turf

Long overdue - after way too many years of poor results growing grass but excellent weed growth in that same grass - this - we are quite happy with it.

monsoon > palo verde trees

Pretty powerful monsoon system up in our area on the evening of 30 July.  We haven't had much luck keeping palo verde trees on the west side of our house - magnificent shade for a few years - now we have to figure out next steps (if any).

Hard to believe those trees were planted in 2008 (per this link).

trees look pretty remarkable from any angle (this is the tree toppled 30 July 2018)

toppled 5 July 2018

install date for these same two trees - 11 August 2008

yellow

Springtime in the desert.  Here are backyard palo verdes in bloom, complete with extensive blossom-drop.  Yellow above, yellow below, backlighting.

Sunday 22 April 2018

First few months of 2016

Catching up here . . . via quick notes on various events in opening months of 2016 . . .

1.  Per earlier post:  enjoyed EPG's company well into January; lost K prior to 12/31 but to a good cause.

2.  O'Connell visit at end of January, fun as always.

Dinner with DJ and "Debbers" at 706.

The ladies claim they had a fine outing (sans gentlemen).

3.  PJ and I enjoy an overnight in downtown Phoenix for Valentine's Day.  Kimpton - per usual.  First-time restaurant for dinner - Province - they did a very nice job.  Phoenix Public Market.  Great/seasonal weather, wandering around downtown from hotel up to Roosevelt Road and beyond.

Seems to be our only photo from Valentine's Day?
Oh well, you can see that it was a lovely evening
(per view from our hotel room).

4.  PJr and I participated in Arizona Musicfest in late February (after taking last year off) - Carmina Burana - PJ still in throes of bad cough so has to miss out but several fans are able to attend, nice gathering afterward at Bootleggers.

MusicFest (courtesy NOC Instagram feed)

5.  PJ and I repeat last year's Tucson B&B weekend - really enjoy the southern AZ sights, the Tucson restaurants, the relaxed wandering.  Nice.

Just hanging around in downtown Tucson.

6.  PJ and I had a great trip to Virginia in mid-March to visit Kerry, Luis et al; some notes and photos are posted separately.

7.  Next-gen folks threw a really quite excellent 60th birthday party in late March for PJ and me at the end of March; some notes and photos are posted separately.

8.  Opening Day baseball courtesy POC.  Zack Greinke did not dominate. But we had a fine time.

POC shepherding Mark Grace onto the field for Opening Day introductions, as
shown on video board.  Opening Day, always fun.

Pregame preparation is essential.  EPG able to stay on just a few days after 60th weekend.

9.  CPG and I were in a performance of Honegger's King David with ASU Choral Union (and other groups) at the end of April; PJ and Dharma attended (once logistics were straightened out).  The work has a number of nice moments and we stopped for a bite afterward at the Parlor, a fine evening.

10.  PJ and I enjoyed a great trip up to San Francisco to visit Patrick; photos and notes are posted separately.

11.  Lovely Mother's Day (May 8) - NOC, CPG, PJr treat to brunch at Richardson's, then Dharma (with some assist from CPG) treats to excellent dinner at her apartment.

Richardson's brunch crew.

Beautiful evening for a walk - here we are at Steele Park.

Flagstaff + storm

At 11,500 feet.

PJ and I are pretty much addicted to Flagstaff.  So took a short trip (June 27-28) amidst all of our Midwest travels.  Unremarkable and delightful - hit all the spots we enjoy - lots of walking around town.  Historic Brewing has opened a new tasting room (in conjunction with Proper), so that was nice.  Really enjoyed the change of weather from late-June-in-the-desert, though we did run into some rain.  Something we only do every several years - took the Snow Bowl chairlift up Mt. Agassiz.  Weather up there was unsettled - almost cold, a few raindrops - this was a great change of pace.

Dodging raindrops on return trip to Snow Bowl.

Storms developing in Flagstaff as we spent a lovely Sunday.  Dinner at Criollo before hitting the road for home around 8p - an absolute downpour in Flagstaff during that time.

AZ Republic all over the storm-story.

Not much rain on the way home, but we commented regularly on the spectacular lightning display visible pretty much all of the two-hour trip - unusual.

This blocked our street for a couple hours in the morning.  Then some industrious city workers showed up.

We make it home in fine shape - heavy atmosphere with lots of lightning - 30 minutes after we get home, a massive storm hits - with all of the tree-trouble we've had, I couldn't even look outside.  In the morning paper we read that we were at ground zero for a "micro-burst," whatever that means, featuring 80mph winds.
 

This backyard tree was saved.  Which we did not expect.

A little trouble with the roof.

For us it meant loss of trees, plus south corner of our roof was torn away which led to some water damage.  We learned that water damage requires a lot of attention - including large fans and portable dehumidifiers, even in a desert climate.

But we survived without much hassle.

Dehumidifying.

Beer tasting

Just about ready to get started.

A holiday beer-tasting event was held at our place on December 27.  Lots of work by all involved in the planning and execution, with N taking the arranging-lead and PJ taking the hostessing-cooking lead.  And K coming through with some spiffy tasting glassware (complete with a few professional-looking taster “paddles”).

K-supplied tasting hardware.  ("Duck with boots" just eluded the photographer at far right.)

Results - click to enlarge.  Left column lists participants in order of finish.  CPG and me were the most
generous graders.  EPG was the toughest grader, becoming noticeably more discriminating as he went along.  

It all really turned out well.

Remarkably good logistics handled by three supposedly impartial non-beer-drinkers – this involved handling two beers per person for a dozen tasters, maintaining scoring, keeping things moving, preserving beer-secrecy, etc.  Not a simple process, though they made it feel that way.  Participants were tasked with bringing two beers and an appetizer – yes, this worked very well.  Folks clearly were diligent about their beer shopping, and also were thoughtful about app choices.

Instagram #1 (borrowed from N).  Medal stand honorees
in bottom right photo (gold-silver-bronze top to bottom).

Each participant ranked the beers, and the beer-submitter with highest aggregate score was declared the victor.  Our administrators reported on lots of interesting and occasionally on-target commentary as the participants worked through the list.

Pretty sure we’ll do this again in the future.  I’d be happy if we use pretty much the same approach again, though we likely will do some sort of beer-by-category ranking at least for scoring purposes – we noticed that lighter/cleaner tasting beers suffered in the comparisons, as did the porter/stout submissions.

N Instagram #2.

The path to victory in this first tasting:  focus your two beer submissions in the realm of fine-tasting IPAs or the like (this strategy worked for #1 winner: PJr, #2 runner-up: Mike Barbeau; #3: me (yes, on the medal stand, if barely!)).

N Instagram #3.

We haven't moved in 20 years

Wrapping up that last load.  November 28, 1994.  West side of PV home.
CPG, NOC, Kelly (right foreground).

On this day 20 years ago we moved out of our Paradise Valley home, and moved into our current place.  It's been a most successful move.  We had lived in PV for five+ years; primary driver for leaving was the lack of what we considered good public high school options in the area.  Nicole was then in the midst of her 8th grade year at St. Thomas the Apostle; it seemed like a promising idea to move into the Chaparral HS district; that turned out to be correct.

My eager assistants in N&K's emptied bedroom (NE corner of house).  Not sure what's up with
the kneepads, but CPG's Shaq/jorts combination is certainly fine.  (11/28/94)

I do recall that things were hectic at the time of the move in November 1994 - so much so that we didn't even get around to taking photos or video of all of the excitement of moving.  I'm including here two photos of my late evening grunt team (apparently all the photos we have from this episode); also including below four photos pulled from the November 1994 appraisal report obtained in connection with getting the original mortgage on this place (each coupled with a corresponding November 2014 view).  Part of our November 1994 distracted-ness:  for reasons no longer remembered we had scheduled a Notre Dame trip before we knew the closing date on the house sale; that trip took place just about a week before moving day (I'll say it was a fine adventure involving me 'n my three sons).

November 18, 1994.  Locker room access courtesy Seetch & Connelly.
Not possible to travel with these three and not have a great time.

PJ and I had built a nomadic track record by 1994 that didn't augur settling down for 20 years.  Pre-11419 details:

• Summer 1980:  honeymoon apartment in Hickory Hills, IL (1L clerkship in downtown Chicago)
• [Brief hiatus to Stanford (that (mis)adventure is summarized here)]
• 2L academic year ('80-'81):  Carroll Street, South Bend, IN
• 2L summer clerkship ('81):  Country Club Plaza, Kansas City, MO
• 3L academic year ('81-'82):  University Village, Notre Dame, IN
• June '82 - Dec '83:  Rugen Road townhouse, Glenview, IL 
• Dec '83 - August '86:  Cohansey Street, Roseville, MN
• August '86 - October '86:  townhouse rental, Thunderbird Road, Phoenix, AZ
• October '86 - August '89:  Paradise Lane, Phoenix, AZ
• August '89 - November '94:  Claremont Street, Paradise Valley, AZ
• [November '94 - ?:  43rd Street, Phoenix, AZ]

So prior to our current home that was nine residences (including three purchased homes) in eight cities in five states in 14 years, plus or minus.

But never mind, this time we're here to stay!

Tricky to re-create the 1994 view given the very healthy palo verde recently planted in that spot.

1994 version of the backyard was great if you like a lot of kool-decking, glare, and pool maintenance.  
(Though I must admit the pool did serve its purpose with a house full of kids.)

Front of house is thoroughly recognizable, though there isn't a plant or surface 
that hasn't been swapped out at least once (other than the roof, surprisingly enough).

Mimicking the appraiser's rather prosaic "street scene" - looking north up 43rd Stteet.

after almost six years (remodel, phase two)

PJ and I thought about it a bit, then decided (back in 2006 or 2007) that we would stay in our current five-bedroom home for the long haul notwithstanding that all the kids had moved on permanently (or so we thought at the time); but that we would do a bunch of updating as long as we were sticking around in the place for good.  The plan was to work on the first floor in 2008, then move immediately to remodeling the upstairs floor in 2009.

Dining room qua multi-year storage facility.

Master bedroom, demo phase.

The 2008 phase went swimmingly; for example, here, here, here, and here; then we encountered a few diversions (generally in the form of unanticipated roommates).  All quite pleasant; but nonetheless a few years seem to have slipped away.  Which is fine - I'd happily trade a bit of a remodeling delay for the fun memories of having bonus time with those guys.  In the meantime the vanity cabinets for the upstairs bathrooms, along with a bunch of other construction goods (yes, including two toilets in boxes) have occupied our dining room since mid-2008.  And the living room (adjoining the dining room) has been used for nothing but storage during those years.  But:  whatever.

Slab selection Saturday.  Eagle-eye in action.

Anyway:  long-delayed phase two launched on March 3.

Quite a bit less complicated than the 2008 phase.  We are removing 20-year-old (and occasionally marked by Kelly-the-Welshie over the years) carpet; swapping out the 30-year-old builder's cabinets; new tile in the bathrooms; getting rid of both bathtubs (who uses these things anyway?)  Various other tinkerings included.  And we also came up with a wrinkle we wouldn't have thought up in 2008/9 - enlarging the master suite via the simple expedient of knocking out a wall between the "old" master bedroom and an adjoining smaller bedroom (and relocating the closet) - easy, effective.

Taken from same spot.  Bottom photo shows kid-bedroom as it existed since we moved into the
house.  Top photo:  door to hallway closed off, closet relocated, space is connected to master suite.

The other new concept will be that we have permanently given up on the idea of maintaining a furnished living room and dining room.  We haven't once missed having access to these rooms in the last near-six years.  Meaning that - once the upstairs stuff is done - those areas will be cleared out (other than pianos) and deployed as an oversized game room.  Details to come.

In the meantime, PJ and I have taken up residence in a couple rooms on the first floor - it's like living in a hotel, fun!  Much easier than this, as kitchen access is uninterrupted this time around.

Desk, bed, TV, closet = hotel life.  Grandpa+Grandma Bormann's chair comes in handy, again.

Now we just need to keep after things such that guest quarters are ready for incoming hikers for Phantom Ranch 2014.

site of future pool table

piano(s) update

I would like to improve at piano-playing.  Who knows, maybe I have three or four decades to do a little work on this task?  Anyway, we have a couple piano-problems here.

First:  practicing or playing an acoustic piano in our home - whether competently or no - is maddening for anyone else in the house in fairly short order.  There's just no way to isolate the sound.

Second:  our piano is beyond repair.  Our efforts from a few years back did not turn out to be a long-term solution.  Meaning replacement or a serious restoration job (we're leaning toward the latter, which will take at least nine months).

This gets the job done, and then some.  And what a pleasant view.

The solution:  my little wife sprung for a good-quality electronic piano.  Now I can practice with headphones!  Sure, this just reinforces how wonderful a good acoustic piano sounds - but this is a very good quality product and definitely solves the practice-disruptive-noise issue around here.

Will continue to use it once we do whatever we do with the Steinway.

Snow day

Snow days are not mundane occurrences here in AZ.

This excitement took place on Wednesday, February 20.  Right here at 11419 we experienced a short ice storm (top two photos).  POC was working, or something, over at Salt River Fields (D'backs spring training), where what looks like "real snow" fell (bottom two photos).

Haboob'd (or something)

Just back from a most pleasant Midwest visit (will post separately on that shortly).  The locals had advised us of a storm moving through Phoenix while we were away.  It had a pretty big (and negative) effect on our back yard - now two of our "new" (circa 2009, as shown here) mesquites are toppled.

OK, it wasn't a surprise - we could see that these things had grown unsupportably top-heavy, and we had actually obtained price quotes on their removal last week.  But still, it's a significant loss.  Will take several years to re-create the shade.  Oh well.

Haboobs seem to be increasingly frequent, for example this excellent stop-action from last year.