Celebrating My Mom's 80th Birthday (1 of 2)

Well, the big event finally arrived: my mom's 80th Birthday. Patricia and I traveled Friday (March 28); we flew into Omaha. Left behind 85 degree weather and I don't think it ever was over 40 in St. Joe. But that was ok. Easy traveling all the way except finding something other than fast food in SW Iowa is challenging). That corner of the state seemed kind of empty, actually.

Anyway, we were in St. Joe before 5p. Some folks had preceded us: Charlie, Beth & Mark; Steve (Gales); Cecilia; Therese. Nicole and Kerry drove in from Chicago and arrived shortly before 9p; I think Mark was happy to see just about anybody from his generation show up, if belatedly.

So it was a fine evening mostly sitting around and talking. Grilled pork patties and buffalo burgers for dinner (I mean supper). We stayed in the extra bedroom; N&K (with Cecilia and Therese) stayed in the basement/cooler ("it's always 65"). By the way, the new siding and windows on the St. Joe house look great.

Saturday, March 29: Arrivals from Minnesota: Steve & Margaret, with Nick. From Mason City: Steve, Liz, Julia. It was fun seeing everybody. Patricia was working on three pound cakes for the birthday party (these turned out well). Some adventuresome types went to the farm for a short tour. Other more adventuresome types (aka the Mason City folks plus Mark) first took a side trip to the farm on the hill. But they were briefly stuck in the mud when 12" of gravel wasn't where it was expected to be. This forced Steve House and me out into the cold for an inspection tour. We all had some laughs as it was quite easy to get the vehicle freed up once there were a few pushers available (with Mark providing extra oomph). And it was nice poking around the farms a bit. I don't go into the house because I don't want to see it anymore, but others did (and took some photos).

A bit later in the day there was a pizza party at the AmericInn. For a moment we considered an alternative menu when the local pizzeria didn't seem to have the ingredients for seven pizzas (given that this was a Saturday night, it seems they have an inventory problem or perhaps are just in the wrong business altogether?). Anyway, an alternative supplier was located. Therese and Cecilia had brought down a case of Summit Pale Ale so that was nice to sip on throughout the weekend, including this evening.

The Haag family had already checked into the hotel by the time we all got up there, and the Cullen family (sans Joe and Art) arrived later after participating in some music competition. It was a good idea to have this event up at the hotel; some of the kids did some swimming; we paid some attention to the NCAA round of eight; we talked, a lot. Later on there were some card games, eventually involving six-handed euchre; Tom, Kieran and I were on the verge of a sweep but had a bit of a problem in game two (a circumstance which Charlie, Nicole and Kerry seemed to relish a bit too much).

Next: the official 80th party!

My Mom Turned 80 Today

Eighty years old seems like a bit of a milestone. I'm glad my Mom is breezing right past 8-0 and on her way for more. Also glad we were able to be with her to celebrate (along with some other fine folks); more to come on that shortly.

Thinking back over the many things I appreciate about her, I wanted to mention her skill and effort as a writer. This set a very useful example for all of us.

Here's the thing about writing - ideas and facts are critically important. But until a writer takes the ideas or facts and commits them to paper, they are just floating in the memories of one person, or maybe several persons. The information or idea is subject to being distorted or forgotten altogether. The writer provides an invaluable service by organizing the thoughts into a coherent form and committing them to paper. And the service is provided not just to the writer's contemporaries, but also to anyone else who happens to find the writing of interest. This can be an incomparable gift to future generations.

(Looking back over the preceding paragraph, I don't mean to separate the conception of ideas and the reduction of ideas to writing - the writer often performs both functions.)

The essential example in my Mom's case is the centennial history book for St. Joseph's Parish that was completed in 1976. She didn't write the book herself. It was a team effort that involved many participants. And it isn't necessary or useful to rank the value of the contributions of the various participants - for example, there's certainly no book without the contribution of ideas and information. What I do know is that there is nothing tangible to hang onto without folks like her sitting there and doing the hard and often mundane work of organizing the ideas and information and putting them down on paper in an interesting, readable format. This is time-consuming and often feels thankless. It involves the careful assembly of words and ideas, and the confirmation of information. Until all that is done by the writer, there is no history book.

My mom was a key contributor to the writing process. The resulting product is a gift to all of us. The book is a reference source on shelves all around St. Joe and in numerous places around the world. Who wouldn't like to create a legacy like that?

Of course she has written plenty of other stuff. Everyone looks forward to the annual Christmas letter. Another detailed St. Joe history was produced in 2002, along with various other updates from time to time. And how about the family genealogy? If it isn't written down by someone, it doesn't exist . . .

Her writing style generally is detailed, newsy, interesting. She's taken up email communication (though without entirely adopting the short-burst, rapid-fire style of most email users). But that's ok by me.

I also have a stack of her letters from the 1970s that I would like to review and organize - I'm guessing those would comprise a pretty thorough summary of the local events of those days. As a kid off to a big school far away from home, I can report that those letters were much anticipated and re-read at the time.

Top and bottom photos show the history book team at work in the basement of the EJ Gales home; middle photo shows researchers going through Livermore Gazette materials. (As always, click to enlarge.)

I have a great Mom. Happy #80!

It Begins . . . (Day of Wrecking)

We've spent a lot of time and energy talking about taking care of some of the deferred maintenance on our home. We're also doing some remodeling.

And we've finally moved from talk to action. The work officially started on Tuesday (March 25). We put down a deposit with the cabinet guy, and one of the home wreckers came by to start with the patio off the master bedroom.

I think the photo makes our place look like some kind of pueblo? Except they didn't use gas grills.

More to come.

Easter 2008

Well, we had quite the socializing over the Easter weekend.

The fun started Friday afternoon with another round of spring training tickets courtesy of White Sox media guy Patrick O'Connell (a/k/a Nicole's pal) (spring training, round one, is discussed here). Patricia, Patrick (just back from visiting Nicole in Chicago), Paul Jr., Alex (lives in same apartment as Paul Jr.) and I saw the White Sox lose to the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium. We were supporting the White Sox after a fashion, but under the threat of extra innings we reluctantly appreciated the Giants' 9th-inning victory. Fantastic weather, great seats, so it was everything spring training is supposed to be. Had folks around in the evening for even more socializing.

Patricia and I went to coffee per usual Saturday morning. Nicole had called a couple times trying to pin down what we were doing (purportedly from Chicago). But being rather tricky, she and Patrick were in the coffee shop and surprised the heck out of us. She had flown into Phoenix the day before (after a days' delay that was primarily self-inflicted). So it was fun to have her around for the weekend. Patricia put together a dinner for a bunch of folks that evening, and we watched some of the college basketball madness.

Similar enjoyments on Sunday, including a run over to the Sterns in the afternoon. This included some misguided speculation about a nesting dove and hatching and where Thomas Stern came from. We also met Herman the dog. There were Wii games including boxing and bowling, and my wife wasn't fully hospitable to house guest Patrick (e.g. seven strikes in a row). Something of a joint cooking effort (led by CPG) for dinner and folks liked the rib roast. Patricia made the chocolate cheesecake, which led to some almost unseemly negotiating over portions (it ended up in quadrants). (But too bad a nice chunk remains in our refrig, soon to be tossed out as there is no one here to eat it.) Gorgeous weather throughout the weekend . . . as Sunday wore on, Patrick left for U of A, Paul Jr. left for ASU, and Chris left for his house. Nicole flew back to Chicago bright and early on Monday, and Patrick headed to Peoria that morning for White Sox v. Mariners.

Fun.

Shaq in town (and somewhat dangerous)

We pay quite a bit of attention to the NBA in general and the Phoenix Suns in particular. They surprised the heck out of us by taking a step away from the running game and trading for this extraordinarily large man named Shaquille O'Neal. It's not clear how well this trade is going to work out, but there are some encouraging signs and it's certainly entertaining in the meantime.

Anyway - Chris, Paul Jr. and Pat Herrara (the latter two home on spring break) were sitting around on Tuesday evening (3/11); Patricia made a large and wonderful spaghetti & meatballs supper for us. After eating massive amounts of food, we were talking and watching a Suns laugher against the lame Memphis Grizzlies. Shaq has developed a dangerous propensity for diving after loose balls (including almost taking out a couple rows of fans in a game two days earlier).

Anyway, the Suns bench must have paid attention to the previous game, and their desperate escape tactics (shown below) in response to Shaq's pursuit of another loose ball were pretty amusing to us.

The video is funny. It was a fun night in general.

Beautiful hike - and new slideshow method

Patricia and I had a delightful hike on Sunday afternoon (March 9). We drove out to Lost Dutchman State Park (west side of Superstition Mountains) and took the Siphon Draw Trail - a new trail for us, and quite a bit more scenic than anticipated.

Conditions were perfect - high temp around 80. Because of the above average rains, the wild flowers were out in force. Especially the Mexican gold poppies, and lupine.

The trail climbs steadily - about 1000 feet elevation gain - to an area called the "Basin". We used this as our turn-around point. You can climb another 1500 feet to the "Flatiron" but we would need to allot quite a bit more time, haul more water, etc.

The photo looking down between cliffs was taken from the Basin. Click to enlarge, I think it was really quite dramatic.

And how neat is the slideshow technology that our pals at Google have added? By clicking on any photo that you like in the slideshow, you will be taken to that photo on the web album.

It was another fun outing with my energetic hiking pal (who gets credit for these photos).

Spring training 2008 . . .

Here was a fun little visit/trip. Nicole arrived from Chicago Wednesday evening (February 27) and hung around with us on Thursday (including a hike in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve (40th street trailhead) and attendance at the ASU basketball game with Chris, Paul, etc.)

On Friday, we drove down to Tucson to see Patrick, go to a spring training game, etc. The game featured the White Sox and Diamondbacks at Tucson Electric Park; great seats courtesy of Nicole's pal from Chicago (also a Patrick). We were positioned just to the left of the Sox dugout and spread out in rows 1 and 2. Gorgeous weather; high of 81 in Tucson that day. So it was perfect for watching a game. Very different perspective from that close. Among other things we noticed: it's amazing how muscled up the players are (presumably without the benefit of PEDs).

Patricia and I stayed at the Best Western Royal Sun (again), notwithstanding that we seem to have issues there every now and then. We hosted a fun reception there between the game and going to dinner at the Guadalajara Grill. Overnight there was no heat in the room and it was 60 degrees when we awoke. That felt cold.

A nice breakfast with Nicole, Patrick and Nedda; then we wandered through some of the shops in the "Lost Barrio" area (including the large carving of St. Michael the Archangel shown here).

Patricia and I made our way back to Phoenix later in the afternoon, it was a very fun trip. We saw Nicole (with Chris) a few hours Sunday afternoon before taking her to the airport.

Happy 56th

My Mom and Dad celebrate #56 on February 19. Unlike last year, we won't be there to help celebrate.

Unfortunately, because it was quite fun last year.

But here are a few photos from the 25th anniversary celebration back in 1977. Taken on an old Kodak cartridge camera.

Mom and Dad look pretty dapper (and youthful) in top photo, as they inspect the loot. But heck, at that time they were younger than I am now. Plus it's pretty economical if you can get extra wear on your 25th anniversary out of the suit you wore to your wedding.

Photo #2 features some happy customers for whatever it is that Dolores is concocting. But they should be happy, click to enlarge and check out those bargain prices.

Photos #3 through #6 feature honored guests playing cards. Recognize them all?

Happy anniversary.

Super Bowl I - musings of a 10-year-old

This being Super Bowl day here in Arizona, I was thinking back to Super Bowl I (ok, it didn't have a roman numeral then). I remember that I was pretty interested in the game, and very much hoping the underdog (Kansas City Chiefs) would beat Green Bay. Probably because I was sick of Green Bay beating up on the Minnesota Vikings.

So I consulted my diary for specifics (click to enlarge).

We watched during Steve's birthday party held at "Uncle Casper's". I do remember going back and forth from the pool table in the basement of Raymond's house across the road, keeping an eye on the game, etc.

Other points of interest (at least interesting to me) from the diary:

On Sunday (1/15/67), the kids were sent to school while the pastor lectured the adults. That's the only time I remember that happening. I wonder what they talked about, maybe the Super Bowl?

On Friday (1/13/67), we "played with the electric train a lot" and "shot with the BB gun downstairs a bit." (We were shooting at a target drawn on the bottom of a cardboard box; the box was placed on its side and filled with newspapers. Thinking back, this does seem a bit dangerous. I recall some interesting ricochets in the shower area. But no injuries.)

On Thursday (1/12/67), I was parroting some criticism I must have heard about Lyndon Johnson ("Well he's a Texan. I do not agree with his policy - "The Great Society . . . But speaking as a loyal American I still don't care for him.") Not sure what triggered this unhappiness with government policy from a thoroughly uninformed 10 year old.

On Monday (1/16/67), I felt cheated out of a snow day - after all, it was very windy in North Dakota.

Jim & Carol in AZ

OK, I'm a little slow in posting that we had visitors from Nome. To add to our holiday fun, Jim and Carol were in Arizona at the end of December for a couple days. This overlapped with N and K being in town.

After spending a few days in Yuma, they arrived on the evening of the Holiday Bowl (December 27); we had a bunch of folks around watching ASU get killed by Texas. Among other fine activities, Jim tested the "Estaban" guitar the next day.

We had some fine food adventures - Richardson's for lunch on 12/28, Patricia made the patented pork (with serrano chilies) for 12/28 dinner. Carol and Jim hiked Piestewa Peak (f/k/a Squaw Peak) with me on 12/29, after which we joined the rest of the group (other than Kerry, who had headed back east) for lunch at House of Tricks and a campus tour at ASU. That's chronicled in these photos.

V. nice to have them in town, we all agree.

Try this (Christmas music)

It always takes me about a month to stop playing Christmas music. Because there simply is so much wonderful stuff out there. Usually by about this point in January I finally start putting everything away.

Here is a gift for those who may not be familiar with "O Magnum Mysterium" - written in 1994 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Turn down background noise, listen to this about three times in a row, and see if this doesn't go onto your list of favorite Christmas music.

There are many things I like about this song, not the least of which is the manner in which the composer slowly and gently builds the song as he goes along . . . it keeps getting better. And it is sung in Latin, which automatically gives it some extra punch.



And how could you beat the title ("o magnum mysterium" = "o great mystery") - how better to distill the Christmas story into three words? The words are taken from a traditional responsorial chant for Christmas from Matins (early morning service) (full translation etc. is available here.) So this piece, while a new setting, has centuries of tradition behind it. Numerous musical settings have been put together, including one by Thomas Tallis in the 16th century - also delightful (as is normally the case with his music).

I don't know anything about the composer; there is some information in this article from Minnesota public radio. I didn't know until today that the setting here was specifically written for the LA Master Chorale. We first heard the recording at a Christmas dinner at Linda Prideaux's house several years ago; we borrowed the CD that night and burned a copy. But the original disappeared for about three years, only to be discovered when Kerry cleaned out her room before moving to the DC area. So KHG has good taste, if a bit of klepto tendency . . .

Photos are from covers of a couple albums that feature the song.

Today is My Dad's 79th Birthday

Well, my papa turned 79 today. I imagine he'll be talking about what a nice day it is in early January in northern Iowa (just like every year).

Something that I always thought was neat when I was a kid was that my father had been a good athlete in his day (and seemed to retain those skills to a goodly extent, though we didn't get to see it in action very often). Why should that be important to a kid? Who knows. Athletics are vastly over-marketed these days, but that doesn't change the fact that there are lots of positive elements. I know that I personally have tremendously enjoyed every level of competition in which I've participated, and some of the hype about learning personal initiative and teamwork is legitimate. And in a continuously miserable TV market, traditional sports programming (i.e. games) generally remains the most interesting choice available. (It may not be the optimal path to self-improvement, but at least you don't get steadily dumber while you watch.)

Anyway, I liked that he wasn't some uncoordinated or out-of-shape dork. I could hit high school pitching pretty well at one time, but the guy to this day has a better constructed swing with a baseball bat than I ever developed. If you want somebody to hit fungoes, get him out there. I enjoyed the stories about Romie and him playing basketball and baseball together, including on the high school teams.

I also enjoyed that he was well versed in basketball and baseball and could discuss the goings-on so well. And how about that pronunciation of the All-Star Game (emphasis on second word).

He wasn't the type to continually shower praise if we did something well in our sports endeavors, but that just made the occasional comment much more meaningful. Maybe I'm old fashioned (or just a bit Germanic), but I think that's more effective than the nonstop praise (not to mention trophies) showered on young participants these days regardless of the quality of their accomplishments (or even their effort). So for example I still remember a comment of his about a good pass I made in a basketball game against St. Edmond's.

And it was nice to have support for our athletic efforts such that we could leave the workplace early and attend a practice or game as needed - many a time I left the sheller crew behind under such circumstances. Nice.

Top photo: hitting fungoes to the grandkids at the farm in August 1999. Bottom photo: teaming up with Margaret House for a narrow victory over Patrick and Paul in House backyard, August 1998. As always, click to enlarge.

Happy #79.

Christmas 2007

Yes, we have had an excellent time so far over the Christmas holiday.

December 20: Nicole and Kerry arrive, 11p or so.

December 21: large party at our house. This event turned out really nicely and involved most of the usual suspects.

December 22: party at Ray and Linda's place. Featuring seven-year old holiday brew - and caroling!

December 23: party at Mary Beth's place. Good food and lots of fun playing cards etc.

December 24: all three photos are from this date. Paul Jr. was coerced or whatever into playing Santa for a party next door - and did a fine job. Photo shows him getting his courage up with elvish assistants. Then we had a wonderful family dinner at Richardson's before returning home to open gifts. etc.

December 25: Patricia had to work. So we visited her in the afternoon and had fun saying hi to her friends. Chris came up with an amazingly fine Christmas dinner. Later on, (Patrick's U of A buddies) Michael and Taylor came over with a newish "video" game named Rock Band. This led to hours of singing. Two short videos here demonstrate the skills involved. Video one features Chris on vocals, Paul Jr. on guitar and Patrick on drums (check out the technique!) Video two features Kerry on vocals and Nicole on guitar.

December 26: something of a day off, though Patricia made a great dinner in the evening while others played Euchre. Then we watched a movie ("Joyeux Noel") which was entertaining though not great; fun to watch together.

Today: another big gathering for the Holiday Bowl (ASU v. Texas). And Jim and Carol will be arriving, yippee.

The only downside is that Patrick is spending chunks of time down in Tucson taking a winter session course.

More fun to come.

Christmas photos (1990)

I have no reason to post these photos from 1990, other than that it is Christmas, and I do like the photos. And check out the video game that Chris has (Jordan v. Bird, I believe). Ages here were Nicole 9, Chris 8, Kerry 7, Patrick 4, Paul Jr. 3.

Photos from Choral Union concert 12 03 07

Some photos taken at the Choral Union concert at Camelback Bible Church on the evening of December 3, 2007. Photos show performers, director, fans, warm-up. Courtesy of PJ's camera.

Choral Union Holiday Concert 2007

Chris, Paul Jr. and I had our (ASU Choral Union) holiday concert held at ASU's Gammage Auditorium on Sunday, December 2. We performed two sets of music: five of the choruses from Haydn's "Creation," and three pieces by John Williams from the movie, "Home Alone." The Haydn pieces were delightful. The "Home Alone" pieces were not our favorites. Performed per usual with the ASU Symphony Orchestra - neat. Patricia and I had dinner after at Carlsbad Tavern with Linda, Ray, Paul, Nedda.

We had a second performance at Camelback Bible Church on the evening of Monday, December 3; just performed the "Home Alone" stuff (with piano accompaniment instead of the symphony), and one of the Creation choruses (performed with four of the other ASU choruses so the sound was different/nice). Patricia and I had dinner with Chris at Chelsea's Kitchen after.

I missed the Saturday rehearsal with the orchestra. Patricia called from the side of the 51 freeway, just a bit north of the Northern Avenue exit - had a front-wheel blowout. So I drove there and we eventually got the tires taken care of. Which took some time but was sort of fun by the time we were finished.

By the way, it turns out that the "Creation" oratorio was considered one of Haydn's major works. There is some interesting info available by clicking here. Apparently the premiere was highly anticipated, and special crowd control measures were needed. Lawsuits were threatened over ownership rights, translation, etc. This all happened in the late 1790s but sounds quite modern indeed.

Photo is from the ASU website; perhaps you can recognize one of our performers if you click to enlarge. "Creation" selections below.