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.