Christmas loot

This turned out well!  My siblings have organized an annual Christmas gift exchange, going on for some years now.  PJ and I had the good fortune to be on the receiving end from Carol (and Jim) for Christmas 2011.

Well, so what if the stuff arrived at the end of January - it was worth the wait.  Photo (click to enlarge, per usual) shows most of the goods - Nome-roasted coffee and vanilla-oatmeal soap(!) from some MN operation, for starters.

And then the handmade stuff:  a Christmas ornament (featuring some sort of Nome beach-rock hanging from the bottom; a crocheted (I think) something-or-other type of wash cloth; and, finally, the pièce de résistance :  "I knew this place" - a hand-made book featuring a series of photos from EJ Gales's St. Joe hill-farm.  Most of the photos were taken in recent years by Carol or Jim; others photos date back to my childhood, or all the way back to EM Gales's childhood - yes, this is effective.  A vibrant farmhouse to a deteriorated relic (and now burnt down) over the course of, say, 100 years?  Many, many memories for me - "place" mattered.  This book required a lot of work - what a fine gift.

My only concern with the book relates to the cover - it is a fabric intended to evoke the farmer's favorite outfit, the "overall" - great idea perfectly suited to the theme - but if I handle the book too much (a genuine risk), will fingerprints start to show?

One more gift box still to come, we understand.

Definitely a great sibling-gift; I've received a number of fine ones; actually had started a post over at this soon-to-be-revived website on some old-school games etc. received at Christmas from CCG a year or two back.

40th street trailhead

Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day here in Phoenix.  Certainly fine for hiking, per late afternoon photo below (looking N-NW, click to enlarge).

'bout 175,000 folks, give or take a few, took advantage of the fine day out at the Phoenix Open yesterday; record-breaking crowd; included POC.

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.

Holiday (quick) round-up

We wrapped up 2011 with a bunch of fun stuff.  Quite similar to prior years, actually.

Started holiday things with the POC + Nicole visit mentioned here, and the Christmas concert mentioned here. 

Zinc Bistro

Patricia and I did a little shopping on December 22, and then stopped for a surprise (and leisurely) lunch at Zinc Bistro.  Then wandered around the shops in that area for awhile, stopped back for coffee (French press, of course) at Zinc, then home.  Dinner at Vincent's that eve (OK food, very nice time).  A fine day.

Rokerij

Patrick and Kerry arrived for the holidays on December 22/23.  Christmas Eve dinner at Rokerij.  Christmas Day dinner at home - our cooking crew truly outdid themselves.  Card games, board games, movies, etc. throughout.  MB hosted for dinner December 27.  Checked out the PJr-Nedda wedding site on one of our outings (this was on December 28); followed by lunch at Fuego Bistro (out in the sun on the patio of course as this was a gorgeous day).  Followed by bocce ball at the park. 

New Year's Eve - much enjoyed the evening; the kids (if I can still use that term) went downtown shortly after dinner; we had friends over 'til midnight, some nice beers, etc.

Unfortunately this did have to end, as Patrick and Kerry made their returns on January 1/2.
 

i-team at wedding site

checking out wedding site

bocce ball at our underused park . . . I think we (K and me) won.

 2011 = very fine year.  Again.  

Concert/fun (December 19, 2011)

We have had the good fortune to have Laura Inman conducting the Choral Union at ASU for two-and-a-half years now; she invited us to attend the holiday performance of the professional chorus she sings with (Phoenix Chorale).  PJ, Chris, PJr, Nedda, me attended at Brophy Chapel.

This must be the best choir I've ever heard live (ok, it is a fairly short list); we've heard them twice now (first time being this delightful experience).  And the program (posted below) was just the mix of Christmas music that I would go for.  I think "Of the Father's Love Begotten" is about my favorite Christmas song (and it is so rarely performed); except for maybe "Lo, How a Rose" or Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium"; and now perhaps also the Ola Gjeilo version of "O Magnum Mysterium".  All these were on the program(!), which was nice for me; along with other fine works, notably the arrangement of "Away in a Manger."  (The crowd definitely was captivated by the time the Gjeilo work came along, it was completely quiet, I needed to move a falling-asleep foot but was terrified to do so in case the creaky pew might have creaked.)

Then we met up at the "Vig Uptown" for some v. nice post-concert yakking (including LI and our Choral Union buddy, Bob), with refreshments.

Nice evening. PC Program 12 19 11

Nicole + POC in AZ (December 15-18)

 We enjoyed a quick holiday visit from Nicole and POC - they arrived Thursday evening (fortunately for them, in time for a wondrous chicken saltimbocca meal courtesy of PJ).  They brought some Christmas gifts along (and all in all the gift-giving process was more exciting than anticipated); some gifts were from their South African honeymoon, including a "cape of good hope" t-shirt for me (which is quite fine since I do like to think about that particular spot).

Friday evening they treated us (including Nedda and MB) to dinner at a place we've been wanting to try - Beckett's Table - this was a delightful experience.  Also the only point during the weekend during which we took photos.  Highlights included watching a hobo get disavowed by POC and chucked out the door; best-in-show meal = pork osso bucco; good AZ IPA; s'mores ("deconstructed") for dessert featuring bacon dipped in chocolate (as our spokesmodels display in photo).  Nice!


Saturday was a nice day - looked at South Africa photos and videos; visitors showed up for lunch (and the picture show); Saeed and Mina stopped over in early evening for an enjoyable session with drinks and snacks; then went to the annual Steiner Christmas party.

Sunday - NFL red zone; some errands; some zoning out; PJ came up with a delightful pork roast dish with a tomatillo or whatever sauce that needs to get into our regular rotation, it was so good it may take over my birthday menu.

Then an airport run, and we'll look forward to the next visit.

Choral Union - Mozart performance

ASU Choral Union performed Mozart's "Coronation Mass" at Gammage on December 4.

Mozart wrote this Mass at age 23; it was first performed in 1779.  Not at a coronation, however - I understand it doesn't really have any connection to a coronation but somehow picked up the nickname.

We had the opportunity to perform this three times (one described here) - quite unusual for our group.  That allowed us to be a little better polished than normal, which was nice. Got to know the work well enough where had the luxury to sit back while performing and notice, or feel, the lines moving around between the soloists, the orchestra and the various voice parts within the choir.  So that was fun, if ill-advised from a performance standpoint.




While listening, I kept noticing how much I liked the segment that appears at 1:20 - 1:27 in the video clip.  I think it's really effective - this is the soloists at work - the tenor moves into a minor-sounding mode, then the soprano takes it right back to major-sounding.  This segment recurs in the Agnus Dei.  Lots of nice segments throughout, however.

We have just the snippet of video posted here, as our intrepid videographer (thanks, PJ) seemed to have been interrupted in her task.  Oh well.

I agree that the movie screen on the right side of the picture looks odd, or at least oddly-placed - though I guess it was helpful to the audience that text was projected there.

Similar to my usual reaction:  extremely nice to be able to do a Mozart work like this, with a couple of one's children, wife in audience as always - a fine, fine thing.

Four-page program from 11/21/11 performance follows:

CU 11 21 11

Decision time

PJ (a very good cook-er) left for work this morning and left me in charge of storing these freshly-baked cranberry bread loaves.

The question is whether to freeze them for Nicole and POC next week, and/or Kerry and Patrick the following week?  Neither?  Both?  Just eat them?

Moon

OK, it would be hard to have a worse photo.  But the full moon the last couple nights has been wondrous as we see it hanging out in the east in the early evening - there's something about a winter moon, even here in the desert southwest.

Then PJ leaves early for work this morning, and calls back to report on an eclipse.  So I stepped out, looked W/SW, and there it was - well over half eclipsed (notwithstanding what the photo looks like); and vivid enough to make me want to remember it.

(That's a street light below, not the morning star.  I decided not to crop it out because (even in this lame photo) it gives a fair idea of relative size and brightness.)

Does this count (as decorating)?

Due to the recent somewhat disorganized state of our house (and perhaps a bit of laziness, at least on my part), we have refrained from putting up Christmas decorations for the last couple years.

However:  we do have excellent neighbors who, among other positive traits, decorate quite nicely for the several holidays.

And this year:  a very nice ornament appears, clearly on our property.  Making me grateful for the gratis-decoration.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas music . . . it's that time of year . . .

I think this medley is useful if one is looking for that Christmas "spirit" - it's from ASU Choral Union 2007 holiday concert (some photos here).  I like it, especially the "Lo, How a Rose" segment.  

But it's all quite nice, and a good way to get into the season.

Claude Lanners - and some enduring gifts

Thanksgiving 2011 - I'm thinking of many things for which I'm thankful.  Here's one:

Hospitality plus.  Luxembourg.  (1989)

Our family had the good fortune to come into contact with a gentleman by the name of Claude Lanners some 30 years ago. Claude is a relative on my mother's side, resident in our primary ancestor-land, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. 

I've been thinking about Claude lately in relation to a few items: (1) I received a link to a website (on Geneanet) prepared by Claude, with endless amounts of information about the Bormann family; and (2) I received a 57-page pdf file, written by Claude, titled "History of the US Branches of the Bormann Family."

Both are priceless, enduring gifts.

(As if that weren't enough - Claude has been giving us all a life-lesson as he deals with ill health over what has now been an extended time period - continued graciousness; neither anger nor denial at what's happening and what lies ahead; continuing productivity on family history topics that only he can produce; etc.  (Claude's graciousness - to which I deliberately refer repeatedly - was impressive in good health.  It's even more impressive, and enduringly memorable, in these more difficult days.)   But enough on the illness topic for now, it makes me unhappy.)

Three thoughts on Claude's family history work:

1983 - early stage family history work.  (House residence, New Brighton, MN)

1983, our Glenview, IL townhouse (chicken cacciatore courtesy PJ)

1.  Simply put:  no one else - no one - could have done it.  Claude truly was the one-of-a-kind man-on-the-spot.  He has an unmatchable combination of extensive knowledge (both family history and the overall history that gives context to the family situations over the years); genuine interest in people; hospitality to visitors, fluency in the language(s) needed to work through the historical records and converse with the locals; fluency in English that permitted precise communication with we Iowans; the work ethic to track down so much information; and then the hard part:  putting it on paper.  So often information is gathered and just ends up sitting in shoe boxes or the like; so seldom is it reduced to a usable writing.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

 2.  And we must not underestimate how much time and skill this kind of writing requires.  Thoughtful, concise writing does not occur easily.   Dashing off a letter (or a blog post, for that matter) is one thing.  Putting together the delightful  "History of the US Branches of the Bormann Family" is an entirely different level.  Claude had to make hundreds of editorial decisions at multiple levels, including (at a minimum): (1) selecting the information to be presented out of a huge mass of loosely-connected materials that had been accumulated over many years; (2) selecting the structure of the document (strict chronology? back and forth in time? etc.); (3) making countless presentation decisions about when and how to use original writing, quoted text, conversation notes, photos, drawing, maps, excerpts of historical documents, etc.; and (4) finally - selecting the precise words and images that now grace all of those pages.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

3.  He succeeded.  The Bormann history is not an exercise in name-date-drudgery, as can so easily occur with family histories.  Instead:  it's lively, readable, informative, wonderful!  I'm going to print the final version, have it bound (self-publishing is easy these days!), and proudly shelved alongside the St. Joe history book (1976), the Altman family history (that Claude so graciously acknowledges in his work), and other family materials.

We had the pleasure of seeing Claude in Illinois in 1983, and in Arizona (along with his son, Michel) in 1992.  I've posted a few photos from those fine days.

Paradise Valley, AZ, October 1992

Also included below is a delightful set of photos (click arrow at bottom right to proceed through slide show) that Claude put together - included to give a sense of the valuable type of work he does, bridging content from the U.S. and Europe.  (I'm not posting the Bormann family history itself here - too many names and dates for privacy purposes, I think - will eventually post it to my secured website as a repository item.)

Claude - thanks for the enduring gift of your family history work.  And thanks - even more - from Patricia, me and all of us here in Arizona - for your friendship over this nigh-30 year span.  


Gales 1983-2011

Test video (Aster)

I previously mentioned how much we enjoyed our November 6th Minneapolis lunch at Aster Cafe.

Neither here nor there . . . but I had taken a short test video (22 seconds) during lunch with our (relatively) new camera (Canon ELPH 500HS).  Have liked the still photos quite a bit; now - with one experiment behind us - I'm optimistic about the video capabilities as well.  For a point-and-shoot, it's pretty rare to be able to zoom while in video mode; plus it's full 1080p.  And look at the nice job it did with very difficult lighting conditions in this short clip.  (Try it full screen.)  I still like the way this quartet sounded . . .



These devices are simply amazing . . . I think back to the video equipment we lugged around (with separate lighting) in the early 80s . . . ridiculous progress.

Midwest tour (Nov 4-9, 2011)

PJ and I have found late autumn to be a congenial time for Midwest travels in recent years (for example, see here, here and here).  So:  we went for it again this year. And had another delightful trip.  Started out the trip moving around steadily (counting getaway day from Arizona, we slept in different states on four consecutive nights.)  (Reminder, click on any photo to start "Lightbox" display.)

PJ looking jaunty in St. Paul.

Plotting our evening . . .

This skeleton doesn't look "too" mean.

The best combination:  mixing sports affiliation and high culture. 

After flying into Minneapolis on Friday (11/4), we went over to Eau Claire - our second trip to the Haag homelands.  We all chit-chatted awhile, Dan got back from work, we chit-chatted even more, then were on our way to dinner at Mona Lisa's restaurant.  An excellent choice, the locals seem to know the territory.  Back home for Barb's apple crisp and more conversation.  Couldn't be more pleasant; Champ (the pooch) was also entertaining (though wearing his Halloween seemed to calm him).  Allison made a creepy skeleton for our bedroom door, but we weren't scared (well, not much).  Emily has added the flute to her repertoire, which is quite nice indeed.

Barb made scones for breakfast on Saturday (11/5) - these were a big hit.  We played a board game - forgot the name, you pick cards with things you think other players like.  I had good cards and won, going away.  Speaking of which, we eventually gathered up and headed to the twin cities.  Nicole and POC called to chat while we were enroute, mentioning (among other things) an unfolding scandal at Penn State (which has dominated the airwaves for days now - Sandusky).

Lunch with Mark and Therese in St. Paul - Brasa - yum, nice.  Up to New Brighton - Steve & Cecilia, Margaret, Steve & Liz, Jenna, Nick; also Therese.  Much enjoyed spending the evening together; Cecilia had put together a delightful pork dinner.  The young 'uns left after awhile, I assume reluctantly, but they conceded that the >50/<60 sleepover would best proceed without those pesky kids.  Watched ASU blow a road game to UCLA despite the presence of CPG, EPG and other ASU loyalists (strangely enough, while tapping out this post, I see that ASU is blowing a road game to WSU right now, ugh).  Back in New Brighton, we chatted away the evening.

Pedal Pub depot in Minneapolis.  Neat old building!

Breakfast with the sleepover crew on Sunday (11/6); the morning flew by; Steve & Liz eventually headed out; later we went down to Aster Cafe in Minneapolis for lunch (after touring the "Pedal Pub" depot, which is right in the same neighborhood).  Therese & Mark joined us for lunch.  Lunch turned out to be delightful (we only were wishing Steve & Liz could have attended) - the restaurant featured a very fine quartet playing music from '30s and '40s (I think, mostly), folks dancing away up by the band, very nice food (I had a quite wondrous flatbread pizza ("pear & chevre roasted onion, spinach with prosciutto")).  Plus they were serving Surley Darkness, apparently a mythical beer ($18 for a (large) bottle?); Steve and I had to give it a try - nice.  ("This massive Russian Imperial Stout brings waves of flavors; chocolate, cherries, raisins, coffee, and toffee.") (?)

Aster in Minneapolis.  Surly Darkness in foreground (not to be missed).

After that:  onto Iowa.  Arrived in St. Joe for the tail-end of a dinner at the school gymnasium - a dedication or observance of the completion of the new garage at the rectory.  Got to see some folks, it was nice.  Back to the house, chatted away the rest of the evening with my folks.

A view of the Aster dancers, with the combo . . .

Monday (11/7) - this was our light-duty day.  Went to 7:30a Mass (and ensuing chatter outside church); breakfast; rounds of phone conversations; then dinner.  Grandma had the usual assortment of baked goods around - if not better than usual - variety, quantity, quality.  Went over by Clarence and Caroline around 1:30p - delightful visiting, plus an unusual occurrence:  Clarence and I won three of four games.  The evidence of our triumph (in the form of a scorecard) was compromised by timely intervention of the vanquished, though one can still make out from the photo the glorious comeback in the final game - a 1200 point turn-around launched by a rare nello bid by Clarence.  (He also did a great job with the bourbon beverages, by the way.) 

After another fun round of "500"

Back to St. Joe for supper.  We looked over the posters from the recent Luxemburg event in Wisconsin, and just enjoyed an evening with the parents - a fine thing.

Evidence blurred by a PJ-provoked Caroline-snatch.

Tuesday (11/8) - our usual delightful, slow-unfolding morning in St.  Joe house.  Fr. Kollasch took a test-drive on our rental car (Altima) (he wasn't impressed).  Some packed up cookies for us to take back to AZ - yes.  Turns out that Bev Ramker's prolonged cancer battle had ended (back on Friday), so we were going over to Osage on this date for the wake (or "visitation", as it is called nowadays).  Dolores came over from Storm Lake to join us, so it was nice to have time with her.  Easy travels in both directions; we were gone from around 2p until 8:15p or so.  Had intended to meet up with Steve & Liz in Osage, but that didn't quite work out.  Did enjoy talking to the Laubenthals, also caught up with Mike & Mary Bormann and Merrill and Brenda Bormann (who were in the very long lines).  Late supper and chatting back in St.Joe.

Wednesday (11/9) - hectic start to the day - Grandpa & Grandma had to leave pretty early for Bev's funeral, and I was stuck on a conference call for awhile.  But PJ and I did have a chance to have breakfast and chit-chat with Dolores, which was quite nice.  Then onto Minneapolis and back to Phoenix, where PJr completed his round-trip airport taxi service.

Dad, Mom, me

Nice trip - pretty fast-paced but how can you beat this:  I get to see my parents, five siblings (and their spouses), four nieces, one nephew, two aunts, one uncle, several cousins, three states, nice meals at restaurants and in homes, on and on over six days, all with a fine traveling companion who now has 33+ years of Iowa travels on her resume - I'm lucky, how many folks get to tour like this?

House is missing on the hill, but the view remains a delight.

10 ones

no reason for this post except I much like the notion that I could queue it up for 11:11 on 11/11/11