EXPO

Because we're thinking about putting new counter tops in the kitchen, we went to the Home Builders' Expo today to gather information and get free pens (!). It's a very popular event - it's held at East Junior High, and when we got there, the parking lot was totally full. Luckily for us, they have shuttle buses (school buses) over to the parking lot at nearby Cherry Knoll Elementary School. What a great idea! We enjoyed walking around and talking to all of the Corian/granite/quartz/engineered products people. Right now, we seem to be leaning toward one of the engineered products because of ease of maintenance.

The Expo is very well organized and it's arranged so that it's easy to visit all five of the areas and see all of the displays and pick up everybody's free pens! The Junior High is a beautiful venue - clean and shiny and well designed. We've enjoyed the Expo every time we've gone.

The sun is shining brightly today, with a beautiful bright blue sky. This morning at our house the temp was 4 below zero. As we were driving to the Expo, the temp had shot up all the way to 6F! When we left, we headed toward town, and East Bay was a gorgeous turquoise color - a nice change from the gray waters of January.

Downtown was jammed with people - and I had thought everybody was at the Expo! We went to the U&I for lunch, and it was packed too. Then we realized that after all it is Saturday, which probably accounts for the crowds everywhere we went. Note to self - go out to lunch during the week! The food was luscious, and we had a great time, even though we had to park over on the other side of the river! It was crowded downtown is what I'm telling you.

The University of Michigan men's basketball team is playing State in East Lansing this afternoon at 4 p.m. (shudder)
Update:

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's basketball team dropped a 90-71 decision at No. 16 Michigan State, Saturday (Feb. 18), at the Breslin Center to split the season series. The second match-up between these intrastate rivals was a shoot-out with the Wolverines (17-7, 7-6) edged slightly from the floor, shooting 51.9 percent (28-of-54) overall compared to the Spartans' (19-7, 7-5 Big Ten) 54.7 percent (35-of-64). While both teams shot in similar fashion, Michigan State's pressure inside and advantage on the glass helped them overtake the Wolverines.

Some Good News, Some Bad News

I finished the quilt this morning! I finished the quilt this morning! I finished the quilt this morning! Yippee!! It looks OK as long as you're not expecting perfection! All that's left is to cut off the stray threads, press it, and clean up the quilting area.

We've had winter storm after winter storm. We're buried. Dick has been out all morning with the snow blower and the tractor trying to dig us out. Snow is still coming down. More snow is predicted, and low, low temperatures. Tomorrow is supposed to be the coldest day of the year. It seems as though winter came about two months late this year. This is not a complaint!

Dr. Lambert called Dick yesterday to say that the stress test shows some heart damage from a previous event, we don't know when. He says there's no evidence of a current problem, but the previous damage has decreased the output of the old pump. The Doctor is going to hook us up with a cardiologist for evaluation. (In my crystal ball I see testing in Dick's future.)

Mary Luanne McManus Peoples Van Avery reports the passing of another SLG husband. Cuyler Miller, husband of Sandy Youker died last Wednesday at his home in South Bend. So far we have lost Mary's husband Glenn (Digger) Peoples, Sandy N.'s husband Gene Neibaur, and Margo's husband Sherm Janke. So now there are four gone out of thirteen. Too many, too soon, too young. Mary emailed to remind me that Donna has also lost her beloved companion Bill.

Cuyler's obituary in the South Bend Tribune:

Article published Feb 17, 2006
Lloyd Cuyler Miller
July 8, 1934 - Feb. 15, 2006


Cuyler Miller, 71, of South Bend, passed away at 9:05 p.m. Wednesday, February 15, 2006, in his home.

Cuyler worked for the Bendix Corporation right out of high school and then after college he worked in the summers for the South Bend Parks Department while teaching school and coaching for Greene Township, Lakeville, and many of the South Bend schools. He retired in 1991 after spending his last 10 years of 34 at the original Nuner Elementary School in River Park.

Cuyler was born on July 8, 1934, in South Bend, to the late Lloyd “Gus” and Thelma (Nye) Miller, and had lived in this area most of his life.

On February 2, 1957, in Traverse City, MI, he married Sandra Youker, who survives. Also surviving are one daughter, Judy Lynn (Kelly) Low of Niles MI; one son, Michael (Laurie Jo) Miller of Warren, OH; five grandchildren, Andrew, Kyle and Emily Low, and Ryan and Christopher Miller; a brother-in-law, Alan “Bud” Schwalm of Mishawaka; a sister-in-law, Sharon Dean of Traverse City, MI; and several nieces and nephews.

Two sisters, Donna Schwalm and Betty Lou Miller, preceded him in death.

Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, in the Palmer Funeral Home, 2528 Mishawaka Ave., South Bend. Rev. Kathy Miller will officiate. Burial will follow at St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park, Granger, IN. Friends may call from 5 to 8 p.m. today in the funeral home.

Cuyler was a 1952 graduate from John Adams High School and attended Ventura Junior College in Ventura, CA. He earned his BA and master's from Western Michigan University where he played college basketball.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Center for Hospice & Palliative Care, 111 Sunnybrook Court, South Bend, IN 46637; to the Humane Society of St. Joseph County, 2506 Grape Road, Mishawaka, IN 46545; or to the charity of choice.


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Let It Snow

The world is a beautiful place when you get the kind of snow that covers every branch and twig. All day yesterday I felt like I was driving around in some kind of a snowy fairyland - like Narnia. I had a perm in the morning while Dick was at the Agency. We met for lunch at Bubba's, a most enjoyable experience. We brought home enough food for supper - and it was still delicious at supper time.

I went to visit Mother - we had a nice conversation about the residents and the helpers at Concord - it's really all she's interested in anymore, although she does love to hear the Dylan stories. She seems much improved since her bout with the flu.

Barb is also feeling better and has gone back to work part time. Such good news! And Laurie's biopsy was benign, so things are looking up in all directions.

We have more snow predicted for the next two days. There is a winter storm watch (warning?) for today and tomorrow - today all of the Traverse City schools are closed. Dick has prepared to be snowed in - we have all the ingredients for his patented veggie-beef soup which we call "Too Good to be Soup", and two wheelbarrows full of wood outside the back door. So bring it on - let it snow.

Deadeye Dick

Last weekend our esteemed and exalted (not) vice-president Dick Cheney shot his friend while quail hunting. This is such an unbelievable story...it will blow over quickly I think, especially now that Cheney has acknowledged that it happened (on the fourth day after the event). The humorists are having a field day - it just invites satire and irony. My favorite "report" about the shooting is this blog that Dick found in a newspaper on line. I especially love the first sentence! (And the last paragraph!)

Deadeye Dick Cheney

As you know, quail hunting is what passes for military service in the upper ranks of the Bush Administration. Dick Cheney knows what it is like to fire a weapon in anger, particularly when the birds flush from the bracken unexpectedly. George W. Bush has flown airplanes, many of them folded from his personal stationery. Donald Rumsfeld has piloted boats and submarines through seemingly impenetrable mounds of suds. And so on.

Now, as you have surely heard by now, the Vice President this weekend had a slight mishap while hunting , in that he committed the faux pas of pointing his shotgun in the direction of a friend of his. Also he pulled the trigger. Sort of, you know, shot the guy. In the face. "Peppered" him, in the quaint vernacular of the sport. The fellow is doing fine at the hospital. But right here's what's wrong with the mainstream media: The stories don't tell us whether Cheney managed, in the process, to bag the bird. Seems to me that our sense of the man's overall competence pivots on that crucial unreported factoid. Who cares about his friend, did he hit the target???

I find the story reassuring. Cheney is a man who doesn't just talk the talk. No, if he's going to send American soldiers into harm's way, where they might be shot at any moment by a deranged fanatic, he's also going to do the same thing to his close personal friends. He's giving his hunting buddies a taste of life in the Cheney Era, when you count yourself lucky just to get out alive.

Torino 2006

Dick and I worked on measuring and squaring up the quilt today - we only had one melt-down (me). I was a nervous wreck because it involved cutting...eeek! But the quilt is square. Hooray!

The winter olympics are in full swing. Thanks to TiVo, we can watch most of the coverage with no commercials - a real time-saver. I've enjoyed the skiing, the speed skating, ski-jumping, luge, and to a lesser extent the figure skating. I never expected to be so fascinated by the snow-boarding, but it was intriguing, and so much fun to watch.

The Opening Ceremonies were fantastic. I've heard critics say that the ceremonies were a bit over the top, and maybe some of it was, but it was so much fun to watch the flaming skaters, the alpenhorns, the acrobats on the rings, the 4th grade girl singing the Italian national anthem, the "living" ski jumper, and Luciano was the icing on the cake.

Dick and I both enjoyed watching the march of the athletes - in my opinion France won the good-looking uniforms award. The hats of the USA team are a little silly this year.

Happy Valentine's Day! We went out to dinner at La Senorita. Also, we got a darling valentine from Dylan - a big hug by mail.

Inscrutable Islam

Amazing trivia about the inscrutable religion of Islam:

Did you know that:

*in Islam it's OK to blow up ancient gigantic statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, but it's not OK to draw a picture of Mohammed.
*in Islam it's OK to behead living people on video but it's not OK to draw a cartoon of Mohammed.
*in Islam it's OK to bomb mosques filled with the faithful on holy days, but it's not OK to caricature Mohammed.
*in Islam it's OK to blow up buses filled with school children, but it's not OK to express an idea in pen and ink.
*in Islam it's OK to bomb public transportation such as subways and trains during rush hour, but it's not OK to put Mohammed in a cartoon.
*in Islam it's OK to fly commercial airliners into tall buildings filled with workers and kill 3000 people, but it's not OK to draw Mohammed, not even a stick figure.
*in Islam, it's OK to blow holes in navy ships in port, but it's not OK to imply that Mohammed is associated with terrorism.
*in Islam, it's OK to burn, loot, and destroy embassies of any country with whom you disagree, but it's not OK to draw a beard on Mohammed.

Does Islam seem like a stable, respectable religion based on centuries of civilization, culture, and reverence?
That's enough - my brain is ready to explode.

First Finder!

We drove out to Old Mission to search for three new geocaches which have just turned up. We found all three, and on the first one, we were first finders. When you're a first finder, you're obligated to do the first finder's dance! It was a creative hide and we had fun with it. After three successful finds, it was lunch time, and we were very near the Peninsula Grill. I remembered how yummy their mac and cheese was at the mac and chee bake-off earlier, so that's what I ordered. It is still extremely yummy. Dick had a salmon BLT.

Back in town we went to visit Mother. She's still a little shaky from being so sick, but she looked good, and we had a nice visit. We told her about Laurie's "birthday party" last night at Outback Steakhouse. Dylan had "co-co-nut shrimp" and his birthday treat was Thunder from Down Under for dessert.

Laurie's procedure was today - she's back home and feeling fine. I'm so glad she had that done. Now we wait for the report.

Speaking of waiting for the Doctor's report, we still haven't heard anything from Dick's Doctor regarding flunking the EKG on Tuesday. Heavy sigh. Well, we take that to mean that it's nothing super critical, so that's a good thing.

Laurie says that Dylan's class is talking about family trees, and so he's going to take the Kanitz Family Tree Project Book to school and share the pictures and some of the information - for instance, Dylan's great-great-great-grandfather came from Saxony (Sachsen) in Germany. Achtung! Makes me proud.

Unfortunately, we watched Michigan basketball tonight. Oh dear, oh dear - now they've lost two in a row - first time all season. Another heavy sigh. This from mgoblue.com:

A monster game by Courtney Sims went for naught Thursday, Feb. 9, as the No. 22-ranked Michigan men's basketball team dropped a 94-85 decision to No. 19 Ohio State in Crisler Arena. The Wolverines jumped out to a 21-8 lead before the Buckeyes' shooting heated up, leading to a 49-43 OSU edge at the break. The game was tied 70-70 when U-M's Dion Harris left with an ankle injury, and Ohio State embarked on a 14-5 run that proved to be the difference. Sims finished with 26 points on 13-of-16 shooting and added 16 rebounds.

Intermittent LBBB

We reported to Munson at 8 a.m. for what was supposed to be a three hour cardiolite stress test for Dick. In actuality, we didn't leave the hospital until 4 and one half hours later at 12:30! His doctor prescribed the test just as a precaution before sending Dick to physical therapy for conditioning. As it turned out, Dick never performed the treadmill part of the test because he flunked his EKG.

He had the nurse write down what was wrong with his EKG because he knew that I would ask a million questions. What they noticed was an Intermittent Left Bundle Branch Block (electrical pathway). He either has blown a fuse or he has a short circuit. (Just kidding.)


They continued the stress test minus the treadmill by using Persantine, which stresses the heart without exercise. So they were able to get the before and after pictures of his heart. We should get a report from Dr. Lambert sometime this week.

We ate lunch at the Omelette Shoppe.

More than you want to know about LBBB (see link above):

BBB occurs when one of the bundle branches becomes diseased or damaged, and stops conducting electrical impulses; that is, a bundle branch becomes “blocked.” The chief effect of a bundle branch block is to disrupt the normal, coordinated and simultaneous distribution of the electrical signal to the two ventricles.

In contrast, LBBB usually indicates underlying cardiac pathology. It is seen in dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, hypertension, aortic valve disease, coronary artery disease, and a variety of other cardiac conditions. While occasionally LBBB occurs in apparently healthy people, its appearance should trigger a thorough search (as opposed to a simple screening) for underlying cardiac problems.

It sounds to me as though Dick may be in for a series of tests to prove that he's healthy. I firmly believe that he's in good health, strong, and full of stamina. He will turn out to be one of those healthy people, especially because his block is intermittent. (Dr. Nancy)

Monday, Monday

Happy Birthday Roger!

Mother reports feeling very ill. We spoke on the phone - she was not totally coherent. She's up and dressed and has been attended to. I'm sure she'll be fine. Aunt Ruth is home from the hospital.

I'm working on the quilt. I'm at the point of stitching the long lines along the squares in the "quilt sandwich". It's a lot of fabric to work with. I'm working in Dylan's playroom, which is always a little chilly in the wintertime, but the quilt keeps me warm because a lot of it is on my lap while I'm sewing. I have finished the "north/south" lines on half of the quilt, and I'm almost finished with the "east/west" lines on the same half. So far I have gone through two machine needles, but I went on a search and found about a dozen more, so I have plenty of back-ups.

Dick was super busy today. He worked at the Agency for hours and hours. Came home and ran the snow blower for a couple of hours more. Then Tom B. came over to discuss the Boardman River dam closings. Tom is interested in having us attend the dam meetings, since we are riparian property owners. It's an issue we're all concerned about.

We introduced Tom to Bessie, and I showed him my Kanitz Family Tree Book since he was my inspiration!

Super Bowl

A veritable blizzard visited us this morning - very snowy and blowy. It's quite a novelty this winter - it's been very mild and snowless here since before Christmas.
McLenithans have gone to Florida for the month. Evidently he hired a snow plow person to plow out the main access road while he's gone. The snow plow hasn't showed up yet. There was a snowfall of 8 or 9 inches in our driveway, but when we got to town the snowfall was considerably less - maybe just 2 or 3 inches.

We went to the library because Dick was out of books - then we visited Mother - not much happening these days at Concord Place. She's fine. Up to the hospital to visit Aunt Ruth - she was drowsy and resting - she should go home tomorrow after a weekend of x-rays and tests.

We watched Super Bowl coverage from 4:00 until it was all over around 10 p.m. The Steelers did a fine job - the score was 21-10. My favorite commercial was "A Little Help" in which the baby Clydesdale pulls the Budweiser wagon with a little help from his parents.

Oh Well

Off to the grocery store to get treats for the Super Bowl tomorrow - oh yes, and something for supper. It's very easy to spend $98 at the grocery store even for 2 people - but now I have lots of supplies for the next 4 or 5 days.

The quilting is moving along slowly. Today I sewed 2 lines the complete length of the quilt BUT - that Michigan State Spartan fabric has kind of a rubbery texture (thanks, Kevin) and it broke the needle on the sewing machine. I don't need much of an excuse to stop sewing, and that was the perfect excuse. As Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day".

Poor old sad Michigan played a poor sad old game tonight. We couldn't even watch most of the second half. It was dismal. The other shoe has dropped. This from mgoblue.com:

February 4, 2006

Site: Iowa City, Iowa (Carver-Hawkeye Arena)
Score: #23 Iowa 94, #21 Michigan 66
Records: U-M (16-4, 6-3 Big Ten), Iowa (18-5, 7-2 Big Ten)
Attendance: 15,500
Next U-M Event: Thursday, Feb. 9 -- Ohio State (Crisler Arena), 7:00 p.m.

Michigan's Win Streak Ends With Loss at No. 23 Iowa
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The University of Michigan men's basketball team (No. 21 AP, No. 20 ESPN/USA Today) was stunned with a 94-66 loss at Iowa, Saturday (Feb. 4), at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Wolverines (16-4, 6-3 Big Ten) seemingly had full control over the contest in the first half, but the Hawkeyes (18-5, 7-2 Big Ten), who have not surrendered a victory at home in 15 games, shot 65.3 percent (32-of-49) overall compared to the Wolverines' 41.5 percent (22-of-53) to cut off Michigan's winning streak at five games.

I hope the Super Bowl is a much more inspirational game, and I hope the Steelers WIN.
Go Steelers, right Chip?

Avoidance

In order to avoid quilting, I decided to go to the mall and take a walk. Dick was planning to spend most of the day at the Agency. I walked around the mall a little bit - not really much at all, but it was hard anyway. It was so hard that I arranged to go to Thirlby and have a hemoglobin count taken. I'm almost positive there's nothing wrong, but maybe they'll come up with something. Maybe I just have to try harder. Go Nancy, go Nancy.

I had a really nice visit with Mother - she sleeps most of the day, but when she's roused, she's focused and alert - just not for long periods. I did some "chores" for her (trim the amaryllis, enter the SS into the checkbook, etc), and we talked about Dick's volunteer work, Laurie's biopsy, Jana's cold, and how Dylan is the cutest boy that there ever was.

Consider the quilting totally avoided - avoidance is one of my strong suits. Before I begin, I have to check with someone about the invisible thread - does it go on the bobbin too, or do you put some other kind of thread on the bobbin. These are the eternal mysteries of the "sew sheen".

First Date

Fifty-four years ago today, on February 2, 1952, Dick and I had our first date. I went to the dance with Delores, and Hermie went with Dick. During the dance, Hermie asked Delores if he could take her home from the dance. She said, "Well, I came with Nancy..." and Hermie said, "Well I came with Dick so let's all go together." So that's what we did. We had burgers and fries at what is now Round's, and they took us home. And that was our first date.

I thought it would be fun to go out to dinner to celebrate this auspicious anniversary, but I didn't think of it until after 5 o'clock, and the first martini had already gone down the hatch, so I didn't mention it.

Today I pinned together one half of the family quilt - I decided to baste with pins instead of thread. Then I ran out of pins. So now I'm thinking I'll quilt the half that I have basted, remove those pins, pin the other half, and then finish the quilting. I'm too cheap to go spend big bucks for more quilting pins. I'm kind of avoiding beginning the quilting - I have no confidence, and I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I think I'll probably avoid it until later this weekend.

A Few Glitches

We're still getting used to our new computer set-up. Let's just say that not everything is running smoothly...some things are fine, but other things are very frustrating. Dick is having mega-trouble trying to hook up his Palm to the hot sync. That's crucial for geo-caching. The air in the computer room was very blue all morning.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to adjust to the new HP digital camera and software. It's not quite as nice as the Kodak EasyShare. For instance I haven't figured out how to brighten the pictures. Plus - instead of using ofoto.com, the HP system uses Walmart (oh dear). I'm seriously considering just reloading the EasyShare software and doing it the old way. It would involve moving pictures all the time, but it would most likely be worth it.

Computer glitches are so frustrating - we decided to take a break and go geo-caching in the afternoon. Drove over to the Manistee Bridge area and Dick found 3 caches - it was fun and relaxing.

Michigan's basketball team did it again tonight, beating Penn State. They are playing so well, it's almost unbelievable. (Dion Harris, Dion Harris) The Michigan basketball program has been so bad for so long....I'm still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. This from mgoblue.com:

Another big game by Dion Harris and clutch shooting from Daniel Horton helped make the No. 21 Michigan men's basketball team's debut as a ranked team a success Wednesday, Feb. 1, with a 71-65 win over Penn State in State College, Pa. Harris connected on a career-high seven three-point field goals en route to a game-high 23 points, while Horton hit a triple with 58 seconds left to put U-M up six and made two clinching free throws with 0:13 to play. Horton added 12 assists to his 13 points, and Ron Coleman chipped in with 10 points.

We're Networked

Today the Nice Man came and installed Dick's new computer (a marvel of Western Technology), brought back my cleaned-up tower, hooked up printers, and just generally got us back in business. My computer works like a dream now - it had been very slow and sluggish. Dick's new computer has so many bells and whistles that he's only been able to toot on a couple of them so far. He has the new flat screen monitor, which gives him tons of extra desk space - it's really nice.

I went back to the quilt shop for more goodies to help me put the quilt together. I got a thinner batting, and some quilting pins (outrageously expensive), ready-made quilt binding, and invisible thread. It sounds like a joke, but I had a hard time seeing the invisible thread! The quilting lady at the first store said with her nose in the air, "We don't carry quilt binding - we always make our own." Well the last thing I want to try is making my own binding on the bias! So I went to JoAnn Fabrics - they have lots of ready-made items. Whew! I may just be postponing the inevitable with all these shopping trips - sooner or later I have to go try to pin this thing together! Wish me luck.

Mother needed more Tylenol and Kleenex, so I went to Tom's and picked up those items. At JoAnn's I found an attractive arrangement of fake roses that was reasonably priced - so that will be Mom's Valentine decoration. We had a nice visit, she liked everything - especially the Arthritis Tylenol which has a cap on it that even she can open with her arthritic fingers! She was thrilled. She now has 5 boxes of Kleenex in her cupboard - she's afraid of running out!

Picked up a computer cable at Office Max and headed for home.

Nanny McPhee

Talked to Dylan this morning - yesterday he went to see the movie Nanny McPhee. I told him that I had tried to see it, but that it was sold out. So he began telling me the story, but then he had to jump out of the car to get to school.

I went to the quilt shop and got batting and backing for our quilt. It remains to be seen whether or not I can actually put it all together. The quilt top is finished. Looks OK - not perfecto, but OK.

Then I went to the mall and finally saw the Nanny movie. I enjoyed it, mostly. It would have been more fun with Dylan. Emma Thompson was great, and a couple of the children were outstanding. I liked the boys better than the girls. Loved the donkey, hated the food fight. I wondered if the bizarre colors and costumes were aimed at amusing small children....or what. Of course it was a fairy tale, after all. See link above.

Dreary Day

Rainy, foggy, misty, damp, foggy, dismal foggy day.

I went to visit Mother - Dick gave it a pass this time. We had a nice visit - she's becoming so immobile that she didn't even want to stand up from her chair. I put name labels on her new chest of drawers, her walker, and her commode.

I planned to go see Nanny McPhee at the mall after visiting Mother. The line was very long, and filled with small children. By the time I got to the box office, the movie was sold out. There was nothing else playing that I particularly wanted to see, so I just came home.

Dick had a load of firewood delivered yesterday - he's already begun the stacking process. This wood will be for next year. Our last propane fill-up was $750, which makes the firewod look cheap.

Looking Forward to September 23, 2006

Kevin Washington's wedding will be Sept. 23, 2006 in San Diego. Sharon says
that Kevin and Amy intend to invite all the relatives to the wedding. If we
all want to attend, it looks like Tom is prepared to put us all up at his
home!
(Quote: We can all fit here, I think. Dylan & Co. in my room, you and Mom in
the guest room, I'll sleep on the futon in the office, and Jana can
sleep on the couch downstairs (it's very comfortable). Or you can get a
room ... whatever you want. Unquote)

It will be a great weekend for our branch of the family - Sept. 21 will be
Jana's 40th b-day, and Sept.22 will be Dick's 70th b-day - so it will be a
good time for us all to be together.

Barb is home from the hospital, and Jim is home from Texas. Her radiation
continues on Mon. She had 2 blood transfusions on Friday. The battle
continues.

The Michigan basketball team actually beat Wisconsin today. It was a really good game. Wisconsin only had one loss, so we really weren't expecting a victory. Hooray for those guys. (Daniel Horton, Daniel Horton) This from mgoblue.com:

On the strength of a 15-3 record and two wins over nationally ranked teams last week, the Michigan men's basketball team moved into the Top 25 of both national polls released Monday, Jan. 30. Coach Tommy Amaker's squad is ranked No. 21 in the Associate Press poll and No. 20 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, marking the Wolverines' first appearance in the Top 25 since March 10, 1998. U-M, which is in a four-way tie for first place in the Big Ten at 5-2, will get its first test as a ranked team Wednesday at Penn State.

Dick and I are fine. Mother is fine. The weatherman is promising more
snow.

Dick's Version

Dick's version:

We are back and pretty much recovered. We got to the house about 9
Wed. night and crashed. I didn't wake up until Dylan called at 7:30.
Yesterday we spent visiting. Your grandmother got through the week in fine shape. Fritz visited or called every day so she had some company. Her bumps from her last fall are almost gone and we had a nice visit. She didn't need us to do anything but she is relieved to have us back in town.
We learned that Barb is in the hospital. When she went in for
radiation/chemo on Tues. her blood levels were not quite right and
they put her in for IV's and observation. We visited there for a
little while. She's hoping to come home today.
With Jim out of town, Shelly took a couple of days off and Mel was
going to come up yesterday for the weekend. Unfortunately, she slipped
on the ice and broke her arm. Sharon came up instead. She came out
here last evening for dinner and to bring us up to date. If Barb comes
home today she is on her way back to Lansing tomorrow. Otherwise she
might be out here for a night or two. Jim is coming home today and she
wants to give him his space.

The Sun is Always Up There

When you fly in a commercial airliner, you're always above the clouds - up there with the blue sky and the sunshine. On the ground sometimes the clouds are dark and the days are gloomy, but the sun is always up there just on the other side of the clouds.

J. H. has been in Texas since last Saturday because his 38 year old daughter Natalie has died suddenly. Her memorial service was Tuesday.

Meanwhile, here in T.C.Barb was put into the hospital Tuesday
to try to stabilize her system which has been affected by the
radiation and chemo that she's been undergoing. Shelly has taken the
week off work to be with her Mom.

Melissa was coming up from Kalamazoo, but she fell and broke her
arm... Sharon is here from Lansing for a few days to be with Barb.
Sharon is coming here for dinner tonight. Latest word is that Barb
may be able to come home tomorrow (Friday), and Jim may be flying
home tomorrow heavily medicated with anti-depressants.

I'm so glad that we had such an idyllic week in San Diego - we loved
every minute of it. Now we have returned to the Real World with a bang and a jolt.
We're fine - and there's not that much snow here.