55th Anniversary Bash - The Actual Date

February 19 (Monday) was the genuine 55th anniversary. Also our return travel date. We had a fine breakfast together.

The weather had warmed considerably. The grandchildren still present (Nicole, 25; Patrick, 20; Emily, 6; and Allison, 3) wanted to go out in the snow. So outfits were put on. Patrick had the chance to put on a pair of five-bucklers. They went down to the hill by St. Joe church and had a fine time.

Grandma served a v. good lunch complete with apple pie, then made up bags of cookies for the travelers. Said goodbyes around 12:30p. Cecilia drove us to the airport; easy trip and we made our flight easily. Landed in a rainstorm in Phoenix around 7:30p.

So this was a fine trip all around. Busy but not rushed. We had the chance to see lots of relatives. We ate ridiculous amounts of wonderful baked goods. And we were present for a 55th wedding anniversary for two fine folks.

P.S. My parents really seem to be doing great. How many folks celebrate their 55th by sledding down a hill (check out the video of EMG and his cheering grandchildren). And my mother hauled off to Algona for the concert board meeting or somesuch community event that very evening. Good for them!

55th Anniversary Bash - The Party

We slept in pretty late on party day (Sunday, February 18). Those who are good at this sort of thing were very efficient in setting up the house for a big party. Others played toys with small children.

While a few invitees couldn't make it due to illness or iffy driving conditions, we ended up with a great turnout. We ate around 1:30p or so; filled two large tables. Good food and conversation all around. I must recognize Barb's cake-baking skills - some kind of raspberry cheesecake plus a chocolate-caramel-pecan wonder.

After eating, more talking. Watched the highly-excellent video from the 50th wedding anniversary (note the rapt attention of the viewers).

I include three photos showing the representation from the three generations present. First photo includes Clarence, Irene, Kathy & Daryl; with honorees in front row plus Mary Lou. Second photo shows children present (Barb, Dolores, Therese, Cecilia, me). Third photo shows grandchildren present: Joe, Kieran, Tom, Nicole, Patrick, Allison, Angie; Clare, Julia, Emily, Margaret, Jenna. I think those photos pick up everyone except Art (but he's in a photo above).

Mark & Sue Bormann stopped by, also Sherry with daughter.

Some of the guests drifted off as evening neared; then the card-players got started. Those who are good at this sort of thing then pulled off dinner for 18 pretty effortlessly (you can see the fine gathering below). The Cullen family needed to leave, but fortunately not until after they played a few songs for us. They played some sort of wistful Irish tune followed immediately by "Turkey in the Straw," which certainly made us think back many years to Mike Bormann (and made me feel kind of wistful myself, actually). They also did a fine rendition of my third-grade recital piece, the "St. Paul Waltz." Which I appreciated hearing.

Then the remnants of the party sat around the kitchen table well into the night talking over many things and finding ourselves hugely entertaining for the most part. This part of the day was quite enjoyable. Spoke to Carol in Nome and had a discussion about the 55th honorees' visit for the Iditarod planned for next month. Dad showed some of his winter gear, but I think Mom may need to borrow a thing or two. More chatting. Among other important topics, we covered the distinctions between Ken G., Kenny G., and Ken E.

End of a fine day - and we weren't even up to the actual anniversary date as yet. Will discuss that next.

55th Anniversary Bash - The Lead-In

As mentioned in the previous post, I travelled to Iowa for my parents' 55th wedding anniversary. Patrick and I flew to Minneapolis, arriving around noon on Friday, February 16. Therese was on time, we jumped into the car and headed south. But we were hungry. So we stopped at Famous Dave's - a BBQ chain of some sort. I must say we were shocked when we stepped out of the car into a vicious south wind. Temp was probably somewhere over 10 but wow. I don't recall the last time I was in winter in a northern climate.

The restaurant was located in the Cabela's complex a ways south of Minneapolis. They served an A-rated pulled pork sandwich (something I am constantly looking out for). How nice. I would consider joining their PIG Club if I was nearer to their stores.

What else was there to do after lunch but to explore Cabela's (especially because Patrick had never seen the place). Therese had the right take on the place, describing it as "its own ecosystem." Check out the photo of my fellow-travelers enjoying some kind of diorama. (There was an even better diorama featuring African fauna.) We especially admired the "gun library" and Patrick liked the one-man tent from which turkeys can be discreetly blasted.

Off to St. Joe. Some blowing snow along the way. Once there: conversation, fine turkey dinner, demos by my dad of his increasingly impressive array of electronics. Spoke to Jim Dory in Nome. Slept downstairs, where the temp never rises above 64 F (upside: stops all insects other than a few lady bugs). Had a great night's sleep after conquering my shivering.

All signs were positive for Saturday, February 17. Just check out the "clean" cinammon roll that was sitting there just for me. Another mighty cold day. Patrick and I picked up Nicole at Storm Lake in the afternoon (dropped off by House travelers); got to see some genuine blowing snow along US 18 (complete with a couple ditched vehicles). Ah, the memories. Barb, Emily, Allison arrived from Eau Claire. This was a positive addition to our fun.

Then to Mass, where it happened that mom was leading the pre-Mass Rosary and dad was lector. So that was fun to watch. Except my reverie was interrupted when Barb recalled that the ham hadn't been taken out of the oven. So I lit out during the sermon to pull it out. Back for dinner. Nicole and Patrick received info about their grandpa's computer setup. They also received info about the circumstances leading to the rather disturbing framed self-photo of EMG that you can see on top of the computer desk (click photo to enlarge). (That's a whole other story.)

General high-level socializing until going back to sleep in the cooler. It was a very fun day.

This brings us to the day of the actual 55th party, which I'll cover in a separate post.

Road Trip!!

Taking off bright and early tomorrow for Minneapolis, then via borrowed (from House family), chauffeured (by Therese) car service to the town of St. Joe, Iowa. Patrick is sloughing off his U of A duties to come along with me. Nicole to come in from Chicago on Saturday. Other important personages among my relatives also will be there, to be named later.

And it's for a BIG event: 55th wedding anniversary for Mom and Dad! That doesn't come along very often.

If we can have half as much fun as these folks celebrating #53 a couple years ago, it will be all good.

(And hey, I think that kid in the picture is sitting in the same high chair I used 50 years ago. In any event, the marriage has been around longer than the chair.)

Change of view

Yesterday was pretty hectic at work (by "at work," I mean up in the NE bedroom where I have a home office). I didn't step outside once, or even look out front. Went out for coffee with Patricia at about 6:15a this morning (before some kind of certification class she was attending) so it was dark when we left the house. When I came back, I was somewhat surprised to see that our neighbors had painted the exterior of their house a darker color. (Garage door is the previous color). I think they had it done yesterday, but maybe they were sneaking around overnight?

Is this a minor event? Yes. But hey -- as with most non-nomadic folks -- the view out front of our dwelling is pretty static. Especially in a desert climate. So this was the first big change of view in over 12 years.

Part 2 - Freezing

Backyard photos from Wednesday Jan 31. Ice on the lawn plus plants with severe frost damage from a couple weeks ago.

And here's our front-yard orchid tree, dropping leaves after the big frost. Not sure how that will one will turn out.

Forecast highs up to 80 next week.

Maximum enjoyment from Christmas decorations

Patricia is so talented at taking down and putting away Christmas decorations that it only seems right that she handle the task. I stay out of the way except when manly lifting is required.

Given that Mayo Hospital has been running her into the ground lately, we've had plenty of extra enjoyment from the decorations. But thanks to her efforts on Sunday (Jan 28), now it looks like we'll be able to get the tree out of sight before Valentine's Day.

There should be a service that would come in and take the tree -- without removing any decorations -- off to storage, and bring it back the next year. That would solve the decorating effort, the undecorating effort, and the storage problem (remember, we have no basement).

At least we had a pleasant Sunday evening, discussed here.

Rembrandts visit Phoenix

Patricia and I are members of the Phoenix Art Museum for 2007. First time we've tried this. The museum just completed a major group of facility improvements and the place looks great.

Anyway, a few years ago the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced plans to undergo a renovation, and the director of the Phoenix Art Museum immediately called over and asked if PAM could exhibit some of their things while in storage. Two other U.S. museums also were chosen, so this show is pretty exclusive to Phoenix.

It so happened that Patrick was in town during our scheduled trip to the exhibit, so he came along. We much enjoyed. The show included works by various Dutch masters of the Rembrandt era (17th century). The brochure features Rembrandt's late-in-life self-portrait as the apostle Paul. My favorite was the scene showing Peter's denial (see accompanying photo, as always click to enlarge). Among other neat features, check out how the candle illuminating Peter's troubled face is behind the hand of the servant girl asking about him. I wouldn't have seen it without the audio accompaniment at the museum, but Christ is over Peter's left shoulder giving him a look.

Anyway, the exhibit gave an overview of Dutch town life shortly after independence from Spain and during a period of major prosperity. I'm a sucker to buy books of things I see, as you can see in the bottom photo. The book is a great way to recall the images, but it is amazing (though not surprising) how much larger and more vibrant the works are when seen in person.

We next drove downtown to Arizona Center and sat outside for lunch at Sam's Cafe on a glorious Arizona afternoon. Quite fun.

At night we taught Patrick pinochle. He caught on too quickly for our comfort factor.

Rembrandt is worth reading about, bio here.

Suns are at it, again

No doubt - the NBA is far and away the best sports league going. And here in Phoenix we get to watch the most entertaining team in the NBA.

The Suns have been on an East Coast swing into the major media markets - Washington DC and New York City for starters - and so are riding a publicity blitz with regular comparisons to Magic Johnson's Showtime Laker teams of the 1980s. It helps that they have the best record in the league and lead in every major offensive category.

I liked this photo from nytimes.com because it shows a standard scenario: 1) Steve Nash running the break; 2) two teammates filling the lanes in classic formation; 3) sorry defender trailing behind, but at least in a good viewing position for the upcoming dunk or three. I also like how they superimposed the statistics, and that they took the photo from an interesting angle.

I'm hugely entertained by all this. Here's an entertaining (if somewhat fawning) Bill Simmons article that gets into much more detail about what the Suns are up to this year.

Freezing

It's been ridiculously cold here. About a week ago, we had the hardest freeze in the Phoenix area since 1990. Many of our plants were damaged. Check out the browned-out hisbiscus and the whited-out fern. (Both should be fine though will need cutting back). Lots more of our plants look even worse, including the bougainveilla (or however that's spelled, I understand the plant is named for some French military guy).

Patricia had to work today (she had a crazy-busy week) so I was on my own. Made for a long Sunday. But I did sweep out the swimming pool and took care of some other noxious tasks. It actually snowed in the northern part of town (meaning there were a few crystals in the air) and in the higher elevations, including nice amounts on the Superstitions.

Here's an oddity. We've already had two left ankle injuries from playing basketball in the last couple weeks (discussed here and here). This week Patrick reports that he also messed up his left ankle playing basketball. I'm hoping for photographic confirm. This is getting creepy, and CPG -- as last man standing -- better watch out.

We saw our second good movie in a row over the weekend, discussed here.

Part 2 - Basketball can be injurious to your health

I thought he was kidding, but no.

Just yesterday I put my crutches into the closet for good (why I was using them is explained here). This afternoon Paul Jr. calls saying he rolled his left ankle playing basketball and had immediate severe swelling.

What's there to do? Only one answer: head back to Patricia's emergency department for an X-ray. The kid has a bad sprain and has now taken possession of my crutches (as you can see in top photo). So I got to meet a bunch more of Patricia's co-workers, and we were treated very well.

But something odd is going on here. We miss Patricia when she's at work, but seem to be going to ridiculous lengths to go visit her. Twice in 17 days. Whatever. After she got off her shift, she hung around with us and then we went to dinner at 8:45p at a place called Bahama Breeze. It was good, or we were just really hungry, or maybe both.

Paul Jr. will now get to experience the joys of hobbling around a college campus. Ugh.

(And how much fun is a phone with a camera? Who ever carries a camera separately?)

Christmas is officially over

Patrick went back to U of A last Tuesday. Paul Jr. went back to ASU today. So that ends Christmas. (Even though our tree isn't down and, with Patricia's upcoming work schedule, will be up at least another week or so.) The weather still feels like middle of winter - a hard frost last night that pretty much hit everything in our yard that is frost-sensitive.

At least we've seen some interesting things lately. Saw a really good movie, Children of Men, discussed here. And last night we went to a piano competition at ASU; really enjoyable, discussed here. Patricia and I went to dinner tonight at "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant" to top off a fine day.

Basketball can be injurious to your health

Check out the unwelcome addition to my life. I just finished a week on crutches following a pretty significant ankle sprain. Swelling has not gone down much though I feel quite a bit more strength down there. Not sure how long this will take to fix, maybe another week on crutches?

All this started late afternoon of Friday, December 29. My three sons and I were having one of our little two-on-two basketball games at the court in the park just west of our house. Chris and I were playing against Patrick and Paul Jr. Darkness was falling and we were down to the last couple points. I jumped under the guise of contesting a shot by Paul Jr. (or failing that, I was just going to foul him). On landing from the not-so-dizzying heights, I rolled my left ankle. Swelling was immediate. Oh, he made the shot anyway. I walked around pretending to play defense while Patrick finished us off, then gimped home.

So on Patricia’s day off from her job at the emergency department (Saturday, December 30), she took me to the emergency department at Mayo Hospital. I met a bunch of her co-workers, a nice group and it was fun. They did an x-ray and gave me some training on using crutches. (Though they didn’t show me the tricky part, which is negotiating stairs.)

Patricia and I went to coffee on December 31. I haven’t set foot outside the house since. So I’m still looking forward to my first outing of 2007.

My pals here are pretty good about accommodating me, but I think I deserve more sympathy. It is disappointing that I can’t play basketball when the weather is so favorable. How could you beat playing 2-on-2 with three sons?

Today is my Dad's 78th Birthday

My dad hit #78 today.

I like to write a little something about him and my mom on their birthdays. Usually something I liked, or learned from (or both). I’ll have plenty of material unless perhaps they last well past age 100.

Something from the old days: it was very good fun, and quite instructive, sitting around and watching him interact with our various corn-shelling customers. He was dealing with a wide variety of local personalities and I think we benefited from watching all these encounters. Even if our attention spans were sorely challenged from time to time as the conversations sometimes wore on (and on). But then again there were a lot of topics that deserved attention, and the St. Joe-area populace, as a whole, truly has excellent conversational skills. They (and he more than most) tend to be interested in local and non-local ideas, events and people. And they really enjoy spinning out their ideas in conversation. I think they’re every bit as busy as those of us that live in cities, but somehow have really preserved the art of conversation. (I was reminded of this twice recently. First during a morning of delightful conversation with my Capesius cousins, Jim McEnroe et al at the seed corn shed in late August. Second, with Virgil and Laurel (St. Joe neighbors) outside Gammage Auditorium following our holiday concert in early December.)

Back in the day, we did get to meet a large percentage of the locals due to the corn-shelling business – including non-Catholics who we otherwise wouldn’t have seen much of given that most social activity was highly concentrated among Catholic church, Catholic school and relatives and friends. Most of the corn-shelling customers fed us in their homes at least some of the time. Back in those days, the pastor (or minister) often was the person who had the opportunity to be served a meal in more area homes than any other person. Given our “mixed” clientele, perhaps my Dad would have held this title in our area?

Top photo is an old corn-shelling shot that one of my sisters took way back when (summer 1982, I believe). Bottom photo is from our 2003 trip through Pennsylvania Amish country – it was fun getting his take on their un-mechanized farming (that was a good day of touring in general).

Happy #78.

Like the Old Days . . .

I kept something of a diary starting with 1966 (turned 10 that year) . I was a steady, if uninspired, diarist for the first years, then went into an accelerating decline after about 10 years. I think I started doing this as pure imitation of my dad. Plus he had free diaries for us from insurance agents.

Anyway, within individual years during that period, I typically started strong and tailed off at year end. I think of this because that happened to me in 2006 with this online diary. I have a number of events I want to catch up on here. Once I get past the year-end tailspin.

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.