Up in the Air

Today we flew home on the Hospital Ship - Flight 400 from San Diego to Chicago.

There was a man on board who coughed and sneezed incessantly for the entire flight. He was joined at times by another man who only coughed and sneezed intermittently. But the first man never stopped - he was even coughing and sneezing the whole time we were sitting at the gate waiting to taxi for take-off.

Two seats behind us, a woman developed a monster nose-bleed during the flight. The flight attendants brought her tissues, towels, large trashbags, and ice packs - and eventually they all said she was doing much better.

We sat at O'Hare for four hours waiting for the flight to T.C. We both had good books to read, and there was terrific people-watching. The people ranged from the Hassidic Jewish man with full hair and beard, dark hat and long coat to the Sikh with the red turban. I saw collegiate sweatshirts for Indiana, Iowa, Gonzaga, and the Maryland Terps. We must have seen 14,000 adorable toddlers - such cute little ones, and so well behaved. Air travel doesn't seem to be a problem for young families these days.

We got up at 4:30 a.m. Pacific time and we landed in T.C. at 8 p.m. EST. It was a long day. But the travel went exactly as planned - no hitches and no glitches. I really wasn't ready to leave San Diego, but all good things must come to an end.

Tonight Michigan beat MSU 72-67 at Crisler Arena. It was quite a nice surprise for us. The State fans are blaming the outcome on the officiating. We know how that is - we always blame the officiating too. Welcome to the club, State fans.

Last Day of Vacation

The Last Chapter, in Which We Geocache in Poway in Tom's Porsche.

Here is what Dick wrote:

Our final day of our San Diego visit. I read my email and learned about two deaths that have occurred since we left Traverse City. On Thursday, Jim Hardy’s daughter Natalie passed away unexpectedly in Texas and then on Sunday, the mother of a former colleague and close friend, Sam Vicchy had a heart attack and died in Pennsylvania.

Both Tom and Conni had to work so we were left to our own devices. Also, this is a “Ride Day”. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tom and a crew of about 6 other nuts take a mountain bike ride during their “Lunch Hour”. Now that we have seen the “trails” that they ride there is no other conclusion than that they are certifiably NUTS! These “trails” were made by goats. No four wheel drive vehicle could navigate them. The parts that are not vertical cling to the side of what can only be described as a mountain. Yeah, I know, they call them mountain bikes, but they should come with shoulder straps, no sane individual would actually try to ride on or in something while trying to navigate those goat tracks.

Anyway, this was a day for it and unfortunately, only the Subaru has the bike rack. Oh well! We got stuck with the Porsche again. For our last day, Nancy decided to humor me and go geocaching. There are so many caches in this area that deciding where to go is somewhat akin to choosing a Medicare Drug plan. We decided to head for the nearest real “town” Poway. There are 130 caches within a three mile radius of the downtown. For the sake of comparison, we think we are cache rich because there are 50 caches within 3 miles of the Visitor Center in Traverse City.

All went well on our Porsche cachemobile expedition until I managed to toss a cup of iced tea into Nancy’s lap. I quick, ran inside and grabbed napkins to mop up the car, then I took Nan home to change clothes.

For the day we found 10 caches. We also drove around and did a bit of sight seeing. We ate lunch at Wong's Wok in Poway. It was authentic (we couldn’t communicate with the waitress or the cooks) and good. Dinner was Mexican at a place named Chevy's, the same place where we ate lunch the other day.

In reviewing our stay, Nancy felt the whale watch was #1. I, on the other hand, leaned toward the Porsche cruise and geocaching. Poor Tom, he was such a great host he’ll probably have to have us back.

Altogether, we found 10 geocaches today - all in one small area. Two of them were in really nice parks, one was another fountain cache, one was one of those light pole things, one on a bridge, and several in bushes. It was a glorious day for it. Actually, it was a glorious day for anything!

Another Perfect Day

We headed out early for San Diego Bay and the Hornblower Whale Watching Cruise. (See link above.) There were only 41 people on the ship, and so it was like having a private tour. One of the crew said that yesterday they had 200 people on both tours. The time passed so quickly because we saw numerous blows, and the ship steered right for them, so we were able to see a lot of the whales up close and personal. Perfect day, good sightings, good company - it was almost my favorite activity of this trip, although it's really hard to pick a favorite. I loved the whole thing. The docent on this trip recommended driving out to the Cabrillo National Monument in the afternoon.

We had lunch at the Top of the Market at Seaside Village.

Cabrillo has a breath-taking view of San Diego, Coronado, and the whole Bay. The view is really the main attraction. My family humored me by watching 2 short movies - one on grey whales, and the other on Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo - both very enjoyable.

We had a great drive home through all types of San Diego scenery - from the ocean shore to the lush green of Balboa Park to the flat plains of Miramar to the rocky hills near Tom's house.

Here's Dick's version of our perfect day:

Monday both Tom and Conni had the day off and we all went whale watching. In the winter, the California Gray whales migrate south to their calving grounds off the coast of Mexico and can be seen just off San Diego Bay. We joined about 40 other “watchers” on a large (150 ft) vessel and sailed out of the harbor in search of whales. It was chilly in the shade but warm if one chose to sit in the sun out of the wind. We saw 6 whales up close, one came within 50 feet of the boat.
One group of four were displaying what we were told was courting behavior. They were swimming in a close pod with a great deal of pushing and rolling. Unlike the other group of two or three that we had seen, these four stayed pretty tightly bunched and would breath nearly in unison.
This was our second whale cruise, the first was a number of years ago off Maui. Based upon our two experiences, we believe that it is required that the ship have a hyper enthusiastic young female guide on board. Today it was Leslie. She really enjoys her job and was very excited at the prospect that the whales might be mating. Someone asked her what the other one was doing.The cynical crewman answered for her “He’s taking pictures”.
The cruise lasted nearly four hours and we were hungry when we docked. Tom took us to the “Top of the Market” at Seaside Village for lunch. He and I had clam chowder and then a sea food linguini, Nan went for pasta capelli with bay scallops and Connie had a yummy looking salad.
Following lunch, we drove out to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument, the most southwesterly point in the continental US. The drive takes you through multiple naval facilities and the remnants of coastal defense batteries left from WW II. The views of San Diego are spectacular and once again we had the perfect day.
We were back at the house fairly early, five or so but Tom’s offer to take Nan out to the movies was politely declined. The day out in the wind and the sun had taken its toll. We didn’t even worry about dinner. Cheese and crackers, a couple of episodes of Monk and the senior citizens were counting sheep.

Wild Animal "Peck"

Here's Dick again with his review of our day:

This morning while Tom joined a group of Europeans who work/worked at Cymer to go mountain biking, and Conni went to church, we hung out, read and used the internet.

Nancy and Conni packed a picnic lunch and we loaded the car and set out to the Wild Animal Park.

The major event in the huge park was the tram ride, our driver was Alex, a young man of Japanese descent with a great line of patter. He was both informative and entertaining. It is great to look off across the valley and view various herds of African and Asian antelope, deer, giraffes, etc.

After a picnic lunch we visited the Lorikeet aviary and had our only injury. One of the lorikeets became jealous when Nancy was feeding another and so it took a chunk out of her hide. The keepers assured Nan that all the birds were inspected and were disease free. [To see a lorikeet, see link above]

We also enjoyed the gorilla exhibit and the lion areas but got tired and were ready for our tour of Cymer and Tom's lab.

We discovered that a lab at Cymer looks just like a lab at MIT/UofM/U
Dub. We also got to see what the heck an excimer laser looks like. We now know where Tom is when he goes to work even if we still don't know what the devil he does.

Dinner was grilled steaks, beef and salmon, with sweet corn and Tom's Famous Margaritas.

We are happy for Chip that Pittsburgh is going to the Super Bowl.

Roppongi's

Dick has been really prompt in writing up our days in San Diego, so I'm just using his - no need for me to reinvent the wheel!

Dick wrote:

This morning, Tom and Nancy started the day learning how to download songs onto her laptop and thence into her new Ipod. Tom kicked me off his computer to finish the preparations for a “surprise” for us. A little after 10, when the Ipod lessons were complete, he ordered us to get our shoes on and report outside for our “surprise” In the street outside was his Porsche Boxster named “Raven”.

Although I haven’t driven a stick for 35 years or so, it came back pretty quick and soon we were rocketing down the road. I don’t remember ever driving a car in which you can actually feel the G forces all through the gears.

The route he sent us on was down winding twisting hairpin turns and the car clung to the road like it was on a track. On one hair pin, we met a semi hauling a bulldozer right in the middle of it. He was over the line but our car swung through the turn with no trouble. As we were flying through esses and over dips, Nancy was yelling “Yee Haa!”

We even took a brief side trip to find a geocache. Although it doesn’t have the best ground clearance for two tracks, a Porsche makes an acceptable fair weather cache mobile.

In the afternoon, after Conni arrived, we took the more conventional Subaru and found a half dozen more caches after a fun lunch at a Mexican restaurant. [Chevy's].

Dinner capped off a perfect day. We got dressed up and drove to downtown La Jolla where Tom slipped the valet a $20 to park the car. It is good that we had reservations because the place was packed. As with just about every other restaurant we have visited out here, there was a party in progress in which the guest of honor was a young guy in full dress Marine uniform.

For our dinner we all ordered three appetizers or tapas. Tom and I leaned toward the exotic and seafood, Nancy looked for more traditional fare and Conni was true to her vegetarian tastes. The wait staff was outstanding! They were attentive without being obsequious. The young woman who was our waitress was genuinely friendly but none of the “Hi, I’m Peggy and I’m going to be your waitress”. Glasses were filled and refilled and used plates and silver were replaced with clean in a completely unobtrusive and seamless manner.

Tom and I could not agree on our favorite dish but agreed that it was either the shrimp and crab pot stickers or the broiled sea scallops on potato pan cakes. We both placed the calamari steak with hazelnuts a very close third.

Nancy placed the egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce in her number 1 position closely followed by the duck quesadilla. She and Conni both liked the kefir cheese and flat bread combination and Conni maintained that the tofu was as good as any she’s ever had. I was glad to hear that because now I know that I’m not a fan of even great tofu.

Tom picked up the tab and was pleased that 12 tapas and wine came in under $200. It was certainly one of the most memorable dinners Nancy and I have ever enjoyed. It capped off a fantastic day.

[The restaurant in La Jolla was Roppongi's, a pan-Asian/Asian fusion restaurant. See the above link]

Old Town, Coronado, and PB

Breakfast at Denny's is pretty much the same nationwide. But once you step outside the door after breakfast, then you know that you're not in Michigan anymore.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park is filled with historic buildings and displays of the way life used to be in southern California. We saw the McCoy House Interpretive Center, the Wells Fargo Historic building (Colorado House), the first Anglo school in San Diego (the Mason Street School), and the Casa de Estudillo - a reconstruction of a "middle class" Spanish home. (See above link)

There were several groups of school children visiting the park this morning. They were all very well behaved, and seemed to be attentive to the presenters. I was impressed with their behavior. At the school building, it was fun for me to watch the "teacher" explain the history of the school to the visiting kids. She was very good at her job, and the children were fascinated. The school was extremely small even for a one-room schoolhouse. We were surprised at how narrow the building was.

My other favorite was the Wells Fargo stagecoach in Colorado House. It was a big, beautiful coach painted bright red and yellow with the Wells Fargo logo on it. It was said to have carried a grand total of 18 people - nine inside and nine outside - but it didn't look possible! I enjoyed the Hints for Travelers immensely (spit to leeward).

Tom took us on another great tour of San Diego - we took the scenic route from Old Town to Coronado, through La Jolla. It's a perfectly beautiful day, and the drive was most enjoyable, especially with such a good chauffeur! Coronado Beach was gorgeous - Dick and Tom walked the beach but only came up with a couple of shells to keep. The new (to us) Coronado Bay Bridge is quite an experience. It's one of those flying bridges sort of like the Zilwaukee Bridge, but twice as high and three times as long. The view of Coronado Bay was spectacular.

Then Tom drove us to PB (Pacific Beach to those in the know). We sat and watched the surf pounding the shore, and joggers enjoying the beautiful surroundings. We parked right by Joe's Crab Shack, and so it seemed logical to eat lunch there. It was upstairs, so there was a great view of the ocean, sun, sand, and surf. It had plenty of local color and good food, a great combination.

At lunch Tom and I decided to go see Memoirs of a Geisha this evening. I don't mind at all seeing it for a second time! So we came home to take a nap, because certain people in this family tend to nod off in the evening without a nap. (!)

A lovely day...

Museum of Man

It's a beautiful day in San Diego! Balboa Park was on the schedule for today, and it was the perfect day for it. We started out at the Visitor Center, which turned out to be just a gift shop - I was disappointed. The Japanese Friendship Garden is just behind the Visitor Center - the bonsai was especially interesting and attractive. We found the Cymer, Inc. donor plaque - they've donated over $100,000!

My special desire for today was the Museum of Man, and there was no disappointment there. San Diego should be really proud of this museum and its great displays. The Pleistocene Era, the Mayans, Evolution, Primates, and the Kuna of Panama. My favorites were: the gigantopithecus blacki (for picture, see above link), the Mayan stela, and the fabric work of the Kuna - (it was indescribably fantastic.)

We ate lunch in the sculpture garden of the San Diego Art Museum. I've never had lunch at a place where you can eat outside on the grass and have chilled wine at the table. We didn't have the wine, but the two tables on each side of us did - the server came and added ice to the ice bucket during lunch. A new experience! There was also a Mobile sculpture at the side of the garden - we sat and watched it and watched it and it was fascinating.

After lunch we went across to the Reuben Fleet Museum of Science to watch IMAX. Before the show started, we all had a good time with the hands-on science displays. The movie was Mystic India. Very mystic indeed.

Back to Tom's house - take my shoes off - big glass of diet Pepsi - put my feet up - feel great - I love San Diego, I love Tom's place, and I can't wait for tomorrow!

**********

And here's Dick's version of our day:

Our first day at the Tom Steiger residence and we were greeted this morning by Conni before she had to get back to work. She told us of her planned trip to the Galapagos Islands later this spring. Tom took the day to escort us to Balboa Park. He dropped us off at the Visitors Center, (A gift shop with a small help desk attached) while he parked. We toured the Japanese Garden which is supported in part by Cymer. It was fun but we had to do a fast shuffle to get ahead of the guided tour.

After the Garden we went to the Museum of Man. It is a great display which currently features an extensive exhibit of evolution through the Pleistocene as well as an excellent series of exhibits on primate evolution. We also enjoyed an exhibit on the art/clothing of Panamanian Indians.

My favorite display was a modern shop tool cabinet with human tools from various epoch's. The tools ranged from a hammer and screw driver in the top drawer to assorted stone scrapers and hand axes in the bottom.

My favorite overheard comment was from a boy of about 10 who was with his mom. He was looking at a series of models on childbirth. Looking at the next to last, he was saying in a shocked and disbelieving voice, "You mean they grab the baby by his head and pull him out?"

We had lunch in the sculpture gardens. It is set up so that you order and pay and reeive a large number to place on the stand at what ever table you select. The staff brings the food to you. I don't know how they did it, perhaps it was chance, but the server, a different person than the order taker, brought out three different plates and set them in front of the proper customers.

Folowing lunch, we scouted out the miniature train, (closed, it looks like what the TC train could become at a different venue) and then visited the Science center and Imax theate Mystic India was a "documentary" of a young yogi of the 19th century.

California, Here We Come!

Today's entry has been written by my favorite guest author, Richard B.
Here is what Dick wrote:

After a long travel day, Tom picked us up at the San Diego air port at about 6 Wednesday evening.

It was a fairly typical day for airline hitch hikers (stand by passengers). Our flight from TC to Chicago was scheduled for a 9:30 departure but when we had freezing rain followed by 3-4 inches of heavy wet snow the day before, we knew there might be delays. Our plane was coming in from Marquette as the first flight always does in the winter. Its arrival kept getting pushed back until eventually, the empty aircraft pulled up to the gate at 11.

The flight to Chicago was quick and uneventful but we missed our connection at O'Hare and had to be rebooked on the next flight. That gave us 4 1/2 hours of book reading and people watching in the terminal as we made our way from gate G 12 to K15.
For once we were not the last standbys called for the San Diego flight, our seats were an aisle and a middle, over the wing on a Super 80. After buckling our belts and observing the flight attendant, we settled back to "enjoy" our flight to the coast.

My seat mate on each flight was a young man in the 18 - 21 age group and each was headed for his great adventure. Each is embarking on a journey of three months duration which will, at it's culmination, find them both in San Diego.
On the flight from TC to Chicago, I sat next to a young white kid from Leelanau County who is a student at MSU. This semester he is enrolled in a program through Pitt. that is college on a cruise ship. He is joining 700 other students plus faculty and crew. They sail from the Bahamas down to Brazil, thence to Capetown, on to India, Thailand, Japan, and then across the Pacific to San Diego. There are a variety of classes offered, this young man will be taking 12 credits.

On the flight from Chicago to San Diego, I sat next to a black kid from Chicago. He was fresh out of High School, the oldest child in the family. He was going to Camp Pendleton for three months of boot camp followed by a five year hitch in the Marines. He told me he was going to be placed in the Presidential security detail and therefore would not have to go to Iraq "or nothing' like that".

**********
Me again:

Tom drove us downtown to the GasLamp District looking for a place to have dinner. There were many lovely looking places to choose from. We went to Wyatt Earp's, which turned out to be a very posh gourmet type of a restaurant. We all ordered sea scallops, and everything was yummy.

Then we went to Tom's lovely home on Tivoli Park Row, and hopped right in to bed. We can unpack in the morning. (yawn)

The Sixties

This is Martin Luther King Day. Thinking about Rev. King and his untimely ending brings back a whole flood of memories of that dramatic decade of the sixties. Wow - what an intense decade! Our three children were all born in the sixties - and it seemed at the time to be kind of a dangerous world to introduce them to. There was the Cuban Missile Crisis, the three major assassinations - two Kennedys and a King, a couple of major race riots, the war in Viet Nam, Civil Rights, an end to segregation in the South, the Cold War, the Six Day War - it's an unending list of monumental events. The Manson Family, the space race, Woodstock - welcome to the world, kids! Things seem intense now in the 21st century but it will really have to go some to equal the sixties.

The race riot in Detroit seemed right next door to us - we lived in western Wayne County at the time. We heard rumors and innuendos, but there was a news blackout, and everyone was nervous. We saw dozens of State Police cars heading down the freeway towards Detroit, and couldn't imagine what was going on. I remember driving through downtown Ypsi and seeing large groups of people congregating on the corners, and it seemed so ominous because we were kept out of the loop.

See the link above for more about the sixties.

***************

We are both feeling better today. We actually got out of the house and did things, just like real people.

Dick went into the agency from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. to work at his volunteer position helping people with Medicare.

I went to visit Mom, and took in the new chest we bought to replace her chairside table. I lucked out and found a dolly waiting in the parking lot - it must have been predestined. So I borrowed it temporarily, and it made moving the thing upstairs unbelievably easy. Ah yes, homo sapiens, the tool user! Mother loves the chest - it fits right in with the decor, and it has drawers for extra storage.

At home, we are getting ready for our trip to San Diego on Wednesday. Our beds are changed, our laundry is totally done, and we are partially packed! I have lists of my lists - we'll only be gone for a week, but I don't want to forget anything! I'm taking my laptop and my new nano iPod - Tom is going to download more goodies into it.

Happy Martin Luther King Day

Thanks Mitchy

I came across this fascinating little device while reading Scribblings from the Mitchy Side, and I just stole it outright. Thanks, Mitchy - I've had a bunch of fun!
See the link above for Scribblings.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Nancy!

1. Europe is the only continent that lacks Nancy!
2. Some birds use Nancy to orientate themselves during migration.
3. Nancy will become gaseous if her temperature rises above -42°C!
4. Nancy can taste with her feet!
5. The state nickname of Iowa is 'The Nancy state'!
6. Contrary to popular belief, Nancy is not successful at sobering up a drunk person, and in many cases she may actually increase the adverse effects of alcohol.
7. Nancy kept at the window will keep vampires at bay.
8. While sleeping, fifteen percent of men snore, and ten percent grind their Nancy!
9. Snow White's coffin was made of Nancy.
10. The original nineteenth-century Coca-Cola formula contained Nancy.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Dick!

1. All shrimp are born as Dick, but gradually mature into females!
2. About one tenth of Dick is permanently covered in ice.
3. Dick kept at the window will keep vampires at bay.
4. Dick can't drink - he absorbs water from his surroundings by osmosis.
5. Dick is the sacred animal of Thailand.
6. In his entire life, Dick will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
7. Dick has three eyelids.
8. Dick is the smallest of Jupiter's many moons.
9. A thimbleful of Dick would weigh over 100 million tons!
10. Scientists believe that Dick began billions of years ago as an enormous ball of dust and gas.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Friday the 13th For Sure

Dick came home from the Agency reporting that Coord 2 has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She will not be able to do office work for some time. She's expecting a regimen of chemo followed by surgery. We are wishing her the best as her treatment goes forward. Dick told her not to give it a second thought - her health has to come first. She's very dedicated, and I know she feels horrid about walking out at this point, but she has no choice.

Coord 1 is in Florida, so the MMAP office is woefully understaffed.

Dick thinks he may be coming down with whatever bug I have which is still making me feel ill. I hope not!

See the above link for interesting information about Friday the 13th.

Better Things Ahead

Here is the letter we got from Tom about our trip to San Diego next week. Now that's something to look forward to!!

TOM'S LETTER

My plan is to go in early on the 18th and work til about 1:00 then
come and get you and take the rest of the day off. That way I won't
get charged a vacation day. I'll take Thurs, Fri, and Monday as
vacation and leave you to your own devices on Tues. The Wednesday
you leave I'll just be a little late to work ... no big deal.

So the plan is shaping up like this: the Wednesday you arrive we'll
play by ear, although I'll be hungry so maybe we'll grab some lunch
downtown before heading up to my place.

Thursday and Friday we'll cover Balboa Park, Coronado, and Old Town
in whatever order our mood and/or the weather suggests.

Saturday morning I'll send you off on your Porsche tour and Conni
will join us by about lunch time. Then we'll do the Wild Animal Park
in the afternoon. Saturday night we have reservations at my favorite
restaurant (http://www.roppongiusa.com/).

Sunday mornings Conni usually goes to church and I usually go
mountain biking, so I don't really know what to do with you. Sunday
afternoon I thought we could do a little geocaching to show Conni
what that's all about.

I thought we'd do the whale watching on Monday since Conni will be
able to go and it's liable to be less crowded than on the weekend.

Tuesday I'm going back to work so you're on your own. Maybe more
geocaching. Or there's always Legoland :-)

Still feeling quite sick with no appetite. Dick has gone into the Agency for more overtime with Part D.

Warmed Over

The worst is over, but I've lost my voice, and I feel like death warmed over. This morning we took the Subaru in for repairs, and then headed right back home to the recliner. Slept fitfully - not happy and not able to talk. Not hungry - can't even think about food, which for me is a symptom of something majorly wrong.

In the afternoon I went with Dick to the Eye Center for his eye exam and new glasses. I sat in the waiting room and kind of faded in and out - still feel terrible. There was an obnoxious man in the waiting room using his cell phone seated right next to the sign that said "No cell phone use in the building". He was loud. It's really not fair, when I can't even squeak at the moment.

Still no appetite - can't even listen to food ads on TV or radio. Had some toast and tea, and Dick made some scrambled eggs around 8 p.m.

Woof Woof

Sick as a dog. In bed all day. Nausea and related gastro distress. Not good. Darn little bugs anyway.

Get Well, Mother

Went to check out how mother is doing. I took her an armrest thing for the john which will hopefully give her some stability in the bathroom. (Thompson's calls it a "commode", which I think is an odd term for it.) We don't want any more falls! I brought her a rose, and I hope that brightened her day a bit.

Afterwards I went to the Riverside Resale furniture store and bought a small table - well it's really a small chest - for her to use as a chairside table. The one she has now is far too small.

Dick went in to the Agency; he's working overtime these days to try to get people set up with the proper Part D plan. It's on his mind a lot. There are so many people in serious trouble over this extra-complicated government program. I think he feels somehow responsible.

Double Header

Went to visit Mother this morning. We had a good visit. It was time for her 2006 financial update, so I had a spreadsheet all prepared. (Are you buying this?) Anyway, I put her mind to rest by pointing out that she has enough resources to stay at Concord Place for 15 more years, or her 112th birthday, whichever comes first. She's still commenting on how much she dislikes the food - there's really nothing to be done about that.

Dick was working at the Agency - he was super busy. He phoned 21 different people concerning their prescription coverage (Medicare Part D for Difficult). While he was doing that, 24 more calls came in to the front desk. The Agency is being swamped with phone calls from unhappy elders who are finding that their prescriptions are not covered. I'm afraid it's going to take the insurance companies/government quite a while to get everything up and running, and in the meantime, people are left with no help because their discount cards are defunct as of Jan. 1, and some insurances cut off then as well. It's a horrible situation.

After visiting Mom, I dropped in on Dick and convinced him to go out to lunch with me. We agreed to meet in an hour at the Hard Luck Cafe. (Appropriate name for a MMAP volunteer's restaurant!) I went downtown for an hour and we had a great lunch.

Just after arriving home, I got a call from Betsy at Concord Place. Mother had fallen in the bathroom, hit her head, broke her glasses, and cut her eye lid and eyebrow area. She's fine - I went right back up there - a nurse came from Bortz and said Mom didn't need stitches or anything. Mom refused to call the Doctor - she feels OK - just a little shaken.

I took the broken eyeglass frame to the Cedar Run Eye Center, and they were not busy, so Mom has new glasses already. Same lenses in a pretty new frame. She thought it was magic that she could get new glasses so quickly! Betty still works at the Eye Center, and she always asks about Lue's kids, so I told her about Barb. I think Betty's going to write Barb a note.

Filled up the Explorer - almost need to take out a second mortgage to fill 'er up these days. Went through the car wash, and to Jiffy Lube. The car looks terrific.

UPDATED @ 4 MINUTES AFTER MIDNIGHT:
Concord called at 9:15 p.m. to say that Mother had fallen again. The official opinion of the staff was to call 911 and go to Munson ER to get an XRay. I said I would meet them up there. Dick and I beat the ambulance to the hospital by about 15 minutes. Mother looks like a prizefighter after 15 rounds. The cuts around her eye are still bleeding, she has a cut on the side of her nose also (from the broken frames). She has bitten the tip of her tongue, and her tongue is bruised.

The XRay was negative - nothing is broken. She was given a tetanus shot. She stood with assistance to see if she could bear weight, and then she was discharged back to Concord. It was two hours and forty five minutes from start to finish. She claims to feel fine - "A little wobbly" but no pain. I'm sure she'll be very sore in the morning.

I'm a Quilter?

This afternoon we watched State lose to Wisconsin by 19 points. It's so hard to believe that either Wisconsin is that good or that State is that bad!

I've started working on the GenFest 2005 family quilt - it's really quite a joke, because I'm the furthest thing from a seamstress that you can imagine! I'm going to give it the old college try. I hate to think of ruining any of those quilt squares - some of them are really beautiful, and some people paid to have their squares embroidered, so I certainly don't want to damage any of those. Keep your fingers crossed.

I THINK I can sew it together OK, but I'm not so sure about the backing and the quilting part. Although I could do the quilting if I "stitch in the ditch" - I've seen it done on TV. (shrug) I'm not sure. Right now I'm just hoping that I don't ruin the quilt top. The top is 8 squares by 8 squares - so it's 64 squares altogether. (9 inch squares) We do have 3 or 4 blank squares.

Squeaker

Michigan Basketball has entered the Big Ten Season. (shudder) They lost to Illinois this week, and today at Crisler they just barely beat Purdue. Well at least is was a W. We enjoyed watching the game and were really happy at the outcome.

Even though the team did well in the pre-conference season, I still have low expectations for the Big Ten season. So I was especially happy. They've had a rough time for the past few years. The basketball scandal was deadly for our BB program. The students seem very supportive, and that's probably a big help for the team. Go Blue.

This from mgoblue.com:

Daniel Horton scored a game-high 24 points, including the go-ahead free throws with 2:39 left in the contest, to lead the Michigan men's basketball team to a 68-65 triumph over Purdue on Saturday, Jan. 7, in Crisler Arena. Horton tallied 16 points in the second half as the Wolverines (11-2, 1-1 Big Ten) overcame a five-point halftime deficit in their conference home opener. Graham Brown added 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, Sims had eight rebounds and three blocks, and Ron Coleman chipped in with eight points.

Let's Do Lunch

Tim and Susie were geo-caching in the area this morning, so we invited them to stop in for lunch. They can find 14,000 caches before noon on any day!

It was great fun having them here - we had a lot to catch up on...Christmas, elderly mothers, digital cameras, mannequins, etc. We always have a lot of teaching memories to relate to each other too. And need I mention all of the geo-caching memories and info. Such fun.

Dick went out with them in the late afternoon to do some caching by flashlight - I think they found three.

Update

Results of the ultrasound: The World's Best Doctor says that the thyroid nodules are there - that it's common - that it's a benign condition - that my thyroid function test was normal - and we'll do it again in 1 year to see if anything has changed. I did some research on the internet and it seems that anyone who lives to be 69 has thyroid nodules, so that's that. I'm still wondering why I have such a sore neck and swollen glands for the past 4.5 months. But I can't complain - I feel the Doc has done everything - MRI plus ultrasound - Cheesh!

The World's Best Dentist even got into the act by X-Raying my lower jaw to see if my lurking wisdom tooth was acting up - but everything looks normal there too. I think I must be becoming like Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, with all of her imaginary flutterings.

Missed lunch today with Mary, Shirley, and Shirley. Next time for sure!

Cookie

At our wedding in 1957, Bobbie was my maid of honor, and Cookie and Claire were my bridesmaids. The four of us were inseparable at Martha Cook Building at the U of M. We lived there from 1955-1957. I met Bobbie my very first day at the U of M - we met at the SRA Building waiting for the bus to take us to Freshman Rendezvous for a weekend of fun before moving into Betsy Barbour. That was September, 1953.

Bobbie was from Mason, and now lives in Arlington, VA. Claire was from Huntington Woods, and now lives in Naples, FL. Cookie was from Flint, and now lives in Houston, TX.

Cookie (Carol Cook) married Tom Boberg, a grad student in chemical engineering (which was shortened in the lingo to "chem engine"). He had done his undergraduate work in the East at William and Mary and MIT. Back in those days, computer print-outs were on the attached printer paper. I remember visiting them once when Tom had the entire house covered with these endless sheets of computer paper covered with his chem engine project. I've only seen Carol and Tom three times in the past 40 years, but we have always kept in touch. They visited Basswood Bend about ten years ago.

I got an email from Bobbie today saying that Tom died suddenly the day after Christmas. He had been in perfect health, no heart problems or anything - we figure that it must have been an aneurysm or something. Carol says she doesn't need to know the cause of death. She's just satisfied that he had a relatively long, healthy, happy life. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.

I found Tom's obituary in the Houston Chronicle on line:

THOMAS COX BOBERG, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 30, 1933 passed away on Monday, December 26, 2005.

He received a bachelor's degree in physics from William & Mary where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. As a Tau Beta Pi scholar, he received BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And he earned a Ph.D. in Chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.

During his 33 years with Exxon, he was one of the leaders of the effort to develop practical and economic thermal recovery processes. His research in 1961 led to Exxon's first test of cyclic steam stimulation, and in 1966, he was awarded a patent on this now widely used process. He was considered a leading worldwide authority on thermal recovery technology and is recognized for his book, Thermal Methods of Oil Recovery. He was a member of Sigma Xi, the scientific Research Society. In 1991 he was awarded the Society of Petroleum Engineers Lester C. Uren Award, which honors distinguished achievement in petroleum engineering technology made by a member before the age of 45.

Tom was a faithful member of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church serving on numerous committees and as Elder for several years. A devoted choir member, he sang with the Sanctuary Choir for 37 years. His music ministry extended to The Kings Men barbershop chorus, which he sang with for many years. He was a gifted musician whose singing and piano music was enjoyed by everyone and loved most by his family. He is predeceased by his mother, also a musician, Esther Cox Boberg and his father, Colonel Roy H. Boberg. He is survived by his wife, Carol Jean Boberg, his daughter Leslie Caren Boberg, his daughter Lynne Ann Boberg Sutter and husband Herman J. Sutter, and his three dear granddaughters, Lucia, Isabel, and Sophia. A memorial service will be held on Friday, December 30, 2005 at 11:00 a.m. at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. In lieu of flowers, memorial may be made to Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church.

New Year's Rockin' Chair Eve

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

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

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

Bye Bye Jana

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

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

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

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

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

What a Team

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

Memoirs of a Grandma

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

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

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

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

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

Memoirs of a Geisha

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

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

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

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

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

Geo-Jana

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

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

Christmas Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

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

BAM! BAM! BAM!

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

Went to visit Mom - we had a nice visit.

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

Barbie

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

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

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

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

Concord Christmas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Dylan

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

Dear Old Dad

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

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

Family Day at Concord Place

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

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

O Tannenbaum

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

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

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

GeoFriends

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

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

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

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

It was a day to remember.

Hagerty Center Redux

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

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

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

Double Your Pleasure

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

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

Simon the Scholar

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

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

Marian's Cards

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

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

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

Mall and St. Francis

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

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

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

MIGO NL December M&G

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

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

It was our favorite kind of day.

Hard Workin' Guy

Dick's Day:

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

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

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

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

East Jordan

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

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

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

Mac and Chee

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

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

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

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

Turkey Blizzard

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

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

Shop Til You Drop

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

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

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

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

Home Again

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

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

Took the turkey out of the freezer.

Oops!

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

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

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

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

We're Off to Beat Ohio

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


Oh, how we hate Ohio State

Maize & Blue aim to make blasted Buckeyes red with embarrassment

By Bob Wojnowski / The Detroit News

The Big Game

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Making automobiles.

• Pretending to fix the roads.

• Repossessing automobiles.

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

• Giving out speeding tickets to Michigan drivers.

• Recycling tobacco tins.

• Fixin' their trucks.

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

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

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

Pick: Michigan 23-20.

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

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

A Little Bit Dreary

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

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

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

Michigan vs. Indiana - the Creamed and Crimson

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

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

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

This from mgoblue:

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

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

Driving to A squared

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pictures of Ethan are at the link above - Enjoy!

Geocaching Song Recorded by Team Pearce

Blackout at Hillcrest

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was a good day.

Deluge

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

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

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

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

Fishers Run

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

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

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

This from msuspartans.collegesports.com:

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

TGIF

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

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

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

The Hardy Boys

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

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

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

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

Michael Court "Mike" Hardy

Died October 30, 2005

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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Presentation

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

Boat, Barn, and Beyond

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

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

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

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

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

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