Jan Howard

Our old camping "buddy" has passed away. When our kids were little, many Belleville teachers and their families went camping with us in the Smokies every Easter vacation. We sometimes had as many as 25 people from 4 or 5 families walking down a mountain trail. Our funniest stories, memories, and campfire reminiscences almost always involved George and Jan. George had the ability to crack everyone up with his dry wit ("How are we going to torture ourselves today?" and "Throw some Coleman fuel on that fire and we can all spend the night in a nice warm hospital!"), and Jan was amusing in her own way. She will not be forgotten. This obit is from the Cheboygan newspaper:

Janet L. Howard, 65
CHEBOYGAN - Janet L. Howard, age 65 of Burt Lake, passed away Wednesday, March 8, 2006 at Cheboygan Memorial Hospital.

She was born Feb. 3, 1941 in Gary, Ind., to Henry and Doretta (Rasmussen) Irving. On March 14, 1964 in Saginaw, Janet married George H. Howard, who survives.

Janet worked as a teacher's aide for the VanBuren Public Schools for 13 years, retiring in 1994. She and George then moved to their home on Burt Lake where they had summered since 1979. She received a bachelor of science degree in occupational therapy from Western Michigan University, where she was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. Janet enjoyed swimming, sewing, woodworking, restoring wood furniture, upholstery, caning, camping and traveling.

Besides her husband, George, Janet is survived by her two children, Kevin (Cathy) Howard of Willis, Mich., and Kristen (Eddie) Antkoviak of Cheboygan; two sisters, Jean (Dr. Wesley) Jackson of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Melissa (Fred) Marria of West Bloomfield, Mich.; one brother, Dr. William (Lori) Irving of Los Altos Hills, Calif.; and three grandchildren, Jack, Ella and Maci Antkoviak. She was preceded in death by her parents.

A Memorial Service will be conducted at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 at the Nordman Funeral Home in Cheboygan, with the Rev. Jeff Dinner officiating. Visitation will be held two hours prior to the service at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions in Janet's name may be directed to Hospice of the Straits.

Tournament Loss

Yesterday's Big Ten Tournament results for Michigan could really amount to two losses - the game, and the tournament bid. We watched the whole sad thing. Dick gave up on them with 12 minutes left in the second half. I didn't give up until 38 seconds remaining. The team gave up long before that. This excerpt is from the msn.com home page:

Most painful loss: Michigan

Twenty-one turnovers and 18 percent shooting cost the Wolverines an NCAA tournament bid. The loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Michigan's seventh defeat in nine games, guarantees Daniel Horton and Dion Harris will play in the NIT rather than the NCAA tournament. Some would like to believe that wins over Illinois and Michigan State keep Horton and Harris on the bubble. But the selection committee strongly prefers clubs with records of better than 3-8 against RPI Top 50 competition and a 5-7 tally away from home.

Dick had his echocardiogram this morning at Grand Traverse Heart Associates. They have a beautiful new building across the street from the Hospital. We'll be doing our bit to help pay for it! :)

Public Schools

For once, here's a rational view of education in the public schools. Some factions love to blame the public schools for all of our nation's ills - it's the fault of the schools, it's the fault of the teachers, etc. Whenever someone acts stupidly, "He's obviously a product of the Public Schools."

Yet how often have we said - my students just don't seem to care. Many parents didn't seem to care - they regarded the school as a babysitter. Dick and I used to say to each other - "I think we care more about these kids learning than anybody else - including the parents, and the kids themselves."

I love this article because it says what we know to be true after spending a combined total of over 50 years in classrooms:

For once, blame the student By Patrick Welsh
Wed Mar 8, 7:08 AM ET



Failure in the classroom is often tied to lack of funding, poor teachers or other ills. Here's a thought: Maybe it's the failed work ethic of todays kids. That's what I'm seeing in my school. Until reformers see this reality, little will change.


Last month, as I averaged the second-quarter grades for my senior English classes at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., the same familiar pattern leapt out at me.


Kids who had emigrated from foreign countries - such as Shewit Giovanni from Ethiopia, Farah Ali from Guyana and Edgar Awumey from Ghana - often aced every test, while many of their U.S.-born classmates from upper-class homes with highly educated parents had a string of C's and D's.


As one would expect, the middle-class American kids usually had higher SAT verbal scores than did their immigrant classmates, many of whom had only been speaking English for a few years.


What many of the American kids I taught did not have was the motivation, self-discipline or work ethic of the foreign-born kids.


Politicians and education bureaucrats can talk all they want about reform, but until the work ethic of U.S. students changes, until they are willing to put in the time and effort to master their subjects, little will change.


A study released in December by University of Pennsylvania researchers Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman suggests that the reason so many U.S. students are "falling short of their intellectual potential" is not "inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes" and the rest of the usual litany cited by the so-called reformers - but "their failure to exercise self-discipline."


The sad fact is that in the USA, hard work on the part of students is no longer seen as a key factor in academic success. The groundbreaking work of Harold Stevenson and a multinational team at the University of Michigan comparing attitudes of Asian and American students sounded the alarm more than a decade ago.


Asian vs. U.S. students


When asked to identify the most important factors in their performance in math, the percentage of Japanese and Taiwanese students who answered "studying hard" was twice that of American students.


American students named native intelligence, and some said the home environment. But a clear majority of U.S. students put the responsibility on their teachers. A good teacher, they said, was the determining factor in how well they did in math.


"Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."


As my colleague Ed Cannon puts it: "Today, the teacher is supposed to be responsible for motivating the kid. If they don't learn it is supposed to be our problem, not theirs."


And, of course, busy parents guilt-ridden over the little time they spend with their kids are big subscribers to this theory.


Maybe every generation of kids has wanted to take it easy, but until the past few decades students were not allowed to get away with it. "Nowadays, it's the kids who have the power. When they don't do the work and get lower grades, they scream and yell. Parents side with the kids who pressure teachers to lower standards," says Joel Kaplan, another chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams.


Every year, I have had parents come in to argue about the grades I have given in my AP English classes. To me, my grades are far too generous; to middle-class parents, they are often an affront to their sense of entitlement. If their kids do a modicum of work, many parents expect them to get at least a B. When I have given C's or D's to bright middle-class kids who have done poor or mediocre work, some parents have accused me of destroying their children's futures.


It is not only parents, however, who are siding with students in their attempts to get out of hard work.


Blame schools, too

"Schools play into it," says psychiatrist Lawrence Brain, who counsels affluent teenagers throughout the Washington metropolitan area. "I've been amazed to see how easy it is for kids in public schools to manipulate guidance counselors to get them out of classes they don't like. They have been sent a message that they don't have to struggle to achieve if things are not perfect."

Neither the high-stakes state exams, such as Virginia's Standards of Learning, nor the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have succeeded in changing that message; both have turned into minimum-competency requirements aimed at the lowest in our school.

Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration.

As a teacher, I don't object to the heightened standards required of educators in the No Child Left Behind law. Who among us would say we couldn't do a little better? Nonetheless, teachers have no control over student motivation and ambition, which have to come from the home - and from within each student.

Perhaps the best lesson I can pass along to my upper- and middle-class students is to merely point them in the direction of their foreign-born classmates, who can remind us all that education in America is still more a privilege than a right.

Patrick Welsh is an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.




Copyright © 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Dr. Dino

For me this was a day of sorting through pictures, reading, playing pogo, and watching TV. And for the sorting through pictures part, I was actually sitting in a rocking chair - which kind of adds to the leisurely retirement flavor of my day.

Dick went to see Dr. Dino Recchia, his cardiologist. Dick is scheduled for an echocardiogram on Friday, and a heart catheterization next Monday. We're playing the wait and see game for now. Dr. Dino thinks that Dick may have a blockage, but I'm putting the emphasis on the "may". Dick doesn't have any restrictions, curtailing of activities, or anything like that - so he's just going ahead as usual.

The Good Life

This is a sunny, blue sky kind of a day - we still have a foot of snow on the deck, but I think winter will be over this week. Rain and higher temps are predicted for the end of the week. I went out walking with my ski-walkers, and it was lovely outside. It's fun to see the bunny tracks in the snow criss-crossing the yard. Things are melting - icicles are dripping and falling off the eaves because of the strong sunlight.

Sharon and Kevin have organized another GenFamily NCAA basketball bracket competition - I signed up for it right away. It's one of the most fun things ever! Now I have to research my picks - I don't think that either Michigan or State will be in the sweet sixteen. John W. always picks State to go all the way no matter what - he might be sorry this year.

Update: 9:15 p.m.

Dick worked all day at the Agency - from 9 to 4. When he got home, he said he wanted to crash and then go out to eat at the Olive Garden! Well, we tried - but evidently it's the most popular place in town these days. There was a long wait, so after about 10 minutes we gave back the beeper because we decided not to wait the estimated 25 minutes. We went to Auntie Pasta's, and had a wonderful dinner. The food was yummy and the restaurant was not crowded.

Tomorrow morning Dick has an appointment with the cardiologist.

Sugarbush

We had great weather today for the Geocaching Event "Sugarbush Pancake Brunch" in South Branch at the home of James and Sheryl. (See link above) It was a sunny, windfree, mild day. There were around 40 people there - new caches, a campfire, 4 horses, and home made maple syrup. I enjoyed talking to Ann Arbor Connie about quilting, and to Mrs. Capt. Bud (Marty the First Mate). New friends are always a Good Thing.

Last year I sat on the bench and waited for Dick to go find the cache. This year I walked all the way to the maple syrup cache with the ski-walkers, and I did fine! Then I returned to the campfire while Dick and the Buds found the event cache and the beaver dam. It was fun watching Clatmandu and Sunshine feeding carrots to the horses. The pancakes were terrific, but the meeting afterwards was the most fun because of the auction and the raffle and the door prize and all of the associated jokes and comments.

The Trip Home

Another cold, crisp day. We did 6 caches this morning before 11 a.m. in the Alma/Mt. Pleasant area. It was a really fun time despite the chill.

Uneventful drive home - OK, I slept most of the way.

Stopped to shop in Kingsley. Northland Foods has become a great place to shop - nice selection of things and great meats.

MiGo Winter Social 2006

This was a very enjoyable 12 hour day! We began by finding 9 caches in the Alma/St.Louis area. It was very windy and cold here today. In a couple of cases I was afraid that the cache contents would blow all over the surrounds. Once we almost lost the lid of the cache container - it blew across the bridge and narrowly missed falling into the river. We were very successful, and found so many so fast it was almost a new record. I'm sure it was a new record for 2006 because we haven't been out caching much at all so far this year.

I used my new ski-walking poles and that was successful too. I enjoyed it, and the poles enabled me to walk along the paths just like a real person. I love it when I can be there to sign the logbook. I look forward to using them more often when the weather is a bit more spring-like.

The Winter Social was well-attended. (See link above) We overheard numbers like 190 adults and 43 children. That's not official. Note to Jana: I wasn't the fattest or the ugliest, but I think I just may have been the oldest. (Family Joke) There were so many darling babies and toddlers there - it's delightful to watch them. WolverineWarriors brought baby Alexis, who is seven weeks and one day old! How much fun is that?!

The main event was a two-hour scavenger hunt consisting of 6 loops - 3 walking loops and 3 driving loops. We opted for driving loops because of the bitterly chilly weather. We did really well, I thought. We did two complete loops and had a lot of fun doing it. We didn't win anything but we really enjoyed it. Dick was especially happy to notice that while we were out driving around, the price of gas in Alma dropped by 2 cents a gallon!

We enjoyed talking to Coychev, Trashcan, Radman, Sleepy Weasel, GeoHills, and UsTwo among others too numerous to mention. We missed DinoDuo - her mom's funeral was today at 1:30. We collected some things for them as souvenirs. Lydia and I had fun cruising the silent auction. All of the items that appealed to me had final bids that were too high. The giant geocoin went for over $160.00!! We were the high bidders on two small items. Both of them were cache containers.

I noticed that there were more men than women interested in the auction, which was amusing to me. At one time I glanced over there and almost everyone at the auction tables was a male wearing a navy MiGo tee shirt and a khaki MiGo hat. There must have been a dozen of them. I think that even the great MiGo quilt had a male high bidder. I kind of wanted the tea set but the other bidder talked me out of it by saying that she wanted to buy it as a wedding gift. I'm such a softie for weddings!

By the time dinner and the business meeting were over it was after 8 p.m. and we were happy to head back to the Comfort Inn, which, by the way, is described as the "upscale" motel in Alma!

It was a day for reflection. While we were doing the scavenger hunt, Susie was at her Mom's funeral, Michigan was losing to Ohio State in basketball, and the price of gas plummeted - all of these concurrently. My mind was pre-occupied by all of it.

This from mgoblue:

Sims Records Double-Double in Road Loss to Buckeyes
Courtney Sims records his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds in a 64-54 loss at No. 13 Ohio State (February 25).

On the Road Again

Dick worked at the Visitor Center this morning, and I went to visit Mother. She cracks me up sometimes - it's hard to keep a straight face. I asked her if she had watched the Olympic figure skating last night. She said, "Yes. A lot of those girls are foreign." Oh please!

Then we got all packed up to head for Alma for the annual MiGo Winter Social. The drive was generally uneventful, although there was kind of a heavy snowfall beginning in Cadillac.

We couldn't find a really good-looking place to eat. We decided that we'd go to Ponderosa since we hadn't been there for ages. It served to remind us why we don't go to Ponderosa!

Outing

The librarian at the East Jordan Public Library wanted to learn how to enroll people in a Part D Drug Plan, so she called the Agency and made an appointment with Dick to meet with her this morning at 10:00 at the library in East Jordan. He told me that if I went with him, he would take me out to lunch! Who could resist? It takes us a little over an hour to drive there, and we had to stop for gas, so we were a little late arriving. The library is on the same grounds with their wonderful new High School that we visited on the evening of November 30.

While he was closeted with the librarians, I was out in the reading room reading magazines. They had some great ones - cooking, quilting, scrapbooking, and antiques roadshow for example. I copied recipes - apricot chicken, buttery garlic potatoes, three beans and sausage in the slow cooker, and rich creamy macaroni and cheese for example. The scrapbooking magazine yielded many websites for me to research, some cyber coupons for nice discounts, and sites for free fonts. I felt it was a very productive 2 hours.

Lunch was at the LumberJack Grill - I just had a burger, and Dick had a taco salad. By now the sun had come out, and it was beautiful for the drive home. It's 35 degrees today - almost feels like spring. Not really.

W for Michigan

Michigan played Illinois tonight, and we never expected a win, especially after the poor showing on Saturday. (Once burned, twice shy.) We were pleasantly surprised - it was a good win - well played and fun to watch. (Daniel Horton, Daniel Horton) This from mgoblue.com:

In a matchup involving two of the top point guards in men's college basketball, it was Michigan's Daniel Horton who earned the spotlight Tuesday, Feb. 21, scoring a career-high 39 points to lead the Wolverines to a 72-64 upset of Dee Brown's No. 8-ranked Illinois squad in Crisler Arena. Horton scored 25 points after intermission as Michigan overcame a 34-30 halftime deficit to post its first win over a Top 10 team since 1998-99. Courtney Sims added 11 points and Graham Brown had 10 rebounds for U-M (18-7, 8-6 Big Ten).

Mothers

Susie's Mom died this morning - we are so sorry for their loss. She was 81 years old. (Only 11 years older than I am!) They had just gotten her comfortable at home with hospice care, and it seemed unexpected to me, even though it was expected. Does that make sense?

It serves to remind me how fantastically lucky we are to still have our Mother at age 97. Mother does fade in and out of drowsiness, but when she's lucid, she's very much on top of things. Yesterday I took the finished quilt up to show her - she was highly impressed. (She's easily impressed.) She wanted me to show it to everyone, which I politely declined. It would be just my luck to show it off to someone who's a master quilter! Anyway, the point is, that even at my age, I still want to please my Mother.

Anne May Metters
` Anne M. Metters, 81, of Coldwater, died Monday, February 20, 2006 at her home. She was born March 10, 1924 to Earl and Doris (Bois) Price in Gratiot County, Michigan. She grew up in Ithaca, Michigan and graduated from Ithaca High School in 1942. She married Paul Metters on May 3, 1946 in Ithaca. They moved to Coldwater in 1962. Anne was a homemaker for most of her life. She worked as a L.P.N. for a short time in Dr. Mooi`s office in Coldwater. She enjoyed playing bridge, square dancing, and golfing. Anne was an avid swimmer and even water-skied into her late 40s. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church where she served as a volunteer with the Church Circle group. They served charities such as Meals on Wheels and various others. She was a Cub Scout Den Mother as well as a Sunday School teacher. Anne is survived by her husband Paul, sons Jerry (Vicky) Metters of Bloomfield Hills, Joseph Metters and Peter Metters, both of Royal Oak, daughter Susie (Tim) Swedine of Jackson, half sister Connie Reed of Auburn, Indiana, 4 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and 3 brothers. Visitation for Anne Metters will be held on Friday, February 24, 2006 from 2-4 and 6-8 P.M. at the Putnam Funeral Home in Coldwater. Services will be held 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, February 25, 2006 at the funeral home. Rev. Dr. James Troust of the First Presbyterian Church in Coldwater will officiate. Memorial contributions may be directed to CHC Hospice or The American Heart Association. `

Olympic Thoughts

During the 2006 Winter Olympics we have had two athletes who have let down their respective teams by virtue of being typical American "hot dogs". Bode Miller was the favorite to win a gold medal in downhill skiing, and he finished out of the medals. He shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't care, and that it saved him a trip all the way down to Turin to attend the medal ceremony. He crashed in another event, and straddled a gate in the slalom. He's currently 0 - 4 which is fine, except we keep hearing rumors that he stays out late and parties before competing.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Jacobellis had the gold medal locked up in the women's snowboard cross, and by doing a special tricky method right at the end, fell and got the silver medal instead. She shrugged her shoulders and said the equivalent of "Oh well". They are both extremely cute, talented, athletic, cool, cocky, full of attitude and probably lots of fun at parties. You just have to love them. But they don't seem to be taking the Olympic Games all that seriously.

In addition to Lindsey and Bode, there are two other members of the USA Women's Ski Team who seem bent on expressing their individuality as they compete. Julie Mancuso skis wearing a tiara on her helmet. She says it's her "good luck charm". Resi Stiegler skis wearing a pearl necklace. Try that in the NCAA!

I guess I really like the attitude of other athletes from home and abroad who just seem somehow more "Olympian". Maybe it's a sign of my advancing age - I just have to go tsk tsk and shake my finger at everyone.

This author from the LA Times says it much better than I could:

X mars the sport
One spectator has had enough of those 'extreme' athletes at the Winter Olympics.
By Kevin Drum
KEVIN DRUM writes the blog Political Animal at www.washingtonmonthly.com.

February 22, 2006

AM I THE ONLY one who's finally had it with all the recent X Games additions to the Winter Olympics? You know the ones I'm talking about: the "sports" that seem to be more about demonstrating a politically correct hipster attitude than about antediluvian concepts such as competing to win. The current hall of shame includes aerials, moguls, halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and a ratings-friendly newcomer called snowboard cross.

I know it's probably bogus to be harshing on these sports — and vaguely unpatriotic as well — because without them the United States would be doing only slightly better than Estonia at Torino. But I can't bottle it up anymore. Call me stodgy, but it's not a sport if the competitors aren't serious about winning, and the X Games crowd just isn't serious about winning.

Don't believe me? Start with the outfits they wear. Serious athletes wear clothing that maximizes their freedom of movement and therefore their chances of winning. Say what you will about the full-body spandex suits worn by speed skaters, but they stuff themselves into those suits because the outfits help them shave tenths of a second off their time.

But the snowboarders are having none of it. Instead, they wear the same faux-urban-chic-meets-Nanook uniforms that they'd wear for a day of casual shredding at Mammoth. Can anyone pretend with a straight face that these uniforms are the best possible choice for athletes who are serious about winning a competition? Or for judges trying to decide whether a competitor deserves a 9.1 or a 9.2?

And then there's the iPod thing. Last Monday, when Hannah Teter won her gold medal in the halfpipe competition, I was gibbering at the TV set as usual when I suddenly noticed a couple of strings floating around Teter's head. "What's that?" I asked my wife. "Is a faux iPod look part of the uniform too?"

Nope. Nothing faux about it. Teter was wearing a real iPod. During competition. And the official NBC Olympics site informs me that this is common. I don't know if anyone has ever lost a competition because his iPod suddenly shuffled to a song he didn't like or because his earphones fell off during an inverted cab 900, but it wouldn't surprise me.

The final nail in the X sports coffin, though, was last Friday's travesty during women's snowboard cross, a latter-day mash-up of downhill skiing and roller derby. After the usual couple of wipeouts at the top of the course in the final run, American Lindsey Jacobellis was more than 100 feet ahead of the field and ready to coast to an easy gold medal.

But she didn't. In the world of X, demonstrating the proper I'm-just-here-to-party pose is more important than winning, and Jacobellis, who has apparently thoroughly absorbed this ethic, decided to demonstrate her mastery of ripper 'tude with a "method air" on the next-to-last jump. As all the world knows, she biffed the landing and then watched helplessly as Swiss snow-crosser Tanja Frieden passed her by.

And Jacobellis' explanation? "I was having fun," she told reporters afterward. "I messed up. Oh well, it happens."

In a real sport, "I was having fun" wouldn't cut it as an explanation. But then, in a real sport you'd dress to win, you'd ditch the iPod and you'd concentrate on the finish line instead of showboating for your homies. Bottom line: If they don't care about winning — or even if they're just pretending they don't care about winning — why should I care whether they win?

There. It felt good to get that off my chest. Please direct all hate mail to t.j.simerslatimes.com.


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Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

My English friend Mitchy is more understanding about this topic than I am. (see comments) Maybe my attitude and Kevin Drum's attitude stem from the Vince Lombardi influence: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

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.