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.

Univ. of Mich. vs. EMU

OK, It was a lop-sided match-up. OK, the entire western world knew that Michigan would win. OK, the politically correct people all felt sorry for Eastern because they are probably really nice kids who would have a hard time dealing with such a loss. In spite of all that, it was a MOST enjoyable day for me - despite the drizzle. mgoblue.com called it the Battle for Washtenaw County!

I just loved being there, seeing our stadium friends, watching the game, seeing Michigan doing so well and looking so good, and talking to Holden, who reminds us very much of Dylan.

The half time show was so terrrific. It's the best half-time show since the Blues Brothers and the School of Animal Husbandry thing. It was based on Monty Python and Spamalot and featured the Lumberjack and the Attack Rabbit, The Bridge of Death, and the Bring Out Your Dead golf cart. It involved characters Bucky the Blitzed (Wisc), Sparty the Green (MSU) and Brutus the Nut (OSU). I'm sure that the band intends to repeat this show for all of their road trips. All of those games will be away games this year. What a fantastic idea!

Sorry Eastern - I loved the game, and waved my pompom proudly after every score. ... all 55 points. I loved the whole day. Sue me.

Back at the Canton Condo, we cheered as MSU dominated Notre Dame - thank goodness somebody can beat them even if we can't!

Out to dinner at Mexican Fiesta - home to watch more football.

My Big, Fat, American Biopsy

At 8:30 a.m., off I went to the luxurious new offices of Dr. Saunders, my dermatologist. I never expected to have a dermatologist, really. But wherever my doctor sends me, I will go.

The dermatologist looked me all over, and I passed every inspection with the exception of the small thing I have on my arm. So he drew a circle in the middle of it with his ballpoint pen, injected my arm with a pain killer, and did a biopsy - removing a chunk of arm about the size of a pencil eraser. He will have the results around the time we return from our trip.

Then we were off on the beginning of our fabulous September road trip to D.C. I don't know if I was just tired, or whether the pain killer injection had an effect on me - but I got groggier and groggier, and slept for over an hour in the car. And after that I still felt groggy. Don't know what was up with that.

We stayed in Sniders' new condo in Canton - which is extremely comfortable - and enjoyed seeing Sniders, who are extremely hospitable. We had pizza from Jet's Pizza (very yummy) and then Dick and Bill went off to watch Belleville lose to Allen Park. Jan and I watched "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" and had a great time.

Dick said...
What Nan left out was a listing of our mental glitches.
First, just past Kingsley we realized that we had left the tickets back on the bulletin board.
Second, when we arrived in Canton at Jan and Bill's I realized that I had left my shaving kit back on the counter in the bathroom. Jan saved me a trip back to TC by having Dr. Kim phone in a temp supply of meds to the local CVS. I have always said that the reason we cary credit cards is to replace the things we forgot. This trip to CVS racked up $120 +.
Third, when I got dressed for the game I discovered that I had forgotten to pack my game hat. My game hat is an M hat that I only wear to games. I have worn it to every Michigan game that Lloyd has coached. I guess it's not that essential, I wore it to the ND game and not to the EMU fiasco.

All Packed

Our little Subaru is pretty much packed up for our big trip. I think we're taking everything we own. When we were young, with 3 kids and a dog, and full time jobs, we used to throw things in the camper and go camping for a week with not much fuss. These days, it takes us a week to get ready to go away for a week. Go figure.

Stopped in to say good-by to Mother - got her some new lotion (Gold Bond) for her itchiness. The beautician was alarmed at how much she has been scratching herself. We discussed Laurie, Chip and Dylan, Mother's assets, Concord Place, a little football, etc. etc. She seems fine - except that she's acting like we're going away for a month instead of a week.

Did some shopping at Meijer, Walmart, and Staples - now we have everything we need. (!)
We hope to hit the road before noon tomorrow. Sniders have been warned!

"Big Trip"

Hey! We're going to take a trip! It's been years! Since Dad died, we've stuck around to be near Mother, but now that she is comfortably situated, we feel free to wander again!

It starts tomorrow - we'll drive to Sniders and spend two nights. Saturday we go to the University of Michigan/Eastern game, and Sunday is the Kanitz Family Reunion in Saline. I've been looking forward to it because it's the culmination of my Family Tree Project - we're taking 41 books with us, and most of them are reserved already.

Sunday night we'll stay in Fremont, Ohio - Monday night near State College, Pennsylvania (Chip said "Don't forget to get your shots!") - Tuesday night in Frederick, Maryland, and Wednesday - our destination - JANA'S HOUSE in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday is Jana's b-day, and her boss gave us all tickets to the Nationals baseball game - how much fun is that?!? Thursday is Dick's b-day, and he will be allowed to do almost whatever he wants.

Jana wants to show us her new office, which I'm really looking forward to, and
she wants to take us to an Improv performance also. (She's on the Board of WIT, Washington Improv Theater.) And there are dozens of virtual caches in D.C., so we'll never run out of things to do.

We'll most likely leave Sunday morning, September 24 and drive as far as Youngstown, Ohio.
The next night we'll either be home, or stop somewhere around Midland.

We are just about all packed - just last minute items to stick in the suitcase tomorrow morning, and then we're off. Go Blue! Go Nationals!

Oh Boy

Oh Boy, yesterday the physical, today the dental prophylaxis. It's just a coincidence that everything is happening at once. So now I have the cleanest teeth in the neighborhood, and two more appointments coming up in October. One is for bleaching, and one is for making minor repairs.

While I was trapped in the dental chair, Dick went to the Library to find out whether our laptop works in a wireless environment. It does.

Today we had brunch at the Omelet Shoppe - best thing about having these appointments is going out for brunch!

Let's Get Physical

Yes today is the day I've really been looking forward to: the day that I get a physical exam and a mammogram - a veritable walk in the park. It helps that my doctor is the world's best doctor.
http://www.munsonhealthcare.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/mhc.woa/wa/PhysiciansListDA/DisplayPhysician?id=474&wrapper=physicians

In actuality, the anticipation was so awful that the reality was "not so bad". I had all of the tests possible to do on bodily fluids, and the mamm was not as bad as I remembered.

Dr. Burke is referring me to a dermatologist to take a look at a skin thing I have - no big deal. Coincidently, the dermatologist's name is Dr. Saunders, the same name as the pediatrician we went to for years in Ann Arbor. Cosmic.

And I got to meet Dick for brunch at Hard Luck, so that made my day.

My Daughter the Corporate Barracuda

BRAG, BRAG, BRAG!

Who's Who in the Leadership of the U.S. :

The following individuals are listed in the News Media Yellow Book and The Leadership Library® on the Internet.



David Steck, CNN
Craig Stedman, Computerworld
Bill Steiden, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jana Steiger, CQ.com
Paul Steiger, The Wall Street Journal
William Steigerwald, The News Journal
Tom Steighorst, Sun Sentinel
Valerie Steiker, Vogue


Copied from The American Press Institute: (The caps are mine.)
CQ.com goes from automated to custom made

While BaltimoreSun.com has migrated to the use of a shared database, CQ.com, the Web operation of Congressional Quarterly, has evolved from an almost entirely database-driven subscription service to a robust site that more resembles other newspaper-based Web sites.
"Because we first came from this database background, when we first went on the Web, we had a tradition of having everything being 100 percent automated," said JANA STEIGER, editorial product development director. "No editors touched content that was on our front page. We evolved from that and have a little more editorial control."
But while its home page has evolved, STEIGER pointed out that because of CQ.com's heavy emphasis on e-mail delivery, much of its audience remains oblivious to any home page changes.
"When we were going out to gather information from customers [in response to a redesign] we talked to people who had no idea we had redesigned the site. They thought we still had frames, because all they would do is click their email. [They would say] 'Oh, I never click through.' Because our customers are paying us, we're not ad-driven. We have the luxury of not being wedded to whatever gets the most [Web] traffic."


From the CQ Masthead:

Editorial Masthead

Editorial Product Development Director: Jana Steiger
Senior Editors: George Codrea, Camille Kurtz, Kit Unger
Federal Information Editors: Jorge Banales, Betty Richardson, Brendan Spiegel, Yee Ling Woo BillTrack: Jon Lewallen, Neil Ripley


Jana will be making a presentation at the September 29th meeting of the Washington D.C. chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association:

Congressional Quarterly Case Study
Date and time:September 29, 2005 (Thursday)7:00-9:00 p.m.

ProgramDinner: 6:00-7:00 p.m. at Meiwah for those who would like to join us (directions below)

Location: Congressional Quarterly, Inc1255 22nd Street N.W.Washington, D.C. 20037

Description:E-mail alerts are a handy way to let users know when new content has been added to your web site. But how do you make sure every piece of mail you send users is something they really want? How do you control the volume of mail and the pertinence of the content? Where is the boundary between giving users control over their own parameters, and making alerts easy to create and manage? And what about the special needs of BlackBerry users?

Congressional Quarterly has been addressing these issues since 1998, when it launched its first e-mail alert service. Now, after experimenting with many different approaches, our speaker, Jana Steiger, will share what she's learned along the way. In this case study, you'll learn the top seven usability problems of e-mail alerts, and the strategies one development team has taken to correct—or at least diminish—them.

Speaker: Jana Steiger is the Director of Editorial Product Development for Congressional Quarterly, where she oversees the development of new Web products and design prototypes, as well as ongoing improvements to CQ's market-leading online news and legislative tracking service, CQ.com. In her 14 years at CQ, Jana has filled a number of roles -- product editor, interface developer, newsroom operations manager, usability specialist, and product requirements writer. This broad range of experience gives her a multi-faceted understanding of product development, allowing her to balance the needs of users, developers, and product owners against project deadlines and cost.

Jana graduated from the University of Michigan. She has presented at Comdex and the Online News Association, and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia. She's excited about swapping stories with DC usability professionals, and looks forward to this event!
Registration: Advance registration is recommended.

Happy Birthday Mother

Today is Mother's 97th birthday.

It was very interesting to see how Concord Place celebrates the birthdays of the residents. After she ate lunch in her room, we wheeled her down to the dining room.

There was a beautiful large birthday cake inscribed to Marian, and all of the residents sang Happy Birthday. I cut the cake and Dick served it. Betsy dished up the ice cream and served the punch.

There were a couple of very gracious toasts from the residents. Mr. Petertyl, who is 102 years old, raised his plastic cup of punch and said, "I am honored and pleased to attend your birthday."

It was all very nicely done, and everyone had a good time. Mother was quite touched by the whole thing.

Labor Day Friday

We cached in and around Holland and Saugatuck. Both Saugatuck and Grand Haven remind me of Grand Bend, Ontario. Saugatuck is openly touristy - great shops, great beaches, great atmosphere.

Then it was off to Battle Creek by way of Allegan.

Off to Ann Arbor

Labor Day weekend - and first Univ. of Mich. home football game weekend - so we decided to leave a little bit early and do some geo-caching on the west side of the state. The weather is predicted to be spectacular for the entire weekend, so we think we'll have good luck in that department.

We're listening to NPR so we're keeping current with developments in New Orleans. It's so chilling to hear the reports of constant suffering with no help in sight. Our government may be guilty of human rights violations. No one seems to be in charge of relief efforts.

We found 7 or 8 caches today, saw a couple of deer, and thoroughly enjoyed our drive.

We're not staying with Sniders this weekend, because I don't feel confident about how I may feel after going to the game on Saturday. I'm still a little nervous about it, although I'm also excited to see our new reserved parking space and gauge the distance between the parking and the stadium. We have reservations in motels for all three nights that we'll be away - Holland, Battle Creek, and Flint.

Observations on West Michigan cities - Pentwater is a nice, tourist-friendly small town right on Lake Michigan. It was crowded with people, shoppers, bathers, and cruisers like us. It reminded me of Leland.

Grand Haven is a marvelous place! http://www.lakemichigancam.com/ It's a combination of a Larger Leland with a smaller Traverse City, and it's right on Lake Michigan with spectacular beaches, city parks, and very upscale shops. We love Traverse City and Leelanau, but I have to say that Grand Haven is strong competition. It's so lovely. The drive from Grand Haven to Holland was beautiful, shady, calm, and relaxing. The homes were so well-kept and attractive. The road was winding and lush with trees and flowers. We were impressed.

Holland is a nice city - really pleasant city parks and magnificent beaches. I like Traverse City better.

ATMs, Roma, Sears, and Seuss

While Dick was working at the Visitor Center, I went over to the Huntington Bank and made myself the account manager for Mother's account - I will be getting the statements instead of having them sent to Concord Place. I also arranged for an ATM card for that account - Hooray!! It's so much easier than writing a check to myself every time Mother needs something.

Visited Mother - we had a great conversation. She's relieved about not receiving bank statements - she gets a little agitated every time she gets one because she thinks she's supposed to do something and she doesn't know what to do.

I tried to explain ATM cards to her, but it's going to take a while for that to sink in. We decided that I should get an ATM card for the 5/3 bank also. Hooray!!

I told her about Dylan's spelling test - he was having trouble with the words "purple" and "brown". I told him to just remember that purple ends with an e. His response was "But what about the infamous "brown"?" He keeps us grinning every day.

I met Dick at the Visitor Center at noon and we went to Roma for lunch. It's in a brand new building, and it was very nice. The food was especially good - my meatball sandwich was huge - half of it is still in the refrigerator. Roma would a good place to meet someone for lunch, or to take someone out to dinner. We gave it our stamp of approval. (The Official Okie Dokie).

Picked up the GenFest Test Master DVD at the Camera Shop, went shopping at Sears and bought a small freezer to replace our 30 year old big freezer (which has sprung a leak). Dick also picked out a new griddle to replace the one that has provided breakfasts too numerous to count for our guests.

We are still trying to figure out Whitard's Dr. Seuss cache - we spent some time at Horizon Book Store trying to find specific pictures in 8 different books. We still can't find 4 of the 12 pictures require to figure out the coordinates. It's a challenge. We had a really good time trying!

Escape to Leelanau

We left at 10 a.m. and got home at 6 p.m. In between, we found 5 caches, did cache maintainence at 2 of our caches, ate lunch at Boonedocks in Glen Arbor, and drove around the entire county of Leelanau.

The most bizarre happening of the day was finding the Brundage Wilderness Cemetery in Benzie County. This is a cemetery accessible only by two-tracks, and way out in the middle of nowhere. We strolled around looking at the grave sites, which were few and far between. The oldest I saw was Mary Brundage, who was born in 1853 and died in 1903. But the bizarre find was the grave of Dr. Thomas C. Hall, TCHS class of 1953 (my class, by the way). See above link. It was very strange just coming upon his memorial by accident. The whole city was aware of his death last year because his life was reported on in the Record-Eagle when he died of cancer. He had a most unusual life, and his resting place is also most unusual. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/mi/tsphoto/benzie/brundage.htm

It is high tourist season, and the town of Glen Arbor was jam-packed. There were no parking places. I thought they should give out numbers and let a car enter the village when another car left. Many, many people were out walking around and shopping and eating at Boonedocks.

Leland was pretty much the same way - loaded with people. We drove down to the marina to admire the big boats that had pulled in. One of the boats could only be referred to as a yacht.

We enjoyed our day - it was a hot one. Thank goodness for air-conditioning.

Help! Laundry! Help!

Laundry followed by laundry. I got it all washed, folded and put away (4 loads plus sheets). Eek!

Grocery shopping - oh boy! Thrills a minute. We shopped at the Kingsley Food Mart because of the Chum's Corners detour. We can't really get to Glen's. (Tom calls it Glenvo's).

That's the bad news - (laundry and groceries). The good news is that we bought steaks and sweet corn and had a great dinner.

Ice Cream and Little Old Ladies

We surv... um... attended the Ice Cream Social today at Concord Place. It was held in the Albany Room (dining room). There was not enough seating for everyone, so people were sitting all up and down the hall. Mother went assisted by her trusty walker, and had a little ice cream, and a little cake. She had a chance to greet some of her acquaintances, and everything was fine. We stayed at the Social for about an hour.

NMG Picnic at Higgins Lake

Had a nice phone conversation with Dylan this morning to start our day off right! He wanted to talk about a dinosaur game he is working on.

Drove over to Higgins Lake to the Lyon Twp. Park #27 for a meet and greet picnic of the Northern Michigan Geocachers. This is a group which is kind of a break-off group of MiGo, the official Michigan Geocachers Organization. We belong to both groups, and we don't play favorites.

The picnic was delightful - good food - good friends - good conversation. And the day was cooler and not so humid. So it was delightful all the way around.

After the picnic, Dick and I did a dozen caches in that area - that's a lot to log! Thank goodness that Dick takes care of that!

It was almost a perfect day, except we made the mistake of stopping in Kingsley for dinner at the Pine Tree Cafe. Don't.

But the good far out-weighed the bad!

For Rent

I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe....we drove past Mother's ex-house today, and there's a big For Rent sign out in front. The window treatments have all been removed, and there are mini-blinds in the front window. What a strange feeling!

I know there will be a lot of changes yet to come. Like I said, it's now in a parallel universe.

Banker's Hours, or Hours at the Bank

Dick and I spent 2 hours at the bank today setting up 2 CDs with the check for Mother's house. It wasn't really that complicated, it's just that it was time-consuming. Plus we had to wait a bit before the banker was free to see us.

We deposited that big check, and got a free box of plastic storage containers. Whoopee!

Visited Mother with the details - she's relieved that everything is over and taken care of. And so are we all.

Closing

Jim arrived this morning to go to the closing meeting for Mother's house. We had good conversation, and then had to leave for the meeting. We were in the waiting area when John and Jillian arrived, and we all introduced each other. The meeting was not too lengthy, the papers were all signed, the checks were distributed, and all was well. The house is now sold. A fait accompli.

The buyer, Jennifer, is a real estate agent and a renovator. She plans to fix the house up and then sell it. She does most of the renovation by herself, surprisingly enough. I think it will be interesting to see what she does with it.

Jim went to spend the afternoon with Mother. Dick and I went on a Subaru Cruise until it was time for his haircut. I dropped him off and waited at Horizon.

Jim spent the night with us. Dick did burgers on the grill and we had sweet corn. It was fun to have Jim here - I really enjoyed it. Mother enjoyed it too.

Active July!

Laurie, Chip and Dylan arrived on July 8th, and Laurie and Dylan left yesterday morning (August 2).

During that period of time, for one long weekend, we had our whole family here at one time, a very rare occurrence. Tom and his friend Conni arrived on July 14th, and Jana got here on the evening of the 15th. Tom and Conni had to leave on the 18th, but Jana was able to stay for a week, leaving on July 24th. Chip left soon after because he had to go back to work.

The entire month went by in a blur of activities - it seemed to go so fast!

During July, we watched the Cherry Festival Parade, attended the Harry Potter Book Release, and the First Annual Traverse City Film Festival. (Laurie and I went to see "You, Me, and Everyone We Know" at the Opera House. And Dick, Laurie, Dylan and I went to see "The Princess Bride" at the Open Space. Such fun! Both times I wanted to see more movie! I wasn't ready for either of them to end.)

Laurie, Chip and Dylan went to the zoo (see Dylan's post) where he actually took marvelous pictures with his digital camera. His Mom put his zoo pictures into a little photo album.

We played in 4 counties - Leelanau, Benzie, Grand Traverse, and Antrim.

We went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes, shopping in Glen Arbor. Everybody visited Mother - Laurie and Dylan about 6 times, Tom and Jana once each. Mother was delighted. Altogether, Sharkie Crew and Basswoodbend found 15 or 16 geocaches all over the place. We boated on 2 lakes, Torch Lake and Long Lake. On Long Lake Shelly, Autumn and Brooke came with us. On Torch Lake we played on the sandbar, Dylan got to pilot the boat, and we pulled Chip and Dylan on the tube.

Dylan visited many playgrounds - Darrow Park, Kids' Cove, East Bay Park, Bryant Park. We played miniature (immature) golf twice at Pirate's Cove. Dylan loves it! It really was fun, even though the temps were in the 90s.

We ate out at every restaurant you've ever heard of. Well, maybe not. Mongolian Barbecue, Scott's Harbor Grill, Apache Trout Grill, Green House Cafe, Cafe Amical, North Peak, Dinghy's in Frankfort, Friendly Tavern in Empire, Docksides on the Clam River, Rico's - I know I'm forgetting something - oh yes, Mancino's pizza twice and subs twice. We really helped the economy in July!

The Basswood Bend Film Festival really turned Dylan into a budding director. We were subje.... um.... privileged to watch several Dylan productions after Gen Fest. There was Return of Pig, Sharkie Adventures I & II, Everquest videos too numerous to count, and a couple of videos showing Dylan saving the world. Whew!

In the meantime, Mother's house has been sold - the closing is today. Mother has already signed all of the papers - the title company was kind enough to send a notary to witness her signatures. Jim is coming up from Saginaw for the closing, and he will be staying with us tonight.

Tomorrow is my day off.

Bye Bye

Laurie and Dylan flew away back to Florida this morning. We returned to an empty and quiet house. Washed sheets and changed beds. Dick moved back into his bedroom. Heavy sigh.

Dylan's Day at the Zoo

Dylan says:

Today we went to the zoo. The thing I liked the best was the wolf and the coyote.

The first thing we saw was turtles. I took a picture of the turtles. My camera went click, click. I also took a picture of a swimming turtle. My camera went click.

Next we went to the birds. When we got to the birds, the first bird we saw was the bald eagle. I took a picture. My camera went click click clickety click click. Next we went to visit the turkey vulture. I took a picture of it. My camera went click. Then we visited the barn owl. I took a picture of it. My camera went click click clickety click... click.

Then we found the beavers. They weren't out. We went into the beaver dam. We saw one. I took a picture of it. Except the flash bounced off the glass and it was a picture of a big white thing. I deleted that picture. I forgot to tell you that my camera went click.

We moved on to the bear. I took a picture of that too. My camera went clickety click click delete, clickety click click delete click click. Then we moved on to a bob cat. I took a picture. My camera went clickety clickety click click clickety clack clack click. Then we moved on to the wolves and the coyote. I took a picture. My camera went click. Then we went to the big elk.
My camera went click delete. We moved on to the cherry buffalo. They were gone! No where in sight. So we walked back past the elk. I took another picture of the elk. Past the wolves and coyotes... to the minks! I took a picture of the the minks - click, click. Then we moved on to the red fox. I took a picture... click.

Then we went into a big building. There were animals in tanks there. We saw a snake that was fake. I didn't take a picture of the snake that was fake. We saw a real snake, a real frog, and I saw some crickets. I did not take a picture of the crickets. Then we went to the raccoon. So, because the raccoon wasn't there, I tried to take a picture of a chipmunk outside of the cage. But the chipmunk was behind the fence and I couldn't get the chipmunk into focus. I ran around the fence to get closer to the raccoon cage that would bring me closer to the chipmunk. But Mommy and Daddy yelled at me. They said it was time to leave.

But before we left, I took a picture of the most important thing of all.... Mommy and Daddy. And they weren't in a cage.

Then we went to the Boardman River. [Union St. Bridge at 6th St.] We went down the stairs to the Boardman River. I threw huge, gigantic rocks into the river. Ducks and a big fat dog came swimming by. A man shouted Lucy and whistled. The dog made a big splash and jumped out of the water. It ran towards the man and they went right up the stairs. And when they went up the stairs that gave me an idea.

I picked up a rock, and I climbed the stairs to the top of the bridge. I pushed the rock off the edge of the bridge. Ker-plop.

Then we went home and played with Auntie Jana on the computer playing Everquest. Then we were looking for Jloubelle's corpse. Grandma's advice was to cast enduring breath but we didn't have any fish scales. I sang an encouraging song to Auntie Jana:

I know you're gonna find the fish scales
I really know you are
Come on now, Don't give up now
Keep looking - You're going to get those gnolls back for what they did to you.
You're gonna get them back I just know you are,
You're going to find the fish scales,
You're searching the downtown streets,
Searching the uptown streets,
You're going to find the fish scales.
Oh yes those fish scales are yours!
Yeah yeah yeah.

So then Auntie Jana decided to go to the fishing supply store. No fish scales. Then we went to the other fishing sell-guy - no fish scales. Then we went to general supplies number one - no fish scales.

Long story short, we found Jloubelle's corpses with the help of some other druid.

Dylan's Report on the Making Of "The Piggy Mystery"

Dylan says:

Dylan liked the movie making the best. [The Piggy Mystery]
The movie we made was about two detectives. The detectives are 2 boys - one 7 [Dylan], one 11 [J.P.] They're visiting their grandma and grandpa [Uncle Doug].

The two boys were playing Toss the Pickle. The 7 year old had a bad throw, kneeled down to pick up the pickle, and they saw a red pig. The 7 year old picked it up. The 11 year old said What's that? I said It's a pig. The grandpa said Hey give me that pig and snatched it from me and walked right out of the room. We pulled out our detective hats, nodded, and got to work. We had every intention to figure out what was in that pig that grandpa didn't want us to get.

Grandpa got into the car, but it was tricky because there was one thing that the Wonder Boy Detective Agency didn't teach us how to do....and that was learn how to drive. We had to think of something, and really, really fast.

We ran into the house. Mommy [Jana], Daddy [John Lichtenberg], we have to follow grandpa - he's getting away with the pig. Dad said, the pig? Mom said, OK.

Following Grandpa was hard because there were no other cars on the road and we were only 10 feet behind him. It was also hard because we didn't know which way he was going to turn because he always had his left turn signal on. Grandpa parked the car. He threw the pig off the bridge!

After that, Grandpa reeled it back in after we went back home.

Dick's Report on GenFest 2005 - The Basswood Bend Film Festival

Dick reported:

Well another Gen-Fest is in the history books and it might have been the
best one yet..

We had a total of 33 enthusiastic participants. All of Gen's living descendants were in attendance except for cousin Molly who is in summer school at the University of Hawaii, and my eldest brother's two kids who are estranged for reasons that are not totally clear to me. I sent them
invitations with hand written notes that we missed seeing them but did not
receive a response.

Cousin Kevin had the most adventurous trip. He was attempting to fly in
from Phoenix through Detroit on North Worst but the flight to TC was
cancelled. He teamed up with others from the flight to rent a van and drive
up. He got here about 5 a.m.. One reason he made such an effort was to
announce his engagement to Amy. That gave us an excuse to break out the
Champagne and the wine glasses. The wedding will be in San Diego so Tom can
look forward to some house guests.

My day started at midnight sitting beside Dylan on the curb by the side of
Front Street in downtown Traverse City. We were waiting for the new Harry
Potter book to go on sale. Laurie stood in line while we waited outside.
We were certainly not lonely. Hundreds of people had joined us for the
festivities which started at 10:00 p.m. There was a scavenger hunt involving
quite a few of the downtown stores as well as numerous characters from the
books. Many of our fellow Potter fans were fully costumed although we were
not. It was a fun time but after a full morning of work at the Visitor
Center and an afternoon of pre party set up at home, I was bushed. The
fatigue bug had bitten Dylan as well and we decided to wait in the car. By
the time his Mommy got back with the books he was fast asleep. It was after
1 a.m. when we got back to the house.

I was up and at'em a little after 6 a.m. and discovered that I was nearly out
of charcoal for the grill. I had a trip into town scheduled anyway because
we had a video camera reserved for rental at the local camera shop.
Each year we try to have some unique and fun event that can involve all
ages at our Gen-Fests. For example, last year was competitive Geocaching
and the year before was a Rubber Duck race. So while the rest of the
inhouse crew, (6), ate breakfast, showered and dressed, I loaded up the car
with recycling and ran my errands.

All went well until I reached the camera shop. It turned out that they
didn't open 'till 10, I wandered the street for 15 minutes and then came
back at just after 10 and they were still closed. It turned out that little
Cindy, she with the nose stud, had also been out late the night before and,
as a result, was 15 minutes late for work.
I was in the door to collect the camera as soon as she opened. She went
into the back room and returned quickly with camera bag, attached to which
was a note with my name on it. She opened it to determine that it's
contents were correct and discovered that it did not contain a camera. She
made a phone call and informed me that Bob would be there in a few minutes
to take care of me. "A few?" "Well 15 to 20 or so".
I wandered off down the street to get a coffee. When Bob got there he
looked and indicated that the camera was missing and its location was
unknown but he told me that they would rent me their (his) in-house camera.
Unfortunately, he was out of the type of cartridge that it required. To get
me in business, he put in the tape of his kid's Physics project and told me
to "Just tape over it". After a quick tutorial, I was on my way.

By the time I got home, the troops had begun to arrive. I started the
grills and worked as greeter until 11:30 when it was time to assign groups
for the First Basswood Bend Film Festival. Their task was to create and
film a movie of at least 5 minutes length in a set genre in which they
utilized a couple of required props. After a short time to gather and
select a director, they picked their genre, Sci-Fi, mystery, adventure,
horror and fantasy were chosen. Then they picked their central prop. They
could choose from; a flag of New Brunswick, a fire extinguisher, a piggy
bank, a picnic basket or pom poms. Finally, they were presented with a
required prop, a large dill pickle and given about 2 hours to eat lunch and
plan their film.
Filming began at 2:30 and every one became quite involved, even those who
approached the concept with some trepidations. In our film, an adventure
saga titled Minnesota Smith and the Basswood Bend Booty" our stars were
reliving Gen Fests past and attempting to discover the plan for next year's
gathering. My roles were as "Indigenous Basswood Bend Native", a war
painted rock throwing thug, and "Evil Uncle Dick", a black clad villain
determined to protect the secret of Gen Fest 06 from our heroes. Cousin
Shelly was awarded the "Genevieve" for "Best Actress" for her performance
as "Drunken Shelly" while Cousin Derek won for "Best Costume". The
interspersed glimpses of a physics lecture between some of the gripping
scenes added greatly to the humor of the project.

In her film, "The Attack of the Slimy, Mutant, Green-Eyed Pickle People
Eater", Nancy played herself as "Dead Aunt Nan" who had been attacked by a
genetically altered version of the required prop, "She's been pickled!" It
won for "Best Film" and Laurie won "Best Director" and tied with Jana for
"Best Cinematographer". Cousin (Dr.) Kevin won for "Best Actor" for his
portrayal of a Doctor. (Type casting?)

Jana filmed and directed an effort that co-starred Dylan with cousin JP as
boy detectives attempting to determine what "Evil Uncle Doug" (see a
pattern here?) had done to the piggy bank. It was a 10/11 vote but Dylan
won the Genevieve for "Best Boy Actor". JP was "Most Enthusiastic".

In another film, Tom was an evil scientist who was creating an army of
Frankenpickles who were attacking and killing picnickers. Chip won for Best
Make Up as the catsup splashed victim of the killer pickle.

The cutest film stared four of the little girls in the under under five set
driving around town looking for pickles. They even got a park Ranger to
respond "No pickles here!" They each won a Genievieve.

Following the viewing and the awards presentation, more food was eaten and
the traditional Gen-Fest recreational activities took place. While some
canoed or tubed, and a valiant group of the moms performed what always
seems to be near permanent KP, others began the volley ball game. It seemed
to be less spirited than past years, partly a function of the lateness of
the day and the heat and humidity but mostly, I fear, the continuous
encroachment of age.

As dusk approached, the campfire was started and those with distance to
travel said their good byes. After an obligatory visit to the campfire and
volleyball observation, the most senior members of the clan blearily sat
and chatted awhile until finally giving in to fatigue and age we waved
farewell and drifted off to bed.

It is reported that the campfire crowd continued to socialize until after 2
but that too was tamer than some past years and there was no evidence of
Molson's ailment in the crew this morning.

Thursday Stuff

Tom and Conni arrive late this evening. We are ready!

Tomorrow night is the picnic set-up. It's all going to end at 10 p.m. or so when all of the Steigers are going to downtown T.C. for the release of the new Harry Potter book. Jana is arriving around 8:15 p.m. tomorrow evening, so she'll be here just in time for all of the Harry Potter fun.
Downtown is really getting into it - the shops have all changed their names to Diagon Alley shop names. The Horizon Bookstore is Flourish and Botts. There's going to be treasure hunt all along Front St. and a human chess game in the street. Somehow, they are planning some sort of Quidditch, although none of us can see how they'll do it. The release of the book is at 12:01 a.m., and we have 3 books reserved.

Today Dick did the final outdoor manicuring of the yard, Chip washed off and inflated all of the tubes, I changed and laundered bed linens and made centerpieces, Laurie set up the playroom. Laurie and I visited Mother and showed her the video of Dylan's Tae Kwan Do class, and a video tour of Laurie's home.

Then we went grocery shopping for the last minute items for Saturday.

Chip visited the chiropractor and Dick and Dylan had ice cream.

Long Lake

Dylan says:

We went on a boat ride. We went to an island.We played in the water. And there was this old water pump and there was a little dry spot that looked like it could hold water that went all the way down the hill into the lake. But then Mommy came and got to be the big funner messer upper ruiner and told me not to make the river. Then me and Daddy and Autumn did something fun. We got lost in the woods. We walked right off the path because it ended, and got lost. So we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked and then Daddy decided to go into the water where there weren't cobwebs and spiderwebs and acorns. And then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked and then we walked two more feet and then Daddy found a little bullet that was red. Then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked up a big hill on the island so Daddy could see the path, and then Daddy came down and said he couldn't see the path and he said I'm sorry to Autumn. (for having to climb the hill)

After that we walked and we walked some more, and then Daddy found the blue bullet, and then we walked and we walked some more and then I asked Daddy if we should get back up in the woods. He said, Are you crazy? And then we kept walking, and walking and walking and walking some more. And then we found another red bullet. And then we walked and we walked some more. And then we saw a sign. Daddy read the sign. It said, No campfires, No dogs. And then we walked seven meters and saw an opening. We came out and we saw the pontoon boat! Me and Autumn ran as fast as we could towards the pontoon boat. Then I shared the Coconut cupcakes with everyone, and they were yummy.

Then we went to another island. And there were stairs on the island. Me, Grandpa, Autumn, Brooke and Mommy followed. Then we saw trees making some X's. Then we saw a giant sized woodpecker hole [probably made by a pileated woodpecker]. Then we walked and we walked and we walked some more. Then we walked ten feet. And saw a million tadpoles!! And lots of good skipping stones. I skipped one that almost went to the other island that we were just on where the pump was where Mommy was the big fun messer upper ruiner. Then we went back past all of that, and back onto the pontoon boat. And then we set sail for home. Then when we got home, we played a game of Follow the Signs. Grandpa won. Then we watched some TV. The we wrote this journal. The End Good Night Good Bye Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me Leave Please I Mean It! Thank You.

Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (Sand Dunes)

Dylan says:
We went to the dunes and climbed up a big big big hill. And that hill was steep, steep. We got to the top. There was another hill. We climbed that one too. That hill was a steep, steep, steep, steep hill. But we got to the top and rested for about 10 minutes.

Then I ran off a ramp thingy and fell 2 feet. Then I ran all the way down to where these logs were. We went up the hill where the logs were. Then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked. And then we saw that someone had built something on the dunes made out of logs. It was shade!! I rested for 3 seconds.

Then we kept going. Then I ran down a hill and went up a hill. This hill was not as steep as the other two hills. In fact, I don't even think that hill was steep. Then we came to this big circle thing. I took a wrong turn and ended up about 35 feet above the ground. Then I lost my balance, caught myself on my feet, and ran down really fast. And I'd say that hill was about 10 steep-steeps. We kept on going through the whole circle thing.

We found ourselves in the middle of a dune desert. We had a drink, then proceeded. Then we came to a slope - we ran down it and went up it. It was as steep as a ladder almost. We got up to the top of it - Mommy and Daddy were still trying to get up. I ran down the other side into a valley and up the other side. And then Mommy and Daddy got to the top on the other side of the valley. They asked me - Dylan - What's over there??!! Some trees, a mountain, and another path!!

Daddy shouts - we don't have enough water for that. I ran down through the valley again and up the other side. Mommy wanted to race me down the hill that's as steep as a ladder. I said, You're on! On your mark, get set, go! I ran - I was in first place. And it got really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really steep! I was twirling and whirling in mid-air! Ker-plop!!!! I went into the sand head first. I wasn't on the bottom - the race was still on. But when I landed face first, a giant sand cloud appeared around me, over my head, and straight at Mommy's face. She was blinded and went back up to the starting line. When the sand cloud went away, she realized that she was on the starting line of the race course, and she said, I won! And I said, Did you notice that you are up and I am down! She looked. She was up. I shouted - I win!

Then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked past the dune desert. And we walked and we walked until we came to the big giant slope where we started. Then me and Mommy raced down it and Daddy too.

When I said On your mark, Mommy took a startling leap. She was ahead of everybody. She went before I said go. I started down after her. I picked up a lot of speed. There was a little ramp. I ran off the ramp. I was up in the air, I had enough time to do a flying side kick. It created another sand cloud like my face-plant did. This one stung Mommy's legs. I ran and I ran and I ran as fast as I could. I did a bad aimed flying side kick, and made a smallish sand-cloud that went up to Mommy's ankle.

Just as planned, it hit her in the feet. Before she could stop saying Owie, I was at the bottom. And I shouted I Win!! The End

Dylan Friday

Dylan says:

We were the first finders of a geocache. We walked in the Tunnel of Doom with Grandpa and Mommy. It was a hard hike through the Tunnel of Doom, but we managed. Although Mommy and Grandpa cheated by following a deer path and leaving the Tunnel of Doom to get out.

Alden is Kicking

Dick cooked breakfast for the four of us - he did the banana/pecan thing again - best pancakes in the Western World. He also cooked both bacon and sausage, so we had a most agreeable breakfast. We never run out of things to talk about with Bill and Jan. It was fun to hear about their new condo, all of their grandsons (4), and Belleville gossip. They had to leave early to be back down in Wayne County to pick up Mike and Kim at Metro at 5:45 p.m. So we waved good-by at around 10:30, and they were on their way.

Dick bundled up all of the cardboard out of the garage, loaded up the trash and we went to the dump. He swept the floor of the garage, which still had remnants of sand and salt from last winter.

On the geocaching website, he discovered 3 new caches in Alden, put out by the Alden Search Party. After a second trip to the dump with a forgotten bag, we were off to Alden.

As we entered the village, we couldn't help but notice all the cars and trucks with boat trailers that lined the road on both sides. Of course it is the 4th of July weekend, but we never expected such masses of boats! The boat launch is right at the end of the main street, and people were still launching, and trying to find a place for their trailers. Alden has about a block and a half of "downtown" with little shops and cafes - it's a really unique little place. The villages in Leelanau County, like Glen Arbor, are really a lot more upscale and boutiquey, while Alden maintains a village atmosphere. It was busy, busy, busy - people everywhere. (see link above)

The first cache we attempted was in the Helena Twp. park - a great little park with tennis courts, a nice play-structure, a fitness center, basketball, clean bathrooms, and swings. Our target was over near the swings, and the swings were totally filled with small children being pushed by their dads. So we decided to save it for later. Too many muggles.

Next we went back woodsing to the Helena Twp. Cemetery to find cache #2. This place was deserted, and so we found the cache easily. It seemed to me that the cemetery was way out in the middle of nowhere - kind of unusual. It was also unusual in that there were several plots that had benches as well as headstones.

Back to the park, and the swings were empty. The cache was cleverly hidden, the coordinates were right on, and we had no problem retrieving and replacing it this time.

The 3rd cache was at the Coy Mountain Preserve, which is a hop, skip and a jump from downtown. Dick hiked up the hill a quarter of a mile to find the cache, and that one was easily found also. I stayed in the shady, cool parking area and called Jana on my cell.

Having found all three, we started driving around the lake, and miracle of miracles, we wound up at Docksides for an early dinner. We found a table on the deck. The sun was warm, and the boats on the river were fascinating. You can see just about any kind of watercraft imaginable while sitting out on that deck. There was a profusion of boats on the lake, and the beach by Docksides was jammed also. It's very satisfying to be at Docksides on 4th of July weekend. Of course we can go there anytime we want to, year around, but there's a certain energy abroad today.

We drove home through Torch River, and we could see masses of boats at the Torch Lake sandbar. I've never seen so many people at the sandbar - the boats were in a huge clump 25 boats wide and 5 boats deep. It's quite a scene. http://www.torchlake.com/trr/Torch%20Lake%20Sandbar%20Large%20Photo.html

When we got to T.C. we did a modified Subaru Cruise - downtown Traverse was amazing - we saw huge groups of people (maybe 40 in one group) wearing matching t-shirts - we have no idea what that was about. Front St. was loaded with people - it has to be the busiest time of the year. The Cherry Festival started today. Discretion was the better part of valor, and we didn't go down on the Parkway. I heard on the radio later that the Parkway was bumper to bumper and barely moving.

This was a gorgeous day weather-wise, and activity-wise. We had a great time.

Bill & Jan

Dick worked at the Visitor Center this morning - they had 66 visitors in 3 hours.
Bill and Jan arrived around 11 a.m., and we had a nice visit, shared pictures, broke in the new guest room porch, and waited for Dick.

After a leisurely lunch, Jan and I went to see Bewitched (save your money). We felt that Nicole Kidman sold out a bit - the part was beneath her in my opinion. I went in thinking that she must be a really good sport to take on a part like this, and I left thinking that she made a really bad choice of roles. Will Ferrell was Will Ferrell - cute, funny, and "charming". The story is a yawner - it might have been better to just recreate some of the episodes of the original.

After more visiting and more picture sharing and more gossiping, we went out to dinner at the Big Eazy - very relaxing and casual. Watched the View on TiVo and went to bed.

The weather was rainy, dark and overcast so Dick and Bill didn't get on the river at all.

Sign Here

The carpet cleaners came this morning - they did the living room, dining room and sofa. So the house is a little torn up, with furniture sitting around in odd places.

Dick is working on the landscaping around the new porch. Today he battled the humidity to put down stones along the drip line and mulch around the front.

I took the papers for selling the house to Concord Place for mother to initial and sign. She seems fine, and looks good. She's glad that things are going so well with the house. She seems lonely to me though and a little wistful. I told Dick that maybe Concord Place should be called Wistful Vista - like the old Fibber McGee and Molly Show.

Talked to Laurie and Dylan - it was good to hear from them. Laurie thinks they'll be here for the Big Parade, but it's not etched in stone. They'll stay until the first week of August. Dylan is looking forward to visiting the "Tunnel of Doom". He says you have to keep walking, or you'll lose your shoes. I'm hoping that he'll still want to do blog entries this summer. Last summer was a hoot.

Tom writes that he's coming for a long weekend - Thursday to Monday July 14-18. His friend Conni vanBilliard is coming with him. She must be a brave, brave soul.

Dick and I went to the Cherry Speedway to place the new cache "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines". It's the perfect spot for a cache. We have the owner's permission, and he even sent free passes for us to include in the "treasures". The owner's wife is my nurse at the infusion clinic, which is where we got the idea. http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/may/07cherry.htm

We went for a leisurely ride around Long Lake - very pleasant.

Smoothie Highlight

8:30 a.m. - appointment for annual diabetic eye exam. Everything is great. Only thing is, they dilate your eyes so that you can't stand any bright light for the rest of the day. It finally wore off around 5 p.m.

Dick was my chauffeur. We went to the Flap Jack Shack for breakfast. Breakfast was great, and my eyes were OK as long as I faced away from the windows. Natural light doesn't have the same effect as sunlight.

Meanwhile, Sunday night the crown that was re-cemented last week fell off again. Dr. Kevin doesn't work on Mondays, so I had an appointment today at 1:30. Remember the dilated eyes? When they turn that light on you at the dentist's office, the best thing to do is just close your eyes. I was wearing dark sunglasses too. The crown was back on in 15 minutes. I'm crossing my fingers that this time it will stay put.

We did some errands - Square Deal, K-Mart, Sherwin Williams - checked Mom's house. Then Dick had this great idea of sitting downtown with a cuppa and watching the touristers. We decided on Crema, moved our table so we could see down the street, and I really enjoyed watching the babies and the outfits through my dark glasses. Traverse is really loaded with tourists of all sorts. We've had many 90 degree days lately, and it's perfect summer weather. We saw people walking directly from the beach to Front St. I had the Power Island smoothie - raspberry, strawberry, mango and banana. It was the highlight of my day...

...until later this evening when John called. The buyer person has agreed to our price for Mother's house, and we can initial the agreement tomorrow. Closing will be August 1. Hooray! Hooray!!

Now It's Empty

The Estate Sale was a huge success - only a couple of small tables and some very small items didn't sell. They are totally cleaning out the house today, and it will be empty now. (see link above) We'll get the results of the Estate Sale in approximately 2 weeks.

Our realtor has had an offer on the house which we think is too low, and today we plan to make a counter offer.

We're hoping to have some more interest generated by the Estate Sale. All of the flyers concerning the house were picked up.

Today (June 27) would have been Mom and Dad's 74th anniversary. Yesterday we attended the Concord Place Picnic. Mom used her walker and walked to the elevator and into the community room by herself. It was a very nice picnic - they actually cooked hot dogs and hamburgers out on the grill, so it was authentic. To be honest, these events are always slightly depressing to me - I have the feeling that everybody there, including the residents, would rather be somewhere else. Mother stayed downstairs for about an hour and then was ready to go back to her room. And so were we.

Mother seems to be glad to have the Estate Sale over with - she was interested to hear what I observed during the sale. She can't believe that people actually purchased some of those things - her bed, all of the dressers, the china cabinet, the dining room set, even the kitchen table - everything is gone. She doesn't seem the least bit emotional about it all - just interested. Now she wants to have the house sold. And so do we.

Second Day, Launch, & Power Island

I got up very early and boiled potatoes and eggs, chopped celery and onions getting ready to make potato salad for the Concord Place picnic tomorrow. I wanted to get everything ready because we have a busy day planned. So all of the ingredients are in the refrigerator and the potato salad is ready to be assembled - probably tomorrow morning.

I went in to town to watch the Estate Sale again. Today everything is 50% off, and it's much much cooler, so I think people will definitely have a more pleasant shopping experience. I was sitting there listening to the radio, and heard that the launching of the sloop Welcome was this morning - so I called Dick, and he came into town, and we went out to the coal dock to watch the launch.

There were historical re-enactors there. The soldiers were all dressed in 18th century British Army uniforms, carrying muskets and looking very spiffy. They were re-enacting the King's 8th regiment which was stationed at Fort Michilimackinac in the 1700s and whose soldiers manned the original Welcome. (See link above).

Two huge cranes lifted the vessel off its resting place, swung her around and lowered her into the water. When her hull entered the water, the regiment fired their muskets in unison as a salute. The Welcome's sister ship, the schooner Madeline, honked her horns and everybody cheered. (http://www.mhatc.net/photow.htm)

It was a fascinating event. We were glad we witnessed it. Those two vessels will look so lovely out on the bay. The Welcome still needs to have its main mast installed and most likely won't be sailing around until 2006.

I went back to watch the Estate Sale. Lights were on in the basement - Mother will notice the increase in her Light and Power bill - take my word for it. From where I was parked, I could see people inside the house through the big windows - I don't know why it was so interesting to me, but it was. Lots of ladies came out with blankets and bedding. One man carried out 3 huge boxes of who knows what! Another had one of Dad's power tools still in the original packaging. Once again, there were tons of people coming and going.

Dick's mission today was to take the pontoon boat to Power Island because there are two caches there. He had previously contacted Ray and Jerry and they planned to meet us at the Bowers Harbor launch site to ride along. We got there at the appointed time, and had a very pleasant boat ride to the island. It was overcast and cool, and the bay was flat - good for boating. They found both caches with little trouble. One of the caches is the oldest cache in the entire State of Michigan. I think the whole project only took about 2 hours from launch to take-out. (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=53) (Scroll down to Basswood Bend)

Dick and I had a very late lunch at the Peninsula Grill, and came home to our computers. When Dick logged on to the geocaching web site, he immediately noticed a new cache over in the Hoosier Valley, so off he went, and he was the First to Find!

I talked to Joan of the Estate Sale people, and they like the location of the Sale so much that they're actually going to open it up again tomorrow morning from 9 to 12. She said that they have sold almost everything of Mother's, and she said that "we think that we've done very well for you". So hooray! They'll clean it all up on Monday.

Right now it seems like a very long time since I chopped those potato salad ingredients (yawn).

First Day of Sale

This was a big day! The first day of Mom's Estate Sale.

They were open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and there were tons and tons of people who stopped to look everything over.

I parked to watch for a while, and people were buying the most unusual things - one lady bought all of Mom's old Christmas wrappings on rolls. Another lady bought all of the gift bags.

People were leaving the yard with boxes, and two kinds of bags, so it was hard to tell what everyone bought. I did see one little old lady who bought two shovels, a hoe, and some pruning shears! And an old gentleman who was all bent over actually bought the ice-melter jug that was 3/4 empty!

One man who bought a shotgun was wearing a State hat. I guess Dad no longer cares. I saw baskets, Kennedy memorabilia, Army cots and sleeping bag and furniture being loaded into cars. One lady had both arms full of books.

The Sale looks to be very successful - a lot of traffic passes by that corner, and I'm sure a lot of the customers stopped on impulse. The Antiques Appraisers people seemed very efficient.

It was a very hot day - the temp got up to 95F, and it was also very humid. I'm sure the upstairs was not very comfortable.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 48th wedding anniversary. Dick had an all-day training at the Agency, so I did errands for Mother, and visited her.
We did go out to dinner at the Freshwater Lodge - we sat outside on the patio, and it was very pleasant watching the sailboat regatta on the bay. This is what Dick wrote to Sharon:

"Just a quick note to say thanks again. We used the gift certificate at
Freshwater Lodge last night and had a great time. We sat out on the porch
in the evening breeze. It was quite fun, there were lots of sail boats out
on the bay and the colors were dramatic. We even saw a pontoon boat put out
from the marina headed for town."

I was a little bit down today because we learned that our plans for our 50th anniversary will not be happening. (See June 13) The Resort does not rent for just a weekend during the tourist season. If we wanted to use the Resort, we would have to reserve it for an entire week, which is not at all what we want to do. So I say PHOOEY. It was such a great idea - but I'm sure we'll come up with something just as good. Maybe.

Moo

Cleaning out my closets and furniture to make room so Dick can move in when Laurie, Chip and Dylan come. This is not an easy process - I started in the guest room closet, moved to my bedroom closet, and then my big dresser. I wound up with three big bags to take to Goodwill.

Meanwhile, Dick is working on landscaping the perimeter of the new porch. We do manage to keep busy.

After a little down time, we went into town. I had 6 more Kanitz Family Tree letters to mail, I wanted to buy backup discs for the Family Tree Program, ant killer for around the outside of the house, and to take the bags to Goodwill. We had a good time doing all of that - traveled from Acme to Moomer's with four stops in between.

After Moomer's, we won't be cooking dinner tonight!

Driving around today we saw a burned out building, a torn down building or two, tons of condo construction, and new subdivision and I don't know what all. It's hard to keep up with what's happening around here!

The new Wuerfel Park ballpark for the Traverse City Beach Bums is surrounded by new traffic lights all draped in black plastic - three that I know of. I'm thinking they'll only use them after games until the parking lot has emptied.

Geo-Caching - Still Fun

Happy Flag Day

We both used the morning to do our various jobs - Dick is working on the landscaping out by the driveway. I'm putting historic GenFest pictures into albums so everybody can enjoy the memories.

Just before noon, we packed up the GPS and took off for Frankfort. We found 2 caches before lunch. We love to have lunch at Dinghy's in Frankfort - love their menu. (See the link above)

After lunch we went to Crystal Gardens and found a lovely blue hanging basket - just what I wanted. Dick got some ivies for the tubs of flowers. The girls at Crystal Gardens were wearing flags stuck in their hats.

Then we were back out into the woodsy trails - such a pleasant place to be! We found 3 more caches before we headed for home. We haven't been out caching for three weeks anyway. Guess what - it's still fun!

Spider Lake Resort

We're planning a millennium quilt project for GenFest this year. Everybody is going to bring two squares each with his/her name on it. We're asking for two because it will take 100 squares to make a full size quilt. We'll have the quilt ready for the 2006 GenFest.

The real activity this year will be the Basswood Bend Film Festival - it should be a hoot. Teams will use video cameras to make "movies" - then we'll all watch everybody's movies and give out awards. The "Genevieves" (you know, like Oscars) came yesterday, and they are perfect. It should be a ton of fun.

In 2007, we're not having GenFest. That's the year of our 50th wedding anniversary and we want to do something special. There's a beautiful new resort on Spider Lake that's just perfect for our whole Genfest family. I think there's even room for Jim and Emilie, Kris&Mike and Dan&Pam. We plan to rent the whole thing for the weekend of June 22 & 23, 2007. Everybody can come and stay for two nights pre-paid by us, because that's the way we want to do it. It should be quite an adventure. There's a beautiful sandy beach, a boat dock for our pontoon, a place for a campfire, a game room with foosball, pool, game tables, shuffleboard,etc, two fully equipped huge kitchens, a community dining room, a fireplace lounge, a TV lounge, a workout room, 16 motel rooms on two floors, an elevator, - and what else would we need? They don't provide meals, but we could do meals on our own, or have the Saturday meal catered and then just do breakfast and snacks on our own. I'm leaning toward a catered meal on Saturday.

This Spider Lake Resort thing is NOT next year - it's 2007 !! In 2006, we'll just do a regular old run of the mill GenFest.

Today I went to JoAnn Fabric and bought everything (I hope) that I'll need to do machine embroidery on our quilt squares. I had looked up on the internet how to do it and what I would need - stabilizer, thread, needle size, etc. I bought remnants that I liked so I can make some extra squares to fill out the quilt. I don't know how to quilt, but I think I can sew the squares together and then have somebody else do the quilting. I have my fingers crossed that my "sew-chine" still works because I haven't tried it lately.

I had a nice visit with Mother - she's being well-cared for - seems alert and comfortable. She has an interest in what goes on outside her door - likes to watch people passing by.

Planting, Planting, Planting, and More Planting

We planted and planted. I planted pansies in the flower bed off the octagonal deck. Dick planted southern Grand Traverse County. Everything looks very summery, flowery, and colorful. We got dirty, sweaty, and disheveled. But we "got 'er done", as they say.

Getting more and more Family Tree information - something new almost every day. I have a new contact that I found on the internet, believe it or not - it turns out that she's the wife of a first cousin once removed. And I got a second new contact from the wife of a first cousin. It's so exciting to get some new leads - it opens doors to lots of new information.

Mailed the invitations to GenFest - can't believe how close it is...just a month to get ready! But we'll "get 'er done"!

Flower Day

Today, since we think that the danger of frost is almost over, we decided to go buy the annuals and the hanging baskets. We naturally gravitate towards Plantmasters at Suttons Bay. They have never disappointed us.

We bought flats and flats of pansies, ageratum, geraniums, and I don't know what all. We got 2 glorious hanging baskets of fuchsia, but we couldn't find the blue basket I wanted for the dining room porch.

It was a rather warm, humid day, so we plan to plant tomorrow in the morning when it's cool.

Iron Dextran Infusion

I arrived at the Infusion Clinic at 9 a.m. I got right in, and even got one of the comfortable chairs. I brought along a good book by Nevada Barr. I even got the good nurse. So I was happy and comfortable both.

This time it only took 3 hours, so even though I was happy, I was even happier to leave at noon. I turned down the offer of a hospital lunch, thank you very much.

Oh well

I guess things weren't as great as I thought they were. Dr. Burke (world's greatest doctor) called this afternoon and said that I need an iron infusion based on the test results from last week.

Push Your Button

What a day! We are boo-zausted.

It all began this morning.

I had a Doctor appointment and blood test at 8:30 a.m. (Everything is fine)

Dick came with me so we could go out to breakfast afterwards. We went to the FlapJack Shack (Breakfast bar for Dick, blueberry pancakes for me) . We brought along the real
estate papers from John so Mother could sign them this morning.

As we were driving away from the restaurant, I called her on the cell phone. She answered, and then there was a big crash. I couldn't hear her for a while, and then she said "I fell out of my chair" (followed by miscellaneous noises).

Then she said in a panicky voice "I'm bleeding."

I said,"Mother, push your button. " No response.

"Mother, push your button."

"I can't find it. " I gave her time to look for it. She finds it.

" Did you push it?"

"Yes."

"Push it a couple of times more."

We wait for a bit, and then I hear her say "I fell out of my chair", and someone replied, "Well, I can see that!"

Whew! So then we knew that she was not alone, and that she would be tended to. By the time we got there, she had already been evaluated by a nurse from Bortz, and Betsy was cleaning her up and holding ice to the back of Mom's head. Her blouse was all bloody - the phone was all bloody, and Mom's hands were bloody from touching the back of her head. It really was just a minor abrasion and a bruise and a bump on the back of her head. She didn't need stitches or anything. They got her all cleaned up, changed her blouse, cleaned things up, checked her vital signs, and that was it. She was a little shaken up, but she really is a trooper. It is such a comfort to know that all of that help is just a buzzer away.

She said that the staff had wanted to call 911, but she talked them out of it. I'm glad to know that they think of doing that first, because who knows when it may become necessary and we would want them to do that. Then they wanted to take her to Dr. Auer, but she talked them out of that too. She has such a firm grip on her faculties, and she's very sensible, so they respected her wishes. I was also very glad to know that they would take her to the Doctor. That gives us such peace of mind if we're out of town or unavailable. We thought that everything was very well handled.

After a couple of deep breaths, and a chance to settle down a bit, she signed and initialed the 14,000 real estate papers that are necessary if you want to sell a house. She was still a little shaky, but she got it done, and she was able to converse, and joke a little bit. Her pupils weren't dilated or anything. I know that the staff will be keeping an eye on her all day, and I'm sure that her head will be sore for a few days.

Then we went home to take a breather, check e-mail for Family Tree information, and make an appointment for Dick at the barber shop, and an appointment to meet John to give him the signed papers.

Back into town to meet John and give him the papers. He was going into the house to do some measuring. Now I feel like the whole thing is out of my hands - John will handle the sale of the house, Joan will handle the estate sale, and we just stand by and let it happen. It's kind of a weird feeling, but in general it's a good feeling. I almost feel like celebrating.

Dropped Dick at the barber shop, deposited the Income Tax refund check, and went to Horizon to wait for Dick. Two iced teas later, we did a couple of errands, and then went to K-Mart and found some white wicker furniture that we want for our new porch. It was not easy to purchase - a long story - but in the end we have a wicker love seat and 2 chairs on our new porch.

Footnote - on the packaging of the loveseat, it said Do Not Use Outdoors. Oh well - maybe we made a big mistake. At least the porch has a roof!

Perm Day Again

Dylan called this morning! It was so nice to talk to him. They were on the airplane to go back to Miami, so we couldn't talk very long. Just long enough to hear some interesting stories about their visit to Pittsburgh. Thanks for calling, Dylan!

Off to Bo Tangles at 10 a.m. for a perm - it seems like I just had one. The last one didn't "take" too well. I had a lot of fun talking to Colleen - she's getting married on Saturday, and she was walking 5 feet off the ground. I think I heard every plan that she has for the wedding. I felt like I was part of the wedding party! Anyway, she earned herself a big tip/wedding present!

Met Dick at Mom's house - we had an appointment with John to sign him up as our listing agent. While we were sitting there, Joan from the Estate Sale people came in. So Joan and John had a chance to meet each other and to coordinate some things. John's going to have some flyers about the house available at the Sale. There should be quite a number of people going through the house those 2 days, and maybe one of them will want to buy it!

Dick found Dad's U of M letter sweater downstairs. We were thrilled to find it. It's in quite good condition. I'm going to try to find an archival sweater box and archival tissue to keep it in. I think it should go to Jim, who can then pass it on to Dan and Jace - keep it in the male line of the family. I think Dad would like that.

I've been sending and receiving a lot of emails for the Family Tree. It is growing and growing. There are going to be 3 big weddings this summer - so I think the tribe will keep increasing as time goes by.

Happy Memorial Day

First we took Mother some home made potato salad, and then headed to the courthouse for the dedication of the restored Civil War statue on the courthouse lawn.

The crowd began arriving early, but we did get a seat on the bleachers so we were comfortable. The weather was perfectly beautiful.

The service itself was a little longish, but very sincere. It had a real small town flavor - the opening bugler was way off, the choir was not polished, and the fly-over was a Coast Guard helicopter - but it was done with enthusiasm, earnestness, and a spirit of honor and wholeheartedness.

The real reason I wanted to go was to see Sen. Carl Levin. He was the keynote speaker, and he laid a wreath at the statue. I admire him a great deal. He was always a great supporter of teachers and the MEA. He is the minority party ranking member of the Armed Services Committee of the Senate. He also is a constant advocate for human rights around the world. He did a fine job at the ceremony today, and I understand that he was responsible for the restoration committee receiving a grant from the National Park Service "Save Our Treasures" Program.

The statue looks great - a big improvement - and the best part is that it's standing up straight now. Evidently it now has a stainless steel armature.

We saw Whitard there with Heather and Kimberly. It's always fun to talk to him, and the girls are as cute as ever.

After the ceremony, we did a mini "Subaru cruise" of Traverse City. The bay was so blue it could knock your socks off. There were boats galore, plus sailboats and a sloop. We went past Mother's house and noticed that the Estate Sale people are working in there again today - they were there yesterday, too. It's a sure sign that the sale is coming up soon.

We came home and had our first picnic of the year out on the deck - burgers and potato salad. Several kayaks and canoes went by while we were eating - well - 4. Is that several? And then while Dick was reading his book after lunch, he saw 9 more kayaks go by. Busy day on the Boardman.

Dick cleaned up the dining room porch - it looks wonderful He did a great job. We are gradually getting ready for summer!

A lovely Memorial Day. The thing that's depressing about it is the necessity to have war memorials in the first place.

Memorial Gardens

Dick is almost totally finished with the deck now - all that remains to be done is a couple of steps. It's a real place now - I think we'll enjoy having it.

I prepared 8 letters for mailing to cousins for the family tree. Information trickles in - a little bit more each week. We have records of 715 individuals, 255 marriages, and 244 surnames. And I know there are lot more to come. It's really quite fascinating.

I'm inserting a letter that Dick wrote to Barb and Sharon, because I couldn't say it any better. We went to Memorial Gardens, and the flowers are simply beautiful. The flags are breath taking - so many - we took special note of Rookie's and Frank's. This is what Dick wrote:

We took a break from Kanitz family genealogy and deck building to drive into town for a check on the bay. TC is really kicking out! We think it's a soccer tournament but the downtown was packed and traffic on both Front and State was at a crawl. After picking up our coffee and iced tea at Mickey D's we drove up to the cemetery. You girls outdid your selves this year, the roses are beautiful. We certainly appreciate the time and effort you put in to providing them. Although Lue and Rookie, Mom and Don, and yes even Harold, all are in our thoughts the year round, this is definitely a time to recall and reflect. Thank you both, we truly value your efforts. Dick and Nancy

Drivin' Around

It rained most of the morning. Dick worked on the new deck - I did some scrapbooking - much more fun for me than for him.

Despite the rain, we set out on an expedition to check out some of our caches, and to re-try one we couldn't find before, and to find a new one. It's always fun driving around with Dick - I was loving it. Checked the F&M park cache, exchanged the Clancy Park cache, and then headed for Yuba.

There were some muggles there at the Saylor Park in Yuba, so we went to Elk Rapids for lunch at T.J. Charlie's. At some restaurants, it doesn't matter how good the food is, what really matters is how friendly, solicitous, and helpful the waitress is. We were very happy there.

Back to the park to find the cache - we were the First to Find! That doesn't happen very often.

Off to Weed Island to find the elusive one - we've been there twice before. This time we had success! I found it lurking in a cedar tree on a hillside that was quite treacherous.

All of a sudden the sun came out, the dark clouds rolled away, and it has been a primo day ever since. I think heaven must have days like this every day. Perfection.

Sumer Is Icumen In

Summer is a-coming in
Loudly sing cuckoo
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springs the wood anew.

The rose-breasted grosbeak is back. The hummingbirds are back. I've seen 4 different types of woodpeckers alongside blue jays and cardinals. The orioles seem more brightly orange this May than I can remember. We've missed them. We are bird happy in this neighborhood. They are the true harbingers of summer, and even though it's still coolish temperature-wise, the sun is warm.

Memorial Day weekend is just around the corner, and there's hope for warmer weather. It's time to start working in the yard and sprucing things up a bit. We need some color in the garden. It's hard to know when to plant the colorful annuals here in the river valley. We get frost overnight way after other areas. We have a really short growing season.

Still working on the family tree - it's encouraging to get responses from people - yesterday I got 5 or 6 really helpful emails, and I was hoping for more today, but so far nothing. I sent out 2 more letters today, and it will be exciting to get a response from them. So far, we're up to 708 individuals on our tree, spanning 8 generations.

Went geocaching with Tim and Susie today just here in T.C. We had lunch at Scott's out on the deck, and we actually got pink from the sun. It was lovely. We had a nice find to start the day off, but then our luck went downhill and even with 4 of us looking, we couldn't find the Weed Island cache. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

This was a beautiful day.

Pictures

I have pictures from the fifties, sixties, seventies...well you get the idea. I'm swimming in pictures.

It's my ambition to get all of these pictures put into scrapbooks. I'm not very good at scrapbooking, and it takes me a long time, but I really do want to do it.

Now I have more pictures from Mother's house, from earlier decades, and I want to preserve those too. I want to make books and books of pictures.

I want to save my Grandmother's collection of articles about my Dad playing basketball. I want to make sure I do it right, and I feel inadequate to the task. Sometimes I wonder for whom I am preserving these things, since we don't have a lot of progeny. But Dick says it's OK if I just do it for myself.

I'm swimming in pictures. Or did I already say that..

Visited Mother today - she seems better than ever - well almost ever. She was wearing a new blouse and it was good. I took her a milk shake - she likes that.

Dick is working hard on the new deck. He has the ability to keep working and working - such stamina is hard for me to understand. He totally exhausts himself voluntarily. I need a stamina transplant.

Grandma and all nine sons

Meet and Greet

This morning the Northern Michigan Geocachers had a Meet and Greet at the Flap Jack Shack. It was a smaller group, but we had a great time - met some new people, and had good conversation. It was especially fun meeting Petoskey Stones from San Jose(Scott), and Omena Couple(Stuart). We got some good ideas, and lots of new stories to tell.

It rained hard all morning, but as we left the meet and greet, it began to clear up - so after driving around town (we did the basic Subaru Cruise), we headed home because Dick wanted to get back to work on the deck. It's really coming along. He's doing a great job. We're learning new things about Trex building material - it warps more than we expected, and it's not square on the ends. Live and learn.

I worked on organizing pictures and doing some scrapbooking. I feel like I'm buried in pictures - I love doing it, but it is a bit overwhelming. Slow and steady - isn't that what the tortoise said?

Monster-in-law

Mary, Shirley and I went out to lunch and to the movies today because, well you know, it's cheap popcorn day! We had our usual chicken oriental salad at Applebee's, and then off to the mall to see Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez in Monster-in-law.

It was funny, cute, and enjoyable - just the way I like them. Jane Fonda did a great job - it was really kind of a slapstick role - but she was funny. She obviously has made up her mind to play her age. I still don't quite get Jennifer Lopez. She's good enough, but I don't think that she's anything outstanding. Elaine Stritch had a bit part, but she was excellent - just the best. I think it would have been a better movie if her role had been expanded.

Lumber

Dick worked at the agency this morning, and I visited Mother.

In the afternoon the truck from UBC came with the lumber and materials for the new deck. It was all unceremoniously dumped alongside the garage. It's hard to believe that the small pile of goods cost that much money. So now Dick has a big project in front of him - he's building the whole thing by himself.

Dam Thursday

Today Dick went geocaching with Tim and Susie - to make a long, long, long story very, very short, he was gone from 7:15 a.m. until 11 p.m. Their primary goal was to complete the "Dams of the AuSable" series by James and Sheryl. See link above. They did most of it.

I stayed home, worked on my genealogy, the pictures, the ever present laundry, and went to town for errands.

When he got home, he just had a sandwich, so there's an entire pot roast with carrots already cooked sitting in the fridge - no worries about dinner tomorrow.

Win Some, Lose Some

The day started out with household chores - mostly laundry. I also wrote more letters to cousins and got some mailings ready related to the Family Tree I'm trying to assemble.

Mailed my stuff, bought repair kits for sling shots so we can discourage the geese from nesting and pooping in our yard, tried to drop off some shirts at Progress, but they close at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and we got there at 2:16.

Then we went to do some local geo-caching. PeppermintPatti has put out some new caches recently out along M-22. It was a gorgeous spring day - maybe a little on the nippy side (52F) but sunny and enjoyable. One of the caches was hidden in Boughey Park, and I'll bet that all of you Traverse City natives didn't even know of its existence! We sure didn't. It's just a little way off M-22, and there's no sign for it, but it's actually quite a nice park with a shelter, picnic tables, and a beach. (See the link above.) We found 3 out of 5, so we were happy.

Went to Mother's house to see what the Estate Sale people had done there. The furniture has been rearranged and things have been moved from room to room to make quite a nice appearance. The dresser drawers and bookcases have all been emptied (except all of the living room books are in the little room upstairs), the closets are empty, and they brought in a different couch which looks great in the living room. Dick says that they have set up tables in the basement to display dishes and such - I'll have to go down there and check it out. Joan told me that they probably won't be working at the house again for another month.

Home, James

We had planned on doing some geo-caching this morning before heading to Traverse. But we both agreed that what we really wanted to do was head for Traverse. We were home at 9:30 a.m.! Started some laundry and decided to stay put for a while before heading to town to pick up our mail and to see Mother.

It's a little depressing to be back in Michigan after the lushness of Florida. Our trees are still gray, stark and bare, compared to Florida's glorious trees, shrubs, flowers, and hedges. Oh well - it won't be much longer until our trees are green. I hope.

We had a mail mix-up - we both remembered picking it up at the main office last time, but I guess we were wrong - we picked it up at the Barlow office.

Mother is fine - she had 2 visitors yesterday before we got there - a lady from church, and Miriam from Integrity. Very nice. We showed her pictures of Dan and Pam's new son, and gave her some shells and a picture from Dylan.

Dick did burgers on the grill. Welcome home.