Thanksgiving was fun

We made it through Thanksgiving in fine shape. Except we didn’t do much in the way of taking pictures (though Nicole has some that we hope appear on a photo sharing website sooner than later).

Kerry arrived late Tuesday evening from Baltimore; Nicole arrived mid-day Wednesday from Chicago; Patrick arrived late Wednesday from Tucson. Paul Jr. finished classes Wednesday and Chris was around every day. So that was good. Lots of excellent eating. We put up the Christmas tree on Friday. Also went to look at a house that Chris and Jon Blaha are signing a contract on; if all goes well, they could be homeowners by year-end (of 2006) (see photos).

Saturday was fun – the kids went to Tucson early in the day with various of their friends, toured Patrick’s fine apartment, and tailgated for the ASU-U of A game. Then they drove back home for the end of the U of A game, and we also watched the USC-Notre Dame game (which didn’t require much of our attention). Had people over for this, it was fun.

Lost Nicole, Chris, Patrick and Paul Jr. on Sunday, but Kerry’s flight didn’t leave until late afternoon Monday. The three of us had supper at Z Tejas Sunday evening; then Kerry and I visited Patricia at work at Mayo, had a Pei Wei lunch, and otherwise killed off Monday. She even had a tour of my office (and acted interested).

It was nice having everyone around, and it’s nice that Christmas follows on so soon.

Keewee Sighting

Kerry called from Baltimore airport last night and said she was coming into Phoenix in a few hours. This was part of her trip to Tucson for U of A Homecoming. So we picked her up at the airport about 11:15pm and she was in Phoenix most of today. The three of us went to Tempe and had lunch at House of Tricks with Paul Jr. (who conveniently was out of school celebrating Veteran's Day). This is a very nice restaurant with fantastic outdoor seating, and best of all, it's not a chain restaurant. You can read about the restaurant here, and the lunch menu is here. We heard some, but not much, about Kerry's most recent trip abroad, plus caught up in general. And it was just fun to see her.

Signs of Winter 2

About a month ago I posted about the start of our winter lawn. Here it is in full glory.

ND Trip Day Two

Back on our (somewhat) recent trip to Notre Dame - this summarizes Friday, September 29.

After a fine breakfast at Moreau Seminary, we started the day where every good pilgrim begins: the Grotto. Just kidding, we actually went to the Bookstore, where all things ND can be purchased. It’s just like being in a store at a high-end mall. Except they have more parking lot attendants. Got away as quickly as possible. At least there was an area to throw the football around. Said hi to Monk Malloy in the lobby as he had a book-signing for “Travels with Monk,” based on his travel diaries.

After wandering the campus just a bit – fantastic morning weather – we had lunch at Moreau Seminary with Bill Seetch and John Conley. Always a highlight of a trip to see those guys. We caught up on various and sundry topics, including some stories by Seetch from the football sidelines. Patricia and I walked over to campus and eventually checked in at the Glee Club reunion registration area (the “new” DeBartolo performing arts center); saw a few Glee Club folks there, then we went to a little eating place called Recker’s to relax and have a cup of coffee.

Next was practice for the reunion concert. The rest of our traveling party came over for this; also had a chance to say hello to Kate Gales. Not a huge turnout of folks from our years at ND, but saw several folks including David Clark Isele himself. The auditorium was incredibly live and it was fun to sing the old songs per usual.

Back to Recker’s for a quick bite. Ran into Dick Waris and his son on the way out of Reckers, and ran into Mike and Sheila Geddes on the way into the concert, that all was fun. The reunion concert itself went just fine and I appreciated the opportunity to participate. There is an element of déjà vu or whatever in doing those song especially for those numbers conducted by DC Isele. All good. The kids and Jon bought me a ND Glee Club polo shirt which was actually quite nice.

I’m going to post a bit of video from the concert, at least when I get past an editing problem that I didn’t have a chance to resolve yet.

Progressively cloudier and colder as the day went on, and a nice rain shower by the time the concert was over. Which left us with a 15+ minute walk back to Moreau. Fortunately, Brian and Andrea Shappell had a minivan and hauled us back (plus we had a few laughs on the way over). We got organized and drove over to the reception at Daniel Stowe’s house. Which was difficult to find through the deep woods on a dark, rainy night. The reception featured the usual singing and sipping. Frank Barrett played some jazz stuff and his setting of William Blake’s “Dream,” which really is quite excellent.

Back to Moreau for a round of ice cream and good night. This was a fine day. Patricia and I have been at several of these reunions and we were glad the kids had a chance to at least get a glimpse of all that.

Back

OK, in the next week or so I'm going to catch up on recent (and less recent) events after finishing a couple major work projects and extra rehearsals etc. for our Choral Union concert.

I am a fan of webcams. And of the look of the Tucson area. This photo is from a webcam on the University of Arizona campus. You can check out the webcam here. The view is to the northeast, and the Catalina Mountains look great.

I also like the Northern Arizona University webcam looking out over the San Francisco Peaks, viewable here. I can check out the snow pack plus get some (slight) idea of color change in the aspens in autumn.