Driving to A squared

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pictures of Ethan are at the link above - Enjoy!

Geocaching Song Recorded by Team Pearce

Blackout at Hillcrest

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a good day.

Deluge

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

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

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

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

Fishers Run

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

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

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

This from msuspartans.collegesports.com:

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

TGIF

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

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

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

The Hardy Boys

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

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

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

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

Michael Court "Mike" Hardy

Died October 30, 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Presentation

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

Boat, Barn, and Beyond

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

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

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

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

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

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

Party Hearty and Go Blue!

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

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

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

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

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

This from mgoblue:

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

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

Poppycock's

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nice day.

Happy Birthday Tom

Happy Birthday Tom!

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

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

Discussions

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

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

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

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

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

Oh Well (Shrug)

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

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

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

Michigan vs. Iowa

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

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

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

Dinner Theater

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

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

Creepy Bugs

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

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

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

Great Weekend

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

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

Home again, jiggity jig.

DICK WROTE:

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

Michigan vs. Penn State - Unexpected Pleasures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look Out Canton, Here We come!

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

Categories Five

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

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

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

FOOTBALL:

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

SNIDERS:

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

GEOCACHING:

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

HOME:

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

Omigod

Omigod omigod omigod.


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

We won! In overtime! It was so exciting!

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

You've gotta have Hart!

Bye Bye September

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

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

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

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

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

Odawa

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

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

Lunch at La Senorita, and home.

Pie

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

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

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

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

Jiggety Jig

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

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

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

Welcome Home to Us!

Not the Best

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Adventure Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dick and Jana also found the Dark Star Cache.

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

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

This from mgoblue.com:

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

Added by Jana:

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

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

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

Let There Be Light

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

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

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

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

Dick Richard's B-Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JANA said:

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Jana!

Frederick, Maryland to Washington D.C.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This was a most happy day.

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

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

10:33 PM

The Subaru Went Over the Mountain

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cruising Through Pennsylvania

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

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

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

Kanitz Family Reunion

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

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow we head for Pennsylvania.

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.