35th Wedding Anniversary

Saturday was a day for celebration – in our own way. D and I don’t put too much weight on the “number” of our anniversary, since we have always considered ourselves to be committed to each other forever!

We started the beautiful day with our favorite weekend morning activity – reading the newspaper together in the living room while drinking coffee.

As it became warmer outside we were drawn to yard work. After about 3 hours, I was picking up 5-foot logs D had cut and I had a mishap. I stepped on the end of one of the logs and it catapulted into my face! My shocked reaction to the surprise and pain made me think I might have broken my nose and some teeth. Upon closer inspection, after clearing all the blood, I only experienced a lot of bruising with a cut above my lip and a puncture next to that. Thanks to ICE my swelling is minimal with no black and blue as I write this on Tuesday after the fact. I’m concerned about running, since the jarring is quite uncomfortable to my face now.

One of our anniversary plans had been to geocache. BEB was in town to join us, and I was feeling OK. There were three cemetery caches near Custar that I figured we could tackle (including travel time) in about 90 minutes. We were successful!

Our first stop was as St. Louis Catholic Cemetery. We found the design of many of the tombstones interesting. Etchings just about covered the markers on both sides – there were pictures of the people (many not yet dead), their homes, tractors, names of all their children, and a lot of other clutter (note I said they were” interesting”, not that we liked them).

The geocache was an easy find, but a true level 3 terrain difficulty. D joked that he needed his “Everest” climbing gear and Sherpa Guide! But at least he was glad it was as dry as it was to prevent major slipping. We took an eraser and left a Celtic stone.

We then moved on to Milton Twp Cemetery. As we approached we were intrigued by the strange pruning job on the trees along the cemetery – they were all flat-topped – they almost looked like the shape of a wine glass (sorry, no picture). This was another beautifully maintained area – all bushes had been trimmed recently; all the tombstones (no matter their age) had been weeded and dug around – we haven’t noticed many cemeteries that do this consistently. Again, the cache was a quick find by BEB – she took a plastic good luck token and left another of our Celtic stones.

Interesting OLD tombstones (some with quite a “lean” on them) and a fun, quick find met us at Richfield Cemetery. The terrain difficulty of this one was a true 2.5 with a tricky placement. Another of our Celtic stones was left as we took a poker chip.

After we got back home, I was a bit out of sorts (my face and mouth were hurting and swollen) so you’ll need to visit B’s blog to see our “food”.

Later in the evening B & Z came over – primarily to deliver a present to us. But of course we all had a great time visiting. As we sat outside the conversation was all over the place – music, movies, etc. What fun!

Look at the great paint job Z did on my toes! It’s sometimes difficult to do my own feet; and today was definitely one of those days. Z proceeded to do BEB and BMA – for some reasons D didn’t want his toes polished.

D and I were planning on going to Biagi’s in Levis Commons on Sunday for a bit of a celebration, but I didn’t feel like it – we’ll do that another day!

What a wonderful anniversary, with hopes of many more! ~~K

Friday Fun

It was such a fun-filled Friday with D that I’m going to have to break it down into at least 3 blog posts. I think they’ll be:

1 – Brighton, Michigan
2 – Tanger Outlet Mall
3 – Howell Hunting (geocaching)

Hope you all had a great Easter! It was an enjoyable, lazy, relaxing one for us. ~~K

Snow in Morocco and It’s Cold Here

I guess it was time for me to get a geography lesson - I didn’t realize Ifrane (where M K&Z are) was known as Little Switzerland. They recently received 14 inches of snow – quite a plus for the local ski resorts. I was also surprised to learn the coldest recorded temperature in all of Africa was a negative 23 C (around –9 F) in Ifrane in 1935! Al Akawayn University’s web site home page has a beautiful winter slide show now – check it out at http://www.aui.ma/
Ok, out of Africa and back to the Midwest USA – it’s COLD! It’s windier today so I went online to see what the temperature felt like if you factor in windchill:

Our weather hub was showing –12 at the same time; perhaps the online probe is out in the open while our probe is under the deck railing. I checked Ifrane's weather - it's 45 F there now.

Pics are really computer screen shots rather than digital photos – apologies in advance if they’re hard to view. ~~K

Great Lakes Crossing

Years have passed since D and I were at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, so we took a round-about drive up there last Saturday. I say round-about because of the construction on I-75 – thanks to our Garmin GPS Nuvi, we had a pleasant venture through residential neighborhoods, especially the Orchard Lake area. I don’t think I would be able to retrace our route, though.

I forgot that TJ Maxx and Marshall’s were anchors and had a great time looking through their deals. We spent about 5 hours shopping (picked up a few presents and stocking stuffers for next Christmas). Instead of going back to the car and unloading before continuing our trek we took advantage of the lockers (a very nice convenience item in nasty weather).

Not that many unusual shops, but still enjoyable. I did get interested in security – as I tried to get my camera out of my zipped purse, the security guard meandering on the Segway was almost out of site before I was ready to snap – I had never seen one of those people movers in action.
At the half-way point, it was time to decide where to eat. Our last meal there had been at Game Works since the RainForest Café was so busy. Today our timing was perfect since we were willing to eat sheltered under the “mushroom bar” rather than on the main floor. I thought the frog stool was a bit out of place with the other “animals”.
We had a great view looking out through the rain dripping over the edge of the mushroom.
I guess I became so engrossed in the biome and my meal (chicken-fried steak) that I forgot to take any “food” pictures.
We were there over an hour and sat through three thunder "storms" complete with lightning before continuing our indoor venture – I'm sure we walked several miles. A very enjoyable and productive “day trip”. ~~K

Merry Christmas

Looking forward to seeing my "alphabet soup" family over this holiday season. As I went through our names I realize I can almost use every letter – just missing G L Q U V X Y.

Some of you will probably point out I could use L and V for great grandparents, so if you want to count them, go ahead.Merry Christmas from D & K.

“Lights Before Christmas” – NOT!

Before we were even out of bed Sunday morning we knew we were in for a “powerless” day as the nightstand lamp flickered now and then. Sure enough, around 8:45am we lost our electricity. We were due at my sister’s at 9:30 for brunch. As we drove over there we watched the temperature drop (love those car thermometers that show both inside and outside degrees). We didn’t see any downed lines but the ice was thickly coating everything and many of them were swaying over 3 feet in the wind.

Since they had tickets for a 3pm performance at the Palace in Pontiac and the weather was bad, they needed to leave around noon but graciously said we could stay. Around 2 we decided to go home and pick up a few things in case we ended up staying longer at B’s. Our electricity came back on, but not for long – D called Edison again and was told they hoped to have power restored on Monday afternoon. We headed back to B’s around 5, even though they weren’t home. This time the temp went below zero. D and I spent a lazy day there together.

At 8 pm the temp was –6 F and the lights flickered a few times at B’s; they returned from Michigan around 9:30 with food from Frickers. As the night continued we even lost power there for a while. Monday morning the electricity was on, but the garage door wouldn’t open and cable tv went out.

My sister R and her friend from New Jersey had been at B’s also, so four of us headed back to our house to check it out. Mysteriously, the back passenger window went down on our way home – and D had to manually pull it up and duct tape it to keep it up (we’ll have it looked at later).

Power was on at our house at that time, but we didn’t trust it, so after taking a brisk walk around the property, we picked up a few items to take back and spend another night at B’s.

M, K, & little Z stopped by B’s. We made tacos and had other great munchies. The guys played some Wii and later we all played Taboo and MadGab. We enjoyed our little impromptu party.

Now, we’re back home and we do have our “Lights Before Christmas”.

Merry Christmas Eve! ~~K

Icicles

Some people buy icicles – icicle lights to hang from eaves, shimmering plastic, glass or foil icicles to hang on trees – but Mother Nature treated us to a gift of free watery icicles!

Once D broke through, I love the look of the front entrance. The top bows on the trees are solid ice and there’s probably no way I could duplicate the perfect placement of the icicles on the siding.

There is a flip side to all this beauty though. Many of our bushes and trees are bowing to the weight of the ice. And of course, the driveway was turned into a skating rink for a while.
But as we look down the road it appears our neighbor’s shrubs are in even more distress – they’re almost bent over double to the ground.
I’m hoping all the greenery recovers quickly. ~~K

Green Gift

I think I have just received the best Christmas gift ever from a student. Today I was given this great reusable bag (from Toys ‘R Us) containing 4 oranges, 4 tangerines, and a homemade card from a 6th grade Weston boy. It reminds me of the Rain Forest Cafe's frog.
OK, I appreciate the candy canes, candles, hand lotion, and home-made candy I’ve already received also, but I’m really into today’s “green” gift - my favorite color and eco-minded! ~~K

Finances and Food

After work yesterday D and I met with a financial advisor at Savage and Associates. It’s time for us to take a serious look at our future and probably do some tweaking. We’ll meet with him again Dec 3.

Since we were already in BG and it was after 6:30 we headed over to Easy Street. I like their interior with all the exposed gearing and belts suspended from the ceiling that operate the fans.

D was looking forward to their specialty club sandwich and wasn’t disappointed with it or his Killian’s.

I opted for the triple-decker Reuben and chose fresh veggies instead of chips. Of course I needed something to wash it down – Blue Moon and water.

I ended up taking ¼ the sandwich home for today’s lunch, but once I was at school I realized I’ll have it tomorrow instead – today’s school lunch is “Thanksgiving Dinner”.

It tasted ok, but the potatoes were so “instant” – they needed to use Potato Pearls!~~K

Shopping and Eating

Can you tell it was D who selected these items when we were shopping at Meijer Sunday?

We needed to go into town to get water and I wanted to pick up a couple toys at Meijer for the little kids for Christmas. Obviously, the “big kid” found a WWII plane he had to have – it’s cast metal and has correct markings!

Also couldn’t turn down a marked-down white cake – I cut it into fourths and put three pieces in the freezer.

Pork ribs were only $1.88 a pound, so I decided that had to be Sunday's supper.

I used the same dry rub on it that I make for the beer-can-chicken, let it set a bit, then slow cooked it in the oven in foil before a final quick grilling.

Yummy! Half of it is now going into the freezer to enjoy another day.
Friday we had spaghetti and meatballs on whole-wheat spaghetti with a salad. Of course we loaded it with fresh grated Parmesean - love the micro-planer! ~~K

First Snow

Yesterday's snow stuck around until about noon today. Even earlier this morning it was snowing large beautiful flakes. I wish it could always be just this pretty with none of the hassles that so frequently accompany our northwestern Ohio snow! ~~K

The Other Side of the Table

Still scanning – here’s who’s on the other side of the table I scanned earlier. Starting to my left is Grandma O, my dad, Grandma McG, Grandpa McG, and back to Grandpa O – those with their backs to us were in the earlier picture.

Maybe I have such a strange expression because I was always the only non-adult (I think I was 5 in this picture) at most of these get-togethers. ~~K

Scanning Slides

I've been experimenting with some special equipment trying to scan old 35mm slides from the 1950's. The resolution seems ok for viewing on a monitor, but probably not sufficient for making prints.


Here's a jpg from one of the slides I have scanned. From the left back going clockwise - Grandpa O, Aunt C, Aunt G, Aunt R, Uncle J, and me in the front.

It's been averaging almost a minute per slide, so it's going to take me some time, but I think I'll continue archiving these photos. ~~K

Fifty Minutes for Freedom

I hope the long lines at polling locations today are a sign of more community spirit everywhere.

Prior to today, the longest I ever waited to vote was 10 minutes - at this year's primary. Today was a 50 minute wait - I arrived at 7:40 and didn't finish until 8:30.

Our new polling location can better accomodate more people inside as well as parking outside. ~~K