Dundee Has Been Done!

Rain is predicted for Saturday's Homecoming game against Indiana. My rain jacket is hanging on the back of a chair in the dining room in T.C. We have emergency ponchos, but they don't breathe, and so they stick to your skin over time - really only good for emergencies, as the name implies. One of our missions today was to find some good rain protection for me. Dick had the good sense to bring his rain jacket!

Our first stop was on campus to pick up our packet for Dick's 50th Anniversary Homecoming Tailgate on Saturday. (Class of '59) We each have a lanyard with our nametags, a Univ. of Mich. tote bag and a packet of information about the reunion.

Target was next - we bought a good quality poncho so I would be covered (literally) in the rain even if we couldn't find a jacket.

We geocached our way south in the general direction of Cabela's in Dundee. If anybody would have a jacket, they certainly would!

We passed through Milan, and stopped to take a picture of Grandma Kanitz's house. It looks well-maintained and nicely landscaped.


Dick found a series of caches called "Where's Bob?" which took us down great country roads past lovely farms. It was a fun series - it used a variety of container types.

It was after noon by the time we got to Dundee, so we had lunch first at Applebee's. Then off to the wonder of Cabela's. As I pushed my cart around a corner, I saw a sign saying "30% off all rainwear in stock". Oh yeah, we came to the right place! I found the perfect jacket.

Well, OK, it is lime green, but it fits, it has huge pockets and a great hood - I'm very happy!

Cabela's has impressive displays of animals in their natural habitats. It's interesting and fun to see them. Dick photographed everything! The fish photos didn't turn out so well.

Breakfast at the Barrel

We met Dan at the Belleville Cracker Barrel for a great breakfast. It was very much fun to catch up with him and to see him doing so well in spite of his serious health problems. He keeps busy with the BHS football team and weekly golf games. We both admire his "can do" spirit. Good breakfast and good company.


An employee offered to snap all three of us together - it's a bit blurry, but here we are.

We photographed two of our previous homes just for the heck of it while we were driving around the Belleville area. This one is our first Belleville home, right in town. Our apartment was on the ground floor left. We lived there from June, 1957 until the fall of 1960. Lydells lived above us for a while, and then Thibaudeaus moved in. Thibaudeaus were much more fun! Mrs. Mitchell lived across the hall. She would knock on our door periodically with plates of muffins.

Here's our second home, in Quirk Sub. This is where we lived when Laurie was born.
We lived here from the fall of 1960 until the fall of 1962. Dick came down with the mumps in this house. and was on the couch with orders not to move during the time when Laurie took her first steps! Steinhauers lived next door. They had twin boys and a young one named Karl who was just about Laurie's age. They were good playmates for her. This house had a really big backyard - long and narrow.

Dick's B-Day

Happy Birthday dear Richard!

For his special day, Dick wanted to go geocaching and exploring in the downriver area.
Around 8:30 a.m. we set out in the general direction of Flat Rock. Altogether we visited Belleville, New Boston, Flat Rock Rock wood, South Rockwood, Trenton. etc., etc.

All in all, 13 caches were found by the intrepid cache-master - he's a natural.

Lunchtime found us in the Trenton area. Gave Nuvi the hint that we were ready to eat, and she led us directly to George's Family Restaurant. Wow. Good service, homestyle good food, low prices - it was the perfect birthday lunch. The only things missing were cake, ice cream, and singing waitstaff. We loved it.

Jana's B-Day

(I picked this image from the 18 million google birthday images because I think it looks a little like Angelina!) I'll bet your kitties would really like Angelina!

Happy Birthday, dear Jana, Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Enjoyed our phone conversation - I think the highlight was the story of our Dancin' Dylan! Who could have guessed that he would be the Beau of the Ball ?!?

45th Kanitz Reunion

The 45th Kanitz Reunion was held once again in the Tri-County Sportsmen's League in Saline. This year's attendance was 111. Jim, Dick and I were the representatives of our branch of the family.
Here I am giving my brother an earful.


Who's in charge next year?? OMG!!


Well I guess we got over it - we'll be in charge next year. Holy Moly!


Crowd shot



The groaning board - the food was as abundant as ever.


Dick at the dessert table in the yellow shirt. He had his choice of everything chocolate.


Jim went back for seconds - photographic evidence!


My first cousin Ron - the highlight of the business meeting. He is 85 years old - so hard to believe!


My first cousin Loyola and her husband Duane. There were 6 first cousins there altogether - Ron, Wayne, Loyola, Rex, Jim and I. Originally, there were 27 of us.


The younger set - it looks as though the Kanitz name will live on for a while yet!


Factoid: Jack's son Jeremy (1st cousin once removed) got back from Iraq 4 months ago. He said it wasn't that bad if you like adrenalin at night.

Quote: Linda (1st cousin once removed) said, "I've never seen a Kanitz that wasn't good looking!"

Joke: Cousin Ron recited an inspirational poem. He said it was by Helen Hunt. He said,"If you want a copy you can go to Helen Hunt for it." He broke the place up!

Relief: We had several offers of assistance to help with setting up next year's reunion. It's hard for Jim and me since we live far away and don't have much family nearby to pitch in. Plus the 3 of us are all in our 70s and not as spry as we once were!

M vs. EMU

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan Stadium)
Score: #25 Michigan 45, Eastern Michigan 17
Records: U-M (3-0), Eastern Michigan (0-3)
Attendance: 107,903
Next U-M Game: Saturday, Sept. 26 -- vs. Indiana (Michigan Stadium), Noon

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After a closely-contested first half, the No. 25-ranked University of Michigan football team posted a 21-0 second-half scoring advantage to defeat Eastern Michigan, 45-17, on Saturday (Sept. 19) at Michigan Stadium. Michigan's strong running game paved the way in the victory, U-M's 875th all-time, with a total of 380 yards on the ground.

Dick said we couldn't lose either way because we each have degrees from both schools (BA from Uof M, MA+ from EMU), but you know he didn't really mean it!

We came, we saw, we enjoyed.

Justin and Emily came and used our two extra tickets.


Justin bought this cap for his baby Braylon, who is now 5 weeks old.








Just an ordinary Saturday:

The number of people who were arrested on charges of being a minor in possession of alcohol or who needed medical assistance during Saturday's University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University football game was on par with other games, despite the cross-county rivalry, University of Michigan police said.

The announced attendance at Michigan Stadium was 107,903.

According to Diane Brown, public information officer for University of Michigan police:
# Seven people were arrested on charges of being a minor in possession of alcohol.

# Ten people received citations, nine for alcohol in the stadium and one for illegal sales of tickets.

# Twenty-three people were ejected from the game, 20 for violating stadium rules and three for disorderly conduct.

# Emergency medical treatment was required for 61 people, 13 of whom were transported to the hospital.

For some reaon we were exhausted afterwards - more so than the last 2 games. Maybe sitting in the noonday sun takes more out of you than sitting in the 3:30 sun.

We collapsed at home and watched the fantastic State game, which was fantastic right up until the final score - a good game with an unfortunate outcome.

We had pizza, did some laundry, got 5 achievements on WoW and went to bed - yawn!

Our Week That Was

Dick went to visit with Dick D. at his home. They had lunch with homemade bread and lots of conversation. Jan and I met at Showcase Cinema and saw All About Steve with Sandra Bullock. Don't bother! It had its cute moments, and was mildly entertaining, but generally, it was just Bullock being way too goofy. We went out to lunch at Red Robin - good food and lots of fun talking.

The bad experience of the week was being backed into in the Meijer parking lot. Meemic was very understanding and we'll have the poor Rav repaired when we get back to T.C.



On one of our geocaching expeditions, Dick inadvertently left his roll of stickers in a cache. He logged what he had done, and the cache owner went out and retrieved the stickers and left them for us in an easily accessible place. We had fun going back to look for the stickers, and Dick left him one of our coins as a thank you. One of the joys of geocaching is that 95% of cachers are friendly, helpful, and thoughtful.

One of the joys of Ann Arbor is having lunch at Zingerman's Roadhouse. I loved the salad and the side of mac and cheese - the best thing I've ever tasted! Well, maybe.



Friday, Tim and Susie were in Ann Arbor. We went to meet up with them to say hi. Here they are with Tim's Dad, squinting into the late summer sun.

Szechuan!

We did the workout in the morning and then went (can you guess?) geocaching!

This time we visited Plymouth, Northville, South Lyon and environs. My impression is that these southern Michigan "outlands" are more affluent and well-maintained than we see in northern Michigan. You do see the occasional property that's a real disaster, but they are few and far between. You just don't see the level of poverty around these parts that you see on the back roads up north. The farms on the gravel roads are picture perfect - all of the outbuildings are freshly painted and the grounds are gorgeous. It really makes for enjoyable exploring. The parks that we were in are beautiful, too.

Of course, we think that T.C. is the most beautiful place we could possibly be, but away from the waterfront and the mansions, on the back roads things sometimes look a little desperate up there.

In the evening we went over to Sniders and we all had a fantastic dinner at the Szechuan Chinese Restaurant on Ford Road.

Sunday Dinner

We met Sharon and John at The Brighton House for a leisurely Sunday dinner. It was so nice to have time to just sit back and converse. The fish and chips were delicious, too! We discussed everything from Maya to healthcare reform with just a sprinkling of football thrown in there, as you might imagine! Let's just say that two of us were happier than the other two, but we were all happy for Shelly.

We Win, We Win

The stadium was hot and crowded, but it was worth it - such noise and excitement the stadium hasn't seen for over a year! Our freshman quarterback made a couple of rookie mistakes, but by and large he kept his cool and was very effective. It was immensely enjoyable to watch the team take the lead and hold on to it for the first 3 1/2 quarters.

We were so disappointed with about 3 minutes left in the game. Notre Dame caught up with us and then took the lead. It looked like we were toast! With just 11 seconds to go, Matthews caught a pass in the left corner of the far end zone and so we win!

It was very exciting and we all high-fived for about 2 minutes! The student section hung around long enough to sing The Victors one last time.

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan Stadium)
Score: Michigan 38, #18 Notre Dame 34
Records: U-M (2-0), Notre Dame (1-1)
Attendance: 110,278
Next U-M Game: Saturday, Sept. 19 -- vs. Eastern Michigan (Michigan Stadium), Noon

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With just 11 seconds left on the clock, freshman quarterback Tate Forcier (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch) found senior wide receiver Greg Mathews (Orlando, Fla./Edgewater) along the goal line for a game-winning, five-yard touchdown, sealing a 38-34 victory for the University of Michigan football team over Notre Dame (No. 18 AP/No. 20 USA Today) on Saturday (Sept. 12) at Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines amassed a total of 430 yards, including 190 on the ground and 240 in the air.

Senior running back Brandon Minor (Richmond, Va./Varina) showed up big in his season debut, rushing for 106 yards on 16 carries, including the game's first touchdown. Forcier went 23-of-33 for 240 yards and scored three touchdowns -- two passing and one rushing.

Hooray for our side! Happy fans after the game - here's young George:


Tony and Sharron:


George and Alice:










Meanwhile in East Lansing, Central beat State in kind of a flukey ending. We'll have some sad family members, and some happy ones (Shelly!). We really couldn't lose this game - we would be happy no matter who won it. Go Chips!

Breakfast in the 'Ville

After the geezer workout, we decided to have breakfast out. Wound up at Denny's in Belleville and then toured Belleville and New Boston.

Main Street in Belleville is torn up all the way from Five Points to the bridge - they're putting in a new water main. Doane's Park looks so nice compared to what used to be there. Our Haggerty house is cute and well maintained. Belleville and New Boston both look pretty much the same, but Ypsilanti is going downhill fast - it's just pathetic!

We came home and rested - tough workout this morning!

Delhi, Dexter, Chelsea

Lovely day for a drive - just perfect. We found 9 caches in 2 towns, 2 cemeteries, and some parks.

9/10/2009 You found MGA9-Delhi Bonificación (Traditional Cache)
We are staying in Ann Arbor for what has become our annual football month. As in previous years, 4 straight home games is just too much "down and back". For today's Geo-Adventure, we chose to take Huron River Drive to Dexter and then on to Chelsea. As we drove along, when Nuvi told us there was a cache nearby we allowed ourselves to be sidetracked and hunted for it. The first "Ding" was here. We went to school and after graduation, lived and taught in the area for a total of nearly 40 years. The Huron Clinton Park system was a treasure for us. Although this is not actually a park and grab, it was the most straightforward find of the day. No muggles to deal with, just the rental crew delivering a huge grill for a party this evening. Thanks for the fun and the memories.



9/10/2009 You found Welcome to Chelsea (Traditional Cache)
We pulled into town for lunch and afterwards we decided to come over here to attempt to clear a DNF we picked up on this one last fall. Subconsciously, this was probably our destination the entire time. We were on a roll today and everything seemed easy for us. How we missed this one on our first pass is inconceivable. High fives and smiles as we drove away. Thanks for the challenge.

9/10/2009 You found Quiet Clatter (Traditional Cache)
We knew where it was as soon as we drove up. Unfortunately, it took us a little more time to spot the anomaly. Clever hide. Thanks for the hunt.

9/10/2009 You found Near Monachus (Traditional Cache)
Some days you bite the bear and some days the bear bites you. This is one day that we were on a roll. Been chompin' on Ursus all afternoon. We thought that this was going to be a frownie but one last try gave us the prize. Thanks for another challenge.

9/10/2009 You found SQ - Forest Lawn (Traditional Cache) [visit log]
I don't know what's up with us, Cemetery caches, and muggles, but we can't avoid them. Just as we were beginning to retrieve the cache and a gal came wandering up walking her dog. At least there is a nice place to watch the view until the coast is clear. Took the TB and left a flag pin. TFTC.

9/10/2009 You found Michigan Craft Brewing: Jack O'Lantern (Traditional Cache)
We were in Milan yesterday and found one of the series there but were totally unprepared for this cache. How very neat. Signed the log and left a pathtag from an event we attended in Florida last winter. Thanks for the fun

9/10/2009 You found Scio Village (Traditional Cache)
Continuing on our drive from A2 to Chelsea, Nuvi "Dinged" again. This was a case where once again, we knew exactly where to look, no need for the GPS. Will we ever learn? After consulting the Garmin, we made a quick grab. TFTC

9/10/2009 You found Loch Al"pine" (Traditional Cache)
We have driven past this location many times over the years but never drove in before. When we pulled up, there was a muggle on her cell in the paved area so we held back. Made it to ground zero by a circular route and began our search. Quickly spotted an anomaly in the branches, how clever, it looks just like a bird nest. A closer inspection revealed that --- it IS a bird nest! After an extended search revealed nothing, we decided to check the Nuvi one last time for the description and spotted the new coords. DUH!! Back at the proper spruce, we quickly found the cache. It needs some TLC. The log is wet and the tube has begun to disintegrate from the recent downpours. Thanks for the fun, we enjoyed our tour of the neighborhood.

9/10/2009 You found Freedom Cache (Traditional Cache)
When we were ready to turn for home, we wanted to cruise the back roads. We asked Nuvi what she thought and she recommended we try this one. The Garmin wanted us to dig up the middle of the cross roads but we knew better. A quick check of all four corners provided the prize. A fun ride to end today's Geo-Adventure. Thanks for giving us the excuse.