EPG graduation!

Patrick has graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in business. Now that's a nice achievement indeed.

Commencement for the business college was at 5:30p on Friday, December 19. Our traveling crew was dealing with various issues. Nicole was trying to pull off her usual "surprise" appearance by flying from Chicago direct to Tucson. Kerry was trying to pull off an unsurprising appearance by flying from DC through Chicago to Phoenix. Paul Jr. was trying to pull off any kind of appearance while being only 48 hours out of his tonsillectomy (and fully on some pretty serious meds).

All this would have worked well except for some awful weather in Chicago. Kerry ended up about four+ hours late. Patricia and Chris picked her up from the airport and got to Tucson well after the ceremony ended. Nicole showed up in Tucson some time after midnight. That left Paul Jr., Nedda and me to head down on time and end up being the only attendees at the actual ceremony.

And the ceremony was nice - a few to-the-point remarks, and a small enough graduating crew where each was announced individually.

EPG then hosted the three of us at his apartment for an hour until everyone (other than Nicole showed up). Off to dinner at Guadalajara Grill - the fajitas were delightful. Also the tableside-prepared salsa. And it was very fun to sit around and chat.

Some of us went to our usual hotel - Best Western on Stone Ave - Kerry tried to keep everyone else up and moving until Nicole showed up. V. nice that Kerry and her made it.

Massive breakfast later the next morning at "Blue Willow". Walked around the U of A campus for a bit - I like it there. With K and P both graduated, we could well be finished down there. Then back to Phoenix.

We also had a reception for Patrick at the house on Sunday evening (12/21) - big crowd, very fun. PJ and I shopped at Costco, Nicole made some dips, all fun.

More adventures to come over this break.

Photos above: the "crowd" at the graduation. Bottom photo: Patrick goes to his first day of school (kindergarten) - 1991.

Back to school . . .

Patricia and I dropped Paul Jr. off at his apartment on Wednesday, August 15. Mostly because we were hauling a full-size bed down there, we ended up using a U-Haul. Everything went smoothly except it was very hot and very humid and we were moving him in between about 1 and 3p. Bad timing. The apartment looks really nice, on University just west of campus. They completed a ton of construction at ASU even in the last months. He shopped for football tickets, did a few things in the apartment, then we headed home and returned the rental, etc.

Down to Tucson on August 17 (Friday). After firing up my old blackberry Thursday evening as Patrick's phone had pretty much passed on. This move takes two vehicles: EPG uses the '94 Bonneville down there. That thing runs great but has not withstood the Arizona sun. Smooth trip all the way and an easy unload; he's in a nice house on Park just NE of campus, good location. We did just a bit of shopping and then went to eat at a place called Guadalajara Grill. Patrick's pal (Austin) met us there. Very hot, but we very much liked sitting on the patio. Among other amusements, they made up the salsa table-side. (I have a nice-ish photo of this on my phone that I'm having trouble uploading, maybe later. But here at least is a fawning review of the restaurant.) This was all very enjoyable. Easy trip back to Phoenix (though there was a major accident with road closed in the opposite direction, so we were lucky).

Our Roommates Left Us

We spent the weekend moving Patrick and Paul Jr. into their campus apartments. Friday (August 18) was move-in day for Patrick for junior year at University of Arizona. He’s staying at Sterling apartments west of campus (information here). We loaded up the Bonneville and our small-ish SUV and had an easy trip down to Tucson and back (minus Bonneville, which is staying in Tucson (keep your fingers crossed)). Plus we had a chance to have a late lunch with Patrick at Barrio in downtown Tucson (information here). We had been meaning to try the place. I ordered the fish taco, it was v. good.

Moved Paul into “The Village on University” for his sophomore year at Arizona State University on Saturday (August 19). These apartments (information here) are located less than a mile east of campus. Very nice except the carpeting could use a major cleaning (or replacement). The third-floor location is great except lugging stuff up there made Saturday’s humidity quite noticeable. Patricia and I went back down to Tempe on Sunday for some finishing touches and basics like grocery shopping.

Unlike last year, we failed to get any photos of the move-in. So I’m posting a photo showing these two guys starting school 14 years ago (August 1992).

We’ll miss having our two roommates around (even if they did tend to treat the house like a dorm every now and then). We’ve had several years or summers now with just the two of them around, our older three being all independent now. It’s a neat opportunity to live together in a smaller group, which I guess is something that often happens with the younger children in a larger family.

Curve Wreckers Head Back to Campus

No particular reason to blog about the return of our three students to campus for spring semester 2006 except I like to brag. Sort of like affixing the bumper sticker that says “my kid is an honor roll student at (whatever) middle school.” Anyway, I must note that Patrick (U of A ’08), Paul Jr. (ASU ’09) and Patricia (ASU ’07) (all graduation dates are estimated) are into Dean’s list territory based on their performance so far – especially based on terrific results for fall semester 2005. The last of these scholars will be back in class on January 17.

U of A Homecoming

Here’s something fun: Kerry showed up in Arizona for the first time in several months. Last we saw her (back in June), she had just purchased a hot black Honda Civic, loaded it up, and headed off on a cross-country tour to her new job location in Virginia (all this while overcoming a mysterious ankle injury). We’re still waiting to see photos from that adventure, but I hear Graceland was a major highlight. (She also left behind lots of stuff in our house, most of which now has been rearranged or properly disposed of.)

Anyway, she made it to Arizona for U of A’s homecoming weekend in Tucson. We didn’t attend this year, but reports are that she spent quality time with (1) Patrick, and (2) many of her U of A pals. There was a shocking development that evening in Tucson: U of A’s traditionally lousy football team beat a Top 10 team – heretofore undefeated UCLA – by the score of 52 to 14. Everyone thought the score was a misprint. If you’re interested, there’s a story at http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=253090012&confId=null.

We did see Kerry on Sunday (November 5) for a couple hours before taking her to the airport. That was fun. And it’s good that it’s just a short time until she returns for Thanksgiving. From Kelly's response, we are convinced that the dog actually remembers her.

Disclaimer: U of A photo is from last year’s U of A Homecoming, which we did attend.

U of A move-in (EPG)

We moved EPG into his Tucson apartment on Saturday; he starts classes on Monday. Car-loading process went smoothly on Saturday (after EPG stayed up until at least 3:30a organizing his stuff). Mary Beth and Meghan Stern stopped by to say good bye. But they weren’t particularly helpful to the loading process; just couldn’t live up to the standards set during move-out from EPG’s dorm last May. At least they brought some candy. The trip down was easy. We had to take two vehicles.

The apartment actually is quite nice (http://www.entradareal.com/live/site/trlm.rz) and well situated just west of U of A. We unloaded, and then had a surprisingly good lunch at the Marriott (order the chicken wrap next time you’re there). We did some shopping at big boxes like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Office Max, grocery store, said goodbyes and hit the road. We always enjoy visiting Tucson, though Kerry's absence (after four years) was noted. Fortunately EPG likely will be up in Phoenix next weekend for some conference.

Nice trip back as the sun was setting; the desert is awfully pretty that time of evening. Listened to Neil Young’s “Decade” most of the way (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002KCS/102-0714212-4656164?v=glance). I recommend it, even though I can’t figure out what he’s singing about. Chatted with PJ (using hands-free, Nicole) about evening plans. We eventually got together with the parents of one of Nicole’s Chicago roommates at Z Tejas; their youngest son is a freshman at ASU. Very nice evening; various ND connections (including Tom & Kim Lordan, who also stopped by).

(Oh, by the way. Our house was empty when we got back to Phoenix. We don’t have a child living with us for the first time since bringing Nicole from the hospital to our studio apartment in South Bend on ~May 8, 1981. Apparently we need to practice for this, since we left the house completely dark for the poor dog. So Kelly was pretty much freaked out by the time we returned.)