212/365: Sunday, 07/31/2011

Couldn't resist having one more picture of my sunny boy Hans be the picture of the day...This was our last midday/early afternoon walk for quite a while and I have to admit tearing up a bit while I was taking these shots...he just seems so happy and jolly when he is outside...I will definitely miss him and our quality time together...but I'll be back before too long Hans I promise!!

211/365 Saturday, 07/30/2011

This is a picture of my good friend and neighbor (and fellow cat-fan) Adrienne. We have had a nice routine of walks with each other, looking after each other kitties when one of us is away and going on fun outings to Ann Arbor or Frankenmuth. (She is the one  with whom I go to Frankenmuth and Birch Run every year). She took me and Bill to a new pizza place in Spring Arbor on Saturday for a farewell meal. The pizza was good--made in a brick oven with  nice chewy thin crust and interesting toppings. I also had my first ever glass of white sangria which was fruity and refreshing-the perfect summer time drink. 

210/365 Friday, 07/29/2011

This is a picture of my friend Marie holding her piece of wonderful apple pie at Café Lilla in Jackson. We enjoyed a final lunch together at was has become our favorite place for lunch. (There aren't too many options...) When Marie mentioned I was moving to Ohio for the year the very nice lady (and pie maker I think) whisked away our pieces of pie to drizzle some caramel sauce on top of the cream...yum!!

Marie is the friend who had us and the Emeritus Professors over to her house on Wednesday and yes this was the third rather substantial dessert I have eaten this week...(I'll change my ways when I'm in Ohio...promise...)

209/365 Thursday, 07/28/2011

Today was a fun day. I accompanied my friend Dianne (pictured) who wanted to get her ears re-pierced at a good piercing place in Ann Arbor. It went well and afterwards we went to the Blue Nile a very nice Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor. The food was good as well as the conversation. 

208/365 Wednesday, 07/27/2011

Today we were invited, along with an two emeritus Albion College professors (of German & Philosophy/Latin) who live in the neighborhood to a mutual friends place in Jackson, MI for lunch. It was very nice--a delicious soup was served with two salads and good bread from Zingerman's. For desert my friend served a delicious French Canadian Maple-Sugar pie with cream and a wild blueberry coulis--it was scrumptious!!  

Summer ritual: Day trip to Birch Run Outlet Stores & Frankenmuth

207/365 Tuesday, 07/26/2011
This is a picture from the interior of the "Bavarian Inn" at Frankenmuth, MI. My friend/neighbor and I make an annual trek here every summer. We've been doing so for about 5 years. We shop at the outlet mall and then drive into Frankenmuth (past the World's Largest Christmas Store) where we always eat way too much food before we tackle the outlet mall one more time before hitting the road back to Albion. This was the first year we had other people join us--another neighbor and her daughter who had never been to Frankenmuth. We were surprised how many out-of-state license plates there were in the restaurant parking lot--Frankenmuth is a bit of a destination. It's very cute and hypes up its "Germanness" or more specifically its "Bavarianness". (Lots of flowers, blue and white flags & cheesy knickknack stores everywhere). Even the McDonalds is a bit germanified.  The food in the restaurant is somewhat German - I had the Jägerschnitzel which is traditionally served with a mushroom sauce (with lots of mushrooms in it). The sauce at the Inn tasted nice and creamy and mushroomy but there was only one mushroom in it....

Nevertheless we had a good time and enjoyed our meal. I came away with a few bargains including a lovely new orange backpack, which I'm sure will serve me well when I'm in Ohio. 

206/365 Monday, 07/25/2011

I think this picture epitomizes the Summer of 2011--Bill and Hansi hangin' on the front porch.

205/365 Sunday, 07/24/2011

This was the only picture I took all day...

Watching Star Trek:The Next Generation

204/365 Saturday, 07/23/2011


We're re-watching Star Trek TNG. The first part of the first season was still very Roddenberry dominated, and so many of the shows have a high "cheese" factor. Roddenberry was obviously obsessed with "Q" too--he keeps turning up in some outlandish costume all set to wreak havoc on the crew for another 45 minutes...

203/365 Friday 07/22/2011

I'm glad I've been able to sipend a lot of quality time with our oldest kitty Hans over this past year (He's 16). For an older kitty he is doing quite well--he has some digestive issues, but they do not disturb his appetite and he is still pretty active.
He has a very people-oriented disposition--more like a dog than a cat--we both love how he tries to ensure that we stick to a "normal' schedule, i.e. he tells us when he thinks it's time to go to bed, and especially when it's time to get up to feed him, but also when its time to go down and get dinner and when it's time for lunch and a walk. I'm sure I'll miss him when I'm in Ohio. At least I'll have George. 

202/365 Thursday, 07/21/2011

Packing up for a temporary move is tricky--on the one hand I don't want to be burdened by too much stuff, on the other hand I do want my little apartment to be cozy and comfy. I'll also be teaching every day of the week - which means bringing quite a few clothes...We decided to make two trips with our trusty Honda civic, well actually that means Bill will make two trips I'll stay down there and continue getting things settled. On the second trip Bill will also bring George the one cat we decided I would have with me for the year. This will all happen next week. (starting Monday, the day we'll make the first drive).

One of the major changes will be the fact that I won't have internet access in my apartment. All my interneting will take place in the office at school (and so will be mainly work-related) or in other places--the library, coffee shops etc...I'm actually looking forward to being off the grid at home. At least thats what I say now...

"Pouch" - My kangaroo beany baby

Wednesday, 07/20/2011
As part of the moving process I went through a lot of stuff and gave away quite a few knick-knacks and clothes to Easter Seals who came around and picked stuff up. This kangaroo beany baby with a pouch and joey survived the purge....

200/365 Tuesday, 07/17/2011

Having three cats on the table at the same time is quite unusual so I decided to document the moment and even make it the pic of the day...

199/365 Monday, 07/16/2011

This is a big old suitcase that I packed full of clothes for the fall. I'll be teaching every week day and so need to prepare "teaching-appropriate outfits" for each day. In my case teaching-appropriate means: a bit more formal than my everyday clothes, comfortable and either warm or cool enough depending on the temperature in the office building...the secret to this kind of dressing is layers...shoes will be important too because on some days I would like to walk to the office. The walk is between 20 and 25 minutes, depending on one's pace--I will need comfy walking shoes, because I'll be schlepping textbooks etc back and forth. I'll probably keep dressier shoes in my office and just change into them, like they used to do in the 80's..There is a free bus service that runs almost door-to-door so that will be an option too. Mieze cannot resist a suitcase and had to give this one a try!!

198/365 Sunday, 07/17/2011

Ever since I knew I'd be moving to Ohio for the upcoming academic year I've been wondering how much and what kind of meals I will cook for myself. I'm not a very confident cook, although I've become a bit better at it in my middle-age. I have a feeling I will enjoy the abundance of take-away eateries in the beginning but after the newness of those wear off (since there are very few good ones to speak of in Albion) I'm sure I'll want to cook again. Plus I'll probably take a lunch to the office with me--which I always liked doing at Albion. I'm taking my laptop lunchbox with me for that reason. We went to the Barnes & Noble in Battle Creek where I decided to pick this one up--since I am on my own, and not a very accomplished or picky cook I thought a student's cookbook would be fine. I went with vegetarian to get some ideas for non-meat or fish based meals. I have packed what I hope is just the right amount of kitchen utensils--a couple of dinner plates, smaller plates some silverware, knives, a few pots and a skillet. I'm also taking a small microwave, which I'm sure I'll use a lot...I also picked up a small coffee maker and a new fairly cheap toaster. It's kind of hard to pack for a move of a year (well nine months). On the one hand I don't want to take too much stuff on the other hand I don't really want to live too ascetically, even for a limited amount of time...I hope I'm striking a happy medium...I'm a bit of a creature of comfort...

Badgers - Dachse

197/365 Saturday, 07/16/2011

This is an illustration from a German encyclopedia I own. It's the "Meyers Konversations-Lexikon." I own the third edition, which was published in Leipzig under the title: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. Eine Encyklopädie des allgemeinen Wissens 1874-78. I got it at the library auction one year that Albion college holds. It's a silent auction and I was very excited to get it--all fifteen volumes, plus supplements in fairly decent shape for $25.00. What can I say I'm a sucker for old German books. I really do like the illustrations. The badger picture is under the "predators--beasts of prey"=Raubthiere section. The German word for "badger" is Dachs--hence a dachshund is a badger-dog. 

196/365 Friday, 07/15/2011

Just another lazy summer day on the front porch. Today a lot of large agricultural vehicles passed by down the street. Must have been heading to a farm somewhere. The weather was warm and sunny.

Happy Bastille Day!

195/365 Thursday, 07/14/2011
A shot from a pleasant evening spent at a local eatery with local friends, some of whom have a French connection...

Prosecco with raspberries

194/365 Wednesday, 07/13/2011

Hmmm prosecco...the perfect summer drink! Esp. if you're partial to the bubbly like I am...and adding raspberries makes it even yummier!

193/365 Tuesday, 07/12/2011

Just a nice shot of Bill and Mieze at the breakfast table. The Kohl's inserts are to be found frequently in our paper--we like feign surprise at the fact that Kohl's is having another sale...

192/365 Monday 07/11/2011

My former student Margaret stopped by to visit today and we had a nice time catching up! After a year as a Fulbright teaching assistant in Dresden she is now working with Teach for America in Las Vegas. It was great to see her!

Richard Alfred Lane & Alfred Richard Hayward, my 1st cousins thrice removed

191/365 Sunday 07/10/2011

This is a picture of two distant cousins—first cousins 3 times removed. Their parents were my great grand aunt Annette Lane, who married a Military Chaplain named John Hayward and my great grand uncle Alfred John Lane, who married “a daughter of Lane from Jersey”. This is only family connection I can find to Jersey, the “other” Channel Island. Most of my family connections are to Guernsey. 

Interestingly, both the Balliwicks of Guernsey and Jersey are not considered to be part of the UK or the European Union. They are British Crown dependencies. I wonder what that would mean if I decided I wanted to live there…

Anyway back to the picture. The boy on the left is Dick (Richard) Lane and on the right is Alfred Hayward.  I've spent a good chunk of time surfing the internets for information on either of them.  Dick was the youngest of five. All I could find was a brief death notice for his older brother (the oldest of the five) Alfred Ambrose Lane, who died in Pilton, UK on June 16, 1889 at the house of his aunt, Mrs Hayward (the mother of Alfred in the picture).  My Lane pedigree tells me that Richard married Anne Elizabeth Harlof, but I cannot find anything about her.

Regarding Alfred Hayward: born in Leix, Ireland - became a Major in the Army and married Maude Mary Kemmis, about whom there is quite a bit on the internets. Her father, e.g. was John Olphert Kemmis and he and her mother (Mary Louisa Needham) lived in Canada and India.  She also had a second husband.

Probably the most interesting genealogical document I found during this particular internet escapade is this obituary of Alfred’s older brother, John Alfred Le Mesurier Hayward, who apparently at some point moved to Quorn, a village in Leicestershire, England. 

190/365 Saturday 07/09/2011

I took this picture as I was walking to my hairdresser's appointment in Ann Arbor. (Walking from the parking garage where Bill had parked the car, definitely not walking from Albion...) It was a very hot day. My hairdresser had the bright idea to document my cut with some photos that I could show whoever ends up cutting my hair next. I thought about posting one of them as my picture of the day, but went with the purple flowers instead. Here is one of the haircut pics.

189/365 Friday, 07/08/2011

Hansi sure loves to roll around in the grass when I take him out during the middle of the day. I'm going to miss our "quality time" together when I move.

188/365 Thursday, 07/07/2011

Sorry--another Mieze pic...for those who have had enough of this cutie: there won't be any more of these after August 1st when I move (with only one cat) to Ohio.... :-(

187/365 Wednesday, 07/06/2011

We took George, our orange tabby for a ride today to see how he would react to being driven somewhere that was not the vet's, since those are the only car rides he has ever taken with us, other than when we first brought him home in 2004. (From a pet-store in Jackson, where an employee had found him in the parking lot where someone had dumped him). It was a lovely day and we drove around the back-roads for about an hour, listening to our latest audio-book which is whatever the audio-equivalent of "page-turner" is...The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second installment in the famous Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.  George was not a happy camper of course, but he actually did better than I expected. At first he meowed and meowed but after a while he fell into a sulky silence and just sat quietly in his carrier. I think he at some point realized that we weren't taking him to the vet, so he just simmered down. And even when he was meowing it wasn't as deafening as with some other kitties, since his meow is quite high-pitched and not very loud--more like a squeak.  And best of all was that when he was let out of the carrier back home, he reverted back to normal George almost immediately, which was a good sign that the driving had not traumatized him. Of course the actual move will be in a different car/van full of other things and will take quite a bit longer, but I think he will be OK. I'm sure he will be a bit traumatized by being in a completely new place, and without his brother and sisters, but I hope he adjusts fairly quickly.

My first Coney (island) dog

186/365 Tuesday, 07/05/2011
I ate my very first Coney Dog on this day! I liked it, even though (or perhaps because...?) it's not the healthiest of foods. I thought the hot dog, meat sauce, mustard and onion paired well with the squishy bun. The french fries (to me they are still chips) at this particular establishment were sub-par, but the dog was good!

185/365 Monday, 07/04/2011

I do love the trees in our backyard - even if they are the reason why we cannot grown any tomatoes...this is how they looked back on January 1st.

184/365 Sunday, 07/03/2011

Mieze's evening routine is to be a no-show until later on. She then wanders down but always makes an entrance--instead of walking into the living room near the front door, she always walks straight to the kitchen and then wanders in from the dining room, with a "oh you're in here" look on her face.  I make sure to have some old newspaper ready to put on my lap so that she will sit down -- no newspaper no Mieze that's the deal...In this shot she has obviously spied a little moving something on the wall and is keeping a sharp Mieze-eye on it.

Happy feet!

183/365 Saturday, 07/02/2011
On Saturday there was a cook-out/pot-luck in a neighbor's backyard--we managed to all eat our main course before the thunderstorm came, upon which we all retreated inside to chat some more and eat dessert. A good time was had by all! 

Action shot of Hansi on the run

182/365 Friday, 07/01/2011

Hansi likes walking along the wooden borders we had put in when we had the yard landscaped--he thinks we put them in just for him -- and who is to say we didn't?
This shot was an attempt to get a picture of him plank-walking but he was too fast and got to the pathway before I got the shot...

Getting back into the German-teaching groove

181/365 Thursday, 06/30/2011

I'm just slowly getting started on course prepping for the three language courses I'll be teaching in the fall at Miami University. Classes start on Monday, August 22. I'm looking forward to being back in the classroom after a rather long teaching hiatus.  These are the books that will be used in two of the three courses. 

Kalamazoo river walk, Marshall Michigan

180/365 Wednesday, 06/29/2011

After a routine doctor's appointment in the morning, Bill and I had breakfast at "Roma's" in Marshall. We then walked along the river walk in Marshall which is where I took this picture.

179/365 Tuesday, 06/28/2011

A typical summer picture: Hansi sitting on my lap looking out at a bird or a squirrel.

178/365 Monday 06/27/2011

Apparently it is time for another Mieze pic here on the blog...so here we go...

Backyard Inhabitant: Chipmunk

177/365, Sunday 06/26/2011

Here is another one of our backyard inhabitants: the chipmunk. He (or she?) has made a little escape burrow right next to him or herself. I think they are cute--a lot smaller than the squirrels and very fast.