. I'm not sure what happened to Northwestern's highly rated offense - except that they ran into Michigan's defense! I can't figure out what happened when they played in East Lansing and beat State so badly. It just doesn't compute.

This from mgoblue:

The No. 25-ranked Michigan football team jumped out to a 14-0 lead six minutes into the game and the defense shut out No. 21 Northwestern in the second half for a 33-17 win Saturday, Oct. 29, in Evanston, Ill. After U-M went 74 yards in nine plays on its opening drive, capped by Kevin Grady's one-yard run, Leon Hall gave the Wolverines a big lift when he forced a fumble and then returned it 83 yards to put Michigan up 14-0 with 9:07 left in the first quarter. Jerome Jackson rushed for 105 yards and Garrett Rivas kicked four field goals.

How about those 4 field goals! Go Garrett! Go Blue!!

Poppycock's

Dorothy was in town, so we met at Poppycock's for lunch.

She is as flaky and interesting as ever. She told a great story about traveling with her daughter Elaine in Maine.

Their car went into a ditch in some remote area - they had to wait for AAA to arrive from 40 miles away. The nearest house was quite an intimidating mansion kind of a house, but they had to use the facilities so they chanced walking up to the door and asking.

The lady of the house was very elegantly dressed, complete with diamond jewelry. She was most gracious and invited them both in, pointed out the powder room, and asked them to partake of a most delicious looking spread. It turns out that the lady was entertaining her bridge club, and it wasn't just any ordinary mansion or just any ordinary elegant lady, for that matter.

It seems that Dorothy and Elaine had stumbled upon the summer home of the Governor of Maine! Dorothy said that the first lady couldn't have been more helpful, friendly, or considerate. The bridge ladies had seen the car go into the ditch, and really understood the situation. The whole thing turned out well - the car was not damaged - and they had a memorable experience. See the link above.

We had cache maintenance to do in Leelanau County, so after lunch, Dorothy headed for Ypsi, and we headed for Glen Arbor. Dick has archived the whole Glen Arbor series of caches because of excessive muggling, too many DNFs, and the distance involved in trying to fix everything every time. It was an iffy day weather wise, but Dick really only got rained on once - but he found the cache. (Swamp Box)

We collected all 4 cache containers and really enjoyed driving around Leelanau. The colors were still breathtaking, even on an overcast day. Some of the overlooks were absolutely stunning! We always say that River Road has the best color anywhere, but we say that when we haven't been to Leelanau for a while. It was outstanding.

It was such a long afternoon that we ended up having dinner at BooneDocks - chili and axe handles!

Nice day.

Happy Birthday Tom

Happy Birthday Tom!

We were so happy the day you were born! You were a delightful baby. We brought you home on Halloween Day, and all of the neighborhood kids met you while they were trick or treating!

Laurie held you for the first time (she was 2 years and 8 months old). You cried, and Laurie said "Oh no! The baby doesn't like me!"

Discussions

Dylan called this morning with a Hurricane Wilma update. He's very knowledgeable about hurricanes, and he quizzed us to see what we knew. He said that people who live up north and have never been through a hurricane would probably think that a hurricane is scary. He thinks that a blizzard would be scary. We discussed everything from the Steelers football game party to microscopic worms who tunnel into rocks.

They lost power at 8:45 a.m., but they were prepared with flashlights, donuts and chips! Their street has become a river, their trees are down again, and neighbors are losing roof tiles. Laurie says that their doors and windows rattle and bow in and out with the wind. I don't think I'll retire to Florida.

Went shopping this morning for some items for Mother. We had a nice visit. We discussed all sorts of issues from Florida hurricanes to Manistee embezzlements.

Had dinner tonight at the Big Easy with Tim and Susie. The food was plentiful, the ambience is light-hearted and amusing, the staff is attentive, and the company was superior. We were there for two hours chatting and reminiscing. We discussed everything from health to high school.

Note to self: don't order fish and chips there. There's way too much breading on the fish, and they give you a huge, inedible pile. Everything else was delightful, especially the company. They have some wicked fluorescent lighting that gives every white garment a blinding glow. It was distracting at first, and then it became amusing.

Oh Well (Shrug)

The weatherman said it would be a rainy afternoon, so we set out to do some caching in the morning before the rains came. To make a long story short, we got home at 5 p.m.

The highlight of the day for me was lunch at the Alden Tavern. It's a northwoodsy kind of a tavern, very casual and friendly. We were both a little taken aback by the folks at the next table - mother, grandmother, and little girl. The adults were drinking the hard stuff, and the little girl had a couple of kiddie cocktails. Quite the heartwarming family picture. (!) The food was good and plentiful, the Lions were on the big TV (and they actually won), and it was warm and comfortable. I loved it.

The lowlight of the day was waiting in the car in the rain for one hour and 40 minutes while Dick was thrashing around in the Skegemog Swamp trying to find a cache. He was eventually successful. I think he found 4 caches all told today. The other longest wait was only 45 minutes. (!) At least at that stop I had the pleasure of strolling around the cemetery (!) I think it would have been a good day for me to have stayed at home.

Michigan vs. Iowa

My expectations for Univ. of Mich. football are definitely lower this year. As gametime approaches, I remain calm - interested, but relaxed. Today I fully expected to watch a loss, since Iowa has been quite good so far. I was watching the game and looking at catalogs at the same time, as if to prove to myself that there's more to life than college football, and we weren't going to win anyway, but I'm a loyal watcher.

Expectations have been raised after today. Oh sure, it was very close, and it went to overtime, and we only won by 3 points - but the team did far better than I anticipated, especially with another injury to Michael Hart and all of the other injuries. Somehow they managed to pull it out at the last minute - and nobody was more surprised than I.

Next week they play Northwestern. Now it just so happens that NW beat State today 49-14. Ouch. So what can we expect next week? I'm expecting to WIN! Well, maybe not. But I expect they'll look good losing.

Dinner Theater

Jan and Bill arrived around 1 p.m. Jan and I teamed up on Pogo.com - it is really fun to play as a team on Battle Phlinx, and to play against each other on Qwerty.
Poor Dick had all day training for the MMAP program, and we missed him.

In the evening we went to the Williamsburg Dinner Theater and had a great time. The waiters and waitresses put on their costumes after serving dinner, and then we had a great show. They are so talented, but I wonder how much they earn doing that. The show was full of energy and "positivity" - we all were glad we went.

Creepy Bugs

Just in time for Halloween, Mother's room at Concord Place is being invaded by creepy bugs. She's the lucky one - none of the other rooms are having this problem. I think there must be a significant gap in her window system somewhere. Uncle Fritz and Aunt Ruth visited yesterday, and they spent the whole time squishing bugs. Today I did the same. I talked to Linda and Maybelle about it and they contacted maintenance who contacted pest control. We'll see how quickly something happens. I was seriously tempted to run over to Tom's and buy a can of Raid, but I was afraid of breaking some kind of rule regarding pesticides inside the residence. They are just box elder bugs, so they're harmless - but it's still very creepy. See link above.

Sniders are coming tomorrow! Our house is all clean and shiny in preparation. We're all going to the Williamsburg Dinner Theater tomorrow night. It should be a lot of fun. I just called in our orders, and Dominic himself answered the phone. He puts on a good show.

We took steps toward winterizing the motor on the pontoon boat, but the battery was dead, so it will wait for another day.

Great Weekend

We left Sniders' at 9:30, but we didn't get home until 5:30 because we did 7 caches in Harrison. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, and we really enjoyed it.

The Fall colors are more vivid now. I especially like the red maples - they're just stunning. The yellows are my next favorite - they have a glow of their own. Fall colors are the opposite of a rainbow. The rainbow symbolizes the end of a storm. The Fall colors mean that winter storms are coming.

Home again, jiggity jig.

DICK WROTE:

>We are back home after a fantastic weekend. The weather was great
>and except for the fog when we left home on Friday morning, mostly
>sunny.
>Earlier in the week we had picked up a travel bug in a cache near
>Interlochen that was way off course. It wanted to go to Livingston
>Montana but one had no way of knowing that until you had time to go
>on line. There were no instructions with it. A fellow geocacher from
>north of here picked it up in Montana, about 75 miles from its goal
>and, thinking to give it a big mileage boost, brought it up here. We
>figured the best we could do was to take it south with us and put a
>note with it asking some one to get it past Lake Michigan. I looked
>for good drop spots near our route and found a couple near Chelsea.
>Unfortunately, in our rush to leave Friday, I neglected to load the
>coordinates or descriptions of the caches in my GPS. We got down
>there and could do nothing. We did drop it off near our friends in
>Belleville.
>I went to the Belleville game Friday night, (they lost to Dearborn)
>and the feature of the evening was the halftime show. There were
>about 420 band kids that participated. The High School band is 270
>and they had both Jr High bands perform also. Quite a recovery from
>the 27 that formed the band when we had the five hour days.
>Saturday started on an interesting note when, as we were enjoying
>out tailgate in the parking place with our name on it just across
>the street from the Press Box, I looked up and saw a familiar face
>walking past. I said "Hi Coach". He said "Hi, How ya doing". Nan
>said "See, we have better parking than Bo Schembechler".
>The game itself was an emotional rollercoaster. We were up, we were
>down. Physically we jumped up, we sat down. We clapped till our
>hands were red, we screamed till we were hoarse. We must have sung
>"The Victors" 50 times. After the final play, we and our group of
>stadium friends were momentarily stunned and then a pandemonium of
>"OH MY GOD's" high fives, hugs, giggles, and laughs engulfed us. As
>the crowd filed out up the aisles, we stood there enjoying the
>scene, the music, and the emotions of the moment.
>I must say that the coaches and the kids kept faith in themselves
>after we had lost it. I had bad feelings about the game all morning.
>By the time we got to the stadium I was a nervous wreck. However, we
>were feeling confident when in the third quarter, the offense scored
>it's first TD since the State game. But wait! In what looked like a
>replay from last week, PSU broke a 60+ yard run to set up a TD that
>tied the game at 10. OK, we can get it back, but then, on the next
>series, they take the ball away from our QB and run it in to take
>the lead. Bad you say? It got worse, on the extra point, they flub
>the snap and the kicker runs the ball into the endzone for 2. It was
>clear to me that the Football Gods have decreed that this is not our
>day in what is clearly not our year.
>But wait! Our faith was restored when the offense put together a
>drive for a TD and a two point conversion to tie, the defense came
>up with a stop and we drove for a go ahead field goal. On PSU's next
>possession we intercept. (At this point the folks who had bought our
>extra tickets from the M Go Blue shop left as did many others) Now
>all we have to do is run out the clock. Three runs force them to
>burn their time outs. We groan when after the first one the
>officials order the clock operator to put 2 seconds back on the
>clock. But we didn't get a first down. On forth and 3 or 4 we punt
>the ball back to them. There are only 3 minutes left. We just need
>to hold them once. It didn't happen, they drove the length of the
>field for the TD with 53 seconds to go. Luckily the snap is good and
>they settle for a 1 point conversion. Pack it up, the game is over.
>Those folks (Our seat neighbor calls them "One Timers") who we know
>are not regulars follow the earlier exodus. We exchange dour looks,
>grimaces and head shakes with the regulars around us.
>Michigan gets a good kick off return, for some reason Joe Pa decided
>not to kick off on the ground, and begin to drive up the field (they
>were heading away from us). A pass comes up short of a first down,
>the runner fails to get out of bounds, and with 32 seconds left,
>Lloyd calls a time out. The clock runs down to 28. Lloyd complains
>and the officials order the clock operator to put 2 seconds back on
>the board. The drive continues. Then the climax. 4th and goal at the
>10, 1 second on the clock, TOUCHDOWN!!!
>We had a great ride home, the colors are near peak. We ate in Clare
>and then found 6 caches near Harrison. In some of them we found
>signature cards from The Jay Birds of Flint. We had previously seen
>their card in only one other cache. Where you ask? In the parking
>area of Beaver Stadium on the campus of Penn State University.
>Cosmic!
>All we know about the State game is what we read in the paper this
>morning. It sounds like it was winnable but fate intervened. We
>would have liked to have had two victories on Saturday but if only
>one was in the cards, we approve of the result.
>

Michigan vs. Penn State - Unexpected Pleasures

Bill and Jan fixed a big breakfast for all of us, and Eric and Tammy brought Ethan over! What a treat! We don't often have the privilege of playing with a 7 month old. He is absolutely adorable - a most congenial baby - happy, contented, beautiful, and sweet. He's a veritable mini-Eric - no kidding. We watched him for the whole morning - an unexpected pleasure.

Then we were off to the football game with much trepidation. Dick was unusually nervous - I had already kind of given up on the game before it even began. As we were tailgating, who should walk by but Bo Schembechler and his wife. Dick said, "Hi Coach!" and Bo just said "Hi, how're ya doin'?" I told Dick - you know that this means? It means that we have a better parking place than Bo! It was a foreshadowing of the success of the day.

Off to the stadium - a gorgeous Fall day. It was a 3:30 kickoff, so we took jackets. The stadium was packed - the Maize Rage had emailed everybody to wear yellow, and the student section looked like a huge bed of yellow mums with yellow pom-poms. There were a lot of Penn State fans there - they seem to be more civilized than the fans of some other opponents. Tony and Sharon told us about some friends of theirs who went to a game in Happy Valley, and were tailgating in the midst of Penn State people. They teasingly "stole" a brownie from the car next to theirs, and those folks reciprocated by laughingly stealing some tasty morsel from the U of M table. The bottom line is that they became friends, and now whenever the two teams meet, those two couples arrange to tailgate together. I think it's a terrific story.

The game was a little boring in the first half - the score was 3-0 at half-time. Half-time was when I decided to put on my jacket. The second half was amazing. It was a roller coaster of elation and dismay. At one point there was a Series of Unfortunate Events for Michigan, including a bobbled Penn State snap for a PAT which resulted in the kicker going into the end zone for two points. Right then I decided that the game was going their way, and we were probably doomed.

I think we were brought to our feet about 10,000 times in the second half, and I'm almost certain that we sang The Victors 67 times (well, maybe not). Anyway it was a real workout, and we were feeling faint at the end of it all. This from mgoblue.com:

Facing fourth-and-4 with 0:01 left on the clock, Chad Henne found Mario Manningham in the end zone from 10 yards out for the winning touchdown as the Michigan football team handed No. 8 Penn State its first loss, 27-25 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 15. The Nittany Lions cappped a 22-point fourth quarter with a go-ahead score with 0:53 left, but Steve Breaston's 41-yard kickoff return set up the winning drive and Manningham's second TD catch of the game. LaMarr Woodley had four tackles for loss to lead the defense.

We really didn't want to leave the stadium - and stayed until almost the end of the post-game band show. It was dark and chilly, but we were warm and glowing. It was an unexpected pleasure.

Look Out Canton, Here We come!

Tomorrow the Univ. of Mich plays undefeated Penn State - we're trying not to think about it. It's a beautiful day for a drive - Up North the fall colors are almost at peak - the further south you go, the less color there is. We got off the expressway and used back roads to go through Dexter and Chelsea - it's been a long time since we did that. When we lived downstate we spent a lot of time over in this area - camping and picnicking with the kids.
Before we went to Bill and Jan's we did two caches in Canton - one at the Freedom Park and one at Heritage Park. Canton has done a bang-up job of putting parks in the community - fantastic facilities. (See link above)
Dick and Bill went to the Belleville/Dearborn game (Belleville lost again). Jan and I watched "Beaches" with Bette Midler. I can't watch it without totally choking up.
It's such a good story of long-term friendship.

Categories Five

NATURAL DISASTERS:
There have been disasters one after the other recently - when CNN shows scenes of destruction and devastation, you're not sure if you're looking at the results of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, mudslides and flooding in Guatemala, or earthquakes in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. It's easy to identify the wildfires in California and the blizzard in North Dakota and Montana.

For our country the worst has been Hurricanes Katrina/Rita. People are still living in misery with no power, water, or homes a month after the event. Traverse City is the new home for at least 5 evacuee families, and over 100 rescued animals from the hurricane area.

The most horrible recent global disasters are earthquakes in and around Pakistan. Reports now say that there are almost 20,000 individuals killed in those quakes. The pictures from that area are terrible to see, and it seems that more misery has been visited upon the People of the Earth. If misery were a cloud traveling around the world, we might see the sun blacked out for days as when a great volcano erupts.

FOOTBALL:

OK, I have decide that this is one of those years when you just say "Oh well", go to the games, enjoy the bands and the "happening" and try not to care too much about the results of the game. You might say I have now written off the rest of this season. Minn. - 23 Mich. 20. Next week we play undefeated Penn State. I shudder to think...

SNIDERS:

Thank goodness for Sniders. We were so disappointed after the football game - it was really a pleasure to go to their house, have some normal conversation, eat a really good dinner and drink some really good wine.

GEOCACHING:

On the way home today we left Snider's at 8:02, and by 8:09 we were back in the car after finding our first geocache of the day. How much fun is that? We stopped off at Midland for lunch and 3 more caches.

HOME:

It's always good to get home - today was no exception.

Omigod

Omigod omigod omigod.


"Garrett Rivas' 35-yard field goal in the first overtime period gave the Michigan football team a 34-31 upset of No. 11 Michigan State on Saturday, Oct. 1, in East Lansing, Mich. After the Spartans missed a field goal try on their overtime possession, U-M gained six yards on a pass and got a one-yard run from Mike Hart before kicking the winning field goal on third down. Hart returned to the lineup from injury and rushed 36 times for 218 yards and one touchdown, while Chad Henne was 26 of 35 passing for 256 yards and three TDs."

We won! In overtime! It was so exciting!

I fully expected to lose. Dick was merely worried. We ate our comfort food anyway.

You've gotta have Hart!

Bye Bye September

Kathee called at 9:30 this morning to ask Dick to come in and substitute at the Visitor Center. He was gone in a flash. He loves the Visitor Center!

I prepared the next installment of Family Tree books for the mail, and went into town to do errands - post office, UPS Store, bank, dry cleaners, Copy Shop.

No Parking signs have been put up all along the TBAYS Soccer Fields - it looks terrible. They used the orange plastic storm fence that always looks so bad along the Parkway during the Cherry Festival. It will be effective in preventing parking, but it looks ugly and very temporary. They'd better remove it before the first snow plow roars past.

In the afternoon, we went shopping at Glenvo's in the middle of the quitting time traffic - the detour makes it so much easier! I hope the new intersection will make it easier too, when it's finished.

We are dreading the game tomorrow - U of M vs. MSU. State has already scored 14,694 points this season (well, it seems like it) while we appear to have given up offense this year. We bought comfort food at Glenvo's just in case we lose our appetites tomorrow. Go Blue.

Odawa

Dick went to the dentist this morning and while he was there I went to the Copy Shop and picked up the next batch of books, went to the UPS Store and had them bundled up for shipping, then back to the dentist to meet with Dick, and we were off to Petoskey.

Dick made a MMAP presentation to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians at their beautiful complex in Petoskey. (See link above)

Lunch at La Senorita, and home.

Pie

Dick had all day training at the Agency today. He has to learn how to help people decide which Medicare drug plan to sign up for. It doesn't go into effect until Nov. 15, but they're preparing now for a barrage of questions and confusion. Tomorrow we're driving to Petoskey so he can make a presentation to the Petoskey Band of Odawa Indians.

I had lunch at Scot's Harbor Grill with cousins Ken and Bev Block from Grand Rapids They were in town to have their RV repaired at TCRV. After lunch we visited Mother, so they had a chance to see Concord Place.

When Dick got home, he tried to take a nap, but it didn't work, so he mowed the entire yard. Good timing, too, because now it's raining hard.

At 6:30 I was back up at Concord Place. It was a coffee and pie party. There were many varieties of pie, and approx. 30 attendees. Mother had a good time. She talked to Leona Lather, and Thelma, and a couple of others. As much as she protests, I think she really treasures the times when she can talk to the other residents. She was thrilled that Thelma said she would come and visit.

Jiggety Jig

We are home again. Hooray! The mail is sorted, the first load of laundry is in the machine, the car is unloaded, the phone messages have been deleted...it's good to be here.

We drove into town to pick up the mail, so we had to do the Subaru Cruise - down Front Street, along the Bay, through the marina, etc. It's all still there.

But if you leave town for a week you have to expect some changes. At the one-lane bridge on Cass Street, there is now a traffic signal. There is also a traffic signal at the intersection of Keystone and Cass. Can't leave this place for a minute, or something will change.

Welcome Home to Us!

Not the Best

Not every day can be perfect. Into each reign a little life must fall.

We were heading out of town and taking Jana to CQ to pick up her car when we were stopped dead in our tracks by street closings. It seems that today V.P. Cheney was returning home from the hospital after knee surgery, and so the rest of us had to sit and wait and wait and wait - until finally an intelligent officer showed up and allowed us all to go straight (we had wanted to make a right turn). So finally we were underway again. Whew! How frustrating that is.

We took Wisconsin Ave. straight out of town, entered Maryland, and were on our way - heading for Youngstown, Ohio. Everything went well and was totally uneventful until we reached Youngstown. Then we got a little lost, overshot our exit, and were too far past Youngstown - past the point of no return. I called and cancelled our room for the night, and then Dick reserved a room in Fremont, Ohio - in the same Comfort Inn we stayed in a week ago. It added an extra hour and a half to our trip, but that means we'll be able to get home by tomorrow night.

About 20 minutes from Fremont, the rain started. It was a light rain at first and then got really heavy - to the point where drivers were pulling over. Luckily we were right by our exit, and were soon in our cozy motel room.

Jana said...
Well naturally, any day you say goodbye to ME would be an anticlimax.

We had the singular misfortune to run into the most power-mad police officer on the force, blocking the intersection of M and 22nd.

Especially if it *was* Cheney. They don't block streets for Cheney's motorcade -- the presidential motorcade is the only one streets are blocked for. But, even if it was the president, this cop was overdoing things arbitrarily at this one intersection.

Once Mom and Dad dropped me off and went along their alternate route out of town, I had no problem whatsoever getting home. I turned out of the CQ garage onto 22nd about 10 yards from where powermad cop was enjoying the gridlock he had created, drove home along the route he was blocking and didn't even *see* another motorcycle cop or not-so-secret-service squad car, much less have my way be blocked by one.

Best Adventure Day

This was a terrific day for adventuring in the D.C. area because we had our own private chauffeur. Jana isn't working this weekend - so we could all go adventuring together.

We started out at the Secret Garden cache which was a community garden in the middle of Rock Creek Park extension. I waited in the car while they went strolling down the path to find the cache. It was a very nice neighborhood for waiting.

Then we stopped in at CQ to use the bathroom and shower because Jana had walked through some poison ivy in her sandals and wanted to scrub her ankles.

Did I mention what a beautiful building CQ has? It was quite unusual to have our own private facilities right there in the heart of D.C. We had the building to ourselves, with the exception of Carlos, who seems always to be there.

We purposely avoided the mall area today because there's a huge anti-war protest going on there today. I saw one woman heading in that direction with a fluorescent green sign that said, "It's the incompetency, stupid!"

Driving through Georgetown we were lucky enough to find a parking place smack dab in front of Johnny Rocket's Original Hamburger. There are many, many eating establishments there, and we had decided that we would eat wherever we could find a parking place. We felt extremely lucky! Our waiter was Ijaz, from Pakistan. You just have to love D.C.

Next, we went across the bridge to Arlington, Virginia to find a cache called No Bricks in this Wall. It turned out to be a section of the Berlin Wall displayed in the Freedom Park. It's a small but important display, and we were all surprised to learn that a piece of the wall is in this area.

The Freedom Park is unique - we saw a statue from Tianamen Square, a toppled headless statue of Lenin, a ballot bin from South Africa, and cobblestones from the Warsaw ghetto in 1943. The Freedom Park is located at the Newseum in Arlington. We listen every day to NPR and often their shows originate from the Newseum. It was very enjoyable to see it and to walk around a bit in the Freedom Park.

By the way, on this trip we saw the NPR building in downtown Washington - the Bank of America was on the ground floor, and NPR in the rest of the building.

Dick and Jana also found the Dark Star Cache.

There was a virtual cache at the Iwo Jima Memorial, which is right next to Arlington National Cemetery, but it was difficult for us to locate the entrance. Once you get on the correct street, there are plenty of signs thank goodness. It's a beautiful big monument - a statue of the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima photograph from WWII.
We didn't claim the cache because the other stages were over by the mall, and that's what we were trying to avoid.

For the U of M vs. Wisconsin game, we went to Tommy Joe's in Bethesda. There we met Spank, Nico, and Jared. We called Tom right before the kick-off and passed the phone around so everyone had a chance to talk to him. The food was good, the company was excellent, but the game was a huge disappointment.

This from mgoblue.com:

Wisconsin's John Stocco scored on quarterback draw with 24 seconds left in the game to give the Badgers a 23-30 win over the No. 14 U-M football team Saturday, Sept. 24, in Madison, Wis. The loss snapped Michigan's 23-game winning streak in conference openers. After Wisconsin scored 13 unanswered points to go up 16-13, Chad Henne found Mario Manningham on a 49-yard flea flicker to give U-M a 20-16 edge with 9:03 remaining in the game. The Wolverines head to Michigan State next week for a noon kickoff on ABC.

Added by Jana:

Anyway, this was a very fun day. My Dad and I had a nice walk in the woods to the garden, it went through a dog playground with lots of happy dogs running around and nipping at each other. 3 of them came up to us, my favorite was a little guy with doberman coloring that looked out of place on his little wriggly body.

I got to show Mom and Dad the Methodist church in Rosslyn that has a gas station in it. I was really excited about the berlin wall sections -- I didn't know that was there at all.

It was a great visit on my end, I hope it won't be long 'til Mom and Dad come back, there's so much else to see! The FDR and WWII memorials, the Japanese-American WWII memorial, the Museum of the American Indian, and like 8,947 caches! Have a safe and fun trip home!!

Let There Be Light

Jana had to go to work today - so Dick started working to install Jana's new motion-detector security light by the back door. It only took 5 hours, and 2 trips to Home Depot (we didn't get lost)! Now the light is installed, but a prowler would have to jump up and down and wave furiously at it to make it light up. It's a little bit too high.

We drove to DuPont Circle to do a virtual cache - it was a fascinating labyrinth at the ruins of a church that was burned down by arson. We met a fellow geo-cacher, nando0126, there. He is from New York, and the labyrinth was his 20th cache of the day. (See link above)

Later on, we drove to CQ (again we didn't get lost - brag brag). We picked up Jana and went out to dinner at Mimi's - what a great place. They have live entertainment - piano and vocals by the wait staff - very enjoyable. Dick had paella for the first time. He raved about the paella, and said that the calamari in particular was very tender and tasty.

It was fun driving through D.C. at night - a rare treat.

Dick Richard's B-Day

To celebrate Dick's birthday, we did a little bit of work, followed by our very own Taste of Washington.

Jana's office is being moved tomorrow - through the loading dock, across the alley, up a hill to the Warren Building. It's a great little space for Jana and her group of approx. 13 - but her office is not nearly as spectacular as the former one. But - it's a corner office with 2 big windows, so it should be bright and airy. She may have trouble finding room for all of her things in there, but she can take her time getting organized. Everyone is moving, so the 2nd floor of CQ was a beehive of activity today.

We got a chance to meet Hank, Kit, George, Jeff, Yee Ling, Blendi, Betty, and Jimmy Johnson. The three of us worked on packing things into plastic packing crates - poor Jana was pelted with decisions - do you want this? Is this a pitch or a keeper ... you know how that is.

She brought a lot of things home, too. And we got some good cache trade items!

We had a late lunch at Meiwah, which is a terrific Chinese restaurant quite near CQ. We could just walk over there. The building it's in is beautiful - and it had massive wooden doors - quite unusual. The sweet and sour pork was excellent! I felt
very metropolitan. It was very far from the Hard Luck Cafe!

We drove around the mall area, and scouted out places to visit and places to park, etc. There are always tons of tourists in D.C. Right now the city is preparing for a big anti-war protest this weekend. From the car we saw the WWII memorial, the Jefferson, Viet Nam Memorial, and the castle of the Smithsonian. Tomorrow while Jana's at work, Dick and I will come back and do some caching.

After some TV watching, a nap, and some conversation we were off to get Dick some Tanqueray for his birthday. It was another really fascinating drive around the District. This time we drove through Georgetown - a lovely area. We went to Pearson's for the gin, and Rockland's for some ribs to take home for dinner. Rockland's appears to be quite popular and famous.

The ribs were delicious. The cake and ice cream weren't bad either. Happy Birthday Dick!

JANA said:

Yeah, it was, "Happy Birthday Daddy! Clean my office!" I would feel worse about it if I weren't *so* very grateful for the assistance! I don't know how I could have gotten it done otherwise.

Now I am in my new office, staring at my nine crates. My favorite, of course, is the one that is labeled "7 of 9."

Everyone has been telling me all day how great my parents are. But then, I already knew that. :)

Happy Birthday Jana!

Frederick, Maryland to Washington D.C.

It takes only a little over an hour to drive from Frederick to Jana's house. The last 9 minutes was the most fun, because we had Jana on the phone telling us where to turn, and when we turned onto her block she was standing on the front porch waving.

We had a birthday lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street. I've wanted to go there ever since Jana moved to this neighborhood. It's a chili dog place where Bill Cosby used to take his wife when they were dating, and it was yummy.

Jana took us on a scenic drive of D.C. - we saw embassies, and really really upscale neighborhoods. We saw where the Cheney's live. Whoop Whoop. The Finnish embassy is kind of an architectural mystery - a kind of greenish, metal framework type of a thing. Yuck. Turkey is remodeling its embassy - it's a beautiful old building - hope they don't change it too much. The U.K. has a huge embassy - I think it takes up a full city block.

We went by Jana's old neighborhoods - the Adams-Morgan area where she lived on Kalorama, and the National Cathedral area where she lived on Mass. Ave. It was very much fun.

Jana had 3 tickets from CQ for the Nationals/Giants game at RFK Stadium. The parking was great, the seats were great, and the weather was perfect. The game was really beautiful under the lights - and they do a lot of fun graphics on the jumbo-tron and on other areas around the edges. It's loud, and bright, and colorful, and fun. After each inning they do something special, like shooting T-shirts up into the crowd.

Because it was D.C., and because we were only 12 rows behind the box seats, we saw some celebrities - first was James Carville, soon joined by Tim Russert. Then, around the 6th inning, Jesse Jackson walked in. Eventually, he went over and sat with the other two.

Barry Bonds plays for the Giants, and he got cheered (or booed) no matter what he did. When he hit a homerun, the crowd really got excited and cheered loudly. When he stepped up to the plate, he was roundly booed. When he struck out, he heard loud cheers again.

We are about ready to have cake and ice cream for Jana's b-day. We'll have the rest of it tomorrow for Dick's b-day!

This was a most happy day.

JANA said...
This is the most excellent birthday I have had in 9 years -- which is the last time my parents were here for my birthday!

I never would have predicted I would become a baseball fan, but I love having the Nats in DC. Vinnie Castilla is my favorite -- he hit a double, but I was getting my Mom a sausage. That's love.

10:33 PM

The Subaru Went Over the Mountain

Clearfield, Pennsylvania to Frederick, Maryland (via the back roads).

Near Clearfield is the Continental Divide east of the Mississippi. It was a cache site. Now we have been to both of the Continental Divides. We saw the beginning of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

We drove through many tiny Pennsylvania towns in the mountains. It was enjoyable to see the Penn State campus at State College. We did a cache in the parking lot for Beaver Stadium - It was so far away from the stadium, I couldn't believe it.
We did another cache right outside the stadium - it was a statue of Joe Paterno. We took a picture of Joe's statue wearing Dick's M hat.

Their stadium is very high - lots of climbing involved. Penn State fans must be really buff to walk up and down mountains from the parking lot and then climb all those stairs. Cheesh. We visited the Alumni Garden on the campus - very nice indeed. It's a big, beautiful campus.

After State College, we headed for Frederick, staying off the Interstate. We saw the home of Memorial Day (Boalsburg), the home of Nellie Fox, baseball Hall of Famer, interesting place names such as Hemlock Hollow and Burnt Cabins. We drove up and down mountains and through valleys. Some of the mountain roads are so steep that the truckers have to go 20 mph. We were caught up in a monumental traffic tie-up on a mountain road under construction- all kinds of unusual experiences.

We're pooped - it seemed like a long day - but we had a great time. Did one cache here in Frederick before tucking in just so we can say we did a cache in Maryland.

Cruising Through Pennsylvania

Fremont, Ohio to Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Everything is going smoothly. I dozed in the car again today. We listened to Books on Tape: Black Coffee by Agatha Christie.

Now we're into the Allegheny Mountains, and it's definitely not Michigan.

We've been having fun cruising around, visiting small towns, and doing a couple of geo-caches.

Kanitz Family Reunion

Said good-by to Sniders and left for the Reunion around 11 a.m., after we all had breakfast at Bob Evans.

Took a nostalgic drive down Willis Road to Moon Road, arrived and set up the books and pins. We began handing out the reserved books and collecting the money. It was great meeting all of the cousins that I hadn't really known before, and seeing the cousins whom I had known.

Dan and Pam came with baby Jace. He is such a cutie, and a very good baby. I had so much fun holding him - he is literally a bouncing baby boy. It was good to see Jim, and we enjoyed talking to Pam and getting to know her a little bit better.

It was great fun connecting names with faces (thank goodness for name tags!) After working on the family tree, correcting it repeatedly, proof-reading it over and over, and working on it every day for months, I was really able to remember who was who, and even who their children, grandchildren, and husbands were. It was so much fun!

We left around 4 p.m. and drove to Fremont, checked into the motel, and went geo-caching until around 7:30 (we found 3 - I found 2 out of 3!). Then I said Uncle.

Tomorrow we head for Pennsylvania.