how great is this . . .

The big day is not far off.  Though it seems like this big event just happened.

We received the invitation recently - looks quite excellent; key elements are posted below.  Plus I happen to know that the invite was both home-designed and home-printed.  So that's neat.  I particularly liked the jewels on the stylized N/P on the envelope (bottom photo) (even if they don't look very jewelly in the photo).

The wedding shower was today.  By all reports, it will be difficult for the wedding to be a nicer occasion than the shower.  But I have confidence in Saeed and Mina to arrange it just so (probably with some input from Nedda) . . . we are all looking forward to this.

unusual

Nandina does well in the desert - even if it's from east Asia and thrives in places like the Pacific northwest.  But I don't recall ever seeing our nandina plants with berries like this.  Plant is on west side of house.  I read that you shouldn't eat these berries, unless you're a bird.

PJ likes including these in our landscaping, for good reason.

SEG b'day, etc.

In the "we're all getting older better" category, I note that my brother Steve had a birthday today.  (Not a milestone birthday, but closing in on one.)

This reminded me of a minor incident from last November's trip up to Minneapolis.  Cecilia was hosting us all for dinner in New Brighton (in her usual effortless manner), and we were chatting about whatever getting-older siblings and their spouses talk about.  There some some passing usage of the word "decimate"; perhaps in a one-out-of-ten situation but I don't really recall the specifics.  Anyway, SEG - always well-read and so good with words - made some quiet allusion to the origins of the word "decimate."  Maybe I was wrong, but I'm pretty sure I observed that Nick and Julia both immediately reacted to their papa's little remark; I wasn't sure if they were chuckling or groaning; I am pretty sure they've endured (and probably profited from) this kind of word play quite often over the years.

And going through this book very shortly after that trip, I saw that Crassus indeed had punished some cowardly Roman soldiers routed during the slave uprising led by Spartacus - via decimation:  "five hundred that were the beginners of the flight he divided into fifty tens, and one of each was to die by lot, thus reviving the ancient Roman punishment of decimation."

Anyway, I hope there was a fine birthday celebration in Mason City, and trust that it involved more than messing around with words (even though that activity is pretty enjoyable).

This morning's harvest

I always like it when the orange comes off the tree with some (but not too many) leaves.  This morning's harvest was near-perfect. 

(The only disquieting note is that the low-hanging fruit has indeed been taken, and it's getting to be a challenge to find reachable oranges.)

More 11419 trivia

I spend a lot (and I mean a lot) of time sitting at the desk in my quite-fine home office.  And have been reading a lot about the virtues of stand-up desks for all-day sit-downers.  I had a stand-up desk in my Briggs and Morgan office in St. Paul in 1984, but not since.  Below is a photo of my fine test-version of a stand-up-desk.  Functionality and cost are compelling, maybe I'll keep it.  I do think that m.o. would make EMG proud.

And I added a new (well, February 1938 vintage per Mike & Minnie Bormann) sitting chair to my office (per below).  It will stay up here pending redeployment of The Depot (hopefully later this year). 

I've also been seeing a lot about treadmill desks (info here about a version created by some Mayo nerd), but will stick with the stand-up version.  For now.

The Depot

We store lots of stuff around here.  Below is a view of what I call the "depot" - f/k/a our living room and dining room.  This area of the house has looked like this, more or less, since mid-2008.

Photo above was taken shortly before we sent off lots of this stuff.  So now we have more room for storing other stuff.